This course introduces students to the theory and practice of managerial functions and decision-making models in traditional and more innovative organizations. Students are familiarized with the importance of organizational communications, including verbal and written communications and the criticality of using multiple communication channels. Students explore basic negotiation techniques and methods of conflict resolution.
This course provides students with a broad understanding of the various organizational marketing functions including the development, positioning, pricing, distribution, and promotion of products, services, and business ideas. Attention is focused on understanding of the basic marketing concepts including strategic planning, marketing mix, market segmentation, branding, consumer research, and marketing research and applying the knowledge to formulate marketing strategies for business opportunities.
Managing Innovative People and Teams This course addresses the skills and attitudes that support leadership in complex, innovative organizations under conditions of uncertainty and change. Students will explore the concept of self-leadership, managing change, ethical decision-making, power and influence, motivation, facilitation of diverse teams, conflict resolution, and organizational culture. The course begins with creative exercises in leadership style self-assessment and relates these results to leadership in new, innovative organizational structures.
In this course students fully explore how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value through a customer-centric approach to business model innovation. The impact of industry disruption through business model innovation will be explored as students analyze and evaluate existing models. Using creative thinking and specific patterns, students will gain experience in planning and executing new models to address the complex challenges facing businesses from a variety of industries in the market place today.
This course covers the concepts and art of effective management communications and negotiations in the business environment. The total communications process ? verbal, nonverbal, presentation, written and electronic ? is reviewed in the context of today?s work environment. The perspectives and needs of top management, interactive teams, individual contributors, and clients are examined and translated into professional practices. Experiential exercises and class discussions will build participants? understanding of styles and skills in negotiating. Coursework will focus on the uses of power, influence, and negotiating styles, methods of conflict resolution and means of influencing others.
This course will focus on the latest technological advances for managing data and communications effectively. Students will acquire the skills and concepts necessary to use a system to handle data efficiently for large and small organizations, national or international in scope. Network technology and usage of computer networks, as well as ethical and security issues will also be addressed. The concepts of telecommunications and the costs and benefits associated with this transmission of information will be explored. Methods of instruction include hands-on/application orientation.
This course provides students previously exposed to financial and managerial accounting principles an opportunity to study the structure and use of accounting systems designed to aid management in controlling costs and profits. The course stresses the following: financial statement interpretation as a basis for decision making, cash flow analysis, cash budgeting, cost volume profit analysis, costing and interpretation of manufacturing systems and the impact of international competition, responsibility accounting and the impact of inflation.
This course focuses on the investment and financing decisions of firms. Topics include capital budgeting, cash management and cash flow analysis, capital structure, dividends and international operations. Financial policy making is considered within the context of contemporary valuation and risk management theories. Various financial planning models are analyzed in the course.
This course will focus on the mathematical models and methods available for use in formulating and analyzing business decision-making problems in industry. Areas of study include: probability theory, decision analysis, game theory, forecasting techniques, project management, queuing models, allocating scarce resources using linear programming and integer-programming techniques, and deterministic and probabilistic inventory models.
This course explores the strategic visioning, planning and implementation process, with a focus on global industries and the challenges faced by businesses in an increasingly dynamic environment. Students analyze strategic threats and opportunities that confront businesses across the globe in the 21st century.
This course explores interrelationships between economic growth/development theories and financial applications in global markets, emphasizing international financial management techniques and practices. Topics include international trade, balance of payments, foreign exchange markets and risk, the international financial system, and portfolio effects of capital budgets on international capital markets. Students explore current issues of concern to multinational firms such as environmental problems, organizing for optimal results, sources and uses of funds, and accounting, tax, and control issues.
This project-based, team oriented course provides a methodology for discovering and executing new business opportunities. Following a product design and development roadmap, students participate in innovation games and charrette exercises, identify customer needs, and generate product concepts. Weekly assignments focus on the business aspects and general design concepts of new product development. The course culminates in the creation of a prototyped concept and submission of a business plan. Prerequisitse: MBA-6XX Marketing Concepts and MBA-6XX Business Model Development.
This course introduces students to operational databases and analytical databases in business environments. Topics include entity-relationship modeling, unified modeling language, relational database, SQL, data warehouse modeling, data mart modeling, and DBMS functioning. Emphases are on the understanding of data requirements for solving business problems, conceptual design of data models, logical design of databases, key elements of database management, and the differences between operational databases and analytical databases. Graphical tools for database conceptual design and modern DBMS systems are used to support the learning process of the topics.
This course focuses on up-to-date frameworks for successful business analytics modeling, and will cover processes, methods, techniques, evaluation, and tools. It includes overviews of text and web mining, sentiment analysis, as well as Big Data. Business analytics modeling best practices to enable timely, actionable, evidence-based decision making will be explored. Students will acquire an understanding of concepts with tutorials, case studies (both successful and failures), as well as hands-on applications.
This practicum provides students with an opportunity to gain real world experience by working with industry partners. Each project is sponsored by a company, allowing students to work with partner companies to gain analytics experience and reconcile theory with business practice. Student groups are supervised by a faculty member and work with the practicum company to identify, define, scope and analyze a particular business problem. Following an initial identification of project scope and purpose, students typically engage in data acquisition, data cleansing and restructuring, exploratory data analysis, feature extraction, model development and evaluation, modeling fitting and testing, remodeling and retesting, final modeling and data fitting, as well as oral and written communication of results. The ultimate learning objective is to solve a real-life business problem, improving bottom-line, and achieving business goals.
This course addresses the skills, concepts, and mind-set that support leadership in complex, innovative organizations. In the context of new business models and planning for uncertainty, topics include self-leadership, critiquing diverse models of leadership, reating vision and strategy, understanding people, managing change, ethical decision making, power and incluence, motivation, facilitation of diverse teams, conflict resolution, and organizational culture.
This course focuses on the intersection between design thinking and opportunity-finding for strategy development, covering theory and practice related to innovation, complexity, emergence, and systems thinking to develop strategies that drive organizational change and new value propositions. It begins with review of frameworks for strategy development and explores approaches to engage stakeholders in that development. Students use lifecycle analysis to redesign an existing organizational strategy and develop an actionable communication rollout plan.
This course covers all aspects of the entrepreneurial process, providing students with principles of design research for creating successful new ventures. This course addresses the entrepreneurial mindset, creativity and idea generation, assessing entrepreneurial opportunities, conducting feasibility studies and market research, developing marketing plans, financial preparation for new ventures, location and capacity planning, new venture team building, legal issues and risk analysis. The course focuses on the development of an effective business plan for a new venture.
An in-depth study of current accounting issues and pronouncements, including long-term debt and troubled debt restructuring, accounting for leases, pension and post-retirement, income tax accounting, price-level adjusted financial statement reporting, and accounting for partnerships (equity, admission, profit and loss sharing, and liquidation).
A continuation of Financial Accounting & Reporting I, including the study of accounting for business combinations (purchases and pooling of interests), accounting for the translation or remeasurement of foreign subsidiary financial statements into dollars to meet business combination reporting requirements, accounting for transactions denominated in a foreign currency (including purchases, sales, and hedges), and analysis of financial statements.
A study of the development of financial compliance and operational auditing techniques, including analysis of current issues in the auditing profession such as audit risk, ethical conduct, materiality, audit sampling procedures, and reporting issues. These areas will be studied with reference to pronouncements of the accounting profession and current literature. The study of operational, as well as financial compliance auditing, will be enhanced using case studies and examples.
This course will provide an overview of the major elements of entrepreneurial activity including planning and evaluation of the business, financing, typical operating and administrative issues and alternatives for growth and sale. Entrepreneurial opportunities and challenges will be examined and a variety of venture opportunities will be analyzed. The course will give students a realistic look at the challenges involved in starting a viable business and help students in a personal evaluation of their own skills, talents and career potential. Utilizing business planning software, each student will prepare a comprehensive business plan for a business opportunity the student selects and perceives to be viable and practical. The plan may be utilized for presentation to potential investors.
This course focuses on the promotion and communication decisions of corporations and how to employ promotion strategy to solve marketing problems and enhance opportunities. Advertising, sales promotions, publicity, public relations and personal selling are investigated.
This course gives students the qualitative and quantitative tools they need to find business opportunities and/or solve business problems. Students learn how to formulate the research problem, design the research, collect the data, and analyze the data. Various qualitative and quantitative research techniques will be examined and applied to identify opportunities, analyze data, and make strategic decision. Students will be required to conduct a research study using both qualitative and quantitative methods during the semester.
Investment and Portfolio Management This course will acquaint the student with the tools essential for sound money management. Investment management begins by considering the goals of an investor with respect to risk exposure, the tax environment, liquidity needs and appreciation versus income potentials. Strategies will be developed to satisfy these objectives. Special attention will be paid to the theories of determinants of asset prices, including the capital-asset pricing model.
Speculative Markets This course is intended to introduce students to financial futures, options and swaps. The objective of this course is to clearly explain why these securities exist and how to accurately price them. The course will present a balance of the institutional details, theoretical foundations and practical applications of this field.
Fixed Income Securities This is a highly specialized course that focuses on the fixed income market with emphasis on the bond market. Topics include pricing of bonds, bond price volatility, types of fixed income securities, term structure of interest rates and bond portfolio-management strategies. Various fixed income products are analyzed in the course, including some derivative products in the context of fixed-income securities.
International Business Innovatn: The focus of this course is visiting representatives of U.S. and non-U.S. businesses in various industries abroad. The international business trip will span approximately two weeks. Students will meet with business executives, government officials, labor leaders and academicians in specific industries abroad. Students will gain an appreciation for both the formal business aspects and informal social aspects of conducting commerce in foreign countries. Registration requires permission of the Graduate Business Programs Office.
Selected Topics Content will vary in response to current issues.