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General Management Foundations

First Year Curriculum

General Management Foundations are covered through courses in 11 disciplines that provide the base for a general management education. Collectively, the foundations courses offer insight into the key functions of management.

ACCT 210. Financial Accounting

This course develops students' ability to read, understand, and use corporate financial statements. The course is oriented toward the user of financial accounting data (rather than the preparer) and emphasizes the reconstruction and interpretation of economic events from published accounting reports.

ACCT 212. Managerial Accounting: Strategic Cost Management and Control

The focus of this course is on understanding the many ways that firms account for, manage, utilize, and control costs. Included in this are discussions of inter-departmental allocations, joint costs and capacity costs, as well as the use of activity-based analyses in various settings. Throughout, we will highlight the process of identifying relevant costs for short-run and long-run decision making, and for carrying out product and customer profitability analyses. The second part of the course examines the process of evaluating the performance of firms and their business units. Included in this are issues related to transfer prices and measures of productivity. We will study the optimal choice of metrics for evaluating performance, and analyze the rationale behind the balanced scorecard.

ACCT 213. Financial Accounting–Accelerated

This course develops students' ability to read, understand, and use corporate financial statements. The course is oriented toward the user of financial accounting data (rather than the preparer) and emphasizes the reconstruction and interpretation of economic events from published accounting reports. The advanced sections are geared toward students with some familiarity in dealing with financial statements and allows for deeper coverage and discussion in class.

ACCT 215. Managerial Accounting: Value-Based Management

This core course provides a comprehensive introduction to the concepts and tools of managerial accounting. The first part of the course demonstrates how management can rely on internal accounting information to measure and manage the profitability of individual products and customers. As part of that analysis, we examine alternative costing methods and illustrate how the resulting cost information can be used for decision making. The second part of the course focuses on the role of the internal accounting system in evaluating managerial performance and in coordinating the activities among business units within the firm. Our focus here will be on performance metrics that enable effective decentralization by aligning the objectives of individual business units with the overall corporate goals.

ACCT 311. Global Financial Reporting

This course is designed to enhance students' understanding of current financial reporting issues through a detailed analysis and comparison of U.S. and International Financial Reporting Standards. The course will cover the development of accounting standards, implementation of these standards, and how to interpret output from these standards. The course highlights intermediate and advanced financial reporting topics including consolidation, foreign currency transactions, foreign currency translation, derivatives, hedging, leases, revenue recognition, variable interest entities, and equity compensation. The course also focuses on evaluating emerging financial reporting issues such as proposed financial reporting standards put forth by U.S. or international standard setting agencies. This course should help students better understand the environment governing financial reporting and how firms develop financial statement information within this environment.

ACCT. 317. Managerial Accounting: Performance Measurement, Compensation, and Governance

The course will examine the academic and professional controversies surrounding corporate governance and executive compensation. A basic framework will be developed to integrate the many important dimensions of corporate governance in the U.S. and international settings. The institutional features of corporate governance and executive compensation will be documented using the professional business and legal literatures. In addition, the scientific research in accounting, economics, finance, and organizational behavior will be used to provide insights into the measurement and consequences of observed corporate governance and executive compensation choices. After successfully finishing the course, a student should be able to (i) understand the debates about appropriate choices for corporate governance and executive compensation and (ii) critically evaluate the implications of academic and professional research studies on these controversial issues.

FINANCE 224. Finance–C

The focus of this course is the decision-making process of the corporate manager responsible for major financial decisions. Starting from theoretical foundations, we will analyze cases covering a wide range of topics such as capital structure, dividend policy, financial distress, private equity and venture capital, mergers/acquisitions, hostile takeovers and leveraged buyouts. These cases provide an opportunity to apply the newly acquired theoretical models and tools to real-life situations.

FINANCE 225. Finance–M

Most financial transactions of firms are market-based transactions where the firm interacts with investors in financial markets. The aim of this course is to provide you with an understanding of the workings of financial markets. We will build on the basic concepts you learned in Managerial Finance to explore how investors make decisions about risk and return, how financial markets reach equilibrium, how market imperfections create challenges for investors and corporations, how financial innovations can be used to address some of these challenges, and how failed financial innovation can sometimes create new challenges.

FINANCE 230. Finance–Accelerated

The main aim of this course is to enable students to apply the fundamental ideas of financial economics to problems in the area of corporate finance with all the complexities the real world entails. The main focus of this course is on the corporate financial manager and how he/she reaches decisions as to capital investments, dividends and financing of all sorts. We will cover many issues that are important to a modern financial manager including such topics as leveraged buyouts, hostile takeovers, private equity financing and venture capital, and financial distress and bankruptcy. The cases will be used to motivate our discussion of how to bridge the gap between rigorous finance theory and its application to practical problems in corporate finance.

FINANCE 335. Corporate Valuation, Governance, and Behavior

This course will develop a detailed knowledge of corporate valuation techniques, together with an understanding of the role such valuations play in a wide range of corporate financing decisions. First, the course will carefully consider different valuation techniques, the assumptions that underlie each of these methods, how they are applied in practice, how they are related to one another, and how to decide which method of valuation is appropriate for a given application. After developing these tools, they will then be applied to a wide range of corporate finance settings. Among the applications to be considered are mergers and acquisitions, international valuation, corporate governance, financial distress, agency conflicts, asymmetric information, and overvaluation. For all of these applications, this course will emphasize the central importance of valuation to understanding observed phenomena and to guiding optimal decision making, as well as the unique challenges to valuation posed by the particular application.

FINANCE 341. Modeling for Investment Management

This course will combine practical and up-to-date investment theory with modeling applications. Understanding beautiful theory, without the ability to apply it, is essentially useless. Conversely, creating state-of-the-art spreadsheets that apply incorrect theory is a waste of time. The focus here is to try to explicitly combine theory and application.

HRMGT 280. Human Resource Management

Many managers and organizations now recognize that a critical source of competitive advantage often comes not from having the most ingenious product design, the best marketing strategy, or the most state-of-the-art production technology, but rather from having an effective system for obtaining, mobilizing, and managing the organization's human assets. A number of recent developments including demographic changes in the labor force, rapid technological change, increased global competition, tight labor markets in many sectors, experiments with new organizational arrangements, and public policy attention to work force issues are making human resource management (HRM) increasingly important for senior managers in organizations and for entrepreneurs. Indeed, some commentators contend that in today's economy with such open access to information, technology, capital, and other resources adroit human resource management may be one of the few remaining sustainable sources of competitive advantage. This course has two central themes: (1) How to think systematically and strategically about aspects of managing the organization's human assets, and (2) What needs to be done to implement these policies and, if appropriate for a given organization, to achieve competitive advantage through people.

HRMGT 361. Data Driven Human Resource Management

In this course, students will cover basic concepts in Human Resource Management and then undertake the analysis of HR systems and practices using relatively sophisticated statistical techniques. Topics include recruitment and selection; performance evaluation; compensation and benefits; promotion; job design; training; layoffs; retention and turnover; and the human resource implications of various strategies. Assignments will include using data from companies to analyze the best selection policies and the effect of the implementation of a new incentive pay system. Note that this 4-unit course, if successfully completed, counts for both the Data Analysis and the HRM foundations requirements.

MGMTECON 200. Managerial Economics

This course covers microeconomic concepts relevant to managerial decision making. Topics include: demand and supply analysis; consumer demand theory; production theory; price discrimination; perfect competition; partial equilibrium welfare analysis; externalities and public goods; risk aversion and risk sharing; hidden information and signaling; moral hazard and incentives; game theory; oligopoly; and auctions.

MGTECON 203. Managerial Economics–Accelerated

This course will cover the usual array of topics covered in microeconomics beginning with the economics of small numbers interactions (using the language of noncooperative game theory and emphasizing the economics of information and transactions costs), moving in the end to markets with large numbers of participants (perfect competition and variants).

MGTECON 330. Economics of Organization

This is an advanced economics course that applies recent innovations and high-powered tools to organization and general management. The course requires a strong background in microeconomics and combines both lectures and cases. The course objective is to equip managers with an extensive set of analytical and applicable tools for handling topics such as: organization for coordination, moral hazard and monitoring, corporate governance, organizing information, managing supplier relations and downstream controls, repeated interactions, incomplete contracts, bargaining, strategizing with unawareness and other topics.

MGTECON 331. Political Economy of Health Care in the United States

The purpose of this class is to provide students with the economic tools, and the institutional and legal background, to understand how markets for health care products and services work. The class has four parts, consisting of a combination of case studies, lectures, and visits from individuals from the industry: 1) the economic tools: understanding moral hazard and adverse selection; 2) the institutional organization of the health are sector in the US-hospital and physician services markets-integrated delivery systems-managed care-pharmaceutical and medical device industries; 3) public policy issues in health care, medical ethics, regulation of managed care, regulation of pharmaceuticals, reform of Medicare, and coverage of the uninsured; 4) international perspective-how have other countries' health care systems evolved and what can the US learn from their experience.

MKTG 231. Marketing and Competition

The Marketing and Competition core variant will cover both marketing to consumers, using case studies and lectures, and marketing to businesses, using the INDUSTRAT competitive simulation. Class case discussions will focus on key concepts and marketing analyses as well as new perspectives on customer analysis and marketing strategies. The course will include three modules: (1) Analyzing Marketing Opportunities, (2) Developing Marketing Strategies, and (3) New Trends in Marketing Strategy Implementation. A major part of the course will employ the INDUSTRAT competitive simulation. In this simulation, each team, representing a company in 5-firm industry, will have to make a wide range of decisions, such as customer and segment selection, positioning, market research, sales force deployment, R&D, and whether to form alliances with other firms. During INDUSTRAT sessions, teams will discuss the previous period's results and marketing research data to make decisions for the next period.

MKTG 240. Marketing Management

The objectives of this course are to introduce students to the substantive and procedural aspects of marketing management and to sharpen skills for critical analytical thinking and effective communication. Specifically, the goals are to introduce students to marketing strategy and to the elements of marketing analysis: customer analysis, competitor analysis, and company analysis; to familiarize students with the elements of the marketing mix (product strategy, pricing, advertising and promotion, and distribution), and to enhance problem solving and decision-making abilities in these operational areas of marketing; and to provide students with a forum (both written and verbal) for presenting and defending their own recommendations, and for critically examining and discussing the recommendations of others.

MKTG 340. Marketing Management–Advanced Application

This course is designed for students who have had prior exposure (either through previous coursework or work experience) to the marketing process and to the basic principles of marketing management. There will be an emphasis on application; i.e., the integration and use of marketing tools and frameworks to address problems of practice in marketing. Possible project modules include: devise a marketing plan for a broad line of consumer products; redesign a customer loyalty program; develop an integrated marketing communications campaign for a new product launch; re-launch a brand; plan and execute a channel expansion strategy.

OIT 245. Modeling for Quantitative Analysis

This course provides basic skills in quantitative modeling, using Excel as the instructional medium. Particularly, the course teaches model building, optimization, and Monte Carlo simulation. The emphasis is on model formulation and the interpretation of results.

OIT 247. Modeling for Quantitative Analysis–Accelerated

This course is aimed at students who already have background or demonstrated aptitude for quantitative analysis, and thus are comfortable with more rapid coverage of these topics: (1) modeling in a spreadsheet environment, (2) optimization modeling, and (3) Monte Carlo simulation. The emphasis is on model formulation, and analysis and interpretation of the results. The applications covered will draw from several areas including operations, finance and marketing. Examples include production and capacity planning, investment management, and portfolio optimization. Not taught in 2009-10.

OIT 258. Technology Management

This course is intended to provide students who do not have significant background in technology with an appreciation for managerial issues related to Informational Technology (IT) within a typical firm, not necessarily in the technology sector. The course discusses how value is delivered by IT solutions, what must be done by a firm to realize this value, and whether an advantage bestowed by technology is sustainable. On the technical side, students are introduced to complexity, reliability, security, and scalability via some common IT solutions. On the organizational side, risks, costs of adoption, difficulties with implementation, and decision architectures enabled by IT are studied.

OIT 261. Technology Concepts for Managers

This course is intended to provide students who do not have significant background in technology with an appreciation for managerial issues related to Informational Technology (IT) within a typical firm, not necessarily in the technology sector. The course discusses how value is delivered by IT solutions, what must be done by a firm to realize this value, and whether an advantage bestowed by technology is sustainable. On the technical side, students are introduced to complexity, reliability, security, and scalability via some common IT solutions. On the organizational side, risks, costs of adoption, difficulties with implementation, and decision architectures enabled by IT are studied.

OIT 262. Operations

This course focuses on basic managerial issues arising in the operations of both manufacturing and service industries. The objectives are to familiarize students with the problems and issues confronting operations managers and to introduce language, conceptual models, and analytical techniques that are broadly applicable in confronting such problems. The spectrum of different process types used to provide goods and services is developed and then examined through methods of process analysis and design.

OIT 263. Business Process Design

This course focuses on the business processes through which real work is accomplished, such as product development, order fulfillment, and customer service. We will discuss fundamental concepts embodied in the total quality, time-based competition, business process reengineering, and lean manufacturing movements. Specific topics include: capacity management, the impact of variability on process performance, project management techniques, and dynamic flow management (priority scheduling, triage, multi-tasking). Cases and exercises are drawn from a variety of industries, including services (e.g., back-room operations in financial services), design, manufacturing, and health care. Class members should be comfortable with modeling techniques. About one-third of the material is related to tools of process analysis, including several computer assignments involving simulation software.

OIT 265. Data and Decisions

This course introduces fundamental concepts and techniques for analyzing risk and formulating sound decisions in uncertain environments. Approximately half of the course focuses on probability theory and decision analysis including decision trees, decision criteria, the value of information, and simulation techniques. The remainder of the course examines statistical methods for interpreting and analyzing data including sampling concepts, regression analysis, and hypothesis testing. Applications include inventory management, demand analysis, lotteries and gambling, portfolio analysis, insurance, auctions, surveys and opinion polls, environmental contamination and failure analysis. The course emphasizes analytical techniques and concepts that are broadly applicable to business decisions.

OIT 267. Data and Decisions–Accelerated

This course is a first-year MBA course in probability, statistics, multiple regression analysis, and decision trees for students with strong quantitative backgrounds. Probability provides the foundation for modeling uncertainties. Statistics provides techniques for interpreting data, permitting managers to use small amounts of information to answer larger questions. Regression analysis provides a method for determining the relationship between a dependent variable and predictor variables. Decision tree analysis consists of quantitative approaches to decision making making under uncertainty. Additional topics such as advanced multiple regression analysis (e.g., correction for autocorrelation), two-group discriminant analysis, ch-square analysis, and stratified random sampling are included in the accelerated version of Data and Decisions. Not taught in 2009-10.

OIT 338. Environmental Science for Managers and Policy Makers

Students will learn the fundamental science of ecosystems, climate and energy systems, by building decision-support models for managing these systems. In so doing, students will develop widely-applicable skills in model representation in a spreadsheet, optimization, and Monte Carlo simulation.

OIT 339. Environmental Science for Managers and Policy Makers—Advanced

Fundamental science of ecosystems, climate and energy. Spreadsheet modeling, optimization, and Monte Carlo simulation applied to resource management and environmental policy. Similar to OIT 338, but allocates more class time to environmental/energy science and implications for management and policy, and less class time to fundamentals of modeling/optimization/simulation.

OIT 356. Electronic Business

This course is about the intersection of business, electronic commerce and information technology, with an emphasis on strategy and business issues. It focuses on ways you can take advantage of new technology opportunities and how they change the structure of firms, industries and value chains. For a typical class, you will prepare an in-depth case study, and the class discussion will start from the business problems presented by the case study, how one might address them, what is the role and impact of the enabling technologies, and what are some general lessons one can draw beyond the problems presented by the case.

OIT 364. Global Operations

Globalization of businesses has resulted in companies having to manage global networks of suppliers, integrators, contract manufacturers, logistics service providers, distributors, and service support operators in geographically dispersed locations. The customer network is also globally distributed. This course will focus on (1) how global and international companies can overcome the geographical, cultural, and organizational barriers, and leverage the strengths of the network to create values, and (2) how these companies may use different ways to manage operations in different regions to take full advantage of the local strengths and limitations. The course will be based on cases, mostly developed in the last two years, on innovative strategies and tactics used by global and international companies.

OIT 542. Price and Revenue Optimization

In this course students learn about the model structures and modeling techniques that underlie systems for price and revenue optimization. Two topics are given roughly equal emphasis: model-based tactical pricing, including customized pricing and retail markdown management; and classical revenue management, where automated logic is used for booking control (that is, to make yes-or-no decisions in response to booking requests from customers), rather than to set prices explicitly.

OIT 562. Supply Chain Management and Technology

Firms in many industries are scrambling to develop innovative ways to move products from raw materials through manufacturing to customers more quickly and efficiently. Some are responding by necessity to competition, both domestically and internationally. Others are capitalizing on the continuing stream of dramatic improvements in information technology. They redesign their supply chains to gather, process, transmit, share, and exploit vast amounts of information quickly and cheaply. Still others are applying the radically different philosophy of seeking a cooperative approach among all the players in the supply chain. Huge improvements have been enjoyed by firms able to optimize over their entire supply chains and figure out how to share the resulting gains while breaking down the traditional adversarial relationships. Some redesign their chains to bypass unneeded stages. Other innovations derive from deregulation and lower tariffs. This course examines many of the recent innovations in this area with an emphasis on technologies.

POLECON 230. Nonmarket Strategy

This course addresses managerial issues in the social, political, and legal environments of business. Cases and readings emphasize strategies to improve the performance of companies in light of their multiple constituencies. Cases are set in both international and U.S. environments. Topics include integrated strategy, activists and the media, legislation affecting business, regulation and antitrust, intellectual property, and international trade policy.

POLECON 232. Law and Economics for Corporate Strategy

This course introduces students to the core issues of law and economics and their applications to managerial strategy. Markets and the legal environment are increasingly interrelated: issues such as antitrust, intellectual property, privacy rights, product regulation, and torts affect firms' profitability both directly through legal action and indirectly by determining the "rules of the game." Nor are companies simply reactive to legal and political forces; actions taken by managers in firms often propel issues before the public eye. For instance, electronic collection and collation of personal data has stimulated new concerns about privacy, while court decisions, new legislation, and public opinion have all played roles in determining what is acceptable. Such legal and political forces invariably necessitate changes in corporate strategy, and the effectiveness of corporate strategy often rests on managers' ability to anticipate, rather than simply react to, developments in the nonmarket environment. The course also considers other important nonmarket issues, such as responding to pressure from independent interest groups and understanding how firms may influence legislative and executive political processes.