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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. Finally, we will examine different methods of estimating cost functions for firms and industries

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

This course will begin with an introduction to the concepts and tools of managerial accounting. The first part of the course covers alternative costing methods and illustrates how the resulting cost information can be used for decision making. This part of the course will examine cost and profitability concepts, cost allocation, transfer pricing, activity based costing, and customer profitability analysis. The second part of the course will examine the choice of financial and non-financial performance measures for evaluating business strategies and business unit success. This part of the course will cover the use of economic measures of performance, balanced scorecard approaches, and methods to develop explicit business models. The final part of the course will examine executive compensation and topics such as compensation arrangements used for senior and division manager remuneration, measurement of total compensation, valuation of stock options, and the impact of compensation choices on managerial behavior and firm performance.

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. Students are expected to develop their own spreadsheets and provide recommendations that serve to maximize shareholder value. An accelerated version of this course is offered as FINANCE 230.

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 and corporate managers make decisions about risk and return, how financial markets reach equilibrium, how imperfections create opportunities for innovative financial solutions, and how competition constantly changes the face of financial markets. We use cases to develop these topics in the context of concrete practical decision-problems, such as asset allocation in a corporate pension plan, the decision to conduct an initial public offering, or the design of a risk management strategy using financial derivatives.

FINANCE 230. Finance–Accelerated

The main aim of this course is to enable students to apply the fundamental ideas of financial economics to the 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. The course is case-based and more advanced than another corporate finance course offered in the menu.

FINANCE 330. Investment Management: Asset Allocation and Asset/Manager Selection

This course covers strategic and tactical asset allocation in investment portfolios as well as specific asset and manager selection.We consider challenges that are unique to the various asset classes that comprise broad-based portfolios, including: public equities, fixed income securities, private equity (both buyout and venture capital), hedge funds, and real assets (real estate, energy, timber, and commodities).We also consider challenges that are specific to various geographies (domestic versus developed international versus emerging markets) across the various asset classes.The portfolio optimization framework employed considers the perspective of different types of investors that vary along such dimensions as risk preference, liquidity preference/investment horizon, tax status, social objectives, and special asset-specific relationship, information or skill advantages.

FINANCE 335. Corporate Valuation, Governance and Behavior

This course will develop a detailed knowledge of corporate valuation techniques, together with an understanding of the important role of asymmetric information, agency conflicts and behavioral considerations in understanding corporate financing decisions. After developing these frameworks and tools and highlighting their general importance, they will then be applied to a wide range of corporate finance applications. Among the possible applications to be considered are mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, financial distress, IPOs, and venture financing.For all of these applications, as well as others, this course will first emphasize the central importance of valuation, as well as the unique challenges to valuation posed by the particular application.Then, employing these techniques of valuation, the course will analyze the importance of asymmetric information, agency conflicts and behavioral considerations in understanding observed phenomenon associated with each application, and the role each of these considerations play in guiding optimal decision making.

HRMGT 280. Human Resources 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 may 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 market signaling; moral hazard and incentives; rudimentary game theory; oligopoly; reputation and credibility; and transaction cost economics.

MGTECON 203. Managerial Economics–Accelerated

MGTECON 203 will be a somewhat faster paced version of MGTECON 200. We'll cover more material, more quickly. How do we do it? The presumption is that the people in this class have at least a little background in economics (this is very helpful, though not completely essential), and a basic level of comfort with first year calculus—derivatives, partial derivatives, and the concept of an integral even though you probably won't have to take one. It's not so much that the mathematics in 203 will be any harder or different than that in 200, but I will feel that I have a license to use it with more impunity. The advantage of 203, then, is that I expect to spend less time on "plumbing", going through some calculations more quickly than I would do in 200, and using this extra time to discuss more things that I think of as interesting and practical.

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.

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. Students enrolled in the class are responsible for filling any gaps in the prerequisite material through review and self study. The main difference between MKTG 340 and the entry-level foundation course in marketing will be the emphasis on application; i.e., the integration and use of marketing tools and frameworks to address problems of practice in marketing. The course will consist of a small number of project modules, where students work in teams over several class sessions to solve a complex marketing problem. During each project module, students will spend in-class time discussing relevant frameworks and related cases, participating in panel discussions with industry experts and practicing managers, and presenting and critiquing recommendations. 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 satisfies the Management Foundations requirement in Modeling for Optimization and Decision Support (MODS); it does not assume any experience or proficiency in quantitative analysis beyond admission requirements for the MBA program. The topics emphasized are (1) quantitative modeling in a spreadsheet environment, (2) linear and non-linear optimization models, and (3) Monte Carlo simulation. The emphasis is on model formulation and the interpretation of results. The applications covered will draw from a broad range of areas including operations, finance and marketing. Some examples include production and capacity planning, investment management, real estate management and portfolio optimization.

OIT 247. Modeling for Quantitative Analysis–Accelerated

This course satisfies the Management Foundations requirement in Modeling for Optimization and Decision Support (MODS). It is aimed at students who already have background or demonstrated aptitude for quantitative analysis, and thus are comfortable with more rapid coverage of the required MODS topics: (1) modeling in a spreadsheet environment, (2) optimization modeling, and (3) Monte Carlo simulation. No prior course work on these topics is expected or required. However, in contrast to OIT 245, the topics will be covered at a faster pace and with less reliance on introductory tutorials and laboratory sessions to learn the concepts. This allows time for coverage of several additional topics that expand students’ appreciation for modeling, optimization and simulation. Examples of the additional topics include Pivot Tables, integer optimization, and discrete-event simulation. The emphasis is on model formulation and the interpretation of results. The applications covered will draw from a broad range of areas including operations, finance and marketing. Examples include production and capacity planning, investment management, real estate management and portfolio optimization.

OIT 258. Technology Management

This course covers the fundamental issues pertaining to the management of Information Technology for general managers. The course is structured around the three main phases of decision making for IT management: selection, implementation and value derivation. These three stages of managerial decision making will be studied around IT applications that impact a single firm as well as those span the boundaries of firms or emerge in network environments. Some examples of topics studied are process and software selection, enterprise technology implementation, and utilization of network technology tools for building strategic advantage. Through case-based learning, the course aims to give students decision making skills for management of technology and generating competitive advantage by successful implementation and efficient utilization of IT.

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 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

Data and Decisions–Accelerated (nicknamed Turbo D&D) 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.

OIT 338. Environmental Science for Managers and Policy Makers

This course satisfies the MBA Management Foundations requirement in Modeling for Optimization and Decision Support (MODS), and is the primary core course for the joint professional degree programs that combine the MBA, JD or MD with the MS in Environment and Resources. Fundamental science of ecosystems, climate and energy. Spreadsheet modeling, optimization, and Monte Carlo simulation applied to resource management and environmental policy.

POLECON 230. Nonmarket Strategy

This course addresses managerial issues in the social, political and legal environments of business. Most core courses focus on firms' interactions with customers, suppliers, and alliance partners in the form of mutually beneficial exchange transacted in markets. In contrast, this course considers the strategic interactions of firms with comparably important constituents, organizations, and institutions outside of markets. Markets and the business environment are increasingly interrelated: issues such as boycotts, legislation, regulation, judicial decisions, and trade policy directly affect firms' market performance. Conversely, the profit-maximizing activities of firms often give rise to issues that involve governments and the public. For example, the market strategies of some e-commerce firms have sparked debates ranging from intellectual property protection to Internet privacy. Cases and readings emphasize strategies to improve the performance of companies in light of their multiple constituencies, in both international and US environments. Its topics include integrated strategy, activists and the media, legislation affecting business, lobbying, 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. Cases and readings consider specific legal principles and how executives can anticipate, and take effective action with regards to, the threats and opportunities they present. 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.