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Sloan Core Courses

The Sloan Master's Program core courses are designed specifically for Sloan Fellows. The program requires 56 units to graduate, 37 of those earned in the required courses. For more information please visit the Sloan Program website.

 

 

ACCT 219. Accounting

A characteristic of business is the extensive use of accounting data. The financial accounting course has the general objective of developing students' understanding of the nature, scope, and limitations of accounting information. To achieve this objective the course attempts to: (1) develop students' understanding of the conceptual accounting framework, including the objectives of financial reporting, and (2) develop students' ability to understand and critically evaluate the financial disclosures made by corporations. An issue of particular interest will be the managerial incentive aspects of accounting information and disclosures.

FINANCE 229. Finance

This course covers the foundations of finance with applications in corporate finance and investment management. It discusses many of the major financial decisions made by corporate managers and investors. Essential in many of these decisions is the process of valuation, which will be an important emphasis of the course. Topics include criteria for making investment decisions, valuation of financial assets and liabilities, relationships between risk and return, market efficiency, and the valuation of derivative securities (e.g., options). The course also provides coverage of the major financial instruments issued by corporations including debt, equity, and convertible securities.

GSBGEN 239. Executive Communication Strategies

Communication is crucial to the success of all leaders, but as you climb within an organization the ability to write and speak effectively is magnified. This course will explore how individuals can develop and execute effective communication strategies for a variety of business settings. This course introduces the essentials of communication strategy and persuasion at an executive level. Focuses will be: audience analysis, communicator credibility, message construction and delivery. Through this highly interactive course, students will see why ideas, data and advocacy are combined for a professional, persuasive presentation. This practical course helps students at all levels of communication mastery develop confidence in their speaking and writing through weekly presentations and assignments, lectures and discussions, guest speakers, simulated activities, and videotaped feedback.

GSBGEN 519. Leadership Seminar

The Sloan leadership seminar is focused on developing the leadership knowledge and capacities of Sloan Fellows. It is conducted throughout the year and covers a range of activities. These include formal sessions in which the tasks of leaders and leadership styles are explored. Sloan Fellows have the opportunity to complete a personal preference inventory instrument, which is coupled with team building exercises. Formal sessions are enhanced by presentations from distinguished Stanford faculty with a focus on issues of leadership, power and politics, and other topics of broad relevance. Not taught in 2009-10.

HRMGMT 289. Human Resource Management

This course provides a framework for understanding and thinking strategically about employment relations and the management of human resources in organizations. The course draws on insights from the social sciences to explore how employment relations are influenced by economic, social, psychological, legal, and cultural forces. Specific 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.

MGTECON 209. Economics

The first portion of this course covers business decision making within the firm; behavior of individual markets reacting to supply and demand forces; consequences of alternative market structures and business policies; and interactions between the public and private sectors. Specific topics include supply and demand analysis, consumer behavior, theory of cost and production, pricing and competition, factor pricing, and the concepts of marginal analysis. The second portion covers the macro, or aggregative, aspects of the economy. Specific topics include national income accounts; the determination of the level of aggregate output, employment, and prices; the monetary system, including the effects of monetary policy; fiscal policy; economic growth; and international monetary economics.

MKTG 249. Marketing Management

The goal of marketing is to provide value to customers and to recapture some of that value for the firm in the form of profits. The objectives of this course 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 elements of the marketing mix (product strategy, pricing, advertising and promotion, distribution); to examine the process of building, creating and managing two key firm assets (brand equity and customer equity); and to enhance problem solving and decision making abilities in these operational areas.

OB 259. High Performance Leadership

This course asks the question: What does it take to build a high-performance unit? The focus is on middle and upper-middle management in contemporary complex organizations. These are organizations that have complex tasks, exist in a rapidly changing environment, and have highly skilled subordinates. The premise of the course is that traditional methods of management may produce adequate levels of performance This course is designed to introduce incoming students to the structures and processes that affect group performance as well as some of the common pitfalls associated with working in teams. Topics include understanding team culture, fostering creativity and coordination, making group decisions, and dealing with a variety of personalities. Students will participate in a number of group exercises designed to illustrate principles of team work and to give students practice diagnosing team problems and taking action to improve team performance.but prevent excellence from developing. New approaches to leadership will be presented that are more likely to lead to a truly high-performing system. Time will be spent discussing the components of effective leadership, what a manager can do to build a high-performing department, and what members can do to support the leader who wants to initiate such changes.

OB 278. Organizational Behavior

This course is designed to introduce incoming students to the structures and processes that affect group performance as well as some of the common pitfalls associated with working in teams. Topics include understanding team culture, fostering creativity and coordination, making group decisions, and dealing with a variety of personalities. Students will participate in a number of group exercises designed to illustrate principles of team work and to give students practice diagnosing team problems and taking action to improve team performance.

OB 279. Organizational Behavior

This course is designed to introduce incoming students to the structures and processes that affect group performance as well as some of the common pitfalls associated with working in teams. Topics include understanding team culture, fostering creativity and coordination, making group decisions, and dealing with a variety of personalities. Students will participate in a number of group exercises designed to illustrate principles of team work and to give students practice diagnosing team problems and taking action to improve team performance. Not taught in 09-10.

OB 289. Negotiations

This course presents a variety of frameworks for analyzing negotiations and techniques for creating and claiming value. Many dimensions and types of negotiations are discussed, including the relevant psychological, interpersonal, and organizational dynamics. This course reviews both integrative and distributive strategies and tactics. A conceptual understanding is of little use, however, without an understanding of how to put these strategies and tactics into practice. To that end, considerable emphasis will be placed on exercises and role-playing simulations of conflicts designed to develop student's negotiating skills.

OIT 269. Modeling and Analysis

This course introduces modeling and managerial uses of computers. Three themes are developed: (1) the building, using, and interpretation of computer-based models which aid managers in making decisions under conditions of both uncertainty and certainty; (2) the analysis and interpretation of empirical data for use in computer-based models; and (3) organizational issues in the implementation of decision support systems combining data and models.

POLECON 239. 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, international trade policy, and business ethics and corporate social responsibility.

STRAMGT 257. Strategic Leadership

This 9-session course focuses on situations where senior executives must execute strategic action fast because of rapidly changing environmental conditions. The focus of the course is on the approaches successful leaders use to recognize the need for strategic change early, determine which particular approach is likely to be successful, and then implement the change to its conclusion. Leaders in these situations often confront the problem that many people in the organization do not yet recognize the need for change and resist making the personal adjustments required. The course provides these leaders with tools to initiate and execute the changes required to address key strategic challenges: how to capitalize better on the position an organization occupies in its environment, how to reposition the organization relative to its competitors and how to develop and implement a plan to accomplish the required changes successfully. Not taught in 2009-10.

STRAMGT 258. Multinational Corporate Strategy

This course deals with the overall general management of the business enterprise. Extensive case studies of a variety of companies of differing size, industry, and current conditions provide the basis for the comprehensive analysis and establishment of a strategic management approach for the organization. Frameworks are presented for strategy identification and evaluation; assessing industry attractiveness; evaluating the firm's capabilities, resources, and position; determining the optimal horizontal and vertical scope of the firm; entering into strategic alliances and joint ventures; and formulating and implementing strategy in multi-business organizations. Not taught in 2009-10.

STRAMGT 279. Global Strategic Management

This course investigates the key strategic and organizational issues that arise in operating internationally in a "semi-globalized" world where borders matter less than in the past but where they are still a major fact of life.

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