Course Descriptions

The following courses are required for all full-time MBA students. For elective courses, you can browse a list of recommended business classes or choose from over 7000 courses offered by Boston University.

Core Courses

AC710: Financial Reporting and Control

An introduction to accounting, and an examination of how it helps in decision-making. Financial accounting (information needs of stockholders, creditors, and analysts) and managerial accounting (information needs of managers) are stressed equally. Topics covered include income statement and balance sheet format, purposes, and limitations; statement of cash flows; analysis of financial statements; cost behavior; use of relevant costs in decision making; budgeting; and divisional performance measurement.

OB713: Managing Organizations and People

This course introduces concepts, models and frameworks to help you become better managers of the organizations you work for, the teams you work in, the people you work with and your own professional development. Emphasis will be on behavioral science concepts and research findings related to the major challenge managers face—how to organize individuals in order to fulfill the objectives and strategies of the firm. Topics that will be examined include: the nature and dynamics of the organization (organizational structure and culture, performance systems and metrics, reward systems, selection and socialization); the elements of individual leadership and personal development (power, decision-making, emotional intelligence, career development, developmental needs, feedback, and mentoring and coaching); managing change within organizational contexts (the dynamics and stages of organizational change and the skills and tactics employed by change agents); and the relationships between the firm and the external environment in which it operates. The course objective is to provide analytical skills and strategies, substantive knowledge, and a professional sensibility that will increase your ability to take effective action in firms, agencies and other organizations.

QM716: Data Analysis for Managerial Decision-Making

Managers deal with a large amount of information in quantitative form. Effective managers must understand the conditions under which quantitative techniques may be appropriately applied for decision-making. In this course, students develop skills in using the computer to examine and report data. The focus is on deriving meaning from particular data sets, and the use of statistical estimation, hypothesis testing, and regression/correlation analysis in decision-making.

MK723: Marketing Management

This course builds an in-depth understanding of basic marketing concepts and applies those concepts to a variety of management situations, including non-profit and public sector settings. The course provides working knowledge of the tools of marketing (product policy, pricing, distribution, promotion, consumer behavior), and the ways in which these tools can be usefully employed. The course builds practical skills in analyzing marketing problems and opportunities, and in developing marketing programs.

FE721: Financial Management

Financial Management examines three sets of problems: (1) saving and investment decisions by households, (2) investment and financing decisions by corporations, and (3) the role of securities markets and financial intermediaries in the economy. Decisions today affect the timing of and uncertainty about future flows of income; both timing and risk determine the current value of those future flows. This course develops the tools required to analyze these decisions and their interaction within the financial system.

FE727: Economics and Management Decisions

The aim of the course is to present many of the decision problems managers face and to present the economic analysis they need to guide these decisions. In the first half of the course, microeconomic tools are used to structure complicated decision problems about production, pricing, investment, and other strategic issues, address uncertainty through probabilistic forecasts and sequential decisions. An additional goal is to distinguish different market structures and apply competitive strategies using game theory. In the second half, the focus shifts to the study of the national and global economic environments within which companies operate. We identify the drivers of fluctuations in GDP, inflation, interest and exchange rates, and other key features of the economies. Since governments play key roles in determining the fate of economies and companies, the final theme is the rationale for and efficacy of government policy tools.

IS710: IT Strategies for a Networked Economy

This case-based course demonstrates the role that information technology plays in shaping business strategy and business models. It provides an overview of the key technologies that are important in today's business environment and introduces organization and management concepts relating to the information technology function. The course also illustrates the relationships between organizational performance and the ability to leverage knowledge assets. *Only required for students who entered Fall 2001 and after

OM725: Creating Value Through Operations and Technology

This MBA core course is case-oriented and focuses on topics of use to managers in any environment: process analysis, process improvement, supply chain management, and strategic operations decision-making. The course emphasizes the importance of effectiveness and efficiency and evaluates the potential trade-offs between them.

SI751: Competition, Innovation, and Strategy

This is an integrative course designed to capitalize on your understanding of Finance, Operations Management, Marketing, and other functional issues. The course draws on a number of academic disciplines, especially economics, organization theory, and sociology, to build a fundamental understanding of how and why some firms achieve and sustain superior performance. We also study why some firms persistently generate returns that are lower than average. The course is analytically focused and requires that you evaluate both the external environment and the internal capabilities of organizations. Corporate diversification and global management are important topics that are also featured.

PL700: Current Topics in Law and Ethics

This course will survey contemporary issues in selected areas of law and ethics. We will introduce pivotal areas of law, so that students begin to anticipate legal problems, analyze how to avoid them, and realize how legal principles can be employed to add value in their chosen fields. The subjects are torts, contracts, employment law, securities regulation and corporate governance. We expect that this overview of a few disciplines will encourage students to explore other legal topics relevant to their business interests. We will also offer an analytic structure that enables students to identify ethical issues in business, analyze options and make choices consistent with their own values.

 

Other Required Courses

The following additional courses are required for all full-time MBA students.

ES700: Executive Presentation

A presenter's delivery skills impact the audience's image of the presenter and the clarity of the message being communicated. A combination of lecture, discussion, and hands-on practice and simulation, this course is designed to help you exercise leadership through verbal communication.

ES701: Executive Written Communication

This course is a combination of lecture, discussion, and hands-on practice. It's designed to help you exercise leadership through writing and understand how strategies of written communication are an essential aspect of effective management, working relationships in the network era, and overall business strategy.

ES704: Career Toolkit: Strategic Internship Planning

Career Toolkit: Strategic Internship Planning will teach students how to become self-aware and market-ready, in preparation to enter the job market for internships and fulltime employment. The course includes all the steps needed to market oneself effectively to hiring managers, and to build a strong industry network that will provide a foundation for further growth in a chosen career path. Students will develop a customized toolkit to help launch their career paths successfully. Successful completion of the course is a prerequisite for the Campus Recruiting Program at the Feld Career Center.

ES705: Career Portfolio Program

Students will complete a thorough assessment of their personal values, professional goals, strengths and weaknesses, and a thorough exploration of one or more targeted areas of career interest. As they go about this important work, they will develop the collaborative learning skills that are critical to an effective job search strategy and career growth beyond the MBA program. The Portfolio Program provides an organizing framework and process for students to clarify career goals, personal values, accumulated career experiences and accomplishments, and to present their unique interests, skills and competencies to potential employers.

Electives

Choose from electives in:

• Accounting
• Business Policy & Law
• Finance & Economics
• Health Sector Management
• International Management
• Information Systems
• Marketing
• Operations & Technology Management
• Organizational Behavior
• Quantitative Methods
• Strategy & Innovation

AC810: Strategic Cost Analysis

This course examines cost measurement issues in organizations and the use of cost data to support managerial decisions and measure performance. Traditional as well as state-of-the-art concepts and approaches to the measurement and use of cost data are illustrated in class through cases. Lectures, exercises, exam and team project. .

AC814: Financial Statement Analysis & Investor Decisions

This course is designed to develop skills in interpreting and analyzing the financial reports prepared by firms for investors and creditors. The following topics are covered: 1) analyzing profitability and risk, (2) understanding the major accounting choices affecting financial statements and managerial incentives that influence these choices, (3) assessing the quality of earnings, (4) using cash-flow based and earnings-based valuation models. The course also includes a brief review of some important accounting principles, emphasizing areas that were not covered in AC710. Lectures, exercises, exams, and project.

AC840: Nonprofit Finance and Accounting

This course will introduce the fundamentals of accounting and finance associated with governmental and nonprofit organizations, including entities such as state and local governments, hospitals, schools, voluntary health and welfare organizations, and colleges and universities. It will emphasize the issues related to fund accounting, including general and special revenue funds, capital project funds, debt service funds, internal service funds, enterprise and fiduciary funds, long-term debt and fixed-asset accounting groups, and planning and control of cash and temporary investments. Other topics include budgeting, budgetary control, budgetary reporting, full accrual and modified-accrual accounting, cost determination, tax levies, auditing, preparation of financial statements, and other financial reporting principles and practices.

AC841: Advanced Accounting

Examines accounting principles and practices related to business combinations and foreign operations (accounting for mergers and acquisitions, constructing consolidated financial statements, recording foreign currency transactions and hedging exchange risk, translating foreign subsidiaries' local currency financial statements), business segments, reporting for local governments, and the impact of the SEC and international standards on financial reporting.

AC847:Intermediate Accounting I

Topics covered: 1) Review of generally accepted accounting principles, especially matching concept and revenue recognition rules. 2) Consideration of balance sheet and income statement classification issues. 3) Accounting and reporting issues related to cash, accounts receivable, inventories, investments, intangibles, and plant assets.

AC848: Intermediate Accounting II

This course focuses on the recognition and measurement of issues in accounting related to income taxes, lease obligations, and pension liabilities and equity. It focuses further on the preparation of, and uses for, statement of cash flows; calculating, reporting, and interpreting financial measures, including earnings per share; the nature and purpose of segment and interim reporting; and accounting for changing prices. The course also provides a brief overview of the auditor's opinion.

AC865: Auditing Issues & Problems

Introduces the basic concepts underlying auditing and assurance services (including materiality, audit risk, and evidence) and demonstrates how to apply those concepts to audit and assurance services through financial statement audits.

AC869: Principles of Income Taxation I

Federal income tax law common to all taxpayers--individuals, partnerships, corporations. Tax returns for individuals. Topics include tax accounting, income to be included and excluded in returns, tax deductions, ordinary and capital gains and losses, inventories, installment sales, depreciation, bad debts, and other losses.

FE814: Intellectual Property and Business Strategy

This course covers the ways in which companies use intellectual property to protect their investments in knowledge assets. Traditionally a concern for technology-intensive businesses, patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets have become important business tools throughout the knowledge-based economy. A good understanding of what IP assets are and how they work has become essential for managers in all types of organizations. This is not a law course, nor a "how-to" manual - rather it is intended to develop your analytical understanding of fundamental economic and legal aspects of intellectual property systems, and how they drive competition and strategy.

FE815: Competitive Decision Making

This course explores the strategies of decision-makers in a variety of competitive situations. The main topics include 1) bargaining, negotiation, and arbitration; 2) market competition; 3) competitive bidding; 4) group decisions in organizations; and 5) game theory. In most of these settings, optimal decisions call for cooperation as well as competition. Examples are drawn from a wide variety of managerial settings. Text, cases and other readings; simulations.

FE820: Corporate Financial Management

This course provides an in-depth analysis of financial considerations relating to corporate growth. It addresses the setting of financial or corporate goals in terms of maximizing shareholders' equity, and relationships among dividend policy, debt levels, capital costs, return on investments, and growth.

FE821: Advanced Corporate Finance

This course is designed for students who are pursuing careers in corporate finance within industrial corporations, corporate finance departments of investment-banking firms or in investment banking. The course provides follow-up on the basic financial frameworks and analytical methods outlined in introductory courses. Three primary areas are covered: risk management; agency, information, and psychology; and real options.

FE822: Fixed Income Markets

This is a course primarily on fixed-income debt securities and markets. Emphasis is placed on the factors that determine bond yields, factors such as the coupon and maturity structure, liquidity, credit risk, and tax status of the security, and on measures of return and risk, statistics such as the yield to maturity, horizon yield, duration, and convexity. We will cover government debt (Treasuries and municipals), corporate bonds (investment-grade and high-yield), agency (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) and mortgage-backed debt created via securitization (i.e., collateralized mortgage obligations). We will emphasize how interest rate and credit derivatives are used to manage portfolios of fixed-income securities.

FE823: Investments

This course looks at speculative markets, including organized security markets and exchanges; definitions of securities; relevant tax law and sources of investment information; principles of stock and bond valuation; and security price behavior. Also discussed in this course are problems and models associated with portfolio analysis and management.

FE825: Advanced Topics in Investments

This course is about the theory and practice of science-based investing. It is intended for students who are either already working in the field of investments or plan to become professional investment advisers or portfolio managers. It focuses on building quantitative decision models for individual investors, investment firms, and pension funds. Subjects covered include the framing and quantitative modeling of lifecycle saving, investing, and risk-management decisions, and the design, production, and pricing of structured investment contracts to achieve targeted objectives.

FE827: International Financial Management

This course examines the acquisition, investment, management, and conversion of funds in the international context. Other areas of discussion include: foreign exchange exposure and risk, investment decisions, international capital markets and banking, trade financing and tax planning, balance of payments and national goals, and financial planning from a multinational perspective.

FE828: Fixed Income Derivatives

The fixed income derivatives market has experienced tremendous growth in recent years as credit risk has become a major factor fostering rapid financial innovation. This course will provide an in-depth approach to credit risk modeling for the specific purpose of pricing fixed income and credit-risk derivatives. The course will explore the nature of factors underlying credit risk and review/develop models incorporating default risk. Types and structures of credit-derivatives will be presented and discussed. Valuation formulas for popular credit-derivatives will be derived. Numerical methods will be developed to deal with general credit derivatives forms and default risks.

FE829: Futures, Options & Financial Risk Management

Futures and stock options are recognized as important tools of investment and risk reduction. This course covers the theory of futures and option pricing and develops a framework for analyzing hedging and investment decisions using futures and options. Attention is paid to practical considerations in the use of these investments, tax and accounting issues and the institutional features of the market in which the various instruments are traded.

FE848: Real Options in Valuation, Risk Management, and Strategy

Over the last several years real options have made significant inroads into both theory and corporate practice. Major consulting firms have developed practice areas around real options. Several industries have embraced real options and are beginning to adopt it as the new standard. Real options concepts go beyond the valuation function into making an impact on the formulation of corporate strategy. Yet, there are nagging concerns about the use of real options. While some criticisms rightly point to extending the domain of applications beyond its validity and the misuse of tools, others stem from misunderstanding of the theoretical foundations.

FE850: Private Equity: Leveraged Buyouts

Private Equity (PE) has become a major force in the capital markets. This course will expose students to, and de-mystify, the world of PE. The focus will be centered on LBOs and their position in the “alternative asset” class. Students will learn about the activities of a PE firm including formation, fundraising, investing (including deal structure, terms, due diligence and governance) and exiting. We will also discuss what other industry sectors serve or are affected by PE and who the players are. Case study and class participation will be the primary mode of learning.

FE882: Public Policy Analysis

This course explores the economics of the public sector and the impact government policy and programs have on society and business. The course provides students with tools to systematically examine the financing and measure the impact of government policies and regulations. It explores the rationale for government intervention, appropriate levels of intervention and how to measure the effectiveness of policies and regulations. This course is helpful to those who desire a deeper understanding of the central role government plays in the economy and how government impacts the business and nonprofit sectors.

HM703: Health Sector Issues and Opportunities

This course provides a dynamic introduction to the health sector, beginning with the burden and distribution of disease and current patterns of expenditures. While the emphasis will be on the American system, a global context will be developed. The basic elements of insurance and payment, service delivery, and life sciences products will be described, and put in the context of the unique economic structure of the sector. The intense challenges of the sector will be explored, as well as both the ethical issues presented and the opportunities that emerge. Public policy and technological and practice development as drivers of change will be addressed throughout.

HM710: Health Service Delivery: Strategies, Solutions and Execution

This course will provide knowledge and skills needed to develop and implement systems capable of delivering accessible, high quality, efficient health care services. It will draw upon relevant information from disciplinary areas of study including strategy, operations, marketing, finance, law, human resources, quality improvement, and information technology.

HM717: Drugs, Devices, and Diagnostics: New Challenges, Strategies, and Execution

This course will examine issues and opportunities in life sciences including the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical devices sectors and the life sciences service industry supporting these sectors. The course will investigate who manages these companies and what are the strategies that are used to build successful enterprises. There will be a review of the expertise that is needed in these companies or that must be out-sourced including development, manufacturing, marketing and finance. The principals governing the industry including patent law, regulatory and FDA compliance will be addressed.

HM801: Bench-to-Bedside—Translating Biomedical Innovation from the Laboratory to the Marketplace

The subject of the course is the translation of medical technologies into new products and services for the healthcare system.  The course begins with a rigorous study of intellectual property, licensing and the core aspects of planning, creating, funding and building new entrepreneurial ventures. Concepts and tools are presented for assessing new technologies and their potential to be the basis for a new entrepreneurial venture.  Comparisons will be made of how technologies can be sourced and commercialized out of three very different environments: universities, national laboratories and corporate laboratories.  Cross-disciplinary teams of students will be formed which will evaluate translational research projects currently being developed at Boston University and their potential for transformation into a start-up company to commercialize the technology, providing a unique linkage between the scientific research activities of the university and the professional schools.  Each week there will be a case study which will discuss examples of both success and failure in technology commercialization.  Some of these case studies examine Boston University life sciences spin-out companies, and the founders and CEO’s of these ventures will share their experiences with the class.

HM817: Health Information Technology

With increasing cost constraints and demands for improved quality of care, information technology has become essential to manage health care organizations and systems. This course is intended to provide students with knowledge of extant health care information systems for operations management, financial management, performance appraisal, and strategic planning. It will also investigate analytical frameworks and methods that can be used to evaluate information systems, determine information system requirements, and plan system changes to meet future requirements. The perspective of the course is that of the chief information officer and other managers of health care information systems, not that of the technical specialist.

HM833: Health Sector Marketing

This elective provides an in-depth understanding of health sector marketing in the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors for both products and services (hospital, managed care and health services of all types, life sciences, pharma and biotech, medical devices, medical software, and so on). The course explores how the tools of marketing (e.g., consumer behavior, pricing, promotion, channels, branding, segmentation, etc.) can be employed in the rapidly changing health sector with particular attention to changing organizational structures, financing, technologies, market demands, laws, channels of distribution, on-line applications, and regulations which require new approaches to marketing. Topics to be addressed include marketing to physicians, DTC (Direct-to-Consumer) Marketing, new product development particularly for pharmaceuticals and medical devices, adoption of medical and service innovations, typical decision making units in the health sector, and social marketing. (The course is still in development so there will likely be more topics added.) The course will have you keep in mind always while making marketing decisions that medicine, in the purest sense, is a profession with an intellectual discipline, a tradition of service, and an ethical code of conduct, and that service to the patient, as individuals and in the aggregate, is foremost in marketing decision making.

HM840: Health Sector Consulting

This is an applied consulting project course. Students enrolled in this course will be divided into teams of 4 students during the first class; the assignment of teams is largely dependent upon having a shared interest in one of the number of prospective consulting projects. Each team will select from a pre-designated list of business development-strategy-marketing consulting projects. Projects in the past have ranged from developing an international pricing strategy for the introduction of a new product by Genzyme to providing a marketing plan for a web-based entrepreneurial venture (a medical website targeted toward providing health care clinicians with products, services and information related to electromyography) to developing a strategy for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to maintain the loyalty of their referring physicians. Client companies/ organizations have requested these projects, are paying the school for the privilege of having an MBA team, and are covering all expenses associated with the projects. In return, they anticipate receiving a consulting report from the student team at the end of the semester. The deliverables for this assignment are the consulting report as well as a 30 minute in-class presentation followed by a 10 minute question-and-answer period. The team may also be asked by the client to make a presentation to the client’s management. These projects constitute a way to apply what you are learning in the MBA program to a real health sector management situation; an opportunity to gain experience and broaden your familiarity with health sector organizations with which you have had little or no direct experience; a way for local, regional, and national health sector organizations to benefit from your expertise and hard work in solving a management problem; and a continuing linkage of the Boston University MBA and Health Sector Management Programs to the health sector community.

HM856:  Corporate Entrepreneurship in the Health Sector

Corporations have long recognized the importance of promoting entrepreneurial activities within their organizations as a strategy for accessing new markets, innovating new product lines, and establishing new global partnerships. But the continuous pressure to reduce costs, increase efficiencies, and meet short-term financial objectives has worked against creating a corporate culture of risk taking, acceptable failure, rapid response, and imaginative exploration often attributed to traditional entrepreneurial new venture formation. In the health sector, these challenges are multiplied by the demands of a highly regulated industry, long product development cycles, and short product lifetimes. How large corporations overcome these complex barriers to innovation in the pharmaceutical, medical device, and health provider industries, and how individual entrepreneurs are thriving and redefining corporate leadership roles in providing world-wide patient care, is the principal topic of exploration for this course.

IM834: Competing In China

This new elective course deals with contemporary issues in competing in China, which probably is one of the most critical strategic agenda of many multinational companies in this decade. Based on cases, observations, and evolving theories, this course provides future global business leaders with an opportunity to explore important development and management challenges around the following issues: 1. The evolving nature of economic and social development in China and its impact on business opportunities—how did the market and competitive environment change over the last 20 years and what might we expect in the future? 2. Significant and promising patterns in the evolution of multinational companies’ strategies in China—who are making successful progresses in the Chinese market and what are the critical elements in their strategic drive? 3. Chinese competitors that are emerging as dominant domestic competitors in the market and growing further into the global market—what are their unique competitive capabilities and advantages? 4. Personal and professional challenges and opportunities—what do we have to prepare in order to contribute to the success of our enterprise? While the course is focused on issues in China, the learning framework and lessons should be relevant to developing management and strategic capabilities in other fast growing markets around the world, such as India and Russia.

 

IM836: Competing in High-Growth Economies

In IM836 we will explore the opportunities and risks faced by domestic and global companies operating in high growth and developing economies.  My goal in this course is to deepen students' understanding of the distinctive nature and challenges of the business environments in these countries and to increase students’ ability to deal systematically, through the use of a consistent analytical framework, with strategic and operating issues managers in these countries are likely to encounter. We will use a combination of seminar discussions and case-method teaching, with an emphasis on the latter and with intensive student participation. We will invite guest speakers, as appropriate.

IM845: Asian Field Seminar

How do we prepare for the emerging opportunities and challenges that China’s economic development and Asia’s growing presence continue to create? This two-week seminar through six cities in China and Korea provides future global business leaders with an opportunity to contemplate answers to the above question. We visit companies (both multinational and local) competing in this dynamic market, meet governmental officials to hear about policies and implications, learn from local MBA professors about what they see our strengths and weaknesses are, participate in real market activities, and develop global network of knowledge with local MBA students and BU alumni in the region. Through this process, students will deepen their understanding of the unique nature of opportunities and challenges in the region, become more comfortable with the myriads of cultural and communicational details, and explore professional opportunities located in the region.

IM851: European Field Seminar

The European Field Seminar gives students an appreciation of "competing in Europe."  The European competitive landscape is changing rapidly.  Three Boston-based class sessions introduce students to topics such as the history of the European Union, European Community Law, Member States, European Monetary Union and Competition Policy. During a two week period, the class visits a variety of organizations in Europe to learn about relevant competition issues; students experience first-hand how firms are dealing with them (or should be dealing with them). The wide variety of sectors covered appeals to broad segments of the MBA population.

IM852: Global Social Enterprise Field Seminar - Brazil

This intensive ten day seminar will provide students with a broad understanding of the ways in which business strategies can create value at the base of the economic pyramid. Students will gain first hand experience of how businesses, NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and government are using models of social enterprise to address social and economic issues in the fields of health, education and the environment in the context of an emerging market—in this case, Brazil.  This study program will include extensive site visits throughout the country to social enterprises, multi-national firms, NGO ventures and government organizations. Students will also hear from a wide variety of Latin American specialists in topic areas.   A broad range of topics will be covered including: renewable energy, sustainable development, eco-tourism, new models for providing health and education services to underserved populations, social enterprise, micro-enterprise, corporate social responsibility and public/private partnerships.

The course will consist of three pre-departure sessions focused on social enterprise, corporate social responsibility and emerging markets.  Students are also expected to select an individual research track of interest for the duration of the seminar.

 

IS705: Issues in Managing Networked Systems

This course explores the business implications of emerging Internet-based technologies such as wireless devices and Web services.  Students will learn key technical concepts underlying these technologies and will explore how this technical understanding can be connected to managerial practice.  Students will be asked to apply this knowledge to the design of an architecture for a strategic technology product or infrastructure.  Students will develop these designs in the context of a specific business situation and will examine both the technical and organizational issues that arise. 

IS706: System Design for Business Networks

This course provides a comprehensive review of the theory and practice of Information Systems Analysis and Design. Students explore the tools and techniques associated with a process, a data-oriented, and an object-oriented view of systems design and evaluate the implications of the emerging technologies of computer-aided software design.

IS707: Systems Architecture

Focuses on Operating Systems for workstations and mainframes with emphasis on the operating system as both a provider of service and manager of resources. It includes discussions and cases in the management of technology and technical people as well as personal issues professionals and managers.

IS714: Mastering IT Strategy

This is a capstone course to integrate the key concepts and approaches to managing IT in modern corporations. Using a set of leading-edge case examples, frameworks, the students will have an opportunity to understand how IT strategy supports current business models while shaping tomorrow's business models. Students will master the intricate challenges of placing IT at the core of modern enterprises. They will have an opportunity to apply their learnings to a company of their choice through a course project.

IS717: IT Applications in Management

The objective of this course is to provide an introduction to IT/IS technologies and to provide a hands-on, tutorial-driven, application development experience. The course will be divided into two sessions on each day. For three days, the first session will offer a strategic application of a technology, and the second session, will provide an overview of the technological components that enable this technology. Technologies to be discussed include enterprise systems applications such as ERP systems, SCM systems, and CRM systems. The other two days of the course will focus on using a programming environment to develop one or two simple applications. The "instructional" half of the day will cover the key constructs and components of the programming environment and the second half will be a hand-on tutorial on the application of the concepts covered.

IS803: Field Internship

Student teams are assigned to a project at an area company. They complete a substantial portion of their projects working on-site with their clients approximately one day per week. Periodic reviews provide feedback on the project's progress. Presentations and feedback support unfold at the midpoint of the course to enhance the project and improve communication skills. A classroom component is included as part of the field practicum.

IS808: Internship

In this final phase of the project, students complete project-specific tasks and deliver final reports and presentations to appropriate client managers. In class, students discuss the productivity and quality impacts of their work, evaluate their performance as a team and as individuals within a team, discuss challenges in managing change, and critique models and methods in MIS that were central to their projects.

IS828: Managing Information Security

This MBA elective (also open to undergraduates) will combine a technical and business approach to the management of information. It will address technical issues such as cryptography, intrusion detection and firewalls along with managerial ideas such as overall security policies, managing uncertainty and risk and organization factors. We will examine different aspects of computer security such as passwords, virus protection and managing computer security in dynamic environments. Topics will also include network security and how to secure wireless application and services. These technical details will be placed in a business context. The class will have a practical focus as we examine current best practices. There well be several guest speakers in the security area.  This will be a project oriented class and students will present their research projects during the last several classes.

IS830: Competing in Business Networks; The Business Capability Platforms in the 21st Century

Business strategy has been profoundly affected by the pervasive connectivity enabled by the internet, modern communications and the explosion of connected devices. Add to this the emergence of intelligent sensor technologies such as Mote, RFID and many forms of nano technologies, the business strategists of today have the opportunity to fundamentally transform the nature of the modern business model. This course uses the design concepts of platforms to examine the characteristics of and the implementation issues associated with the design and deployment of these new business models.

IS834: Mastering IT Management, Delivery and Leadership

This course provides effective methods, pragmatic options, and leading practice alternatives for developing a delivery plan, manage organizational change, and demonstrate leadership for deploying new technology.  Students will examine the concepts, frameworks, and approaches for delivering IT capabilities and focuses on IT delivery effectiveness and human resource management.

IS837: Emerging Perspectives and Synthesis

This course is intended to serve two purposes--(a) an opportunity to expose students to leading-edge faculty research that has not yet been integrated into the Master's curriculum; and (b) allow students to develop a synthesis of how technology and business domains are interwoven in the transition from an industrial age to a post-industrial age with pervasive impacts of information technology and systems. Students will be exposed to a set of leading-edge ideas by SMG faculty members as well as guest lectures and discussions. Each student will have an opportunity to reflect on these ideas by developing a paper on a chosen topic that serves to maximize learning in the program. We believe that this one-week intensive course (based on some of our experiences with a program for IBM Corporation) will be a useful synthesis of leading-edge ideas for for the MS-MBA students.

IS840: Introduction to Business Programming in Java

The global adoption of Java technology has inspired more and more organizations in creating mission-critical applications in Java. Managing these business applications has already become an important issue confronted by managers. This introductory course helps students to gain an understanding of the basic Java programming concepts including OOP(object-oriented programming) paradigm. The course teaches java language syntax, database connectivity, and graphical interface implementation. The class projects are designed to develop skills in creating application software in simple yet practical business scenarios.

IS850: Winning in the Network Era

This course is to delve into the opportunities and challenges of winning in the network era. This is an advanced course intended to develop in-depth insights into specific sectors that are facing new challenges and opportunities from information and communication technologies. My aim is to provide students with an opportunity to go beyond analyzing individual cases and writing short course papers to develop detailed insights and understanding of the management challenges of winning in the network era. We will consider five industries and examine the shifts underway using a set of relevant frameworks and concepts. I expect the students to work in teams throughout the semester and the discussions in class will follow a seminar format as opposed to lectures and case discussions. The class size is limited to 25 students organized into five teams.

IS854: Practicing IT Strategy, Management and Delivery

For future business leaders who want to understand, influence and leverage technology investments more effectively. The course provides effective strategies, pragmatic options, and leading practice alternatives for linking Business and Technology Strategies, defining effective governance and organization models, and successfully delivering new technology innovation. Students will master the complex methods and practices needed to frame a problem and propose an actionable solution that would be expected from future Business Executives and Technology Managers. Students will master the complex methods and practices to frame a problem and propose an actionable solution that would be expected from Business Executives (e.g., CEO, Marketing Executive, CIO, CFO) and Technology Executives (e.g., Product Manager, Consultant, Program Manager, Sales).

IS872: Electronic Commerce

The Internet and more specifically, the World Wide Web has brought about significant change in the way business in conducted. The rules and business models, however, for the new economy are still in their infancy. This course provides a grounding in the concepts of electronic commerce, and then moves to an examination of the emergent and emerging business models. The IT/IS infrastructure that supports these various business models is addressed, particularly architecting systems including privacy and security issues.

IS883: Designing Systems for Data Management

The first objective is to introduce the student the concept of design in information systems. Although the design concepts covered largely focus on data management, it will include high level systems design concepts as well. The second objective of this course is to introduce the student to the practical applications of databases and database management systems. The students will learn the fundamentals of data management starting with the basics of data design. The students will learn querying and managing the data in a database, defining the structures for storing data, and implementing business rules in relational databases using the Structured Query Language (SQL). The two objectives will tie in together as the students will be expected to integrate systems design with data design to design a prototype information system. This exercise will walk the students through the process of eliciting requirements, defining the scope, designing a restricted set of functions, designing the database, implementing the database, and explaining how restricted set of functions will use the data. The programming requirements will be very minimal. Besides the basics of data management, this course will also cover relevant “in” topics in data management such as database security, data quality management, and data auditing (if time permits).

IS885: Technology Tools for e-Business

Focuses on how to build and manipulate data structures in a typical hardware/software environment. Emphasis is on building structures that represent organizational entities so users can examine them. The role of the analyst/designer in this process requires sufficient understanding of the technology to be aware of the options available and of the costs and benefits of these options.

IS889: Telecommunications and Business Networks

Examines the data communication hardware and software characteristics that are relevant to the applications software designer and presents a general overview of communications network design. Topics include issues in the design and use of both local area networks and wide area networks, the impact of communications technology on organizations and trends in the communications industry are studied.

MK852: Marketing Research

This course examines a variety of exploratory and survey research approaches and their associated data analysis procedures. It provides participants with state-of-the-art tools for identifying and assessing customer needs and requirements to improve the performance of profit-oriented and public-sector organizations.              

MK853: Global Strategic Marketing

This course focuses on the key strategic marketing decisions managers must make: deciding whether to market globally; selecting countries in which to market; choosing marketing strategies and tactics for entry and growth; and organizing for and managing the implementation of global marketing strategies.

MK854: Product and Brand Management

This is a course about branding, and the ways that brands acquire and sustain value in the marketplace.  The course is embedded in sociological, anthropological, and psychological theories of consumer behavior and culture, and relies on these disciplines for insight into effective strategic management of the brand.  The cases, readings, in-class discussions, and assignments are designed to provide you with: an understanding of brands as co-creations of consumers, marketers, and cultures, and brand management as a collaborative process of meaning management; a sound foundation in consumer-brand behavior; and a capacity to think creatively and with increased precision about the strategies and tactics involved in building, leveraging, defending, and sustaining strong brands.  Select topics we will cover include brand (re)positioning, brand design, brand community, product placements and grassroots marketing, internal branding, brand relationships, brand architecture, brand leverage and extensions, brand metrics, and brand stewardship.  A group brand planning project weaves content throughout the course; individual write-ups allow you to explore select branding topics in more detail.  Several guest speakers from the branding services, consulting, and practice sides will provide their insights throughout the course.

MK856: Consumer Behavior

In order to successfully implement strategy, marketers need to understand their consumers  who they are, what they want, how they make decisions, and how their behavior is influenced by marketers’ actions.  This course will cover topics such as the role of culture, psychological processes (e.g. motivation, perception, memory, attitudes, etc.) and marketplace behaviors (e.g. in retail settings, online, post-purchase, etc.).  We will also look at such marketing concepts as segmentation strategy, value-based pricing, brand equity, new product adoption, and customer relationship management. The course involves a team project focused on discovering an unmet consumer need and designing a product and marketing plan to address that a need.

MK857: Services Marketing

This course takes both a practical and conceptual approach to the marketing of services.  The marketing literature views quality as being defined by customer expectations and perceptions.  This course looks at key components of services that affect these expectations and perceptions as well as issues of demand management; developing systems that address custom problem solving and complaint management; and the overlap between operational, organizational, behavioral, and marketing issues in service management.  The focus of the course varies by class to include professional services, small service, large service organizations and businesses that produce services as a key and necessary line extension to products that they produce.  

MK859: Business to Business Marketing

This course provides an in-depth understanding of the unique aspects of marketing in a business-to-business environment. Students apply current marketing theory and techniques to industrial market settings.  In addition, they develop managerial skills in the marketing planning and execution process, as well as critical analysis and problem-solving abilities with respect to marketing working relationships.  The course allows participants to experiment with and apply strategic marketing concepts in a complex industrial marketing environment.  Topics covered include the dynamics of relationships between suppliers and customers, the increasing reliance on the marketing-/R&D interface, the structuring of alliances between so-called competitors, and the process of negotiations - to better understand how organizations endeavor to become and stay market-oriented. Includes guest speakers and interactive marketing simulation.

MK860: Integrated Marketing Communication

The aim of this course is to provide you with an understanding of the strategic issues surrounding marketing communication, of which advertising is but one vehicle.  We will be focusing on Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC), which involves using a variety of tools (e.g. advertising, sales promotion, public relations, etc.) in a synergistic manner to achieve communication objectives.  Students will learn IMC principles and practices and then develop an IMC campaign from situation analysis to strategy development and implementation.  The ultimate objective of this course is to enable students to understand and operate within the advertising industry from either a client or agency perspective.

MK864: Pricing Strategy and Tactics

This course focuses on the practical needs of the marketing manager making pricing decisions.  Students learn the techniques of strategic analysis necessary to price more profitably by evaluating the price sensitivity of buyers, determining relevant costs, anticipating and influencing competitors' pricing and formulating an appropriate pricing strategy.

MK867: Marketing Social Change

The course has two main and interdependent components. First, students will be exposed to the marketing concepts and principles that can be applied to change individuals’ attitudes and behaviors toward a variety of social issues, including health, housing, environment, culture, education and poverty. The second component, which will be informed by the first, will be a semester-long field project in which student groups will address a specific management problem for a real social cause organization and provide the organization with a set of actionable recommendations.

MK872: Advanced Personal Selling and Sales Force Management

There are two parts to this course. The first imparts knowledge about good selling strategy, tactics, techniques, and skills. Topics addressed include leads generation and management; preparing and making sales presentations and sales calls; handling objections; networking; building relationships; closing deals; and ethics. The second part has a managerial focus, covering issues related to managing a salesperson or a group of salespeople. Issues addressed include sales force sizing,  recruitment, selection, and training; sales territory design and assignment; setting sales objectives and quotas; supervising, mentoring, coaching, and motivating salespeople; designing compensation and reward schemes; key account management; and retention strategies to minimize salespeople turnover. The course makes heavy use of cases, lectures, role plays, videos, and classroom exercises.

OB802: Introducing and Sustaining Innovation: Application to Health-Related Enterprises

Leaders of health-related enterprises have a critical role in shepherding innovation into reality for the benefit of people, organizations and society. More affordable technologies, global public health challenges and cost concerns are fostering rapid experimentation, including new delivery and financing models, policy reform and social enterprise. This course will explore the everyday process of introducing and sustaining innovation in the broad context of health-related enterprise. In the course we will examine theories about how innovation occurs, talk with leaders of efforts to innovate, conduct group projects on the implementation of innovations, and engage in cases and exercises. The course is targeted to HM, PNP, MSMBA and OB students but is open to any student interested in exploring the process of innovation with application to health-related enterprises. This course replaced HM802. Students may not take both.

OB830: Leading the Mission-Driven Organization

Mission-driven organizations are created in order to accomplish goals that extend beyond profits for stakeholders and owners. Missions vary, ranging from, among many others, educating or protecting youth, safeguarding the planet, healing the sick, eradicating poverty, and enabling spirituality. Such missions occur in the context of various organizations, including non-profit and for-profit, philanthropic and religious, public and private, governmental and non-governmental. This course focuses on leadership theories, frameworks, and practices that take seriously the nature of workers, including both professional staff and volunteers, and their reasons for choosing to work in such organizations. This course is designed to build the capacities of students to use specific tools—related to leadership, conflict, and change—that are particularly useful in leading mission-driven organizations, and enable them to develop particular insights about specific mission-driven organizations of interest, related to their effectiveness and capacities for change. This course is particularly appropriate for students focusing on non-profit organizations, health-care systems and entrepreneurial organizations.

OB840: Management Consulting Field Project

This course is offered in partnership with State Street Bank Corporation.  Students enrolled in this course will gain an in- depth understanding of the consulting process and its practical application within a client setting.  The course is divided into two modules, the first is a field based module where students gain experience developing a consulting proposal, managing the early stages of a consulting engagement and managing a client relationship with a client selected by State Street Corporation.  Student teams prepare an initial scope of services for work that is done on a pro bono basis by State Street employees and then participate in the transition of the project to the State Street team. The second module is classroom based and examines management consulting organizational models, the consulting process and methods of evaluating a consulting intervention.

OB844: Managing Organizational Change

This course focuses on the planning and control of organizational and behavioral change in a dynamic business environment.  Emphasis will be on the development of change techniques used to diagnose, implement and evaluate organizational change processes. The course will also examine the conflict that often accompanies change, how it can be useful or dysfunctional, and its relationship to resistance to change and organizational dynamics. The course objectives are to: develop an understanding of the complexity and dynamics of change, discuss and evaluate different change techniques, examine the implications of change for the manager's own behavior and career, and provide techniques for recognizing, anticipating and responding to change opportunities and efforts.

OB848: Leadership

This course examines the essence of leadership; its relationship to managing; and the behaviors, attitudes and perspectives that distinguish leaders.  Leadership is considered in a variety of ways:  leadership in crises, at the top, in the middle, and in groups.  Case studies, students' past experiences, instruments, and other learning activities provide opportunities for students to assess and develop their leadership talents.

OB853: Negotiations

This course uses the theory and research on effective negotiating strategies to build students’ understanding of, and skills for, managing differences and negotiation situations. The course considers, among other topics, the issues of negotiating across functions, between levels, across national and cultural differences, over race and gender differences, and between organizations.  Students examine: 1) problems of influence and self-defense in highly competitive "hardball" negotiations; and 2) the art of using differences for creative problem-solving and "mutual gain" outcomes.  The emphasis is on developing practical skills for effective negotiations that can be applied to concrete situations.  Students should be prepared to learn from their own experiences and practice in this course.

OB860: Managerial Decision Making

This course examines theoretical and practical aspects of decision-making.  Using a combination of cases, exercises, and psychological and behavioral instruments, students will learn to understand and manage decision making from various perspectives.  There will be an emphasis placed on strategic decisions and crisis decisions in a wide variety of circumstances, including business decisions, personal decisions, and managerial decisions made during several different types of events.  There will be a detailed analysis of managerial decisions made during the Cuban Missile Crisis.  Decisions will be analyzed using several models, including rational choice, game theory, organizational and communications structure, context analysis, cognitive mapping, and several psychologically based theories.

OM840: Managing and Improving Quality: Six Sigma Green Belt Certification

Six Sigma is a powerful management tool that promotes process improvement, cost reduction and significant enhancement of bottom-line profitability. The purpose of this course is to thoroughly examine the concept of quality, to define it in terms that are useful for managers, to survey the ideas of major quality thinkers and theorists, to develop proficiency in the use of quality tools, and to consider the challenges of quality program implementation in real business situations. Throughout the course we will investigate similarities and differences between quality management in manufacturing and service contexts. The course has three major objectives. The first goal is to define quality and explore important philosophies and useful frameworks for managers or consultants. The second goal is to focus on the Six Sigma tools available for the pursuit of lasting quality improvements. The third is to bring the experiences of Six Sigma practice into the classroom. We’ll benefit from the expertise and experience of Six Sigma professionals who will help us to understand the challenges of Six Sigma implementations and analyze the lessons they have learned from projects they have undertaken.

OM845: Clean Technology Business Models

The clean technology industry is touching some of the largest sectors of the economy and yet still undergoing significant growth and attracting a plethora of new entrants. It has been characterized by a great deal of experimentation around new technologies and around business models in the face of regulatory and market place disruptions. The course uses a combination of cases, simulation and analytical exercises to review trends and their co-evolution within the clean technology/energy eco-system. It aims to build a skill set around risk and opportunity assessment, and allied implementation challenges.

OM854: Supply Chain Management

This course presents tools and modeling frameworks that are relevant to solving today's supply-chain problems.  The class will offer a mixture of case discussions, lectures, games, and outside speakers.  Case discussions will cover subjects including designing new-product supply chains, optimizing inventory levels, quick response, the role of B2B exchanges, and managing capacity for short life-cycle products. Games, including the distribution game, the OPT game, and the Beer Game, will reinforce the concepts in a constructive way.  Finally, outside speakers will present real-world examples of how supply chain models are being deployed in practice.  This course is for students who will be working in consulting or supply-chain management. For those interested in finance or marketing, the course provides solid exposure to an area that is integral to product-focused companies.

OM855: Project Management

Projects are increasingly the way that work gets done in companies of all types and sizes. In this new course you will learn the strategic dimensions of project management, including critical aspects of project selection, definition, planning, execution, and monitoring. Concepts and approaches for dealing with complexity, uncertainty, vague mandates, temporary staff, partners, stakeholders, dynamic risk, and time-critical deadlines are emphasized. Cases and readings cover a wide range of industry and organizational contexts. This course requires that students apply these topics and considerations to a real project of their choice either by analysis of publicly available information or direct field study.  Many MBA's are tested on the job through tough assignments in project settings. Your performance there is highly visible. Doing especially well can accelerate your subsequent career opportunities. Prepare now for success in strategic project management by developing the skills and perspectives covered in OM855.

OM880: Product Design and Development

This course explores central managerial challenges in the effective design, development, and introduction of new products. Topics covered include reducing the time to market while meeting cost and quality targets; managing cross-functional projects and inherent technological risks while keeping a focus on customer requirements; and integrated problem-solving by industrial designers, engineers, manufactures, and marketing specialists. Case studies, readings, guest lecturers, field project.

PL829: Strategy for Nonprofits

Mangers of nonprofit organizations are faced with many of the same challenges as their for profit counterparts. Through case analysis, lectures and projects, students explore how traditional business frameworks apply in the nonprofit sector with a special emphasis on topics unique to nonprofits and NGOs.

PL835: Real Estate Management

The course provides an introduction to and an understanding of Real Property Finance and Management. The course draws together the functional areas of ownership, financing, analysis, valuation, taxation, negotiation and management structure. The focus of the course is to provide a framework for decision making in the real property field by providing a basic understanding of the factors that influence long-term value in real estate.

PL837: Strategic Fundraising and Corporate Philanthropy

This course is designed for future civic, business and nonprofit leaders who will be in the position of raising funds or giving away funds for charitable purposes at some point in their career. Whether for your child’s school, the local little league or symphony, or a cause you care deeply about, you will want to know the fundamentals of raising or giving away money. This course explores the topic of strategic fundraising and philanthropy in three modules. The first explores the history, trends and current topics in philanthropy using case studies and current events. The second module provides students with specific tools and lessons in strategic fundraising and gives students an opportunity to apply these skills within a nonprofit of their choice. Finally the course examines how corporations can use their philanthropic efforts to further the strategy and goals of the business.

PL842: Real Estate Development

The course provides a framework for evaluating the aspects underlying successful real estate development from concept and feasibility, through site control to regulatory review and construction. The course is taught utilizing class discussion, cases and outside speakers to reinforce the functional areas in the development process.

PL844: Competitive Environmental Strategy

There is little disagreement that environmentalism affects corporate management, which alters profit and loss statements and influences both domestic and international strategy. Yet, while many within industry and government are vilifying environmentalism as a threat to economic growth, others are taking advantage of the economic opportunities it can reveal. This course will consider how cutting edge companies are beginning to see environmental protection as a strategic opportunity rather than as a threat. While it focuses on environmental issues in particular, the course is of interest to anyone concerned with understanding how new social issues are moving onto the corporate agenda. Students will learn how to identity emerging issues, frame and sell them to others in the corporation, and manage their integration.

PL849: Global Sustainability and the New Entrepreneur

Global Sustainability and the New Entrepreneur explores the underpinnings of today’s global sustainability challenges and how entrepreneurial thinking can be applied to government, NGOs, multinational corporations, small startups and the capital markets to address these challenges. Though lecture, case discussion, computer simulation and a unique guest speaker program, students will gain deeper understanding of both root cause, the interconnected and interdependencies across sectors such as energy, the environment and the global food and water supplies along with entrepreneurial thinking, methods, models and practices being employed by innovative individuals and organizations at the forefront in the search for solutions.

PL850: Social Entrepreneurship

This course is designed to introduce students to the concepts, practices, opportunities, and challenges of social entrepreneurship. The course provides students with a framework and tools to evaluate, plan and execute a social enterprise. Students are afforded the opportunity to practice business skills gained at GSM by developing a business plan for a socially responsive, income-earning venture for either a for profit or nonprofit organization. Skills developed in this course include recognizing opportunities, mobilizing resources, managing risks, creating viable economic models, business planning and building effective organizations. Following an introduction to social entrepreneurship, the course is organized around three modules. Module I focuses on the challenges and opportunities in creating high impact social enterprises. Module II explores strategies for sustaining and expanding a social enterprise. Module III examines various models for measuring and increasing the social impact of a venture. Students are required to produce a completed business plan as a final project for this course.

PL861: Emerging Issues in Business Law

You ask your outside lawyer or your company's legal department whether you can undertake some activity without violating the law. You are annoyed when you are told "Well, maybe. It depends". You want a yes-or-no answer, not a game of twenty questions. Why can't your lawyers give you a straight answer? Why do they make everything more complicated? What language are they speaking? Most business people ask these questions. If you do business you cannot avoid dealing with lawyers. You can allow your interactions with lawyers to frustrate you, or you can learn how lawyers think so that you can better manage them. Emerging Issues in Business Law introduces graduate business students to fundamentals of legal analysis by focusing on timely legal problems of particular interest to business. Students develop familiarity with substantive legal principles and leave the course with the ability to recognize legal issues, discuss them intelligently, and understand why the lawyers seem incapable of giving a simple answer. The course uses lectures to provide a common foundation of knowledge. It is primarily discussion based, using a question and answer format to engage students in the process of legal analysis.

PL864: Managing Political, Economic, Social, and Technology and Country Risk

This case-based course introduces students to conceptual tools and frameworks that allow them to think systematically about environmental changes that restructure companies, industries, and countries, preparing them to deal with those changes. The course explores political, economic, technological, and social change, as well as natural disasters and political risk. Students will map the flow of events and experiences that shape political or business leaders' attitudes and will be introduced to the analyses of countries, systems, trends, stakeholders, scenario developments, cross-impact, and payoff assessments. They will assess probable shifts in stakeholder power within the industry or country and suggest potentially successful leadership and change strategies.

PL866: Human Resource Issues in Employment Law

This course is designed to provide students with an overview of the major areas of employment law. The course will cover the hiring process, performance issues, prohibited types of discrimination, claims of sex harassment, employment contracts, and non-competition agreements. Each area of employment law is explained fully, stressing current legal issues and identifying developing trends in the law. Real life case studies are used to illustrate each legal concern. Students will gain a basic understanding of employment law and work through resolutions of issues they will actually confront in their business.

PL868: Corporate Governance, Accountability, and Ethics

"As we move forward into the twenty-first century, the interest in corporate governance is at an all-time high." (Gillies) The failures associated with fraudulent activity of high profile companies in North America and Europe, the transformation of the world economy into one great market for goods and services, plus the transition in many countries of economies from a command to to a market form have led to calls for development of new and better forms of corporate governance. The lines between politics and markets are changing, affecting industries, organizations, and managerial practice. This seminar will focus on the reformation of corporate governance and its effects on business and nonprofit management practice. Topics will include the role of transparency, new forms of accountability, governance risk, and organizational strategies of response.  Course materials will include cases, readings, and discussions with guest speakers. Professor Post is the author of "Redefining the Corporation" (Stanford Press, 2002) and a new book on governance and accountability.

PL870: Government, Society and the New Entrepreneur

Government, Society and International Entrepreneurship exposes students to the challenges of managing in an international and global environment. The course is broad and far-reaching in its scope and topics, dealing with such varied issues as economic globalization, international entrepreneurship, and the interplay between democracy and capitalism. The overarching goal of this course is to provide students with the background to appreciate the complicated issues of stewarding business enterprise in diverse geographic and institutional environments.

QM830: Information for Business Leaders

This course is designed to teach MBA students what sources of information exist, where to find information, how this information is collected, the limitations of this information, and how to process and interpret it. The course adopts a highly hands-on approach.  Students will extract raw data from a variety of sources, run the extracted data through a statistical processing package, and learn about survey methods and questionnaires that produce data sets.

QM860: Management Science

This course provides the student with an understanding of several management science techniques and insight into how these tools may be used to analyze complex business problems and arrive at a rational solution.  The techniques studied are mathematical programming (linear, integer, goal and multiple-objective), queuing models, Markov processes, and forecasting. For each technique, the methodology is developed and applied in a real business context.  Emphasis is on the interpretation and implementation of results.

QM875: Introduction to Modeling in Excel

The modeling process illustrated throughout the course will improve your ability to structure complex problems and derive insights about the value of alternatives.  The course will be taught almost entirely by example, using problems from the main functional areas of business - finance, marketing, and operations.  Students will be exposed to models of relevance in analyzing a range of problems in these functional areas and to the value of these models to aid decision-making. However, students will be more limited in their ability to actually formulate models themselves than if they take the 4-credit version of the course.

QM880: Modeling in Excel: Optimization and Simulation

The modeling process illustrated throughout the course will significantly improve students’ abilities to structure complex problems and derive insights about the value of alternatives. You will develop the skills to formulate and analyze a wide range of models that can aid in managerial decision-making in the functional areas of business.  These areas include finance (capital budgeting, cash planning, portfolio optimization, valuing options, hedging investments), marketing (pricing, sales force allocation, planning advertising budgets) and operations (production planning, workforce scheduling, facility location, project management). The course will be taught almost entirely by example, using problems from the main functional areas of business.

SI814: Intellectual Property Strategies in Life Sciences and Technology

This course covers the global strategy and economics of intellectual property: how to develop, manage, and capture value from IP. The course is taught using a mix of cases, lectures, and visiting speakers, and is intended to develop your strategic insight into the business opportunities and challenges presented by the evolving worldwide IP environment. Topics covered include basics of IP, litigation and enforcement of IP rights, valuation of IP, and strategic logic of licensing and partnering deals. The course is centered on issues of particular relevance to life sciences, such as Hatch-Waxman, patenting DNA, global access to medicines, and treatment of biosimilars. It also will look at challenges raised by patenting software, which is increasingly relevant to both drug discovery and health care delivery, as well as broader public policy issues raised by the current patent system.

SI830: Corporate Strategies for Growth

This course will examine strategies for firm growth that involve expanding the range of the firm’s business activities. We will study strategic logics underlying vertical integration, franchising, related and unrelated diversification, alliances, corporate venturing and spinouts, and other such strategies. We will also study the management challenges associated with these strategies, including designing organizational structures and managerial incentives, managing acquisitions, structuring supplier relationships, and fostering organizational cultures.

SI833: Field Studies in Technology Commercialization

This course will explore alternative pathways for technology implementation and commercialization using current examples of research emerging from university laboratories. Students will work individually or in small teams to evaluate strategies for Intellectual Property creation and management, potential pathways to commercialization, alternative funding sources, and opportunities for partnering. Particular emphasis will be placed on international collaborations. Students who have taken SP838-Technology Commercialization or HM801 - Bench to Bedside and other students with a deeper interest in applying implementation science principles are welcome to enroll.

SI838: Technology Commercialization

The subject of the course is the innovative transformation of knowledge into commercial products and services. Cross-disciplinary teams of students will assess real technologies and select one for venture development. The course begins by examining various models of technology commercialization. Concepts are introduced designed to improve and accelerate the commercialization process, from decisions made by scientists at the research bench, through the development, patenting, and licensing of new technologies, to the formation of entrepreneurial enterprises. Comparisons will also be made regarding how commercialization occurs in three distinct environments: university-centric commercialization; national lab commercialization; and corporate lab commercialization. Examples of commercialization will be provided from the life sciences, information technology, alternative energy, and nanotechnology.

SI846: Women's Entrepreneurship and Leadership

The course examines the issues, challenges and opportunities women face in leading or creating companies, explores organizational policies developed to facilitate women's advancement and participation in companies, and helps students develop strategies for effectively managing their leadership or entrepreneurial career.  These topics are discussed from macro environmental, business policy, and individual leadership perspectives.  Discussions include: Why study women entrepreneurs and leaders?  Does gender matter in business?  How do organizations implement effective policies affecting men and women?  Are career challenges different for men and women leaders and entrepreneurs?

SI848: Entrepreneurship in High Technology Environments

This course examines winner-take-all industries in which firms compete fiercely to have their product chosen as the dominant standard. Success is determined not only by a product's features and price, but also by the firm's well-chosen alliances.  This course also asks if traditional strategic marketing can be applied to the fast paced, ever evolving, high technology sector. In addition to the core text, assigned readings will include recent high technology case studies, and popular industry text. Current leaders in high technology and venture capital will also be invited to complement course lectures. The final group project will entail "pitching" a high technology business plan (already written) to a panel of judges.

SI851: Entrepreneurship

The course explores the characteristics of entrepreneurs, entrepreneurial thinking, and the entrepreneurial process. There are two themes. The first focuses on idea generation, testing the feasibility of the idea in the marketplace, and raising the necessary capital and human resources to achieve a successful start-up venture. The second focuses on a series of dilemmas faced by most entrepreneurs: building an innovative enterprise, use of strategic alliances, attracting funding and managing venture capitalist, setting growth, market, and geographic reach goals, expansion vs. exit, managing intellectual property, contracts, and lawyers, and knowing when to stop. A feasibility study for a new entrepreneurial venture is central to the course. This is a team project with an oral presentation made at the end of the semester.

SI852: Starting New Ventures

This course focuses on the process of identifying and obtaining the necessary resources to launch an entrepreneurial venture through the development of a business plan. A well-written business plan will communicate the business concept in a way that attracts the various resource providers necessary for the venture’s success. Students will individually develop a business concept and prepare and present a professional business plan.

SI853: Entrepreneurial Management

This course explores the changing demands that a business places on the entrepreneur as it moves from start-up through its phases of growth. The skills, competencies and perspectives required to manage the organization through its growth are considered. There is also a special emphasis on the process of developing the financial resources necessary to fund the venture’s growth. This course will help the student integrate prior learning to perform analyses, considering the strategic, financial, operational, marketing and organizational dimensions of managing the venture. Teams of students will interview CEO’s of entrepreneurial companies to explore and report on the demands and challenges their respective organizations.

SI854: Entrepreneurial Finance

The focus of SP854 is on the development of financial and business skills to identify, evaluate, start and manage new ventures. A comprehensive understanding of finance is an essential ingredient in the "recipe" for business success. No longer can the assumptions underlying financial projections be treated as "black boxes." In many cases, the answer is less important than the analytical process used to calculate it. Readings for the course will primarily be in the form of case studies, and will be supplemented by guest speakers, presentations, and readings from academia and industry.

SI856: International Entrepreneurship

This course focuses on international entrepreneurship, covering the development of skills to identify, evaluate, start and manage ventures that are international in scope. Specific topics will include market entry, forming alliances, managing growth and cross-border financing in different regions of the world. Support from local governments and the cultural, ethical, legal, and human resource issues facing the entrepreneur will also be discussed. Readings will primarily be in the form of case studies and will be supplemented with outside articles and guest speakers. Team projects addressing current events, international negotiations, and business strategies will be used to integrate the course material.

SI859: Strategy Implementation

Gain the skills and know-how to manage up and across your organization, passing the normal organizational tests along the way from technical expert to cross-functional integrator to directing the future course of your organization. This is strategy implementation for the middle manager who needs to 1) size-up the situation and 2) determine how to gain the power needed to achieve their objectives. One of the qualitative factors that will be explored in great detail is personal style choice vis à vis different stakeholders and organizational politics and the resultant perceptions of you and your programs. Students will study both successful and less-successful managers through cases and readings, honing their own, personal managerial style.

SI862: Diversification and Acquisition Strategies

Diversification provides one of the most important opportunities for firm growth. As empirical studies demonstrate, diversification strategies meet with varying degrees of success. In order to increase shareholder value via diversification, a firm requires a diversification strategy that fits with its overall corporate strategy. This course addresses this issue and demonstrates how firms can best formulate and implement a diversification strategy particularly through international acquisitions. The course will provide students with theoretical background as well as capabilities to solve problems related to the formulation and implementation of diversification and acquisition strategies.

SI863: Strategic and Financial Analysis and Design

The purpose of this course is to increase students' awareness of what they already know about business and what they can know through strategic corporate financial analysis. Students will use numeric thinking and documentation to reduce uncertainty and to bring the strategic and limiting factors of managerial decisions into focus. The course is appropriate for students who have financial savvy as well as those who want to develop their analytical capabilities. It is case-based, emphasizing business sense first, and developing through first-hand experience a sense of the strengths and limitations of corporate financial data, financial theory and strategic evaluation models. It stresses fast approximate analysis to achieve managerial insights over precise calculation.

SI865: Strategy Consulting

The purpose of this course is to provide students with an in-depth understanding of strategy consulting. We will explore dimensions of defining and understanding the strategy consulting assignment, client relationship-management, work methodology, value creation, and presentation and follow up.

SI867: Corporate Entrepreneurship & Innovation

This course explores the opportunities and challenges confronting established enterprises as they seek to develop a spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation. This spirit is particularly important in an increasingly dynamic business climate, as these enterprises strive to implement new technologies and take advantage of global opportunities. The course will focus as well on issues of implementation in large firms, including the tradeoffs associated with modifying practices that have been effective historically, but may not be best suited to new initiatives.

SI874: Entrepreneurial Sales Strategy

Focusing on sales strategy and execution as one of the most critical success factors in building entrepreneurial ventures, the course will enable students to develop the practical knowledge and specific skills necessary to maximize top-line revenue growth for emerging companies. Topics to be covered include direct, indirect and channel sales strategies; implementing pipeline management principles and forecasting techniques; the use of technology in selling; building a sales organization; and the development of strategic partners and alliances. Also covered are the use of sales tools and skills (presentation, negotiation, territory management, and pipeline development), building successful channel partners, and the keys to successful selling including solution selling vs. product selling.

SI875: The Management Consulting Process

The purpose of this course is to provide students with an in-depth understanding of the consulting process and its practical application. The course will consist of several modules, each representing the major areas in the consulting process. The focus will be on substantive analysis and substantiation, applying quantitative and qualitative methods in a rigorous and disciplined manner. Based on field studies and original industry and company research and analysis, students will develop and present oral and written arguments for decision-making in selected projects across several industries and functions (information and e-commerce, telecommunications and high tech, pharmaceutical and chemical, energy and consumer). The course requires a solid foundation in one or more of the key functions of management. Team analysis and presentations will be an integral part of the course.