Business, Government, and the International Economy (BGIE)

This course introduces tools for studying the economic environment of business to help managers understand the implications for their companies.

Students will learn the impact of:

• National income and balance of payment accounting
• Exchange rate theory
• Political regimes

An examination of both the gains and problems arising from regional global integration covers:

• International trade
• Foreign direct investment
• Portfolio capital
• Global environmental issues

Strategy

The objective of this course is to help students develop the skills for formulating strategy. It provides an understanding of:

• A firm's operative environment and how to sustain competitive advantage.
• How to generate superior value for customers by designing the optimum configuration of the product mix and functional activities.
• How to balance the opportunities and risks associated with dynamic and uncertain changes in industry attractiveness and competitive position.

Students learn to:

• Develop a mastery of a body of analytical tools and the ability to take an integrative point of view.
• Use these tools to perform in-depth analyses of industries and competitors, predict competitive behavior, and analyze how firms develop and sustain competitive advantage over time.

Particular attention is paid to competitive positioning; understanding comparative costs; and addressing issues such as cannibalization, network externalities, and globalization.

The Entrepreneurial Manager (TEM)

This course addresses the issues faced by managers who wish to turn opportunity into viable organizations that create value, and empowers students to develop their own approaches, guidelines, and skills for being entrepreneurial managers.

The course teaches students how to:

• Identify potentially valuable opportunities.
• Obtain the resources necessary to pursue an opportunity and to create an entrepreneurial organization.
• Manage the entrepreneurial organization once it has been established.
• Grow the business into a sustainable enterprise.
• Create and harvest value for the organization's stakeholders.

Negotiation

This course focuses on developing negotiation skills and analysis. At its core are carefully structured negotiation exercises.

Students learn:

• How to effectively negotiate through the use of exercises, cases, readings, and videos.
• How external and internal negotiation has become a way of life for effective managers in a constantly changing business environment.

Finance II

This course builds on the foundation developed in Finance I, focusing on three sets of managerial decisions:

• How to evaluate complex investments.
• How to set and execute financial policies within a firm.
• How to integrate the many financial decisions faced by firms.

The Finance II course is divided into four blocks of material:

• Tools of financial analysis (credit market analysis, option pricing, valuation of interest tax shields, weighted average cost of capital)
• Financial policy choices of firms (whether to finance with debt or equity, distributing cash to shareholders)
• Financial market imperfections (costs of financial distress, transaction costs, information asymmetries, taxes, agency conflicts)
• Deals and transactions (mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, hostile takeovers, initial public offerings)

Leadership and Corporate Accountability (LCA)

In this course, students learn about the complex responsibilities facing business leaders today. Through cases about difficult managerial decisions, the course examines the legal, ethical, and economic responsibilities of corporate leaders. It also teaches students about management and governance systems leaders can use to promote responsible conduct by companies and their employees, and shows how personal values can play a critical role in effective leadership.