Early Advantage and Flex MBA Courses

FDN 500 Essentials for MBA Success 

This course introduces students to management analysis skills that provide an essential basis for success in your coursework at the Crummer School. These skills are developed through a comprehensive case that emphasizes situational analysis, problem formulation, development of strategic alternatives, and implementation steps. The course also gives you a strong basis in understanding team organization and dynamics, time management, and presentation skills.

FDN 501 Professional Communications for Business

This course will develop the business writing and speaking skills necessary for managers in today’s workforce. Students will learn communication principles, strategies and methods through reading, case studies, discussion, and activities to apply skills that are relevant to business practices.

FDN 502 Critical Thinking in Complex Business Environments

In the Critical Thinking Course you will be required to analyze, question, and write about issues affecting day-to-day and business decisions. The course is designed to challenge how you think and how you recognize logical arguments, their underlying assumptions and their limitations. At the end of this course you should have the tools to start critically thinking but becoming a critical thinker is ultimately up to you.

FDN 503 Ethical and Social Issues of Business

A strong moral philosophy is indispensable for a business career and this course explores the commitment required of business leaders in today’s competitive, global market economy. The linkage between personal ethical values and corporate codes of ethics is also discussed. In addition, important business ethical issues such as corporate social responsibility, privacy in the work place, and globalization are examined from the perspective of business leadership.

FDN 504 Data Analysis for Business Decisions 

This course introduces students to management analysis skills that provide an essential basis for success in your coursework at the Crummer School. These skills are developed through a comprehensive case that emphasizes situational analysis, problem formulation, development of strategic alternatives, and implementation steps. The course also gives you a strong basis in understanding team organization and dynamics, time management, and presentation skills.

FDN 505 Career Strategies (Required in EAMBA program)

This course is designed to provide strategies and encourage students as they prepare to conduct their job search. It creates opportunities to achieve a heightened awareness of their values, interests, and skills as they examine various career options. Regardless of students’ prior experience, this course offers insights and expertise for the productive career search. The course includes personal assessment, skill evaluation, and the creation of an action plan. Additionally, resume and cover letter development, networking, interviewing skills, as well as job offers and negotiations are examined.

FDN 506 Internship (Required in EAMBA program)

This experience provides students with several opportunities, including: career exploration and preparation, apply academic learning in a professional environment while gaining relevant experience, evaluate employer as a right-fit and contribute to an organization in a meaningful way. Students will coordinate with the Career Development Center to ensure required hours (240) as well as appropriate paperwork are completed.

These courses may not be exempted.

DBC 501 Financial Accounting for Business Leaders (2 credits)

The objective of Financial Accounting is to develop a basic understanding of the contents of financial statements. The course builds financial literacy by evaluating the nature of business transactions, determining appropriate ways of measuring these transactions, and analyzing their effects on the organization’s performance and financial condition. The course balances an understanding of accounting information with the preparation of the financial statements. Spreadsheet models are used throughout the course.

DBC 502 Managerial Accounting for Business Leaders (2 credits)

Managerial accounting supplies information to managers so they can better achieve the objectives of the organization. The course comprises three major topics: cost calculation, decision making, and planning and control. Learning is based on analysis of problems and cases and model building with electronic worksheets. Methods discussed include cost allocation, activity-based costing, contribution analysis, differential costing, capital and operational budgeting, and performance measurement.

DBC 503 Economic Environment of Business (2 credits)

This course explores the economic environment in which firms operate. We begin by analyzing the macroeconomic environment – in particular, economic growth, inflation, the job market, and government policy. Next, we examine the behavior of interest rates and exchange rates as well as workings of the global economy.  The approach taken involves analyzing economic behavior in the real world with particular attention paid to understanding the status of the global economy.

DBC 504 Financial Decision Making (2 credits)

Financial decision-making requires understanding how financial management supports the company’s strategy. You will learn through case and problem solving about financing growth, budgeting for capital expenditures, valuation of real and financial assets, and managing the capital structure.

DBC 505 International Business Challenge (2 credits)

Recent developments in the international marketplace are covered in this course. The study of international business draws from core business disciplines, as well as the insights of anthropology, economics, history, law, political science, and sociology. Differing cultural, economic, financial, legal, political, and social environments will also be examined, as well as how firms expand and adapt their operations to take advantage of opportunities overseas.

DBC 506 Leadership as an Entrepreneurial Mindset (2 credits)

This course focuses on entrepreneurial leadership and organizing people to achieve common goals by optimizing risk, innovating to take advantage of opportunities, and managing change within a dynamic environment. Course content will address issues faced by managers who wish to encourage innovation and creativity in their organizations, develop a culture that fosters entrepreneurial behavior, and turns ideas into viable businesses that create value.

DBC 507 Unlocking Human Potential (2 credits)

Management is typically discussed in terms of four broad functions: planning, organizing, influencing, and controlling. This course focuses on influencing, the management function which emphasizes how to manage people in organizations. Primary topics within this function include interpersonal and organizational communication, leadership, motivation, managing groups, and changing the behavior of others.

DBC 508 Strategy Essentials (2 credits)

This course covers pragmatic principles of strategic management in organizations. The purpose of the course is to create an overall concept of the organization as a system that integrates various business functions. Students will learn concepts to secure, improve and maintain resources for organizational goal attainment. The course provides a framework for students to connect course content from multiple disciplines (e.g., economics, finance, operations, marketing, accounting). Students are expected to analyze complex situations in contemporary companies and apply concepts learned to develop strategies for the future.

DBC 509 Creating and Delivering Customer Value (2 credits)

Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. This course provides the opportunity for students to gain the knowledge and skills necessary to understand the critical role of marketing in successful organizations. An approach is taken that focuses on the marketing plan emphasizing key elements such as segmentation analysis, target marketing, and positioning as well as the role the marketing mix elements of product, supply chain, marketing communication, and pricing play in developing marketing strategies and programs.

DBC 510 Customer Centric Operations Management (2 credits)

Customer Centric Operations (CCO) approaches the many activities and tasks from a strategic decision making perspective. This course offers a broad survey of the central facts, concepts, methods, and techniques of operations, at both strategic and tactical levels—all with a customer focus. CCO addresses recent changes in operations such as: (1) the strategic role of operations in considering customer centricity; (2) the orientation toward a service dominance society; (3) the need to broaden the scope of operations approaches from the manufacturing and/or service firm to the supply chain as a whole; and (4) exhibiting the utmost ethical behavior.

The prerequisite for elective courses is the completion of the core courses. Selection of electives varies each year.

ACCT 614 Forensic Accounting
Professor Nana Amoah

This course provides students with both practice and theory-based knowledge in fraud detection and fraud investigation techniques, valuation of closely-held businesses, and various types of litigation support services. Students will discover how and why fraud occurs in organizations, develop skills to detect fraud, and be able to identify and classify the various types of fraud. Fundamental legal concepts governing expert witness testimony are also examined. The course relies less on lectures and focuses more on active learning through case analysis, discussion, problem solving, and an understanding of ethical dilemmas and professional responsibility.

ECO 601 Country Risk Analysis

Investments in emerging economies may provide significant returns but may also entail substantial risks. How does one analyze non-financial risks of investing in foreign countries? How does one assess the credit and political risks associated to debt and/or equity investments in say Brazil or India, Saudi Arabia or Bahrain, China or Indonesia? Are sovereign and sub-sovereign risks one of the same? How does one differentiate between them? What if the country I am analyzing as a potential investment isn’t rated by international credit agencies? Does the sector matter? This course provides students with the conceptual underpinnings of analyzing country and sub-sovereign risks. It uses macroeconomics and microeconomics to examine four major areas of importance, namely the real economy, fiscal, monetary and external accounts. It focuses on real case examples and exposes students to data sources and the modus-operandi of country risk rating committees which are often the backbone process of country credit risk analysis.

FIN or INTL concentration

ENT 607 Social Entrepreneurship
Professor Mary Conway Dato-on, Ph.D.

This course is a survey of critical, contemporary innovative management models and methodologies encapsulated under the umbrella of social entrepreneurship. This growing area of graduate business education is viewed as imperative in preparing leaders of global enterprises. Social entrepreneurship is a rapidly developing and changing business field in which business and nonprofit leaders design, grow, and lead mission-driven enterprises with measurable social impact. As the conventional lines between nonprofit enterprises, government, and business blur, it is essential that managers understand the opportunities and challenges in this new landscape.

ENT concentration

ENT 608 New Venture Creation

This course focuses on the issues faced by start-ups and early-stage enterprises including generation of ideas and how to screen and evaluate them. The market validation process is also examined. Students will work in teams learning how to turn a great idea into a great company. This class is not about how to write a business plan, it is about how to develop a viable business model utilizing the Lean Startup methodology. Students will be talking to customers, partners, competitors, as they encounter the chaos and uncertainty of how a successful startup is actually formed.  Students will then learn how agile development can help them rapidly iterate their offering into something customers will buy and us.  Students will also be challenged with issues regarding how to build and manage a startup team.

ENT concentration

ENT 609 Family Business in the 21st Century

Family owned businesses are ubiquitous and growing in the US and around the world. They comprise 80-90% of all businesses and cover the spectrum of small mom and pops to multi-billion dollar, complex, global enterprises. Families control 35% of Fortune 500 companies.  Regardless of the size, family businesses have long been and continue to be an economic engine.  The origins of these family enterprises are often entrepreneurial and, as a result, these families can expand their holdings from the original operating business to other entities, including trusts, investment funds, holding companies, family offices, and charitable foundations.  Given the dominant presence of family enterprises in the business world, students of business are likely to encounter, work for, work with, or be a member of a business family. While family enterprises can have much in common with non-family, private or publicly held companies, there are characteristics that are unique only to family businesses. This course is an introduction to the basic concepts specific to family enterprises such as governance, ownership structures, values-based decision making, succession planning, intra-family conflict management and inter-generational dynamics, and will give students the understanding of the challenges and opportunities of family enterprises in order to be informed employees, owners and/or shareholders.

ENT concentration

ENT 610 Product Concept Development

In this course students will learn methodologies for identifying customer needs, developing new product concepts, prototype development, estimation of manufacturing costs, and developing business models to support the development and marketing of these products. In this class students will have the opportunity to develop their own product concepts. Product concepts pursued in this course will be products where it is feasible to build proof-of-concept prototypes over the course of the semester. Funding opportunities for prototype development will be covered including grants and design contests.

ENT concentration

ENT 611 Sales & Marketing Entrepreneurs

This course focuses on the issues of creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers of entrepreneurial ventures. Topics include in-depth analysis of customer need versus customer demand, managing the sales process, market research and sales promotion with limited resources, interpreting customer feedback in Beta trials, utilizing technology to optimize and automate components of the marketing and sales function, and developing and implementing a comprehensive go-to-market strategy.

ENT concentration

ENT 612 Crowdfunding

This hands-on course gives students the opportunity to plan a crowdfunding campaign for a creative project or entrepreneurial venture.  Students will be responsible for designing campaigns that include stakeholder alignment, concept testing, and product pre-selling. Teams work to design a crowdfunding campaign which may be executed following the course. The focal point of the course is the planning, production and refinement of a pitch video.  This course will incorporate speakers who have successfully executed crowdfunding campaigns.  Students will learn about the important differences between equity and non-equity crowdfunding as well as other ways to bring a product to market with limited upfront capital.

ENT concentration

ENT 613 Raising Capital for Entrepreneurs

This course starts with forming a company and deciding how to allocate the initial equity among the founders, then funding the early stage of the startup by the founders, friends and family investors.  Each class session covers a different phase of capital raising including placing a valuation on the company for each phase and the terms that are typically found in deals with angel investors, venture capital investors, strategic partners and others.  Teams negotiate the terms for each type of financing with the instructor playing the role of the investor.  Other sources of capital are discussed including grants from governmental agencies, loans from small business investment companies and, at a later stage, loans from commercial banks.  We then take the company through an initial public offering.

ENT concentration

ENT 614 Commercializing Technology and Science

The course covers five main themes: 1) market need assessment 2) technology strategy 3) business model design, 4) team development, and 5) leadership. We will cover such issues as managing risky technological bets, selecting and resourcing projects, building teams and managing scientists in a commercial setting (i.e., NASA), incentive design, intellectual property strategies, licensing and partnering, vertical integration decisions, and financing of science-based ventures. The course includes case materials from a broad array of science-based sectors, including sensors, alternative

ENT concentration

ENT 615 The Entrepreneurial Venture

This introductory course serves as an overview of the entrepreneurial venture with a focus on the many ways it differs from traditional companies.  Several important topics are covered including the life cycle of a business, strategy development, managing growth and exit strategies.  The course also covers cash flow, bootstrapping, and early stage financing for entrepreneurial ventures. These topics and others will be engaged in more deeply by students through guest lecturers and immersion trips to benchmark entrepreneurial enterprises.

ENT concentration

FIN 601 Applied Financial Management

This course reinforces the financial principles learned in DBC 504 by applying these concepts in a case format. The course also examines special advanced topics in financial management such as lease analysis, the use of warrants and convertible bonds in financing, the use of Monte Carlo simulation in capital budgeting, and the use of derivative securities in a corporate finance setting.

FIN or ENT concentration.

FIN 603 Practical Security Analysis

This course is designed to help students understand how security analysts use investment information to value global companies. Students learn the fundamental theories and practical applications of financial analysis for both equity and debt, using case assignments, class discussions, and projects.

FIN concentration

FIN 604 Applied Portfolio Management

Students learn the principles of portfolio management for different individuals, institutions and countries.  Explore contemporary issues facing the investment profession.  The class familiarizes students with commercial databases and professional software as they observe and evaluate portfolio management practice.

FIN concentration

FIN 605 Derivative Markets

This course introduces students to a wide range of derivative securities in global financial markets. More specifically, forward contracts, futures, options, and swaps are examined, with an emphasis on the pricing of these instruments. In this respect, a solid coverage of arbitrage-free valuation is provided as well as the cost-of-carry model, the binomial option pricing model, and the Black-Scholes formula. The course also covers the use of various types of derivatives as tools for risk management and speculation.

FIN concentration.

FIN 607 Mergers and Acquisitions
Professor Halil Kiymaz, Ph.D., CFA

This course explores mergers, acquisitions, and other corporate control transactions using limited background lectures, readings, case study analysis, and project work. This course will enhance your knowledge and maturity of judgment with respect to M&As decisions. The focus is on the mechanics of the transactions themselves, the valuation of the firms involved, the role of the various parties involved, and the causes and consequences of these activities. Because mergers and acquisitions represent significant changes that involve the entire enterprise the course pulls together material covered in previous finance courses and links financial decisions with the overall strategy of the firm.

FIN concentration.

FIN 609 Managing Global Portfolios
Professor J. Clay Singleton, Ph.D.

This course is designed to give students advanced knowledge of modern techniques and practices of portfolio management. The course builds on the student’s earlier courses in security analysis and portfolio management with an opportunity to apply the techniques learned in these earlier courses. In coordination with the instructor, industry practitioners play an important instructional role in detailing and discussing current investment practices. A major focus of the course is the students’ decision-making process in directing the real-world investment decisions of the Crummer/SunTrust Portfolio. Prerequisite: FIN 603.

Crummer Investment Management Employee Handbook

FIN concentration.

FIN 611 Financial Modeling for the Business Enterprise
Professor J. Clay Singleton, Ph.D.

This course introduces students to financial models used in modern corporations. It is a hands-on application-oriented tour of financial models used in corporate finance such as cost of capital, financial forecasting and capital budgeting. Students construct and apply numerically intensive models to practical problems. The course makes extensive use of Excel and will teach students Visual Basic. Students pursuing careers in corporate finance will find this course helpful.

FIN concentration.

FIN 612 Financial Modeling in Investment Management

This course introduces students to financial models used in investment management. It is a hands-on application-oriented tour of financial models used in investment analysis, and portfolio management. Students construct and apply numerically intensive models to practical problems. The course makes extensive use of Excel and will teach students Visual Basic. Students pursuing careers in investment banking, financial analysis, and investments will find this course helpful.

FIN concentration

 

FIN 614 Private Equity and Venture Capital

This course focuses on venture capital and private equity from the perspective of the investor.  It begins by covering how venture capital and private equity funds are raised and structured, with attention paid to the differing perspectives and incentives of the many types of fund investors. The course then explores how investments are evaluated, structured, and overseen. We examine the challenges that firms seeking equity financing pose to investors, and how investment firms address these issues. Lastly, the course addresses the various ways in which venture capital and private equity investors harvest their investments.

FIN concentration

 

FIN 617 Fixed Income Securities

This course provides students with the tools to help them understand the valuation of fixed income securities and the management of fixed income portfolios. The course begins with a discussion of fixed income markets and different types of instruments that they offer. Students are introduced to analytical concepts in fixed income modeling such as duration, convexity, and term structure of interest rates, while the emphasis is on how these are used in portfolio management strategies such as immunization. The course also covers the hedging function of interest rate derivatives as well as their special pricing models.

FIN concentration.

FIN 618 Financial Risk Management

This course provides the students with a general framework for measuring and managing financial risks and focuses on how derivative securities are used against common risk factors such as interest rates, exchange rates and credit risk. In addition to hedging strategies created with derivative securities, various other trading strategies involving options (spreads and combinations) are presented. Simulations are used extensively to introduce delta-hedging, portfolio insurance, and value-at-risk measurement.

FIN concentration.

FIN 619 Commercial Real Estate Investment Analysis

This course focuses on real estate investment analysis decision making in today’s globalized private sector real estate markets utilizing finance and economic tools. The course will emphasize real estate investment analysis, equity and debt financing, entity structures, and skill sets and tools needed to perform said analyses (Excel and industry-standard software tools). Real estate investment analysis requires the use of financial mathematics and modeling techniques. However, the course is less about purely mathematical concepts than it is about actual real-world analysis and decision making in the real estate industry.

FIN concentration.

FIN 620 Foundations of Block Chain and Applications in Finance
Since 2008, a new asset class has been created through blockchain with wide reaching implications. In this course, we will examine the underlying technology of blockchain, different types of cryptocurrencies, and how digital assets impact finance. To do so, we will go through a few steps, including a simulated exercise of investing in cryptocurrencies. Throughout the semester, you will be asked to manage a simulated cryptocurrency portfolio and update it, at least, once a week. We will review the performance of your crypto portfolio and, at the end of the semester, assess your gains/losses. This will offer a unique experience in the different types of digital assets, custody solutions for private and public keys, and the volatility of the crypto markets. Furthermore, you will learn about blockchain’s pseudo-anonymity, Decentralized Finance (DeFi), Centralized Finance (CeFi), Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO), different types of tokens (i.e. Non-Fungible Tokens), Decentralized Exchanges (DEX), Centralized Exchanges (CEX), Proof of Work (PoW), Proof of Stake (PoS), regulations around blockchain, and the metaverse. Each of these applications have an impact on traditional finance and we will compare the risks and benefits.

FIN concentration

INTL 601 Cross-Cultural Management
Professor James P. Johnson, Ph.D.

This course examines the opportunities and problems that face managers who are working in a global environment, the types of decisions that managers at every level have to make every day, and the issues that arise from the implementation of their decisions. These include, but are not limited to: developing cross-cultural sensitivity, adjusting and implementing strategy, structure and systems, assessing foreign projects, choice of foreign growth strategies, managing one’s own and others’ careers, and corporate ethics in a global economy. The course is taught in a seminar-style with a heavy emphasis on the case method.

INTL or MGT concentration.

INTL 602 International Marketing
Professor Mary Conway Dato-on, Ph.D.

This course examines marketing practice in a global environment. Building on the core courses in Marketing and International Business, students examine the types of decisions that marketing managers make when they expand into a foreign market. The course assumes familiarity with general marketing management and utilizes this as a base to develop insights and understanding of international marketing. It relates the various economic, social, political, religious, and legal dimensions of the world to the marketplace. Special emphasis is placed on the impact of cultural value and political systems on how business processes are conducted (i.e., what are appropriate behaviors), how business transactions occur, and how to develop global marketing strategies. The course is taught in a seminar-style with a heavy emphasis on the case method.

INTL or MKT concentration.

INTL 603 Global Financial Decision Making
Professor Halil Kiymaz, Ph.D., CFA

A wide variety of international finance topics are covered, including the following: the concept of international monetary system, risk and returns of international firms, the impact of volatile exchange rates on financial reporting and financial management, the various means available to manage currency exposure, raising capital in international equity and bond markets, capital budgeting for various forms of foreign investment, the function of financial management in international merger and acquisition activities, and strategic financial considerations in building global businesses.

INTL or FIN concentration.

INTL 604 Global Consulting Project

These projects give students hands-on experience dealing with a real business issue in a company or not-for-profit organization. Student teams are assigned to a specific management project with a domestic or foreign corporation under the supervision of a member of the faculty. Student teams define the issues, identify the salient facts, and analyze the situation. In a series of classroom meetings, students present an overview of the country in which the project is located, including a cultural profile of that country. Student teams then travel overseas during the school’s project weeks in Fall and Spring terms, gathering information through on-site visits and data-based research, after which student teams prepare and present their final report to the company.

INTL concentration.

 

INTL 609 Global Supply Chain Management
Professor Henrique Correa, Ph.D.

This course will help students understand the linkage between a firm´s supply chain strategy and business strategy, utilize firm resources more effectively, and coordinate the movement of goods and services through different echelons of supply chains in order to create a competitive advantage in the global marketplace. Theoretical frameworks, practical examples from firms in different industrial sectors, and an illustration through a hands-on experiential simulation exercise will provide key insights to students on how to lower costs, increase flexibility, enhance customer satisfaction, and simultaneously drive up firm profitability.

INTL, MGT, MKT or OMT concentration.

INTL 612 Global Sustainability: Strategies for the Americas
Professor Keith L. Whittingham, Ph.D.

This course presents students with a unique immersion opportunity to learn the fundamental principles and practices of Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility in the context of Latin America. This two-week, intensive experience is hosted by INCAE (www.incae.edu), consistently rated among the very top MBA programs in Latin America, and features a collection of top faculty from INCAE and other institutions around the world.

Rollins MBA students will join students from INCAE and other MBA programs to explore topics including climate change, global sustainable development, renewable energy and global corporate sustainability strategy in agriculture and other sectors. This rigorous course is heavily case-based and includes lecture/discussion sessions, company visits and an overnight excursion into a rural mountain community, renowned for its ecological conservation and eco-tourism.

Note: additional cost to apply for this travel course.

INTL or Social Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Enterprise (SESE) concentration.

INTL 617 International Entrepreneurship

This course provides students with a practical, hands-on approach to launching a venture internationally.  Students will study the processes of launching an entrepreneurial venture in one or more international markets. Upon completion of the course, students will be able to analyze the processes of international entrepreneurship from both theoretical and practical perspectives, identify the main characteristics of successful international entrepreneurs, list the advantages and disadvantages of international expansion, distinguish between traditional and new forms of international entrepreneurship, identify and evaluate suitable sources of funds for international expansion, and create an appropriate international strategy and an expansion plan for an entrepreneurial firm.

INTL or ENT concentration.

 

MBA 611 Domestic Consulting Project

Real management opportunities and problems in leading U.S.-based companies are assigned to teams of students working under faculty supervision. Working on-site with company managers, teams define the problem, perform a comprehensive analysis using methods developed in their MBA courses, and present a professional-quality final report to senior management. The concentration depends on scope of project and professor approval.

MBA 614 Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility

This course focuses on the role corporations can play in shaping the world of the future. Complementary to their internal operations and sustainability practices, companies interface extensively with the communities around them, the communities that give them their “social license to operate”. The area of Corporate Social Responsibility has evolved, from being a Public Relations overhead exercise to being seen as a major strategic imperative for companies with the foresight to look beyond short time horizons. We explore innovative ways in which business, through collaboration with varied external stakeholders (increasingly including competitors), is seeking to create shared value and to minimize negative externalities in their industries.

MGT 611 Negotiation in Business
Professor William A. Grimm

Learn the importance of preparation for negotiation and how to prepare; conduct realistic negotiation exercises with confidential roles for each side to the negotiation; learn the advantages and disadvantages of negotiating face to face, by email, by phone, by video conference; learn how people from different cultures negotiate; experience the dynamics of negotiating as a team; learn about ethics in negotiation; as a capstone exercise, negotiate the purchase and sale of a company for $90 million or more.

MGT 630 Advanced Negotiations
Professor William A. Grimm

The objective of this course is to build on the knowledge and skills learned in MGT 611 – Basic Negotiation in an experiential setting.  This is course will challenge student’s critical thinking ability.  This course focuses on how to prepare for a given negotiation and how to develop a negotiation plan for each negotiation.  The use of mindmap software as a tool will be required.  Classes will consist of negotiation exercises between teams, presentations of cases by teams and discussion of WebEx lectures.  All negotiation exercises will be debriefed with teams discussing their negotiation preparation, negotiation strategy, negotiating style and route to reaching agreement. Prerequisite: MBA 615/MGT 611

MBA 617 Law for MBA’s
Professor William A. Grimm

In this course, students will learn where laws affecting businesses come from – federal, state and local governments; case law, rules and regulations, how to spot legal issues in everything they do as managers in their business careers, when to seek help from in-house counsel or outside counsel, the ethical difference between complying with the letter of the law and the spirit of the law, the scope and effect of laws applicable to those aspects of business covered in this course, the consequences of violating laws and regulations, and the reasons for engaging in just-in-time learning about legal matters as they progress in their careers.

MGT 602 HR Management: Function & Integration
Professor Jacqueline Brito, SPHR

The essential functions and procedures of personnel management are covered in this course. Topics such as recruitment, selection, hiring procedures, job analysis, supervisory and employee training, work salary administration, discipline, career development, equal employment opportunity, and promotion transfers are covered. Students learn the key techniques, practices, and policies governing successful human resource management.

MGT concentration.

MGT 621 Beyond Diversity and Talent Engagement

The concepts and practices concerning D&I, over the years, have evolved into a more business-oriented approach toward the attraction of specific talent and the provision of opportunities for all to participate and perform on behalf of their given organization.  Thus, workforce planning, policies and an array of programs have been implemented in years since to drive these efforts.  Legal mandates relative to these topics and the ever-increasing imperative for organizations to employ a diverse workforce have initiated new paradigms of thinking and planning among researchers and leaders.  What began as a specific focus on diversity, inherent to basic equality initiatives, has developed in greater context for organizational focus and practice with an emphasis on inclusion-based practices.  In this course, we will look at D&I through the lens of strategic impact, professional standards, business practices and culture while eliciting ideas, and future application based actions for enhancing overall firm performance toward strategic purpose.

MGT concentration.

 

MGT 626 Managing Service Organizations

This course provides students with knowledge about the unique principles and practices of managing service organizations relying heavily on applications found in the hospitality industry. The purpose of the course is to enable students to lead organizations delivering an intangible or largely intangible service product which is co-produced by a customer and whose quality and value are entirely determined by that customer. The student will gain the capabilities to plan for, organize delivery systems, and lead those who co-produce a service experience.

MGT concentration.

MGT 627 Wise Leadership

Consistent with the focus of the Management, Spirituality, and Religion division of The Academy of Management, this course explores leadership from practical wisdom and practical theology viewpoints.  Dating back to Aristotle, practical wisdom is defined as doing the right thing the right way.  Practical theology is included to round out discussion of “right things” and “right ways”.  The course focuses on how to become a wiser leader over time – becoming better at doing the right things in the right ways when dealing with people.  One of the byproducts of becoming wiser is becoming more skillful at inspiring people to maximize their contribution to the achievement of established goals. A practical model is presented for how leaders can become wiser.  Students will learn through books, articles, podcasts, and cases in addition to experiential techniques like role-playing.

MGT concentration.

MGT 629 Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence, or EQ, has been defined as the capacity to be aware of, control, and express one’s emotions, as well as to handle interpersonal relationships empathetically. EQ is considered to be key for effective leadership, teamwork, and psychological wellbeing at work. This course will give students an understanding of research findings regarding EQ and its relationship to work-related outcomes. Students will hone their EQ skills through participation in experiential exercises and guided self-reflection. Finally, concrete strategies for applying EQ in the context of workplace situations will be discussed and practiced.

MGT concentration

MKT 606 Strategic Marketing
Professor Greg Marshall

This course provides students with solid experience in creating market-driving strategies for the future success of a business. A focus is on discovering and developing a set of unique competencies for a firm that, through strategic differentiation, leads to sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace. Students are provided ample opportunity to develop and practice creative problem-solving and decision-making skills to simulate the requirements of today’s complex market environment. Industry analyses will be performed that includes the following: internal/external analysis, customer analysis, competitor analysis, market/submarket analysis, and comparative strategy assessment.

MKT or ENT concentration

MKT 613 Strategic Sales Leadership
Professor Ken Merbler

This course focuses on the core business process of securing, developing, and maintaining long term relationships with profitable customers in the business-to-business market space. Issues of creating, communicating, and delivering value are central to the course. Managing the customer relationship initiative in the firm, whether driven by one-to-one seller-buyer interactions or technology-driven processes, is a central theme. Innovation and leadership on the customer management side of the enterprise are important overarching topics.

MKT or ENT concentration

MKT 614 Marketing Analytics

This course takes a fully hands-on and experiential approach to expose students to the usage and interpretation of a variety of marketing analytic methods and tools. Emphasis is placed on gaining skills in transforming various types of data into powerful insights capable of driving key marketing and business decisions. It builds on MKT 501 by demonstrating how key marketing activities learned in that course are informed via data-driven approaches. Analytical approaches covered within the course include customer lifetime value analysis, the identification of consumer segments, perceptual mapping for the product positioning, pricing decisions, new product development, sales forecasting, and others that impact important marketing-related decisions. Closely coached by the instructor, students will have the opportunity to use a powerful yet user-friendly Excel-augmenting software program to conduct complex analyses with relative ease. Engaging case exercises and a competitive simulation play a significant role in the course experience, giving students multiple opportunities to apply the concepts and methods learned to different scenarios faced by large and small companies.

MKT concentration

MKT 615 Plan for Customer Value

A critical skill in customer value creation and delivery is the ability to master marketing planning.  This important tool emphasizes key managerial value-adding elements such as segmentation analysis, target marketing, and positioning, as well as the role marketing mix elements (product, supply chain, marketing communications, and pricing) play in developing marketing strategies and programs. (Required for MKT concentration)

MKT concentration.

MKT 618 Customer Relationship Management

This course focuses on the core business strategy and process of building, developing, and maintaining long term effective customer relationships.   The customer relationship management (CRM) system provides customer contact to order fulfillment.  CRM helps maintain, nurture, and enhance a company’s relationship with its customers.  This course provides the latest in-depth understanding of CRM and how it is evolving into a critical business tool to assure “Customer Engagement” and a close interaction between the buyer and the seller.  This course will be a blend of in-class discussions, team assignments, experienced (CRM) guest speakers and case studies. Students will achieve a level of understanding of how CRM can be a useful tool to achieve business objectives and retain and grow major customers.

MKT concentration.

MKT 620 Survey Methods

Survey Methods will provide students’ conceptual knowledge and a skill set to contribute to the design of quantitative methods used in marketing research projects. The course examines the nature of quantitative methodology and its growing value to the marketing research community.  It also will help develop concepts and methods of qualitative research including regression analysis, analysis of variance and other quantitative research methods. Finally, the course helps students understand the linkage between qualitative research and quantitative research methods.

MKT concentration.

MKT 621 Customer Insights – Qualitative Methods

Qualitative Methods will provide students conceptual knowledge and a skill set to contribute to the design of qualitative research projects.  The course examines the nature of qualitative research and its growing value to the marketing research community as well as demonstrates concepts and methods of qualitative research including focus groups, depth interviews, projection techniques and observational research. The course will help students develop problem analysis skills and translate a management problem into a feasible research question to gain insight into a clients’ current problem/opportunity.

MKT concentration.

MKT 622 Digital Marketing & Social Media

Digital marketing is where marketing meets the internet, mobile/desktop platforms and social media. It includes online advertising and participating in social media, but it can also include online listening and monitoring and search engine optimization. Through a combination of lectures, case examples and course projects, you will grow capabilities in developing, implementing and evaluating digital marketing and social media strategies.

MKT concentration.

MKT 623 Key Account Management

This course provides an in-depth understanding of Key Account Management (KAM) and its’ role with marketing and sales.  KAM becomes an important tool as more companies embrace the “Customer Engagement Model” (in which customers are more in control of their relationships with supplier’s and partners). KAM drives the development of a specific plan for each of the company’s critical accounts.  Additionally, rapid technology development and global positioning of accounts mandates that each company consider KAM. This course will be a blend of in-class discussions, team and individual assignments, experienced KAM guest speakers and case studies. Students will achieve a level of understanding of how KAM can be successfully implemented to achieve business growth goals and sustain relationships with profitable customers.

MKT concentration.

OM 606 Creating Sustainable Business Practices
Professor Keith L. Whittingham, Ph.D.

This course focuses on the principles and practices of corporate sustainability. The objective is to develop students’ understanding of how business leaders can make their organizations stronger, sharper and more secure in the future through innovative management of their impact on the environment in which they operate. This environment includes both the physical and ecological environment as well as the human and social environment. Using examples from a variety of industries, this course will delve into the “Why?”, the “What?” and the “How?” of embedding sustainability into business practices and making them PAY OFF.

Topics covered will include: the business imperative for sustainability, critical sustainability frameworks and tools, product life-cycle considerations, strategy implications for design, operations and sourcing and corporate sustainability reporting. Additionally, we will see sustainability in action through a company visit and guest speakers.

OM concentration or Social Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Enterprise (SESE)

OM 607 Essentials of Business Intelligence and Analytics
Professor Jordan Lomas

This course introduces the various information and communication technologies that are crucial for successful companies in the current business environment.  Students will research and practice using modern productivity applications. Students will also examine how information systems are used to solve problems and make better business decisions and apply these concepts to analyze real business cases. This course takes a management approach rather than a technical approach. This course is based on hands-on student experiences with various technology tools including computer simulations, Excel, Access, the Internet, and others.

OM concentration.

OM 608 Business Transformation Through Operations
Professor Keenan Yoho, Ph.D.

This course is intended for students with an interest in the transformation of organizations that have a focus on manufacturing, distribution, and sourcing operations; however, the principles and methods used in this course are applicable to a wide range of industries and organizational settings to also include service organizations. In this course we will focus on strategic, tactical, and operational decision making and how these decisions interact with different functional areas of the firm to include manufacturing, sales, distribution, procurement, marketing, finance, information systems, and human resource management. We will develop a general and robust approach to evaluating a firm’s operations, organization, and business processes as a system, and we will consider organizational design, information system design, and finance considerations and decisions in detail.  The teaching approach in this course is highly experiential in nature – being driven with computer games and simulations – in order to increase our understanding of how financial indicators, operational metrics, and other executive-driven measures all interact and affect overall organizational performance.

OM concentration.

OM 609 Making Supply Meet Demand

There is a “manufacturing renaissance” happening in America. This course will prepare future professionals to take part in one of the most important functions in the operations management of firms that actually make products: operations and supply chain planning and control. The course covers the most current issues, concepts and techniques related to quantitative and qualitative demand forecasting & management as well as those related to supply planning and control of manufacturing operations. Topics will include advanced inventory management, hierarchical planning and control systems including all hierarchical levels: Sales & operations planning (S&OP), Master planning of resources (MPS/RCCP), Detailed scheduling and planning of resources (MRP/ CRP) and Execution and control of operations. Practical examples, discussions with top level global SC planning executives, cases and the most complete supply and demand management business game in the market will help students develop a comprehensive understanding of this important (and in demand) manufacturing management area. The course will cover a substantial part of the content of the “Basics of Supply Chain Management” certification, part of the prestigious CPIM (Certified in Production and Inventory Management) of APICS.

OM concentration.

OM 611 Six Sigma: Quality by Design

This course provides an introduction to continuous process improvement as well as some principles in design thinking. We will introduce key concepts in quality and six sigma approaches to continually improve the goods and services organizations produce from the standpoint of the customer. We will also consider how to design services, products and systems that deliver outcomes people desire that are cheaper, better, and faster. This course covers applications in manufacturing as well as service industries and in both, a for-profit or not-for-profit environment.

OM concentration.

OM 614 IT Strategy & Leadership

This course presents an overview of the information technology function with emphasis on IT strategy and leadership. The course will demonstrate how IT delivers value to an organization by highlighting key aspects of the IT management process. This includes describing the IT planning, application development, and infrastructure support processes including measuring value. We will also examine future technology trends, how to monitor the technology landscape and how to evaluate new technologies for appropriate business value. The course will provide a brief history of IT in business along with an overview of how competitors, suppliers and customers are using technology. We will also discuss and study emerging issues such as cybersecurity, international regulations and privacy. The intent of this experience is to prepare you to take a responsible role in your organization when managing or interfacing with this critical and dramatically changing organizational function. The course combines traditional classroom lectures, readings, guest speakers, cases and projects to facilitate learning. This includes discussion of concepts, frameworks, terms and tools that are needed by business leaders to strategically and appropriately leverage information technology to support the business. Throughout the term, IT leaders will be invited to discuss their perspective of the IT function and share their experience in how to facilitate effective communication between business and IT leaders. Lastly, we will critically examine ethical issues and social impacts of emerging technology.

OM or Business Analytics concentration

The following integrative capstone courses are required.

MGT 612 Strategic Leadership of the Organization 
The purpose of this course is to provide a strategic prospective and to integrate the various business specialization areas covered by the core courses, so the student may be prepared for the complexities of the modern organization and its environments. Taught primarily by the case method, students must deal with complex situations as the top executive decision-maker.

INTG 605 International Business Experience
This experiential learning course focuses on the challenges and opportunities of doing business in a particular country or region. During the semester, through readings, research, presentations, and guest speakers, students learn about the country/countries and businesses to be visited so that they may better understand the working environments of their hosts. At the end of the semester, the class travels overseas as a group, accompanied by the instructor, to gain practical experience in conducting business abroad. The venue will be selected by the instructor. Once in country, the students have the opportunity to experience the business, cultural, and social environments in a one-week visit through a series of lectures/presentations, visits to companies, and cultural events. Deliverables for the course may include analyses of specific companies or industries as well as a professional reflection relative to career growth.