Professional MBA Course Descriptions

ACCTG 507 Navigating Accounting for Success

Asynchronous modality (Online)

From a financial accounting perspective this course will focus on the content, concepts, and underlying principles that relate to corporate financial statements including the balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement. In addition, it also will also cover ratio analysis and stockholders' equity related transactions.
From a management accounting perspective, the course will also cover the internal use of accounting information as a management tool for decision making purposes. Emphasis will be on cost concepts and analysis of cost variances. Topics to be covered will include cost-volume-profit analysis, job order cost accounting, process cost accounting, activity-based costing, budgeting and budget analysis, performance measures, and decision making. 
 

ECON 508 Applications in Modern Business Economics (STEM)

Asynchronous modality (Online)

This course provides a rigorous examination of microeconomic and macroeconomic theories, coupled with advanced analytical methodologies applicable to business management. Core topics include the systematic analysis of consumer behavior, production and cost functions, market structures, and market failures. Additionally, the course investigates the theoretical foundations and empirical applications of fiscal and monetary policy, as well as the dynamics of international trade and global financial systems.

OPS 509 Analytics for Effective Decision Making (STEM)

Asynchronous modality (Online)

This course provides a foundational exploration of quantitative analytical methods for data-driven decision-making in managerial contexts. Key topics include descriptive statistics, probability distributions, sampling techniques, statistical inference, hypothesis testing, and the development and application of linear regression models for predictive analysis.

OPS 700 Operations Management 

This course focuses on quantitative and qualitative models for managing operations. Topics include decision models, forecasting techniques and time series analysis, process analysis, waiting line management, linear programming, statistical control, aggregate planning, supply chain management and project management.

ORB 701 Organizational Behavior and Management 

You will develop a scientifically grounded understanding of managerial and organizational processes through the lens of behavioral science. Leveraging this knowledge, you will analyze workplace behaviors and apply evidence-based approaches to enhance motivation, organizational commitment, leadership effectiveness, job satisfaction, group and team dynamics, and the optimization of organizational design.

FIN 702 Managerial Finance (Prerequisites: ACCTG 507, ECON 508)

You will develop a foundational understanding of corporate finance principles with an emphasis on their analytical application to decision-making in investment, financing, and dividend policy. Key topics include quantitative approaches to asset valuation, risk assessment, financial statement analysis, and financial forecasting. The course also covers advanced methodologies for capital budgeting, asset management, short- and long-term financing strategies, cost of capital estimation, and the optimization of capital structure to enhance financial decision-making and corporate performance.

MKT 703 Marketing Management 

This course provides an overview of the issues, concepts, and models used in analyzing marketing choices and managing marketing activities. Topics include market measurement and segmentation, consumer and organizational buying behavior, marketing mix analysis and management, marketing research, product management, marketing strategy, and public policy and ethical considerations in marketing.

MGT 704 International Business 

This course focuses on the international business environment and the strategic choices facing companies with international business operations. Topics include the structure and competitive dynamics of international industries, trade and trade theory, forms of transnational and multinational business, global competition and global strategies, balance of local demands and global integration, culture and government roles in international business, international financial and currency markets, and management issues in multinational firms.

ORB 705 Ethical and Social Aspects of Business

This course examines the tie between business and its social setting. Topics include non-market environments of business, issues of ethics and social responsibility in market systems, relation between social trends and politics, comparative market systems, regulation and externalities, and corporate governance issues. Our underlying goal will be to better understand how well your core moral values have guided your professional lives so far and to equip you to more fully utilize these values in your decision-making as leaders. You tacitly rely on moral values in your everyday professional lives, but what are these values at bottom? How have they shaped your decision-making in important roles and situations, and how should they do so going forward? How can you remove obstacles for moral decision-making in your organization? This class will help you to systematically understand your moral values so that you can better articulate them to others, reflect on how these values could more holistically shape your professional decision-making, and prepare for engaging others in values-based decision-making.

GMAN 706 Doing Business in World Regions (Travel Course, Prerequisites: OPS 700, MGT 704)

This experiential international immersion course features a study trip to key countries with economic significance. The objective of the course is to learn about a selected country’s dynamic cultural, economic, and business environment through hands-on learning such as lectures by the world-class hosting university faculty, company visits, and interactions with local managers. Through this course, students will raise awareness about broader social, cultural, political, economic, business and strategic factors when evaluating companies and organizations in visiting countries. This course has two components; the on-campus pre-travel and post-travel classes, and the 8-9 day overseas trip, which is taken during the quarter breaks. Past destinations include China, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Spain.

MGT 719 Global Business Strategy (Prerequisites: All foundation courses, OPS 700, FIN 702, MKT 703).

This integrative course provides a rigorous framework for formulating corporate objectives, systematically assessing market opportunities, and developing data-driven long-term strategies. Emphasizing quantitative analysis and evidence-based decision-making, the course focuses on evaluating and coordinating the activities of the entire business enterprise. Participants will apply this analytical framework—along with quantitative tools and methodologies acquired in prior coursework—to develop, model, and implement strategic initiatives at both the business unit and corporate levels.

MKT 723 Confident Communication 

This course is designed to evaluate and sharpen your business writing and speaking skills. You will be introduced to argumentation as an advanced form of communication that is crucial for effective managerial performance. The emphasis is on the manager’s use of language as a tool to identify issues, solve problems and communicate policy.

OPS 726 Leading Technologies and Innovation

In this course, students survey and receive hands-on exposure to technologies that innovate the business landscape.  The aim is to provide enough knowledge and exposure to equip future managers with the introductory background needed to collaborate with technology teams on a business problem.  Students will be introduced to a high-level programming language and use that knowledge to survey the applications of artificial intelligence, machine learning, web/cloud computing, and blockchain to business problems. 

Finance Concentration (Prerequisites: All foundation courses and 702)

FIN 764: Investments and Financial Markets

This course is designed to provide an overview of the financial markets and investment vehicles available to the financial manager. Topics include the banking system, bank and non-bank financial institutions, and the market behavior of financial intermediaries. The emphasis of the course is on portfolio optimization and the analysis of a variety of financial instruments, including equity, debt and options.

FIN 765: International Finance

This course explores the issues and financial techniques that are important for firms with international operations. Topics include the foreign exchange markets, and the management of transaction, operating, interest rate and translation exposures. The course also focuses on international sources of capital, the cost of capital and capital budgeting in an international context, political risk, and import/export financing.

Business Analytics Concentration (Prerequisites: All foundation courses and 702)

OPS 760: Programming for Analytics

This course prepares students to build well-designed code modules that follow basic programming concepts and logic flow. It covers the fundamental concepts of computer programming using a standard programming language such as Python. Topics include data structures, control structures, data input/output, object-oriented programming, exception handling, and debugging. Concepts and methods introduced in the course are illustrated with simple data analysis examples

OPS 762: Data Visualization and Story Telling

This course prepares students to create compelling narratives to effectively transmit the results of their analysis. Students learn various techniques and tools to present analytical results visually, communicate information clearly, and articulate the business insights revealed by analytics effectively. Topics will include data visualization software packages (e.g. Tableau) to present data dynamically, visual querying linked multi-dimensional visualization, dashboards, geographical information system (GIS), animation, personalization, and actionable alerts.

Marketing Concentration (Prerequisites: All foundation courses and 703)

MKT 767: Marketing Research

This course explores both quantitative and qualitative approaches to understanding markets and customers. Topics include the use of secondary information and databases, interviews and focus groups, and survey research and test marketing. The course emphasizes using marketing research in new product development.

MKT 768: Advanced Topics in Marketing

This course will introduce advanced techniques in marketing, both analytical tools and decision-making frameworks, as well as emerging issues both from academic research and corporate practice such as online consumer behavior, marketing in social networks or marketing in non-profit settings.  By its very nature, the content of this course will be flexible to reflect the latest thought and practice.

Entrepreneurship Concentration (Prerequisites: All foundation courses)

MGT 770: Strategic Entrepreneurship

This integrative course will introduce a strategic approach to entrepreneurship by providing an understanding of how to formulate and implement startup and growth strategies. The main focus will be on helping you differentiate between an idea and an opportunity, increasing your awareness of the risks and rewards of entrepreneurship, as well as developing your skills in problem solving with inadequate information and in decision making under uncertainty. The course will also include the topics of market assessment, developing the business plan, forming and leading the executive team, managing rapid growth with limited resources, and exit/harvest strategies for new ventures.

FIN 766: Financing New Ventures

This course augments the Managerial Finance course in the Professional MBA program.  The critical issues in financing new ventures and social enterprises are examined.  Additionally, the course addresses the differences between entrepreneurial finance and conventional administrative or corporate finance.  The process of crafting financial and fund-raising strategies and the critical variables involved, including identifying financial life cycles of new ventures, a financial strategy framework, and investor and donor preferences, are explored.