Part-Time MBA: Curriculum

The main objective of this course is to promote an in-depth understanding of fundamental accounting concepts and practices as well as to enhance your ability to apply such concepts to make intelligent managerial decisions. This course is not designed for accounting professionals. Rather, it focuses on managers’ need to understand and interpret financial information in various decision-making contexts. That is, financial skills and accounting information are taught in this course as an enabler and driver of the management decision-making process. Topics included in this course will not only focus on the technical aspects of accounting in terms of how financial information is formulated, but also on why such information is relevant to the management of a firm. In addition, the course covers the essential financial statement analysis skills and cost management issues which go beyond typical financial accounting topics.

This course addresses communication and ethical reasoning skills in the business context. During the course we shall engage in an intensive investigation of the nature and function of communications within an increasingly complex and multi-cultural context of international business. We will specifically investigate the crucial role of written and oral communication, as well as the importance of cross-cultural communication, negotiation and communication in a business crisis situation. Simultaneously we will pay specific attention to the ethical frameworks which can affect such scenarios, studying various ethical perspectives, and engaging in personal reflection so as to determine how best to operate ethically in a complex business environment.

The course explores what business strategy is and how it is expressed in the marketplace. The course focuses on the analytic and managerial tasks required to develop and execute strategy at the business (as opposed to corporate) level.  Emphasis is on how the demands of strategy vary depending on the type of business.

This course aims to provide students with the understanding of (i) financial issues encountered by corporate managers, decision makers and investor, (ii) financial models and analytical techniques to evaluate the investment and financing decisions of firms, (iii) practical issues about those corporate finance theories, and (iv) the recent development of financial management tools and strategies.

The course aims to put you in a lateral mindset where you can both leverage and challenge the conventional wisdom to think creatively to discover new opportunities, ask the right questions in order to identify the right problems and explore the trade-offs involved in your decisions to design elegant and well articulated solutions.  The course aims to encourage you think differently than an average manager.

This course is designed to equip students with an understanding of the decision process and tools for generating information that is critical for making effective decisions. The first part, Decision and Risk Process, focuses on evaluating the effects of cost/benefit, efforts, and/or risks in decisions, making decisions under uncertainty, and allocating scarce resources to maximize performance. The second part, Statistical Decision Analysis, focuses on extracting information from data, testing hypotheses, and building models to explain phenomenon and predict future.

This course provides a basic framework for understanding macroeconomics at both the national and international levels. It analyzes the structure and performance of the macro-economy and the implications of macroeconomic policies in the domestic and global contexts. Topics include business cycles and economic growth, fiscal and monetary policies, interest rates and exchange rates, etc. Special attention will be paid to the economies of the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong, as well as current economic issues.

In the digital age, information technology (IT) enables new patterns of commerce. IT affects how buyers buy and sellers sell, how firms interface with their customers and suppliers, and how activities are organized internally within the firm. The integration of technology and business processes makes it pertinent for the managers and leaders of today and tomorrow to be able to understand and communicate the strategic potential of these tools across the entire supply chain. This course integrates the fundamental principles of information systems and operations management to cover key aspects of a firm's operating process flow and its supply chain.

Managerial economics is a branch of economics that applies microeconomic analysis to business decisions. To effectively manage a company, the manager needs to have a good understanding of cost, pricing, market power, competition strategies and internal
organization. We will gradually develop these economic concepts and show how they can be applied to managerial decisions. The analysis and principles that we learn in this course will serve as building blocks for the understanding of other business subjects such as accounting, marketing, corporate finance and human resource management.

This course provides students with an opportunity to critically appraise and reflect upon the subject of management from different perspectives including, but not limited to that of leadership, organisational behaviour, organizational effectiveness, strategy development, shareholders and stakeholders theories. An emphasis is placed upon drawing a direct relevance to the functional disciplines of operating a business in the real world as well as affording students the opportunity to get grounded in these management perspectives. It is from these underpinnings that students will be introduced with the fundamental management theories, frameworks and tools. Not only do students acquire the language of business but also have the opportunities to apply them in class exercises and case studies interactively. Leadership competence including that of strategic thinking and the conceptual derivation of a practicing manager will be dealt with in the course to highlight the complexity and non-mechanistic nature of the practice of management in the changing business landscapes of a knowledge based and global economy.

This course is designed for MBA students with limited background in marketing. Concepts and issues at the strategic analytical approaches and tools needed for marketing decisions will be covered. Contexts for discussion and learning will be global with special reference to markets in Asia and China. The course will be delivered in a workshop mode via a blend of interactive class discussion & exercises and case analyses.

This course focuses on how to execute strategy. Student will learn about the various mechanisms that can be used in the firm to execute strategy. For example, performance measurement systems, balanced scorecards. In order to understand how and when to use performance measures, we study the information and measurement properties of strategic performance measurement systems for the purposes of (i) allocating resources among firms, between departments or divisions of individual firms, (ii) rewarding and monitoring the performance of managers, and (iii) executing strategy through the development of key performance measures.

Given the importance of social networks and their sometime counter-intuitive influence on business effectiveness, the main objective of this course is to introduce concepts and findings in the areas of social capital and social network analysis in order to advance students' understanding on how to effectively manage network relations and structures to achieve success in business. The social network with its distinctive nature of relationships, structure, and resources is the social capital which can be utilized to enhance the competitive advantage of individuals and organizations.

This course aims to provide the core skills needed for the identification of opportunities that can lead to successful entrepreneurial technology ventures. Emphasis is placed on how to capture emerging opportunities and execute effective strategies in a setting of rapid technological changes and limited resources. This course is particularly suited for those who anticipate founding technology ventures or are currently working for them.

The course is designed to prepare attendants to apply analytical methodologies and information technology in supply chain management. Traditionally industries focus on operation evaluation and performance improvement of manufacturing process; however, the deficiency of supply chain coordination results in severe downgrade of business competitiveness. With advent of information technology, computers not only improve manufacturing operation and management, but also enhance strategic decision-making as well. This course focuses on the systems approach to planning, analysis, design, development, and evaluation of supply chain management.

Today, success depends not only on what you do but also on how you do it. The way your organization and people handle business processes has a profound effect on the organization. Helping you find ways to break through old barriers to arrive at new levels of quality, human efficiency and effectiveness is what Total Quality Management (TQM) is all about. TQM focuses on total quality assurance used in business as a strategy and control tool for the purpose of gaining a competitive advantage in the market. The course seeks to familiarize students with all aspects of TQM, and provide them with the knowledge and tools they need to become designers of, and participants in, company-wide TQM programs. Traditional TQM approach is often overlaid upon other management systems. However, successful TQM requires both behavioral and cultural change. Managers committed to successful implementation of TQM must have both new process and resource management systems that work together.

This course is designed to allow students of all levels to become familiar with the fundamental role of technological advancements in today’s business environments. As technology becomes increasingly integrated into business processes, managers and leaders alike must be able to understand and communicate the enabling potential of these tools. This course provides an introductory training for such purposes. Topics of this course cover the fundamental challenges faced by businesses operating in the online environment, new opportunities and threats arising from social media, and strategic considerations in offering web-based services and information goods.

The purpose of this course is to develop a solid understanding of modern investment theory and practice. The course helps students to familiarize with fundamentals of asset valuation, security analysis, and principals and practice of portfolio management. This course covers basic investment environment, asset pricing, stock valuations, bond valuations, derivatives valuations, portfolio theory, market efficiency, portfolio strategies, and portfolio performance evaluations. The students are expected to command basic investment theory and some practical tools for investing in securities. The knowledge and skills gained from this course not only help you in your professional career but also useful for your personal investment.

This course assesses the rise and role of Asia in the new global economic order - though as the students taking the course in 2012 advised that it might be more accurately described as the “new global economic dis-order”. Certainly there are critical discontinuities - we are in uncharted turbulent waters. This is not a course about Asia. It is a course about Asian developments and options in a global context and from global perspectives. Business leaders in this century’s turbulent transformative times must also be globalists with a strong sense of how public policy evolves and how they can influence it. The future belongs to global business leader statesmen. The course is aimed to be one building block in this process.

This course focuses on the use of financial statement information to analyze and value firms. This course assumes that you have already had adequate training in accounting mechanics (e.g., measurement of accruals, the indirect method for preparing statements of cash flows). Thus, this course does not provide lessons on technical accounting methods. In this course, you will learn accounting quality analysis, profitability and risk assessment, forecasting, and valuation models. Accounting quality analysis will advance your knowledge of earnings management practice, management incentive to manage earnings, and a method of detecting earnings management. For profit and risk assessment, you will learn in depth traditional ratio analysis and will investigate the concept and measurement models of expected returns. You will learn a financial forecasting technique that is built upon the balance-sheet equation and accounting ratios. You will also learn various valuation models and the concept and measures of free cash flow. This course will be useful if you want to be a successful financial analyst, investment banker, or financial consultant.

This course focuses on hedge funds and private equity, the two important areas in investing and capital markets. Topics include overviews of hedge funds and private equity; hedge fund investment strategies and private equity leveraged buyouts financial model; shareholder activism and the influence of hedge funds and private equity on corporate decision-making; compensation, regulation and organizational structures; and issues and opportunities. In addition, the course reveals the unique role of hedge funds and private equity played in wealth creation, risk management, as well as global capital market transformation. Competition and cooperation between hedge funds, private equity and investment banks will also be analyzed. This course is not only helpful to those planning to become a professional in a financial institution but also useful to corporate managers and individual investors.

This course is to provide a multi-faceted overview of the practical characteristics and unique challenges of corporate governance strategy and practices in Asia, followed by discussions on the integration of CSR practices with business strategy, social enterprises, green business for sustainable growth. Traditional corporate governance topics to be discussed include the institutional factors (e.g. legal protection), corporate ownership, family firms, state-owned enterprises, board of directors and corporate transparency. Moreover, the topics of CSR, green business, and social enterprises will also be discussed in-depth to bring this course to a forward-looking conclusion.

The major objective of this course is to promote an in-depth understanding of basic derivative products and structured finance instruments. This course provides students with a framework (1) to understand the fundamental concepts of derivative products (forward and futures, options, swaps) and structured finance instruments (CDOs, CDS, CLNs and other structured products), (2) to develop the necessary skills used in valuing derivative contracts, and (3) to understand a wide variety of issues related to risk management and investment decisions using derivatives and structured products.

The course is primarily quantitative-problem and case-based. Therefore, each of the learning outcomes will be taught through the student’s preparation of assigned problems and cases, presentation of their problem answers and case analyses in class, and discussion of their answers and case analyses. The assigned course problems and cases are set in many different countries; thus, the course is inherently international in focus. Finally, all of the case analyses depend on the use of Microsoft Excel and Oracle Crystal Ball. Thus, each of the cases requires the students to learn and demonstrate mastery of appropriate information systems and statistical methods.

This course is based on a course that I have been offering at DePaul University for the past few years. Over the past 30 years, private equity has evolved into a global industry approaching $2 trillion of capital commitments and encompassing hundreds of firms. This course seeks to understand how these organizations work, why they take the forms that they do, and where crucial problems-and opportunities for innovation-exist. The course will be a systematic review of the private equity cycle: raising and structuring private equity funds, the role of differing incentives and perspectives of the different parties involved--institutional investors, “gatekeepers,” fund-of-fund managers, and private equity investors. Next, we explore how investments are evaluated, structured, and overseen, as well as exit strategy. The private equity industry is a global one, and we will evaluate the impact of globalization on the sector. Finally, we will analyze the regulatory environment for the industry and the problems posed and opportunities offered by the financial crisis.

The global financial market is flat. International financial markets have experienced an explosive growth in the past two decades. Financial innovations, deregulation of national markets, the rise of emerging markets and the massive increase in international assets held by governments have fuelled a global liquidity wave and opened new avenues for international investments. At the same time, the speed and depth of the global contagion experienced in the wake of the US subprime crisis has underscored the financial markets/products’ interconnectedness. The purpose of this seminar would be to offer a framework for the analysis of international investment decisions. The seminar will extend the standard investments theories and products to a global setting through a series of introductory lectures, but the focus will be hands-on interaction with the students through case studies and analysis of materials in class. The course will be graded on the basis of one final exam and one term paper.

This is a MBA course focusing on important and timely business, economic, political and branding issues facing various Asian economies. The topics to be covered include Asian business management practices, international trade, foreign direct investment, high-technology industries, international agreements, political economy, regional and global supply chains and economic growth. The economies that we will focus on include the four largest Asian economies: China, Japan, India and South Korea. In addition, we will cover other Asian economies such as Taiwan, Singapore, Macau, Vietnam, and Indonesia. Linkages as well as comparative references will also be made to other economies such as the United States, Europe, economies in Southeast Asia and Latin America.

The course addresses strategy for China and India at three levels.. The first is how to operate and market in these countries so concerns itself with ground level managerial skills. The second is how Chinese and Indian companies are managed, including financing, innovation, people skills so concerns itself with levels of company capability. The third is how Chinese and Indian companies globalize and compete with incumbent multinationals. Basically, the course is a strategy course set in China and India.

The module follows a workshop mode with an industry survey and a major firm project relating to highly dynamic China market. The module is structured with a very heavy reading and condensed front end (first 5 classes) as a foundation for subject and as the background for the applied group project. The purposes of this course: (i) Expose students to the complexities of consumer markets in Mainland China; (ii) Involve students to different strategies in the China market through cases, projects and field study; (iii) Share indigenous and cutting-edge marketing concepts, strategies and necessary tools in China marketing; (iv) Introduce and contrast how different types of firms in China engage in their marketing strategies, especially on marketing ethics (product safety).

This course examines the opportunities and challenges that contemporary managers confront when conducting business across national borders. It addresses the complex environment of international business with respect to economic, social, cultural, political, and legal institutions, as well as how these institutions shape business operation in the global market. The course emphasizes greatly on applying theoretical framework in analyzing practical problems confronting managers.

This course is designed to broaden students’ understanding of the issues related to the management of multinational corporations. The emphasis is on the global business environment and its impacts on multinational corporations’ strategy, structure, and functions. First, the course discusses the political, economic, and cultural environments in which multinational corporations operate. Second, it examines the strategy and organization of multinational corporations, including entry strategies, international alliances, organization structures, and control in multinational corporations. Third, it examines the management of people in multinational corporations, including motivation and decision-making in the international context.

All managers and executives today must have a solid understanding of some core legal principles. This course will provide each student with a solid legal foundation, especially in an Asian context. It is an international business law course specifically designed for MBA students who are or hope to become managers and executives in Asia. We will discuss broad legal principles and how they affect business today, analyzing several cross-border business transactions and court cases. The format of the course is similar to a graduate seminar, requiring students to be well prepared and participate actively in class.

This course is aimed at bridging the academic world and the business world. Indeed, “branding” is an extensively researched topic and also a day-to-day management subject. Throughout the course, the concept of branding will be thoroughly examined in a holistic manner. The literatures written by Kotler, Aaker and Levitt will be frequently referenced, balanced by an interpretation of the instructor’s practical experience. Case studies from a global as well as Asian perspective will be cited in order to provide students with relevant insights to brand management in their work place. This course combines the most critical theories as well as the most current marketing topics including “branding in the digital age” and “brand management during economic turmoil”, “CSR and sustainability”, etc.

Examining the challenges of entering and operating effectively across international markets, this course covers international marketing objectives, strategies and policies, market selection, distribution channel decisions and management, international marketing mix approaches appropriate to individual markets, and systems of international marketing organisation, planning and control. This course is designed as an elective marketing class for MBA students looking to deepen their understanding of how to develop marketing strategy through to implementation across global markets. The course will be delivered in a workshop mode through highly interactive class discussions, case studies and team presentations.

The course is designed to prepare student for a career in management consulting, or managers to work effectively with consultants. Students will be introduced the roles and responsibilities of a management consultant as well as frameworks and tools used in client projects. This course is designed to cover all aspects of consulting work, including approaches that are structured and methodological. The course also focuses on obtaining scientific input, carrying out analytical assessments and producing credible outputs. The whole cycle of consulting projects and related aspects are also covered.

This class examines the strategic marketing issues related to high-tech industries (IT&Biotech), such as customer analysis, segmentation and targeting, product, price, promotion and place. The core of the course is an in-depth analysis of the marketing strategies that companies use to compete in the high-tech industries. Students will benefit from this course of gaining a solid understanding of the nature and dynamics of high-tech industries and essential knowledge on marketing that allow them to create winning strategies for their organizations competing in this industry.

The course focuses on challenges of managing service brands and delivering quality service to customers across industry sectors. The attraction, retention, and building of strong customer relationships through quality service (and services) are all at the heart of the course content. The course is equally applicable to organizations whose core product is service (e.g., banks, transportation companies, hotels, hospitals, educational institutions, professional services, telecommunication, etc.) and to organizations that depend on services for competitive advantage (e.g., high technology manufacturers, automotive, industrial products, etc.).

This course combines strategy, operations, and general management, and features a variety of types of companies from different industries. First objective of this course is preparing students for today’s fast-paced world of business by describing what competition in fast-paced industries is like and how the most effective companies cope. Second objective is introducing students to the analytic and management tools that these businesses now require of managers. Final objective is preparing students to function productively with colleagues inside “fast companies”.