EMBA - Executive Master of Business Administration

This course focuses on the role of innovation in the 21st-century organization. It addresses the need for a systematic approach to building innovation capabilities and the challenges of integrating the many facets of innovation management. Leading innovators and building innovative organizations are covered from a theoretical and applied approach. Topics addressed include fundamental theories of innovation, developing innovation strategy, innovation as a business process, the role of the innovation context including leadership and organization, culture and values, people and skills, and processes and tools, and assessing and improving innovation performance. Both classroom and alternative instructional methods may be employed.

This course examines leadership, which is defined as "the ability to influence others in the absence of positional power," through interactive, experiential learning. Students develop an understanding of leadership and gain insight into their own personal leadership styles. The course addresses group dynamics, team building, problem solving, conflict resolution, the interrelationship of trust and power, and ethical behavior in the workplace. Assignments and topics will be coordinated with EMBA 805, which is offered during the same semester.

This is a hands-on course designed to help students sharpen communication and interpersonal skills through class activities, writing, presentations and simulations. It focuses on writing, speaking and interpersonal skills (i.e., negotiations, persuasion and diplomacy) necessary for a career as a business leader. Assignments and topics will be coordinated with EMBA 820, which is offered during the same semester.

This course provides a pragmatic study of selected financial and management accounting concepts, methods and practices relating to financial analysis, cost assignment, cost management, performance management and decision analysis. The central focus of this course is how accounting information helps managers identify strategies and make decisions to produce a sustainable competitive advantage.

This course provides an overview of statistical and mathematical models for effective decision making. Tools used daily by managers, business analysts and consultants are utilized to solve problems in operations, finance, accounting, marketing, human resources, policy making, economics, etc. Topics include regression analysis, statistical process control, linear optimization, time-series forecasting and decision making under uncertainty and risk. The course is taught using lectures, cases and appropriate software packages.

This course provides an integrated view of managing information systems and operations. Case studies and the SAP enterprise system are used to address key concepts. The course covers the strategic use and development of information systems and provides hands-on experience with enterprise systems. Emphasis is placed on managing the supply chain, and its impact on strategic planning. The course addresses each element in the operation of a successful supply chain including having the right quantity, quality, location, time, price and information at each stage of the supply chain process. Both classroom and alternative instructional methods may be employed.

Introduces students to strategic decision-making tools for planning, promoting, pricing and distributing products and services to targeted markets, with a goal of delivering high levels of customer value. Strategic marketing management techniques that lead toward the formation of exceptional firms are applied with the use of analytical practices. The course will use current events readings, cases, simulations, discussions and formal strategic plans.

The goal of the course is to provide business leaders with an economic framework for making decisions. The course begins by exploring the efficiency of the market-based system and an examination of how repugnance, price controls and taxation affect that system. We examine why business institutions exist and how their boundaries are determined; explore how design architecture influences individual decision making; and study how incentives and monitoring alter employee behavior. Models for optimally pricing in commodity markets, entrepreneurial markets and markets with dominant rivals are developed. Lastly, tools for mitigating systemic risk within financial institutions are investigated.

This course focuses on the core concepts of financial decision making: maximizing wealth, cash flow, net present value and the existence of risk and return tradeoffs in most corporate decisions. The course also explores the implications of various financial strategies within the dynamic global financial environment. Accounting concepts learned in EMBA 820 are applied using models that are realistic and robust. Students compute prices and returns on corporate securities and the weighted average cost of capital for a firm and evaluate long term capital investment projects using capital budgeting techniques. Students also learn about capital structure theory and financing strategies firms choose to optimize their mix of debt and equity.

This course asks the student to adopt a strategic perspective for the entire organization, with all its highly interdependent elements and dimensions, as it operates within a dynamic, global environment. The course lays the foundation for the international travel course and requires the application of conceptual models, tools and skills unique to the practice of strategic leadership and competitive global business strategies. Through readings and case studies, students will apply the concepts, tools and skills they have gained from previous coursework to real-world organizational problems, and begin preparations for the International Experience course project.

This course is integrated with EMBA 850. Students are required to apply research skills in gathering data from a broad range of sources in order to develop quality external and internal environmental analyses. The analyses are tailored to a client and targeted country. The course includes 9- or 10-day travel study component, in addition to scheduled class meetings.

This course consists of a variety of specialty, cutting-edge business topics that students would not usually be exposed to and may be staffed by guest lecturers who are experts in a specialty field or topic. In keeping with emerging trends in graduate business education, this course is purposely left flexible to be able to accommodate critical topics as they come to light.