Persuasive communication is a vital component to many aspects of business life. This course introduces the basics of communication strategy and persuasion: audience analysis, communicator credibility, and message construction and delivery. Written and oral presentation assignments derive from cases that focus on communication strategy. Students receive feedback to improve presentation effectiveness. Additional coaching is available for students who want to work on professional written communication.

Organizations of all types face significant challenges. These include the difficulty of coping with highly dynamic business environments, the complexity of managing global enterprises, how to shape a healthy corporate culture managing politics and conflict between individuals and organizational units motivating a highly mobile and every changing workforce managing and harnessing intellectual capital and so on. Such challenges and how organizational leaders can deal with them are the subject of this course. The course has two major components. The first is "macro" in nature. It focuses on organizational level issues such as how an organization should be designed to best achieve its goals and how culture and control affect organizational dynamics. The second part is more "micro" in nature. It focuses on employee-related challenges such as how to get things done in politically sensitive environments evaluate and reward people and manage teams. The macro component is concerned with overall organizational performance while the micro component is concerned with managing individual and group effectiveness. And leadership is the linking pin that connects these two. This course will introduce you to central theories and frameworks in management and organizational behavior and will help you to understand how to apply those theories and frameworks to understand and address organizational challenges and problems. An understanding of organizations and their management is important for anyone who plans to work within an organization as career success hinges on one's ability to accurately read and respond to the organizational context within which one operates. The course will also give you an opportunity to reflect on the skills that are required for being a better manager and leader.

This course studies two related issues. The first is how to gain advantage against competitors in the complex and dynamic global marketplace. Core business strategy themes include how to analyze the business environment assess resources and capabilities and choose competitive strategies. The second issue is how to create corporate value through configuring and coordinating multi-business activities. Core corporate strategy themes include analyzing scale and scope evaluating corporate competencies managing the multi-business corporation and choosing corporate strategies.

This course provides students with a basic understanding of financial statements and the linkage between a firm’s financial characteristics and its underlying long-term performance. Students will be introduced to basic financial and accounting concepts and will learn how to analyze financial spreadsheets to understand the underlying value drivers of performance. A focus will be on six key drivers: size, growth, margins, volume, business risk and financial risk. Students will analyze actual companies and present their results to the class. This course will provide a financial and accounting foundation for the rest of the program. No finance or accounting pre-requisites are assumed.

Successful managers know how to collaborate with other people effectively and how to resolve conflicts constructively. The goal of this course is to teach students the fundamentals of managing collaboration and conflict in one-on-one and small group settings. Our objective is to enhance students' interpersonal skills at their jobs. Drawing from the latest findings in managerial psychology, we cover the fundamentals of effective negotiation, communication, and persuasion. Special topics include getting buy-in, coping with resistance, and building coalitions.

The fundamental challenge facing the strategist is finding ways for a business to be different. For an existing organization, this means making it more distinctive relative to the competition. For a new business, this means creating an original position for it in the marketplace. The challenge of being different is considerable, especially in a connected global economy where many players have access to the same information. In this environment, the key to being different becomes the ability to think differently—and better— than others.

In this course, we will develop a four-way framework for thinking differently. The four components of the framework (4 C’s) are: Strategy from Contrast, Strategy from Combination, Strategy from Constraint, and Strategy from Context. We will examine examples of strategies of each of these four types, and we will also use this framework to generate entirely new strategies.

The purpose of this course is to expose you to the dynamics of industries driven by technological innovation and to train you to think strategically about technological innovation. In this course, we will tackle such questions as: How and why are dominant standards chosen in winner-take-all industries. How do firms choose among multiple attractive innovation projects? How do firms decide whether to go alone or collaborate and how do firms develop an effective collaboration strategy? How do firms make the difficult choice between protecting their technologies with patents or copyrights versus rapidly disseminating them to build installed bases and complementary goods? The course will be lecture case and discussion-based. Like the industries we will study the course will be fast-paced challenging and exciting.

This course focuses on significant, path-creating strategic decisions such as introducing a new product or process, responding to a crisis, or forming a strategic alliance. The goal is to understand both how decision makers should make these decisions, as well as how they do make those decisions. We examine how strategic, organizational, marketing, and operational perspectives can be used to carry out a quantitative and analytical analysis of strategy. This course revisits and goes deeper into concepts covered in Strategic Landscape, and brings out the nuance and complexity involved in evaluating and implementing these strategic decisions.

This course targets those interested in strategic consulting opportunities, either for a consulting firm or as an internal consultant for a large firm. Many of the cases and decisions that we cover in the courses will be the types of projects and analysis that you will encounter as strategy consultants in the future. In addition, the course is also beneficial for those interested in financial research careers, assessing the rationales behind the key strategic decisions that firms make and how likely they are to be successful. We will learn how to do good research on the decisions of firms based on publicly available information.

This course is aimed at improving student ability to develop and manage high performing teams through effective design and development Topics include characteristics of high performing teams managing team composition monitoring stages of team growth developing strategies for effective group decision making developing a team focused organizational culture managing cross boundary collaboration managing cooperation and conflict within and across teams team leadership and evaluating and rewarding team performance It also addresses how organizations can foster innovation strategic decision making and cross functional synergies through the use of teams It emphasizes both theory and application skill building using a variety of teaching methods.

This course analyzes the various modes of Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) strategies to capture and create economic value. The objectives of the course are (1) to equip students with a set of quantitative and qualitative tools to assess the drivers and consequences of different types of M&As, and (2) to provide insight into the successful management of M&A process from conception, to execution and full integration. Students will benefit from insights from academic research and real life experience and will participate in case discussions illustrating the principles behind strategic decisions. 

Brand planners/strategists face many challenges, including how to a) create a comprehensive brand architecture that will provide strategic direction, b) Generate motivating brand identities and value propositions for the key brands, c) develop brand-building programs, and d) leverage new technologies. The goal of this course is to provide concepts, models, methods, and role models that will help address these challenges.

The Capstone Project is a for-credit experiential learning course that integrates and weaves together concepts learned from the other constituent courses that comprise the curriculum and links them to practical applications. In small groups starting with pre-work during the Fall semester, students will work together to solve cases presented by companies.

Are you interested in founding or joining a startup, or acting entrepreneurially within an organization? This class is designed to increase the chances of success by helping aspiring founders or employees identify and thus avoid a range of dilemmas all startups face. (By extension, aspiring investors and policy makers can also benefit from this class by learning what factors predict startup success.) To do so this class provides a broad introduction and overview of entrepreneurship based on a range of teaching methods including: academic research, cases, empirical data, videos, and guest speakers. Emphasis is devoted to "founder's dilemmas" that is, the consequential early decisions founders must make with minimal information. These include: deciding whether to found now or later; whether and how to form a founding team; splitting equity; tradeoffs associated with external investors; and weighing exit options. Note that this class is not an "incubator" (although you will receive substantial feedback on your business ideas). And while several components of this class are devoted to venture capital and the funding of startups, the treatment thereof is done primarily from the perspective of the entrepreneur. Primacy in this class is accorded the human and social capital aspects of entrepreneurship as opposed to those concerning financing.

This comprehensive course is designed to equip students with the advanced knowledge and practical skills necessary to effectively lead and manage change within family businesses. Recognizing that family enterprises encounter unique challenges at the intersection of family dynamics and business operations, this course delves deeply into the complexities of change management in these contexts.

Throughout the course, students will engage with both theoretical frameworks and practical applications of change management, specifically tailored for family business settings. We will utilize a variety of instructional methods, including in-depth case studies, collaborative group projects, and individual assignments. These elements are designed to foster critical thinking and facilitate a thorough understanding of the intricacies involved in leading change initiatives.

Key topics will include:

• Theoretical foundations of change management
• Family dynamics and their influence on business decisions
• Strategies for effective communication and conflict resolution within family businesses
• Assessing organizational readiness for change
• Designing & implementing change initiatives that align with family values and business objectives

By the end of the course, students will be well-prepared to spearhead change initiatives in family businesses, adeptly balancing the operational needs of the business with the values and expectations of the family. This holistic approach ensures that students gain a multifaceted perspective on leadership in the context of family enterprises, making them invaluable assets in any organizational setting.

In today’s fast-changing world, doing business with China remains highly relevant due to its key position in global supply chains, large consumer markets, and powerful manufacturing capabilities. This dynamic graduate-level course explores in-depth the strategic, regulatory, economic, and cultural dimensions of doing business with China.

Designed for future business leaders, this course equips students with the strategic insights and practical skills to navigate complex dynamics of China's business ecosystem and international landscape. Through real-world case studies of Chinese firms and their international partnerships, students will develop a nuanced understanding of the economic influence of Chinese firms and their approaches to cross-border collaboration, enabling them to build forward-looking strategies to address geopolitical and socio-economic challenges.

Professional Responsibility and Leadership (PRL) is an interdisciplinary course that builds on prior coursework students have completed. In PRL, students pursue the following learning objectives: 1) to reflect on why they are embarking on a career in business, and how they intend to act as business professionals; 2) to think systematically about the risks and sources of resilience relevant to their professional lives; 3) to cultivate the habit of engaging in reflective dialogue with diverse stakeholders. The basic format of the course is a discussion seminar, drawing from three different sources: 1) the students’ own personal experiences and values; 2) expert insights drawn from a variety of academic disciplines (including philosophy, literature, history, and art, as well as the natural and social sciences); and 3) relevant contemporary and historical business cases. PRL focuses primarily on the students’ own interests, refining them through dialogue and in reference to expert sources. 

Professional Responsibility and Leadership (PRL) is an interdisciplinary course that builds on prior coursework students have completed. In PRL, students pursue the following learning objectives: 1) to reflect on why they are embarking on a career in business, and how they intend to act as business professionals; 2) to think systematically about the risks and sources of resilience relevant to their professional lives; 3) to cultivate the habit of engaging in reflective dialogue with diverse stakeholders. The basic format of the course is a discussion seminar, drawing from three different sources: 1) the students’ own personal experiences and values; 2) expert insights drawn from a variety of academic disciplines (including philosophy, literature, history, and art, as well as the natural and social sciences); and 3) relevant contemporary and historical business cases. PRL focuses primarily on the students’ own interests, refining them through dialogue and in reference to expert sources.