Financial Statement Analysis - Dr. Galen Sevcik

This course takes a user-oriented approach to the study of financial statements. Students study the role of the financial statements and the annual report in the financial reporting process. Using ratio analysis, students analyze past firm performance and make forecasts of future performance. Students also study the effects of differing accounting methods on financial statement analysis.

Economics for Managers - Dr. Jon Mansfield

This course will be divided into two parts focusing on micro and macro economics. The focus in the first half will be on managerial decisions, particularly in terms of demand, costs, profitability, and competitive strategies. We analyze real-world industries, markets, and firms using the basic concepts of microeconomics. In the second half, we develop a basic model of the macroeconomy emphasizing real-world data and relationships. The goal is for managers to understand the main forces and trends in the economy, how they are interrelated, and how policymakers try to affect them. Because changes in the macroeconomy affect industries and firms throughout the economy, it is important for managers to understand how these changes can affect managerial decisions, particularly in terms of the concepts discussed in microeconomics. We relate the performance of the economy back to the industries and firms studied in microeconomics.

Corporate Finance – Dr.  Milind Shrikhande

This course focuses on the financial management of both publicly held and private corporations.  Students are presented with a conceptual framework for understanding and addressing problems commonly faced by corporate decision-makers and provided opportunities to apply these concepts to contemporary business situations. All topics reflect the impact on the overall value and risk of the company. Topics covered include, but are not limited to: time value of money, the valuation and role of debt and equity, capital acquisition and the organization of financial markets, the relationship between risk and return including the capital asset pricing model, capital budgeting/project evaluation techniques, cost of capital, cash flow estimation, project risk analysis, real options and company valuation. All topics are presented from a perspective that will enable the corporate manager to better understand how corporate decisions impact the value and risk of the firm.

International Business Environments -  Dr. Leigh Anne Liu

International Business Environments focuses on the management of multinational corporations. The objectives of this course are to equip you with an in-depth knowledge and conceptual frameworks of the management processes and effectiveness in the global contexts; to improve your analytical abilities for understanding the behavior of individuals, groups, and organizations in international competitive situations; and to develop confidence in your skills for negotiation, conflict resolution, and leadership in cross-cultural settings. We will study multinational businesses to learn how they are managed, why they have succeeded, and what challenges and opportunities lay ahead. We will analyze the experiences of global managers to learn what difficulties they encounter in working with foreign partners and motivating global labor force, how they adapt their management practices to different cultures, how successful these adaptations are, and what lessons we can draw. We will examine the transformation of local enterprises and assess how they fare in global markets and discuss their opportunities and challenges. Specific topics covered in this course include the cultural political environments of international management, social responsibilities and ethics in a global setting, motivating a diverse workforce, leading cross-cultural teams, international alliances, international conflict management and negotiation, and global leadership.

Leadership Practices - Dr. Steve Olson

The Global Partners MBA leadership theme explores the practices associated with leading teams, business units, and corporations, with emphasis on enterprises that conduct business globally.  By studying the practices of leaders in various organization settings under varying conditions, students are exposed to both effective and ineffective practices, gaining an understanding of the impact individuals can make on the performance of an organization. The theme also includes activities and exercises designed to enable participants to gain greater insight into their own leadership philosophies and tendencies. The information gained through these methods will accumulate as the theme progresses across the Global Partners Program modules.

Commercial Diplomacy - Dr. David Bruce

This course examines commercial diplomacy from the company-specific point of view.  In particular, the program focuses on the concerns of the line-of-business or country manager.  The course makes extensive use of visiting speakers and materials which address the central question of how companies relate to a broader environment that includes political/legal/economic risk assessment, business-government relations, relations with non-governmental organizations and the larger civil society, and linkages to the institutions of trade regimes.

Systems & Operations Management / Business Process Management – Dr. Rebecca Arkader and Dr. Pierre-Yves Lagroue

These courses examine the concepts underlying global operations management.  In particular, they address how topics such as output design, demand forecasting, process design, material requirements planning, supply chain management, quality management and, ultimately, project management are unique in the global marketplace.

International Finance – Part 1 – Dr. Ricardo Leal

Part I focuses on the international corporate finance environment.  We start with a general overview of world economies and of the international monetary system. We will study different foreign exchange rate systems and how capital and trade flows may affect the balance of payments of countries and, consequently, their currencies. We will then learn about international parity relations and exchange rate forecasting and take a closer look at recent speculative attacks such as those in East Asia, Mexico, and Brazil.  Our final subject will be corporate governance in an international setting.

People in Organizations - Dr. Adriana Hilal

This course introduces what managers need to know about organizational structure and people in organizations.  The course begins with an overall framework and then moves into individual topics, including a treatment of the functional and potentially dysfunctional consequences of combining people and organizational structure.

Introduction to Information Systems - Dr. Roberto Noguiera

This case-based course module serves as an introduction to the relationship between information systems (IS) and business processes in the modern organization, particularly in an international setting.  Directed at general managers, the module provides an overview of the cycle of business investment in IS.  This cycle begins with a needs assessment stage, identifying opportunities or challenges relating to business processes; matching IT resources and application solutions to these needs is the second stage. The third stage is creating and deploying systems, whether these are developed inside the organization or acquired externally.  It also covers the retiring of systems.  With rapidly changing technology, the IT industry itself is analyzed for emerging developments and potential impacts.

Global Legal and Regulatory Issues – Dr. Ben Greer

This course analyzes the legal and regulatory issues facing businesses, with an emphasis on how those issues affect businesses seeking to enter the international marketplace. The course begins by delineating how law is made on both a domestic and international scale. Students will learn how the major markets regulate from the inside out and how the global community regulates, via treaty, multinational organizations, etc., from the outside in. The course then examines how law creates both advantage for and limitations upon international transactions. Students will then explore tools for facilitating the advantages and appreciating the limitations with particular focus on issues of international trade, international contracts and international dispute resolution.

International Finance -- Part 2 – Dr. Milind Shrikhande

Part 2 focuses on foreign exchange risk management, management of the multinational financial system including transfer pricing and taxation, and the investment and financing decisions of global firms. We will initiate a study of the foreign exchange market and demonstrate how currency futures and options markets are used for short-term risk management. We will follow up with management of exposure to foreign exchange risk. We will then examine principles for taxation of foreign source income and the role of transfer pricing. This discussion will pave the way for learning about multinational capital budgeting and the international cost of capital. Finally, financing decisions of the global firm given Eurocurrency markets and the markets for interest rate swaps and currency swaps will be examined together with demonstrating their role in long-term risk management.

Information Technology for Business Process Innovation - Dr. Duane Truex

This course examines how business processes and their services can be innovated, enabled by information technology. The course explores radical and evolutionary innovations, discusses organizational agility as a key process capability and relates these themes to the opportunities/challenges provided by information technology. The course finishes with an examination of problems related to organizational implementation.  The course is centered on a project in which students learn to recognize organizational business processes, assess their service innovation potential, their ability to contribute to organizational agility, their information-related pathologies, and to design and implement client-centric innovations enabled by information technology.

Doing Business in World Regions: EU Market –  Dr. Geraldine Schmidt and Dr. Wojtek Sikorzewski

The objective of this course is to expose participants to two different aspects of International Affairs. Presentation and analysis of the economic integration process: understanding the economic aspects of regional integration through the example of the European Union. State and European institutions, the European corporate environment and foreign investment in Europe will be discussed. Cross-cultural Management: assessing the relationship between corporate vs national culture and understanding its complexities. Analysis of European management style and HR practices will be presented and compared to US and Japanese models. The existence of an European model will also be scrutinized.

International Marketing –  Dr. Francois Blanc

This course begins by examining the Marketing Management concept in the context of business-to-business functions and business-to-consumer services.  The course then explores methodologies and techniques for conducting market research. Students will build on this exploration by next developing marketing strategies in an international context. Students will also analyze the operational implications of international marketing management by investigating topics such as branding, sales and negotiation, direct marketing and the "four p's" of product, price, promotion (advertising) and place (distribution channels). The course will conclude by integrating all of the above into the development of an international marketing plan.

The Asian Experience –  Dr. Karen Loch

Students will travel in Asia.  Before and during this journey, students will learn about the regions they will be touring and about the businesses they will be visiting. The regions currently scheduled include Beijing, Shanghai, and a second-tier city. Students will undertake a host-company audit to gain an in-depth understanding of the unique issues facing businesses in this market. After the trip, students will prepare an integrative case analysis drawn from their experiences.

Leadership and Organizational Change – Dr. Charley Burden

This course is designed to provide student/managers with insights about organizations from an external perspective of those organizations. These insights should enhance the knowledge, conceptual frameworks, and understanding of those organizations and the people who staff them.   Emphasis will be given to understanding values and beliefs as they relate to behavior in the workplace. Another goal of the course is to consider leadership roles by critically examining, through literature, how organizations impact modern life, and to cause students to reflect on how organizations impact them, and how their behaviors impact organizations.

Managerial Control & Costing Systems - Dr. Lynn Hannan

The focus of this course is on managing with accounting data, giving attention to limitations and behavioral implications of using such information in decision-making. Students will determine what financial information international managers need to plan, monitor and improve their critical processes, products and services. This course explores tasks such as cost analysis and management, cost-volume-profit analysis, cost allocation, activity-based costing, cost drivers, performance measurement, variance analysis, balancing the scorecard, compensation schemes and responsibility centers.

Policy and Strategy in the International Marketplace –  Dr. Ilgaz Arikan

This capstone course will bring together components of all the courses taken up to this point. Students will analyze the managerial implications of the material covered in their courses, field experiences and visits to develop a working knowledge of corporate strategy, competitive strategy, strategy in uncertainty, global strategy for multinationals and strategic management of innovation. This course will be applied to cases and real-time scenarios, requiring students to use all of their skills in readiness for their role as global managers and leaders.

International Business Internship and Project - Dr. Karen Loch

The internship experience is a supervised work program in an organization (e.g. public or private sector, government agency, NGO) typically in a location which utilizes the language skills and functional expertise of the candidate. Students are encouraged to be pro-active in seeking an internship. The students are required to complete a research project as part of the internship experience.  All internships must be approved in advance by the program directors of the Global Partners MBA program.