Executive MBA Elective Courses

ACCT S31 Accounting Role in the Organization

This is a strategic course. By understanding how costs behave, a manager can plan and control activities in the areas of production and marketing and make decisions that affect both the daily operations of the company and special situations such as adding or dropping product lines, acquiring a new division, accepting special orders, and whether to produce something in-house or outsource it. This strategic course requires, in addition to an accounting background, knowledge of marketing, management, and finance, a sense of what is going on in the marketplace, both domestically and internationally, and one’s best assessment of what may be happening locally and globally in the future. The basics of managing costs will be taught (without journal entries) and companies will be analyzed to see how they implement cost control and plan strategically. Prerequisite: ACCT S30  

ACCT S32 Forensic Accounting

This class introduces students to forensically-focused financial statement analysis. The course material is organized around the broad themes of earnings quality and cash flow quality. The course provides students with the tools to detect when reported earnings and cash flows are not sustainable. Although financial fraud is not the course’s explicit focus, academic research demonstrates that companies with low quality of earnings and cash flows are more likely to experience governance scandals and regulatory enforcement actions. The course’s material is essential for anyone who relies on published financial statements to make business decisions. It also prepares students for senior roles in overseeing financial reporting processes and serving on corporate boards.

FINC S48 Venture Capital Funding

This course provides students with an understanding, and working knowledge of how to project and manage cash flows; the financial markets for new ventures; how to value a start-up company; where and how to raise money to support the growth of a business; and how to present effectively to investors to raise funds. Students will create a financial plan and valuation for a new business idea and will engage in simulated presentations and negotiations with investors. Students will learn to look at entrepreneurial finance issues both from the perspective of the entrepreneur and from the perspective of the venture investor. The course will also include in-class exercises, in-class presentations, lectures, and discussions. Prerequisite: FINC S30  

MGMT S62 Entrepreneurial Management

This course introduces students to entrepreneurship and business planning for new business initiatives in the global business environment. Topics include: entrepreneurial attitudes, abilities, and behaviors; business plan development; opportunity recognition and viability screening; first-mover advantages and disadvantages; risk recognition and risk reduction strategies; intellectual-property protection; new venture strategy, marketing, and funding; financial analysis of the new venture, and negotiation of equity participation in the new venture. Students will form groups to discuss and critique business plans and/or case studies during the course, and will ultimately produce and present their own business plan for a proposed new venture.

FINC S41 Corporate Finance

The primary objective of this course is to examine the financial decisions of firms. The course examines the firm’s capital budgeting decision (which investments to make); its dividend decision; and its capital structure decision (how to raise capital). These decisions are first examined in an idealized frictionless world. In this world, the firm cannot change its value by altering its dividend or capital structure policy. The effect of frictions (e.g. taxes, bankruptcy costs, inefficient or uncompetitive financial markets, or self-interested managers) on the firm’s financial decisions is then explored to see how these decisions can affect the value of the firm.  

FINC S42 Managerial Finance

This course deals with the application of financial theory to fiscal policy decisions and demonstrates practical applications of financial models and analytical tools. It is designed primarily for advanced students who are familiar with the basic financial theory and accounting principles.  The purpose of this course is to deepen students’ understanding of financial issues by applying finance theory and methods to real business situations. Topics covered include short-term financial forecasting using pro forma financial statements; banking relationships, long-term financing policy, and capital structure decisions; the cost of capital; investment decisions; mergers and acquisitions; real options; and business valuations. During the course, we will consider a series of case problems.  Each class session will be devoted to a particular case. Students will study the assigned case before class, focusing on the discussion questions that we provide. We will spend class time discussing the cases.  

FINC S48 Venture Capital Funding

After completing this course, students will have an understanding and working knowledge of how to project and manage cash flows; an understanding of the financial markets for new ventures; how to value a start-up company; where and how to raise money to support the growth of a business; and how to present effectively to investors to raise funds. Students will create a financial plan and valuation for a new business idea and will engage in simulated presentations and negotiations with investors. Students will learn to look at entrepreneurial finance issues both from the perspective of the entrepreneur and from the perspective of the venture investor. The course will also include in-class exercises, in-class presentations, lectures, and discussions. Prerequisite: FINC S30  

FINC S53 Risk Management for Executives

This was one of the first international Executive MBA risk management courses in Thailand and the Asia Pacific. The aim of this course is to discuss the fundamental concepts of how risk can be measured and managed in different industries and in major financial organizations, such as banks, insurance companies, and corporate and securities firms. Measurement of risk is based on the quantitative disciplines, where probability plays a major role in quantifying risk and measuring future uncertainty. This course includes understanding the three principal risks: Market, Credit, Operational; and economic capital and the regulatory framework of Basel II. The course is based on risk techniques used in industrial sectors such as investment banks, government banks, credit card, and insurance firms. The objective is to measure the uncertainty of risk factors in financial markets. This course should be of interest to participants aspiring to careers in managing uncertainty or using risk techniques. The course will also provide guidelines on how risk and economic capital can be quantified in different banking and major business divisions. It is designed to show how financial industries can be more prepared for a financial crisis or the unexpected meltdown of the current financial system. The risk techniques used are often based on engineering, mathematical, and statistical methods. No computer programming skills are required for this executive course.  

FINC S55 Growth through Acquisitions

The main objective of Growth through Acquisitions is to learn how companies can create shareholder value by optimizing their business portfolios using targeted acquisitions and divestitures. In addition to the financial and strategic aspects, the business integration process is also studied. This course will also enhance your competence in the area of business valuation. This will help you understand how capital markets and private equity can be utilized by corporations to support their restructuring and expansion objectives. The course will expose you to a wide range of best and worst M&A business practices from around the world and from a wide range of industries through class discussions of cases and recent transactions.  

FINC S60 Investment Management

This course examines financial theory and the associated empirical evidence useful for making investment decisions. Topics include: behavior and distribution of stock returns; portfolio selection based on the mean-variance analysis; cross-sectional models of risk and return analysis (such as the CAPM, the Fama-French 3-factor model, and other multifactor models based on Ross’s APT); performance evaluation of mutual funds based on the market model; market efficiency including asset pricing anomalies and behavioral finance; bond valuation and the term structure of interest rates; interest rate risk management of bond portfolios by matching duration and convexity. This course involves several projects, including applications to real-world problems such as portfolio selection and investment management.  

FINC S63 Security Analysis

This course will develop students’ ability to use information contained in corporate financial statements to assess company performance and relative valuation. Participants will gather, analyze and interpret information from selected annual and quarterly reports as well as other publicly available sources, examine strategic decisions and assess the business’ competitive environment. The class will frequently have guided discussions, supplemented by formal theoretical concepts. Students are expected to learn and enhance their critical thinking through the breadth of presented perspectives and proposed solution approaches rather than by a single solution.  

FINC S64 Applied Finance in Fixed Income Markets

In this course, students will learn the characteristics of fixed income securities while examining the uniqueness of different tools to immunize and manage bond portfolios. Tools will include: duration of defaultable corporate bonds; convexity; yield curve models; option pricing models (which are used to understand the pricing and hedging of forwards, futures and swaps, asset-backed securities and other fixed-income derivatives). In this course, students will learn fixed income valuation and implement sophisticated approaches to master complex hedging strategies. We will methodically analyze financial theories and compute the required elements to be used in fixed-income valuation. In all cases, we will first stipulate and examine the set of theoretical assumptions underlying the specific tool; then present empirical evidence to test the validity of these pricing models employed. Since the quality of a theoretical model can be judged either by the logic of the underlying assumptions or by its predictive power, we will make an effort to bring empirical support into our classwork.  

FINC S78 Strategic Performance Management

This course uses financial analysis and the economics of contracts and management control systems, to provide an understanding of how corporate governance is related to shareholder value creation. We will analyze the nature of incentive conflicts in organizations and how contracts, governance arrangements, and market mechanisms might mitigate such conflicts. We will then apply theoretical concepts developed in analyzing value creation and destruction in specific contexts (such as decentralization), and examples of a corporate restructuring (such as mergers, acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, spin-offs, and leveraged recapitalizations, etc.).

LAW S30 Business Law

Business Law will acquaint students with the concepts and applications of the law of contracts. Guest lecturers are invited throughout the course to discuss various topics including: business organization; securities regulation; mergers & acquisitions; tax planning; international contracts; administrative law for business; international economic law; and intellectual property law.

MORS S35 ROI in Human Capital

This course focuses on the benefits of implementing strategic HR programs in an organization and measuring the effectiveness of such programs to ensure they serve to successfully execute business strategy and goals. We will focus on measuring the effectiveness of strategic human resource management practices including: recruiting and staffing; training and development; compensation and benefits; career and leadership development; and performance management. The course will also include developing HR scorecards and dashboards to track the implementation of strategic human resource management programs that are directly linked to the achievement of key business goals. The course will include a methodology for collecting and analyzing data, the development of specific measurements, conducting cost/benefit analysis, calculating the return on investment (ROI) in strategic human resource management practices and using the outcomes of the measurements to make recommendations for changes and improvements.  

MORS S38 Managing Human Capital in a Global Context

This course will be an advanced course on the management of human capital in global business. Frequently the single largest line-item investment which enterprises make is people. While home country laws and situations may be easily handled by most companies, the complexities involved in leading and managing people across borders cannot be underestimated. This class will have a clear focus on global issues and will revolve around the five recognized domains of Global Human Capital: Strategic HR Management; Global Talent Acquisition and Mobility; Global Compensation and Benefits; Organizational Effectiveness and Talent Development; Workforce Relations and Risk Management. Although Thai practices will be referenced, the focus will be on cross-border issues, particularly some of the more frequent business destinations in the world: The EU, the US, China, India, the UK, and Canada. This course focuses on the issues and impact of human resources in global enterprises.  

MORS S452 Management of Organizational Change

This course provides knowledge and skills that will help participants diagnose and implement organizational change in a way that minimizes resistance and maximizes acceptance and commitment to change. The objectives are to develop an understanding of the complexity and dynamics of change in organizations, to discuss and evaluate the different strategies, and to examine the role of the leader as a change agent.  

MORS S88 Leadership through Creativity and Innovation

Creativity is about thinking new things; innovation is about doing new things; leadership is the linking pin holding everything in that creative process together and directing an idea into a useful result – the innovation. Leaders cope with change and help people to connect with customers, colleagues, and the unrelated world in order to get ideas out of that exposure. The nurture and promotion of creativity should be the foundation of everybody’s job description. It’s not just artists, musicians, and designers who need to be creative. Dr. Alex always says: “No matter whether you are a rockstar, nurse or CEO you need creativity to lead.” Therefore, we will discuss: why do leaders grow with creative and innovative habits; how to prepare yourself to create new ideas; and how to implement innovations using 5 brain tactics and 27 creative steps, Students will learn how to change a culture by un-usual thinking and action. They will learn to ask stimulating questions in order to receive new ideas from employees. The objective is to identify your signature strengths and develop a leadership style to ‘inspire’ your team. This means a leadership style generating and realizing ideas, which leads to top performance.

DECS S50 Decision Analysis

This course is designed to help us better define the problems we face so we can make better decisions. It provides effective quantitative methods and useful tools for organizing complex decision problems into structures that can be effectively analyzed in the decision-making process. In this course, we emphasize the quantitative and analytical aspects, rather than the behavioral or qualitative aspects of decision-making. Theories, concepts, and methodologies in the decision-making process and mathematical modeling skills are the main focus. Topics covered will include: decision-making under certainty and uncertainty; value of information; utility theory; sensitivity analysis; and risk quantification. The course focuses on the practical application of the quantitative methodology to solve real-world decision problems taken from the realms of capital investment, bidding, purchasing, inspection, inventory control, and other areas. Prerequisites: Introductory courses in probability and statistics. General proficiency with Microsoft Excel.  

DECS S51 Judgement and Managerial Decision Making

This course is designed to provide students with the concepts and insights related to judgment and decision-making from a wide range of disciplines: behavioral economics, behavioral science, cognitive science, consumer behavior, decision science, neuroscience, organizational behavior, political science, and social psychology. Students will learn how and why people’s decisions and behaviors deviate from the optimum. They will also learn how to predict and manage these irrational decisions and behaviors. Managers, leaders, investors, and consumers at all levels can benefit from knowing the arts and sciences related to judgment and decision-making and from using these insights to make better decisions both in a business context and in one’s personal life.  

MGMT S52 Global Strategy: Asian Digital Ecosystems

An integration of the preceding courses through the study of strategy formulation, implementation functions, and responsibilities of top-level management, the topics include: corporate strategy, competitive strategy, analytic methods for evaluating strategy, key corporate decisions, the design of formal organizational structure planning and control systems, reward and sanction systems, the selection and training of key personnel, and the leadership role of the chief executive officer. Cases and readings are drawn from a variety of organizations.  

MGMT S55 Strategic IT Decision Making for Executives

This course will provide a sound foundation in essential enterprise technology and management issues. Topics covered include: return on investment (ROI) for technology projects; risk and rewards of implementing new technologies; ERP deployment best practices; CRM selection; technology project and product management; outsourcing; IT portfolio management; and strategies for working with IT. Class lectures are complemented by four classic case discussions on strategic and management issues of enterprise technology. MGMT S55 is a key requirement for the New Hybrid Executives.  

MGMT S62 Entrepreneurial Management

This course introduces students to entrepreneurship and business planning for new business initiatives in the global business environment. Topics include: entrepreneurial attitudes, abilities, and behaviors; business plan development; opportunity recognition and viability screening; first-mover advantages and disadvantages; risk recognition and risk reduction strategies; intellectual property protection; new venture strategy, marketing, and funding; financial analysis of the new venture, and negotiation of equity participation in the new venture. Students will form groups to discuss and critique business plans and/or case studies during the course, and will ultimately produce and present their own business plan for a proposed new venture.  

MGMT S64 Creating Business Value through Technology Management

This course introduces students to important technology-based business trends and provides an overview of various emerging technologies, particularly web 2.0 technologies. Students will themselves explore technologies and applications to have a general understanding of contemporary web applications that enhance the possibilities for social interaction, the exchange of information and content creation, and the use of these applications for business benefits.  In addition, the course culminates in a discussion of the potential business impacts and managerial implications of these technologies as well as guidance on how to select and deploy them effectively. The course is designed to reflect the technological business environment particularly in Thailand and with an awareness of the potentially important role of other Asian countries, which not only react to but can also shape innovation and technology-based business trends.  

MGMT S66 Managing Demographic Shift

This course highlights how marketing deals with demographic shifts. It introduces students to insights about population changes and trends that can affect business planning and business decisions, and how to practically apply demographic principles, data and methods in marketing and business planning. Topics include: business demography as a decision-making discipline; demography and demographic shift; population mobility and business implication; fertility patterns and the business environment; changing population composition: and their implications for marketing and business planning. Students will discuss demographic data and demographic trends as part of the business environment and will form groups to produce and present their own analyses of how to profitably apply the demographic perspective in decision making.  

MGMT S910 Strategic Crisis Management

Strategic Crisis Management provides conceptual tools for managers in high-pressure, complex crisis situations. Topics include management and media, dealing with activists and interest groups, and surviving legal, legislative and regulatory challenges.  

MGMT S93 Culturally Intelligent Leadership

Students in this course will expand their skills in understanding cultural competence as an indispensable tool for doing business in a globalized world, and to train leaders on how to develop their cultural intelligence to augment the effectiveness of their leadership. Students will learn philosophical differences between East and West and will be able to articulate how those differences inform cross-cultural business transactions. They will explore the cultural framework that shapes their own leadership behaviors and will develop four capabilities necessary for cultural intelligence leadership: drive, knowledge, strategy, and action. Students will also familiarize themselves with eight scales that map the world’s culture and will develop global dexterity by creating strategies for working with people who function with cultural maps different from their own.  

MECN S41 Industrial Structure and Strategy Formulation

This course is an analysis of the determinants and nature of competition in a variety of industry structures. Industrial Structure and Strategy Formulation considers how the structure of a firm’s industry affects its strategic choices and performance. Special attention is given to the possibility that the firm’s strategic commitments may change the structure of its industry. Topics discussed include: the dynamic aspects of pricing, entry, and exit in concentrated industries; and product differentiation, advertising, and technological change as competitive strategies. This course introduces students to important economic aspects of the ever-increasing global market in which companies operate. It reviews the causes, developments, and risks of international trade, foreign direct investment, the foreign exchange market, and international monetary systems.  

MECN S46 Pricing Decisions for Managers

This course provides students with an opportunity to develop a systematic framework for assessing and formulating pricing strategies. Economic, marketing, organizational, psychological and competitive factors all affect the pricing decision and each of these presents an interesting aspect of the pricing problem. The course revolves around understanding how one may go about making a pricing decision while keeping in mind these factors. To achieve this objective, we will learn appropriate concepts, methods, and explore new approaches for formulating pricing strategy. This course is less about the mechanics of setting a price-it is more about understanding the process of making pricing decisions. The course will use a combination of lectures, cases, and exercises. Assignments will be in the form of reading (text and relevant articles), case preparation and discussion, problems for discussion, and a case write-up.  

MECN S50 Macroeconomic Models for Management

This course examines the impact of fiscal and monetary policies and other critical private sector factors on such macroeconomic variables as GNP, interest rates, unemployment, government budget deficits, inflation, and recession.  

MECN S55 The World Economy

This course introduces students to important economic aspects of the ever-increasing global market in which companies operate. It discussed causes, developments, and risks of international trade, foreign direct investment, the foreign exchange market, and international monetary systems. A special focus is on crisis developments, crisis prevention, and crisis management. The course combines the examination of concepts and the discussion of cases and highlights how economic linkages between countries affect firms and how they can respond to unfavorable developments.

MKTG S465 Managing New Products and Services

This course answers the manager’s question: “What do I need to know and do as a marketer in order to develop a successful new product?” Participants will gain a firm understanding of the steps necessary to bring a new product from concept to successful launch. The course is case-based and example-driven. Illustrations and discussions will encompass consumer packaged goods, high tech and consumer electronics, biotechnology, agribusiness, entertainment, B2B, international and many other industries. The course content will help those pursuing careers in brand management, marketing, project management, marketing research, new product and service consulting, venture capital, and entrepreneurial ventures.  

MKTG S50 Market Survey and Research Methodology

Market Survey and Research Methodology explores the gathering of market-related data from individuals and business firms, with a particular emphasis on problem formulation, research process, questionnaire design and sampling. The proper use of data analysis methods is also studied. The objective is to demonstrate how research can help managers make better marketing decisions.  

MKTG S52 Consumption and Marketing Management

Contemporary marketing requires a holistic understanding of consumers’ behaviors as they interact in marketplaces around the globe. Consumption and Marketing Management will help you comprehend, stimulate and manage the marketing forces that shape and reflect consumption. You will grasp the market as a complex system of material and metaphysical interactions, and learn to manipulate these intersections in a pro-social, ethical manner. This course encourages you to understand marketing as a subtly interlocking psychological and socio-cultural system. You will explore the instrumental and expressive behavior of stakeholders engaged in creating, circulating and transforming resources. Tempering interdisciplinary perspectives with a symbolic cast and combining the techniques of systematic introspection with participant observation, you will examine the many ways that consumption permeates daily life. You will learn to animate the stuff of life. Positive and normative managerial interventions will be thoroughly considered; consumer creativity will be interpreted as well. Marketers’ and consumers’ misbehavior will also be probed. This course is especially attentive to the interplay of macro- and micro-level forces that shape our marketing practices.  

MKTG S54 Communicating with Consumers

In recent years, the number of brands and media that consumers can choose from has exploded. Consequently, the need for brands to engage with potential consumers has never been more urgent. How do you get through to your core audience effectively and efficiently, moving them from awareness to purchase and, eventually, loyalty? Communicating with Consumers aims to help you answer this question, by providing a balanced analysis of communication strategy and execution. We will discuss the key communication challenges in today’s marketplace and you will learn about frameworks that help you communicate with your customers and build your brand in a dynamic environment. Although our main focus will be on advertising, we will also address other key elements of integrated marketing communication strategies that, done coherently and well, enable marketers to be most effective. Throughout, the course will stress the importance of customer insight as a basis for creating and executing optimal communication strategies.  

MKTG S55 Marketing for a Digital Age

Digital media are sweeping the world. The ways people get information and relay information are changing dramatically. These changes have a major impact on marketing. Digital marketing (digimarketing) is marketing for the digital age. It’s a lot more than simply moving what we did in traditional print, radio, TV, and outdoor onto digital devices. Digital media have new capabilities. Digital media are inherently consumer-controlled and participative. This course explores the implications of digital media for marketing in a hands-on practical environment. Digital marketing is the future of marketing.  

MKTG S59 Services and Hospitality Marketing Management

Services and Hospitality Marketing Management examines the marketing and managerial implications of the differences between goods and services. A wide variety of services are examined, such as travel, professional services, hospitals, banks, hotels, churches, sports clubs, and theme parks. The course discusses many service marketing concepts, including the relationship between the service provider and customer, the real-time experience of services, customer satisfaction, and service quality.  

MKTG S64 Managing Brands and Brand Experience

Managing Brands and Brand Experience introduces students to an understanding of the need to differentiate products and services in today’s world of alternatives, which provides consumers with the power of choice. A strong brand can have a dramatic impact on a purchasing decision. Strong brands will transcend industries and provide an organization with one of its most valuable assets. This course blends the theory and practice of product, brand and experiential management in a comfortable, supportive classroom environment that promotes active learning. A good theory is invaluable because it structures problems and suggests possible solutions. The business process of mission and strategy creation through brand, identity, and experiential development and execution is presented and reinforced through case studies, in-class activities and a course project for practical application and experiential learning. Branding is both an art and a science. Thus, few branding situations have a definitive, unqualified answer as to the “best” marketing programs. By providing you with relevant and comprehensive theories, and all the accompanying ideas, concepts, mechanisms, and models that go along with that, you can make more informed decisions that will have a greater probability of success. This course will focus on: analytical and decision-making by the use of several case analyses; creative skills; teamwork in the group assignment cases and final project; effective communication skills in the discussion of case analyses and in-class activities  

MKTG S76 Marketing Analytics

In today’s environment, Chief Marketing Officers require tools and techniques to both quantify the strategic value of marketing initiatives and to maximize marketing campaign performance. This course emphasizes many of the analytic marketing tools commonly used in the management consulting industry.  The course is designed to help marketers demonstrate the return on investment (ROI) of marketing and leverage data from marketing analytics to make better and more informed marketing management decisions. The course covers marketing measurement and analytic marketing for brand positioning, new product development, customer value-based segmentation, customer lifetime value management, and resource allocation.  Students will be required to use a simplified version of marketing decision support systems called Marketing Engineering for Excel, have access to real data sources, and will conduct hands-on marketing analysis.  

MKTG S79 Innovation for Future Fitness

Are you fit for the future? Will your product, organization, community, city or country survive and thrive in 10, 20, 50 or even 100 years? This course will introduce you to the mega-trends and futures-thinking tools you will need to be more resilient and sustainable in the 21st century. We live in a world that is changing faster and challenging us more than ever before. Great progress has been made in lifting people out of poverty, advancing scientific frontiers, connecting the globe with technology and making knowledge more accessible. At the same time, there are disturbing trends of increasing inequality, catastrophic destruction of ecosystems and loss of species, pervasive corruption, increasingly volatile and dangerous climate change, waves of forced migration and floods of refugees, a rise of religious extremism and the omnipresent threat of terrorism. The question is: how can we – as individuals, businesses, communities, and policy-makers – prepare for the future? How can we maximize our chances of success, not only by being ready but also by helping to shape the future that we desire? The course uses the 5-S Integrated Value Framework developed by Dr. Wayne Visser at Kaleidoscope Futures Lab. Ltd as a lens through which to view emergent issues and trends. The 5-Ss of future-fitness are: Secure – a future which we are more healthy, secure and resilient (looking at OH&S, toxicity, risk & emergency preparedness); Smart – a future in which we are more educated, connected and responsive (looking at connectivity, access to knowledge, R&D investment); Shared – a future in which we are more fair, diverse and inclusive (looking at value distribution, stakeholder participation, diversity); Sustainable – a future in which we are more renewable, enduring and evolutionary (looking at cradle-to-cradle resourcing, externality pricing, and footprint analysis); Satisfying – a future in which our lives are more beneficial, beautiful and meaningful (looking at quality standards, levels of satisfaction, happiness). We will also look at the 7-steps for implementing Integrated Value in organizations, as follows: Rethinking patterns – Modelling the key dynamics of the operating environment for sustainability; Realigning partners – Capturing the material concerns & expectations of key stakeholders; Renewing principles – Uncovering & aligning the organization’s shared, synergistic values; Redefining purpose – Reflecting on the strategic aspirations versus the systems map & stakeholders’ needs; Reassessing performance – Identifying appropriate metrics for reporting on value creation & sustainability impacts; Redesigning products – Applying innovative ways of thinking to products, services & business models; Reshaping playing-fields – Reviewing government policies & codes that incentivize sustainable transformation.

OPNS S50 Analytical Decision Modeling

The course focuses on structuring, analyzing, and solving managerial decision problems in Excel spreadsheets.  Problems involving optimal resource allocation and risk analysis are studied through applications in operations, finance, and marketing. Some decision analysis, data analysis, and forecasting are also covered. The course assumes a working knowledge of Microsoft Excel.  

OPNS S75 Managing Projects for Executives

The course focuses on the basic concepts and tools in project management for executives in businesses in general. Topics will include a systems approach to project management, project selection and evaluation (NPV, IRR, decisions under uncertainty and risk, scoring models, etc.), organizational concepts in project management (functional, project, and matrix organizations), project planning (WBS, RIM, RBS, CPM, PERT, etc.), project monitoring and control (EVA dashboard, etc.), and project termination. The objective is to get insight into human behavior, understand organizational issues, and learn quantitative methods that are necessary for successful project management. The course has a strong emphasis on team work and a significant amount of interaction is expected during lectures, assignments, and project presentations.

Special Topics in Global Business

This course offers dynamic discussions on emerging and timely issues shaping the global business landscape. Topics vary each year and may include disruptive technologies, economic shifts, sustainability trends, and geopolitical developments—ensuring students stay informed and engaged with the world’s most pressing business challenges.