Course Descriptions

Core Courses

BUS 510 Building an Innovative and Sustainable Business

An introductory course that focuses on the fundamentals of doing business in an increasingly interconnected world where rapid information flows, environmental degradation and societal challenges (e.g., poverty, ethics) can be viewed as both threats and opportunities facing for-profit enterprises. Students will be exposed to the basics of starting, growing and running a profitable business, and also learn how to do so in an environmentally and socially sustainable fashion. They will learn how companies create and capture value and how to analyze the business environment including, industry, competitors and customers. They will be introduced to corporate, business and functional strategy and learn about different business functions (accounting, finance, operations, marketing and information management).  Students will be introduced to the critical challenges of global sustainability and will explore, through case studies, how leading companies are implementing triple-bottom-line accounting, sustainable growth and stakeholder value creation strategies. Finally, they will develop a business idea to start a brand new company that has sustainable growth in its mission statement. Prerequisite: None. 

BUS 550 Business Analytics for Competitive Advantage

This course covers statistics, optimization, and simulation, tools that are critical for managers in enabling their firms to have a competitive advantage. Topics include: probability, sampling, estimation, hypothesis testing, linear regression, goodness-of-fit tests, linear optimization models, nonlinear optimization models and managerial decision making under uncertainty. The models address problems in finance, marketing and operations and include such applications as media selection, capital budgeting, portfolio selection, advertising effectiveness, facility location, distribution planning and production planning. The focus of the course is on using business analytics to build models and using software to aid in decision-making. Prerequisite: None.

BUS 590 Business Innovation in the Next Economy (Integrated Capstone Course)

This is a forward-looking, experiential course that presents the "big-picture" view of how small, medium and large companies need to compete in the Next Economy, where integrative and creative problem solving is vital. The course integrates the key lessons from the MBA, MS EMS and MS MAC programs to enable students to solve the real-world problems that actual companies face. The course is heavily project based: cross-disciplinary teams of students will act as management consultants to companies to identify and solve problems taking a holistic and integrative perspective. There will be lectures on various aspects of business strategy, sustainability, systems thinking, execution, innovation and team effectiveness from faculty members and industry experts. Student teams will present their findings to fellow students, faculty members and client companies. Prerequisite: Students should have successfully completed all of their respective program core courses.

MBA 501 Accounting for Strategic Decision Making

This course is an introduction to basic financial and managerial accounting topics: GAAP, the major financial statements, accrual accounting, financial reporting alternatives, professional ethics, financial statement analysis, cost behavior, cost systems, short- and long-term decision-making with strategic considerations, and product costing, and a review of environmental accounting. Prerequisite: None

MBA 502 Emerging Issues in the Global Business Environment

The course helps students understand the complexities of the globally interconnected world of business they will be working in after graduation. It will set the background and context for their entire graduate business education, focusing on emerging trends across six major aspects of the global business environment: Political, Economic, Socio-cultural, Technological, Legal and the Natural Environment. Special focus will be on ethical considerations in cross-cultural settingd. Students will be exposed to a mix of theories and managerial tools that will help them analyze opportunities and threats within the global business environment and draw managerial insights. Prerequisites: None.

MBA 504 Spreadsheet Modeling

Spreadsheets are a popular model-building environment for managers. Add-ins and enhancements to Excel have made powerful decision-making tools available to the manager. This course covers how to use the spreadsheet to develop and utilize some of these decision-making aids. Topics include: forecasting (both regression and time series), decision-making under uncertainty and decision trees, optimization, and probabilistic simulation using. Prerequisite: None.

MBA 505 Contemporary Economic Analysis & Game Theory

This course applies economic principles to key decisions with organizations and solidifies intuition for understanding the business environments in which organizations operate. A key objective of the course is to develop tools useful in other Stuart courses: Economics is a key foundation for much of what is taught in finance, marketing, business strategy, environmental management, and virtually every other course in the graduate program. Economics is a way of thinking about problems, issues, and decisions that managers face in each of the functional areas of their organization. It stresses the importance of incentives on human decision making and emphasizes the consideration of costs and benefits when making decisions. The course introduces and develops concepts in areas of Microeconomics such as competition and market structure, incentive contracts, and pricing. Topics covered range from the most basic demand-and-supply models to principal-agent models and the economics of information. The course will also touch on some primary Macroeconomic topics (GDP, inflation, and unemployment); topics in Game Theory (simultaneous and sequential games); and issues of ethics in economic policy-making pertaining to competitive and oligopolistic markets, pricing, and trade. Prerequisite: None.

MBA 506 Leading & Managing Knowledge-Intensive Organizations

This course builds awareness and understanding of the behavior of individuals and groups in organizations, preparing managers to be more effective within their organizational contexts. Topics include individual differences in motivation, perception, culture and learning style; group and organizational dynamics; and the impact of organizational structure and design on behavior. Leadership techniques for influencing other organizational members, creative problem-solving and decision-making, ethics and values-based managing are covered. This course helps students relate basic theories, concepts, and techniques to real-world situations through the extensive use of case studies. Prerequisite: BUS 510.

MBA 509 Financial Management in a Globalized World

Student will learn the concepts and processes that underlay enlightened financial decision making. The course explores how to raise both debt and equity capital; how to think about what portion of earnings to retain and reinvest and whether to share earnings with stockholders via dividend payments or repurchase of shares; how to value stocks and bonds; how to distinguish good from bad financial decision rules; how to decide which projects a firm should engage in; how to use futures, options and swaps to manage firm risk; how to ensure good corporate governance; why sustainability can be profitable while still protecting future generations; and how to manage the financial decisions required to effectively operate in a global setting. Prerequisites: BUS 510 & MBA 501.

MBA 511 Creating, Communicating and Delivering Customer Value

This course provides an introduction to the Marketing practice and strategy. Marketing activities are those processes and functions that enable managers and policy makers to identify and serve the values and needs of a customer given the capacities of the company, activities of competitors, and inherent constraints in the business environment. Marketers typically refer to these concepts as “the four Cs.” Based on their understanding of the “four Cs”, students will then learn how to implement strategy by applying the levers of the marketing mix. These elements are known as the "four Ps" (product, price, place/channels of distribution, and promotion). Our treatment of marketing constraints and the marketing mix will be motivated by essential foundations from economics, sociology and consumer behavior. Prerequisite: BUS 510.

MBA 513 Operations and Technology Management

This course helps students gain an understanding of the concepts and skills needed for the design and control of operations in both services and manufacturing organizations. We take a strategic and “general management” approach to the design of an “operating system” and its supporting organizational structure and infrastructure, including Information Systems, Human Resource Management and Financial Policies. Our focus is on the strategic role of operations and technology decisions as a source of competitive advantage for the firm; with an emphasis on the integration of R&D/Design/Engineering, operations and marketing within the context of the Business Unit’s strategy. The course emphasizes the analytical tools and techniques used to make decisions about production facilities and capacity, choices of technology and equipment, task and process design, organizational architecture, human resources policies and the physical and managerial control of operations. Case studies provide opportunities for students to develop their skills in process design and choice, process mapping, critical thinking, identification of “problems” vs. “symptoms”, process improvement, and capacity measurement, and simulations provide an opportunity to practice the management of a particular operating system. Prerequisite: BUS 510.

Elective Courses

MBA 518 Ethics & Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate scandals and the implosions of the past decade, climaxing in the recent global financial crisis and environmental disasters, have highlighted how critical ethical, environmental and socially responsible decision making and leadership are to the long-term survival and success of both individual businesses and society. Concomitantly, the role of business is changing: from meeting a social contract to realizing tangible economic gains by creating shared value. In today’s global environment, societal needs are defining markets and key issues range from poverty, hunger, water, sustainability, climate change and MNC roles in developing economies. Ethical issues include bribery, fraud, and green-washing all the way to a culture of corruption. Corporations and leaders have to manage corporate social responsibility not just as a moral obligation or risk/reputation management exercise, but integrate it in their global strategy. This course teaches students how these issues are integrated in business through strategy and structure and how to build new competencies in managing transparency, accountability, stakeholder engagement, ethics culture and social innovation that are critical for business success in the Next Economy. Pre-requisite: BUS 510 or instructor permission.

MBA 522 The General Manager

This course focuses on General Management and General Managers and the challenges of creating and sustaining competitive advantage by maintaining the “fit” between industry competitive structure, strategy, organization structure, tactics and execution at both the corporate and the business unit level. We are concerned with both the problem of choosing what businesses the firm wants to engage in (the ‘portfolio’ and diversification of risks); and the task of maximizing profits in the specific businesses the corporation has chosen to enter. Using case discussions and the CAPSIM game, we will take the choice of business as a ‘given’ and focus on how to create a strategy and the ‘network of activities’ or ‘value chain’ that implements/executes the strategy of the Strategic Business Unit (SBU), taking into account the interactions and trade-offs among marketing, production, finance, engineering and human resources decisions as the industry structure changes over time and in the context of active competitors. We will also be looking at the corporate level choices of entering or growing or exiting various businesses/markets, the tactics/activities used to execute corporate strategy, the organization structure issues of very large multi – business firms, and the relationships among SBU’s and between Corporate Headquarters and the Strategic Business Units.  Prerequisite: Completion of program core or Instructor permission.

MBA 523 Negotiations and Strategic Decision Making

This course is designed to foster an understanding of incentives and strategic decision making as they apply to negotiations. The course has both theoretical and applied components with the objective of addressing both theory and skills as they apply to dyadic and multiparty negotiations, to buyer-seller transactions, to competitors' interactions, to the resolution of disputes, and to the development of negotiation strategies. The theoretical component is focused on an analytical study of strategic interactions using game theory, while the applied component is based on a series of simulated negotiations in a variety of contexts including one-on-one, multiparty, and team negotiations. The objectives of the course are to provide an analytical foundation, to show where practice and theory diverge, and to provide a forum where negotiation tools in a variety of business-oriented settings can be actively applied. Prerequisite: Instructor permission.

MBA 524 Leadership in Multicultural Organizations

Managerial leadership is one of the primary drivers of an organization’s success. Not surprisingly organizations are demanding effective leadership skills from managers at all levels. This course is designed to enhance students’ understanding of leadership in contemporary organizations. Students will develop a conceptual framework of effective leadership in multinational organizations. Besides discussing leadership skills and traits particular attention will be devoted to exploring the influence of organizational and societal context on leadership. This course will be taught with an experiential learning approach. Through self-assessments, case analyses, and a variety of other exercises students will augment their leadership skills. Prerequisite: MBA 506.

MBA 526 Sustainable Supply Chain Management

We will present models and practices that minimize supply-demand mismatch and therefore maximize companies’ own profitability, as well as models and practices of collaboration with other companies in a supply chain that minimize risk and environmental costs and therefore maximize the supply chain’s sustainability. This course will have an emphasis on the integration of business and technology aspects. We will first introduce an integrated view of the production and logistics functions in organizations such as capacity analysis, inventory management, and logistics management. The course then discusses topics involved in the interaction of a firm with other players in a supply chain such as value of information, supply contracts, and risk sharing. Finally, the course will introduce models/tools enabling sustainability action plans, for example, reducing waste in the supply chain, both upstream and downstream. Pre-requisite: BUS 550.

MBA 528 Healthcare Management, Technology, Innovation

Healthcare is one of the most fundamental human problems around the world. Besides food and water, every one of the 7 billion people on earth needs healthcare. Yet, the current systems of healthcare delivery have inadequacies in providing quality care to all. In this respect technological innovations have begun to contribute creative solutions to the many problems that healthcare delivery systems face with access to care, affordability of care, and consistent quality of care. This course focuses on how the management of technology and innovation and business and strategy principles can converge to understand the trends, problems and potential solutions to the American healthcare delivery system and to other systems around the world. The course aims to acquaint the student with the issues and potential solutions of managing the healthcare delivery system. The healthcare sector has unique characteristics as both a social and business enterprise, where private and public organizations and enormous resources are involved. The student will gain knowledge about the structure of the healthcare delivery system and how technology and innovation are contributing to some solutions to its most pressing problems of access, affordability and quality of care. The student will also gain knowledge about the key technology dimensions and forces that shape the industry. Prerequisite: BUS 510.

MBA 529 Social Entrepreneurship

This course gives students a practical introduction to the exciting and rapidly growing field of social entrepreneurship. The course introduces students to contemporary understandings of poverty, its causes and traditional poverty alleviation strategies. It then turns to key concepts regarding social ventures including entrepreneurship, organizational structures (profit, non profit and hybrid), financing, marketing, and performance assessment (social and environmental impact). We will also examine the challenges that are faced in creating and operating social enterprises in different parts of the world. The course includes guest lectures by other Stuart School of Business faculty and social entrepreneurs working in different areas (such as health, education and environment). Students will gain hands-on experience by either developing a business plan for a social enterprise to address a specific real world problem or assisting an existing social venture in developing a business plan geared towards an expansion of its services; it is expected that the plans can be entered into a variety of social venture competitions. Through the course students will learn how to: (1) evaluate gaps and opportunities in a given context, (2) develop appropriate objectives and strategies for a social venture, (3) put together a business plan for a social enterprise, and (4) engage others and foster buy-in to their plans. Pre-requisite: BUS 510.

MBA 554 Project Management

This course addresses both analytical and behavioral skills for effective project management. Students will learn how to select a project portfolio, develop a work breakdown structure, estimate task times and costs, allocate and level resources, prepare Critical Path and PERT analyses, and assess earned-value project performance. A leading project management tool (MS Project) will be used for project management exercises. Much of the course content will be drawn from the Project Management Institute Common Body of Knowledge and Certification Program. Management of project risks, structure, team building and conflict will be addressed. A Project Management simulation game provides an opportunity to apply your team-based skills. A variety of project management cases across industries will be studied. Prerequisite: BUS 510 or instructor permission.

MBA 564 Competing in Emerging Markets

For Western MNCs, some of the most intriguing growth opportunities in the Next Economy exist in low-income segments in emerging and underdeveloped countries of the world, the so-called markets at the bottom of the income pyramid. Historically, MNCs targeted the customers at the top of the pyramid in these countries because their business models worked well for them. But as these bottom-of-the-pyramid markets become more economically profitable, MNCs need to make a serious attempt to evaluate and target them. In order to successfully compete for customers in these markets, MNCs should design innovative business models that could represent a radical departure from the way they do business in more advanced countries. This course is about such business model innovation. Students will learn tools of international market opportunity analysis; foreign market entry strategies; social, economical and ethical factors affecting decisions to serve low income customers; the stringent requirements of the customers at the bottom of the pyramid; and business models to profitably serve these customers. Prerequisite: BUS 510.

MBA 566 Understanding China: History, Politics and Economics

While the 21st century may or may not be called the Chinese century, there is no doubt that China has become a dominant political, economic and business force on the global stage. The fastest and the largest markets for many products and services are located in China. The supply chains for most manufacturing industries pass through China. Increasingly, China is becoming the base for high value-added activities, such as research and development. The center of economic gravity is shifting to China, and every aspiring business executive needs to understand China and how to do business with it. In this course, students learn about China’s history, politics and economics. Prerequisite: MBA 502 or instructor permission.

MBA 567 Chinese Language & Culture

The course provides non-Chinese business people an understanding of the Chinese language, culture, ethnic diversity, and traditions. Understanding culture is an essential first step to understanding business practices and customs. So the ultimate objective of this course is to help non-Chinese business people understand how to effectively deal with Chinese customers, suppliers and business partners. Prerequisite: None.

MBA 570 Business Study Mission to China

China has become a major business destination for companies from around the world. The success of managers and entrepreneurs around the world today may depend on how well they do business with Chinese customers, suppliers and partners. One of the best ways to understand this is through immersion. This course involves a business study mission trip to some of the epicenters of Chinese business, such as Shanghai. Students will be able to visit foreign and local manufacturing and service companies located in China, listen to business leaders and government officials, and enjoy cultural immersion experiences. Students will attend several briefing sessions prior to the visit and a debriefing session following the visit. Prerequisite: Instructor permission.

MBA 569 Competitiveness of Asian and Western Enterprises

This course helps students understand the economic context within which Asian enterprises and Western enterprises evolved, and how they tend to compete on very different factors. While many business principles are universal, the key drivers of competitiveness differ substantially between Asian and Western enterprises. More important, within these groups there could be significant nationality-based differences. The course provides an insightful comparative study of companies based in opposite ends of the world, and help students understand why they employ different sets of strategies to compete and succeed on the global stage. Prerequisite: MBA 502 or instructor permission.

MBA 575 Creativity and Contemporary Entrepreneurial Opportunities

Entrepreneurship focuses on the concepts, skills, and knowhow, information, attitudes and alternatives that are relevant for start-up and early-stage entrepreneurs, entrepreneurial managers and the relevant stakeholders. This course provides an introductory overview of the knowledge and skills needed for the identification, evaluation, and exploitation of opportunities in a variety of circumstances. It concentrates on the study of various innovative thinking in strategy, identifying and screening business opportunities, developing business models, preparing business plans, securing financing and managing high growth firms. It integrates knowledge gained from the prior core business courses (i.e., management, marketing, finance, accounting) to sharpen the student's ability to think innovatively and entrepreneurially and form new ventures. Students will be challenged to apply principles, concepts and frameworks to real world situations, culminating in a formal business plan. Prerequisites: BUS 510 or instructor consent.

MBA 576 Creating and Financing New Technology Ventures

The course concentrates on the study of entrepreneurship: preparation of business plans, methods for evaluating and screening new venture ideas, formulation and implementation of business strategies for new ventures, financing of new ventures and venture growth strategies and exits. It integrates knowledge gained from prior core business courses (i.e., management, marketing, finance, accounting) to sharpen the student's ability to think entrepreneurially and form new ventures. The course will also focus on identifying, examining and evaluating various sources of original and growth capital. Emphasis will be on legal, financial and tax issues related to capital formation as well as specific problems experienced by the small-to-medium-sized firm undergoing rapid growth in the high technology space. Topics discussed will include venture valuation, financing startups, financial planning and strategy, going public, selling out and bankruptcy. A formal proposal for capital-acquisition developed through field research will be required of each student. Prerequisite: BUS 510 or instructor consent.

MBA 577 Got Creativity? : Strategies & Tools for the Next Economy

This class looks at creativity from three broad perspectives: (1) personal creativity - how to think about this as a personal skill to be enhanced and trained; (2) organizational creativity - why it is job #1 for EVERY organization and how we can systematically enhance the innovation outputs of the enterprises we work for; and (3) civic creativity - how to lift creativity and innovation into sustainable policies for our cities and regions. We will be mixing presentations with performances. We will have experts visit the class. We will get up on our feet and do small group work and creativity exercises. We will visit creativity hot spots around Chicago and learn first-hand from their leaders on how to make environments that nourish innovation. We will learn about and work on 13 distinct personal creativity competencies. Finally, students will work in teams on special projects and present their work as performances during the last class before an invited audience of friends, family and faculty. Pre-requisite: BUS 510 or instructor consent.

MBA 581 Marketing Research & Engineering

This course tracks the three key aspects of the market research process: problem definition and research design, development of appropriate primary research tools (primarily survey design and implementation) and analysis and presentation. Marketing engineering focuses on specific data-driven marketing tools: regression, cluster analysis, conjoint, etc. and their application to specific marketing problems (segmentation and targeting, new product design and forecasting). Prerequisite: MBA 511.

MBA 586 Strategic Marketing Management

In this course we will emphasize both Marketing Strategy formulation and execution, and the Management of the Marketing Function. This includes the integration of marketing mix decisions; the longer-term effects of Marketing Mix decisions and changes in the mix over time. For example: “Price” becomes “price policy,” value-in-use, and price discrimination; “Product” becomes product line breadth and variety and product life cycle choices;  “Place” becomes the design and control of single or multiple channels of distribution; and “promotion” becomes communications, customer loyalty and brand equity.  The course will emphasize segmentation of the market; positioning the marketing mix to meet the needs of the market segment; sustaining an ‘integrated’ marketing mix over the product life cycle; and organizing the ‘Strategic Business Unit’ to implement the strategy.  In addition to the development of a marketing strategy that ‘positions’ the product/service to the needs of one or more target markets (segmentation); the execution of a marketing strategy will require a Marketing Plan that includes the economic and financial analysis of the costs and potential profits of the strategy and an implementation plan including an organizational structure.  This will often be an iterative process to find an optimal combination of costs and pricing and volume to maximize profits. This course will use readings, simulations and cases for about half its content.  The other half of the course will be a Team Consulting Project for an external client. Prerequisites: MBA 511.

MBA 587 Nonprofits and the Public Sector

This course provides an overview of the complex and important relationship between government and non-profits. This course includes a review of the history, funding schemes, the differences between grant and contract funding, recent trends, and much more. Prerequisites: None.

MBA 588 The Nonprofit Sector

This course considers the role played by the nonprofit sector in the larger American society and economy. Topics include major organizational forms, financial management, human resource policies, leadership, board-executive relations, and private-public connections. Prerequisites: None.

MBA 589 Regulatory Politics & Business

Regulatory activity remains government's major point of interaction with both business and citizens. Government regulation affects a myriad of activities and is the primary function of public administration. Regulation is a key variable of American economic activity, an issue of global concern and an expanding field of modern jurisprudence. This course is intended to provide an understanding of regulatory activity as influenced by changing social, technological and economic conditions within a context of dynamic political culture. It will familiarize students with a range of concepts concerning the role of 'positive government' and the growth of the American administrative state. The course will present regulation as a 'process' and examine the role of government, business and citizen interest group in regulatory development. It will present various types of regulatory activity and review federal, state and local regulatory networks and responsibilities. The course will also examine the evolution of constitutional interpretation and the subsequent adaptations of American law to facilitate changing and regulatory actions. Prerequisites: None.

MBA 595 Special Topics in Business Administration

This course covers contemporary or cutting edge topics in the Business Administration field offered on an irregular basis typically in a seminar style. Prerequisite: Instructor permission.

MBA 597 Independent Study in Business Administration

Students can conduct in-depth research, usually on an independent and solo basis, under the guidance of a full-time faculty member. Typically student signs up with a faculty member who is willing to supervise his/her independent research on a particular Business Administration related topic. The student has to complete the independent study form, develop a one page proposal outlining the Purpose, Process and Product (expected outcomes) of the independent research project, get the faculty member’s approval and submit it to the Program Director for approval and registration. Prerequisite: Instructor and Program Director Approval.