The techniques of quantitative analysis are deployed against problems in such diverse areas as financial management, quality control, public budgeting, research and development, compensation analysis, and market research. Upon successful completion of this course, students should be an intelligent interpreter and user of data and statistical information. This includes different types of data and how they are obtained, the range of statistical processes for transforming data into useful and actionable information, a working familiarity and self-sufficiency with basic computational tools of data summary, analysis, and modeling, and the ability to effectively communicate the results of quantitative analyses with numerical and graphical tools. The joint emphasis on the development and implementation of tools is enhanced through an even division of classroom lectures and weekly small group laboratories.
This course focuses on individuals and teams in organizations, related HR management processes, organizational design, change processes and the broader global context in which organizations operate. It emphasizes how to diagnose and analyze individual and group behavior from different perspectives (using strategic, political and cultural lenses) and various levels (micro, meso and macro) of the organization. The goal of the course is to enhance your knowledge of management concepts and theories so that you can increase organizational effectiveness in terms of better managing yourself, other individuals, and teams, understand the impact of organizational design, power and authority, improve decision-making, manage change processes and the potentially conflicting demands of various stakeholders of the organization. The outcome of this course is to identify leading management practices and appropriate courses of managerial action in a legally compliant and ethical manner. This graduate-level management course should make you a more effective manager independently of your employment sector (private, public and non-profit). Selected cases, instructional vignettes and interactive class exercises are used to apply management concepts to real-world applications. You will learn from your own pre-class readings, lectures, discussions, cases, vignettes, application exercises and your interactions with a diverse group of peers.
This course is structured in three parts. Part one follows an accountant as they record the events that impact the firm in a journal using the accounting equation, tabulate the entries in a ledger, and format them in a standard way for reporting as financial statements. The second part introduces students to working directly with the financial reports that companies submit to the Securities and Exchange Commission, and that non-profit corporations submit to the Internal Revenue Service. The third part of the course acknowledges that, when the most important consideration is making good decisions, the accounting rules that we learned in parts one and two of the class can be relaxed. Once we understand the various categories and behaviors of costs we can use that knowledge to make better pricing, investing, and budgeting decisions.
Marketing is not advertising. Marketing is not persuading customers to purchase your products. The essence of marketing is to create satisfied customers. From a marketers perspective a satisfied customer is any entity whose expectations for performance of the product or service you provide is exceeded by the actual performance of the product or service. The course begins by building a model for creating satisfied customers in a for-profit setting in order to make sure everyone in the course understands the model. The model is then extended to the international for profit, the not-for-profit, and government settings. Students will understand how the principles in the private domestic sector are applicable to the public, not-for-profit and international contexts.
Consulting for Non-Profit and Public Organizations, and Achieving Your Career Goals. The project starts on the first day of class when each PACE team begins transforming their team of students into an organization of consultants who will provide management consulting services for a client organization. The service/consulting project provides a valuable opportunity to build real-world experience and contribute to the community through enhancing the operations of client service organization.
Developing a New Entrepreneurial Venture and Consulting for Non-Profit and Public Organizations. Students who want to go from thinking like an entrepreneur to being an entrepreneur can implement their PACE plan or an entirely different plan of their choice in the two semester second-year elective course New Ventures to Launch. The PACE 1 experience continues as students complete consulting projects with their not-for-profit or public clients. The end of the semester includes two major presentations: the delivering value for society presentation (describing the not-for-profit partnership) and the new ventures to market presentation (pitching business plans to a team of judges representing venture capitalists).
Required lab. Actial meeting times may vary.
This course introduces students to the fundamental tools of economic decision-making with a focus on preparing students for success in studying and understanding financial management. Economic decision-making is at the heart of rationally assessing incentives for employees, understanding market conditions and opportunities, and acts as the basis for the tools of financial management. Students are expected to apply insights from economics to all areas of management and have a firm grasp of the theory underlying financial management by the end of the term.
This course introduces students off all business disciplines to the fundamental concepts and techniques of financial management in the modern business enterprise. Financial decisions affect virtually all production, marketing, and management strategies. Evaluation of the financial risks, returns, and costs is the necessary framework in which all business policies must be examined. Students are expected to have a basic understanding of the concepts and methods of financial management by the completion of this course.
This course is largely a survey of concepts, principles, tools, and techniques widely used in production and service delivery organizations. It adopts as a unifying theme a consistent focus on process: its organizational dimensions, its analysis, its management and its improvement. While some important concepts require some math and statistics, Operations Management is not a quant course, per se. Indeed, you'll find that some of the softer ideas from organizational theory and behavior are equally important.
In this course, you will gain an understanding of E-Commerce and Digital Marketing and how a variety of organizations can successfully manage these key aspects of their Marketing programs. The first half of the course will focus on hands-on usage of E-Commerce, Website Analytics and associated digital tools to track and visualize real time information such as web traffic and sales conversions. Of note: The Adobe Analytics Challenge is a central component of this class. All students will enter the competition as part of the course: no prior training or knowledge of this program is required. This competition is very competitive, provides sizable cash prizes for winning teams and attracts high quality client partners (i.e., Nike in 2020; Disney in 2021; Hilton in 2022). Additional technical tools leveraged in this course will include Google Analytics, Excel and Tableau. Topics will span A/B Testing, Digital Marketing ROI Assessment, Dashboarding, Data Visualization and Campaign Performance Tracking, among others as well. Cases, readings and discussions to augment and extend students' understanding of E-Commerce and Digital Marketing will also be a core component throughout the duration of the course.
This course provides the foundation and knowledge needed for global management and how to do international business. Operating internationally requires considering a broad range of variables and relationships. In this course we study the environment, markets, institutions, challenges, strategy, and operations of international and cross-cultural management. We examine the globalization of business and associated challenges posed for the competitiveness of the modern enterprise, as well as orientations, strategies, and tactics appropriate for global management success. We consider the balance between strategy and management that are integrated and global, versus responsive and multidomestic.
Economic development is the study of regional poverty. Why is it that some regions fall into poverty and cant escape, even in the developed world? What can we do about this? The course focuses on studies of interventions into the lives, businesses and government of poor regions. For students interested in pursuing not-for-profit work, this course offers an overview of research into providing health, education and welfare services to the poorest people in society. For students interested in for profit work, this course provides the information necessary to take advantage of the great opportunity that these poor regions represent; these regions are effectively not achieving their full potential, and providing services that help alleviate that problem can be an opportunity to do well by doing good. For example, Muhammad Yunus has made a large, profitable enterprise out of specialized loans to the poorest people in the developing world. These loans have so positively influenced the lives of their recipients that Yunus was awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize. Finally, for those students interested in government work, the course deals with the provision of public services for the most needy and helps to explain how government decisions and action create or destroy opportunities.
(Fall Semester of two-semester course)A foundation will delegate to Atkinson School students grant-making responsibility for a dedicated pool of money in the context of this course. Students will specify grant proposal requirements, operationalize criteria, evaluate grant proposals, make funding recommendations, determine reporting/performance requirements, and the like. This is an experience characterized by the autonomy and associated fiduciary responsibility students experience in the Angel Investment Fund, ONeill Student Investment Fund, and other consequential learning activities offered by the Atkinson School. Students are required to take both semesters of the course to receive credit for either semester.
Analytics is defined as the scientific process of transforming data into insight for making better decisions. Analytical techniques are presented across various industries (e.g., utilities, healthcare, finance, or military) and in all kinds of business, government, and not-for-profit organizations. Management analytics is seen as an end-to-end process from identifying the management problem to evaluating and drawing conclusions about the prescribed solution through the use of analytics tools and methodologies. Management analytics is a strong blend of modern techniques and technologies that span three major areas: operations research and management sciences (OR/MS) methods such as simulation and optimization, advanced statistical methods in data mining and forecasting, and management information systems (MIS). This course teaches how to use generic OR/MS methods to analyze large amounts of data for better decision making. Windows-based Excel is required for this course. Windows-based Excel is required for this couse. NOTE: Windows-based computer required.
Accounting and Incentives in Organizations focuses on the influence of incentives on individuals' decisions, and how the mission and design of an organization affects performance measurement and incentives. The course will explore what motivates individual behavior, the conflicts that can arise between individuals and organizations, and how accounting systems and decision rights can be structured to reduce conflicts and direct individuals' actions towards actions that benefit the organization. Specific topics will include the Levers of Control framework, Balanced Scorecard, Responsibility Accounting, and performance evaluation measures such as Return on Investment (ROI) and Economic Value Added (EVA).
Valuation is the central issue of finance. This course focuses on developing analytical skills appropriate for valuation. Key outcomes include the ability to apply free cash flow analysis, financial ratio analysis, real option analysis, cost of capital estimation, and pro forma analysis to make and assess long term financial decisions.
In this course, you will gain an understanding of what marketing analytics is and how it can add value to an organization. The vast majority of time will be spent on learning how to do marketing analytics: this involves the analysis and interpretation of data to help make key decisions such as marketing tactics, resource allocation, and marketing funnel management. How to link the technical rigor of marketing analytics to organizational decision making effectively, efficiently, and ethically will also be discussed substantially. Tools leveraged will include: Excel, Tableau, Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics. Students will also have the opportunity to compete in the Adobe Analytics Challenge, an annual analytics-focused business case competition that partners with high-profile clients (i.e. Nike, Disney, etc.) to provide an excellent experiential learning opportunity solving real business problems with Big Data.
It relies on two texts that exist in both paper and digital with free access forms. The first half of the course is built around The Handbook of Regression Modeling in People Analytics: WIth Examples in R and Python by Keith McNulty Global Director of Talent Sciences at McKinsey and Company that covers models for discrete data types binary, ordered, nominal choices, counts of events, and survival/duration analysis. The link is here. The second half of the course relies on the excellent Forecasting, Principles and Practice, 3rd Edition, by Rob J. Hyndman and George Athanasopoulos of Monash University in Australia that is entirely supported by R libraries for time series problems. The link is here. The lectures will focus on intuition and the mathematical logic but the goal is to put the tools into practice. To this end, the expectations are weekly homework exercises with self-checks to insure that we can actually do what we are presented but there are two key summary deliverables: a project employing a detailed application of choice models near the middle and a project in time series forecasting due at the end of the term. Both will be presented at the end of the term.
In this course, we will draw on concepts and theories from organizational behavior, cognitive and social psychology, and behavioral economics in an effort to help students:Better understand how boundedly rational managers make decisions in organizationsLearn how to make more effective decisions, both individually and collectivelyPractice making decisions and negotiating outcomes in a variety of settingsDevelop sensitivity to the various intrapersonal and external influences on decision makingDevelop awareness and competency with interpersonal influence strategies within/across groupsThis course is designed to help future managers and leaders of all fields make better decisions by exploring and analyzing theories and research on decision making and negotiation strategy. More generally, the course covers experimental and theoretical work regarding the challenges that psychology offers to the rationalist expected utility model. A wide range of topics will aim to provide a critical overview of behavioral decision making, negotiation, and conflict resolution. Each week, students will participate in in-class decision making and negotiation exercises to extract a richer understanding and critical analysis of these concepts. The primary goal of the course is to develop students' effective decision making and negotiation strategies by examining contributions of modern behavioral economics, decision-making biases and other phenomena of special relevance to business and public policy.
Requirements for businesses to be increasingly conscious/oriented towards sustainable functions (e.g., environmental, social, governance (ESG)) has elevated substantially in recent years. As a consequence, suppliers have become critically important for firms in many manufacturing and service industries. This course will familiarize students with topics related to sustainable supply chain management, such as supply chain risk management, supplier auditing/evaluation, and tactics for improving supplier sustainability performance. Specific ESG issues will include (but are not limited to) carbon emissions, deforestation, land management, human rights violations, modern slavery, and the impact of policy on supplier relationship management (e.g., EU/AU Modern Slavery Act 2015/2018).
The course begins with the creation of a portfolio web presence for showcasing one's business analytics capabilities in the R language for data analysis and GitHub. With a tool for showcasing our creations in hand, we will next turn to integrated presentation tools and the creation of dashboards using flexdashboard and interactive tools for data analysis, summary, and visualization using R's shiny. We will conclude with advances in data visualization including linked visualizations and interactive visualizations most heavily relying on javascript tools ported to R. Applications in finance, operations, and marketing will provide our primary substantive illustrations.
Competitive pressures, resource constraints, and time-sensitive projects-not to mention myriad other demands-force managers to make quick judgments, rough estimates, and rapid decisions on a daily basis. How can managers enhance their ability to perform those actions successfully? This course draws on research from the behavioral sciences to help students discover the tools and ideas that facilitate managerial intelligence-that is, the ability to form judgments, devise estimates, and make decisions with speed and accuracy. Drawing on interdisciplinary research from the behavioral and social sciences, students will study how to: model the basic contours of individual, group, and interdependent choice scenarios; identify data relevant to judgment and choice problems; avoid cognitive biases common in judgment and decision scenarios; select useful heuristics that leverage regularities in the choice environment; identify mechanisms that facilitate cooperation and bargaining; evaluate the efficacy and ethics of choice architectures that shape others' decisions. While exploring these topics, students will complete verbal and written assignments that allow them to reflect upon the applicability of central concepts and tools to their current job tasks and workplace.
In today's fast-paced business environment, it is essential for managers to be equipped with the skills to automate processes and make data-driven decisions. This course equips students with the ability to analyze and visualize structured and unstructured data, such as numerical and textual information of financial statements. Students will learn how to code Web Applications to automate business processes. We will also discuss data formats and data sources that are important in businesses. Fundamental computational concepts are also taught. Students will acquire essential skills that are transferable to other programming paradigms.
Creative solutions in a business, governmental or non-profit organization must fulfill two criteria: novelty and value. In this class, you will discover creativity is a skill and, with time and practice, you can become proficient in this skill. Through instructor presentations, guest lectures, active dialogue, small group work, observing, diagramming, sketching, photography and video you will exercise your creative muscles, both individually and collaboratively. You will finish feeling more confident in your ability to develop innovative solutions to any business problem you encounter. Because at the end of the day, creativity is about problem solving and there is not a job in the world today that does not require problem solving.
Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have changed the workplace and expanded the frontiers of human productivity. GSM 6032: Managing with Artificial Intelligence introduces students to these advances via an introduction to AI tools and a survey of how managers are deploying AI systems across all managerial disciplines-from finance, marketing, and operations to accounting, human resources, and government relations. At each step of this survey, students will gain hands-on familiarity with the AI tools that they study, learning how to use AI systems for text and code completion, image generation, chat, editing, and assistant-building. This firsthand experience will place students in a position to assess the value of AI systems for their own endeavors and objectives, while also exposing students to the practical and ethical concerns raised by these technologies. The course assumes no prior knowledge of AI nor computer programming (this is not a course on the development of AI models or a deep study of their technical underpinnings). It seeks to remove the mystique surrounding these technologies so that students can become comfortable using them to advance their own personal and professional goals.
Public, private and not-for-profit organizations operate within a framework of rules at the global, national, state and local levels. This course looks at the impact of customs, policies, laws, regulations, technologies and trends on these rules, how interests in society influence rules informally and formally, and how organizations respond to opportunities and threats these rules create. Each nations unique governmental and procedural arrangements make cross sectoral relationships even more complex. Students will explore common and disparate features that impact management in a global economy and polity, incorporating the perspective of public service values including efficiency and objectivity, fairness and respect for the individual, accountability and transparency, and public trust.
The primary purpose of this course is understanding the process and tools for defining and implementing strategy. Strategy, as we will conceptualize it, is the route to long term competitive advantage and superior organizational performance. During the semester, we will use many different approaches to examine strategy across industries, geographies and time. Participants who apply themselves in this course should expect to confidently:. Enact the entire strategy process, including:. Analyzing a situation in a structured way,. Developing a variety of different and creative alternatives,. Deciding between those alternatives thoughtfully and systematically, and. Implementing the outcomes of those decisions effectively and pragmatically.. Engage in an intelligent conversation about strategy with their boss, MBA peers, consultants, suppliers, professional peers and employees, in a wide range of organizations.. Understand how your coursework at Atkinson has prepared you to define and implement a strategy.
Studies the process of policy formation, as well as the tools and methods used to conduct policy analysis. The course examines a variety of policy areas of current interest. Students prepare position papers, diagnosing policy problems and evaluating alternative solutions in terms of their political, economic, legal, and administrative feasibility.
Examines public cost-benefit analysis. Uses elementary capital budgeting, discounting, market analysis, and project costing to evaluate alternate public policies, and builds skills to communicate quantitative analysis clearly and persuasively to a lay audience. Topics include valuation of benefits and costs, including gains and losses to different groups, and the politics of cost-benefit analysis. Public policies examined include operating investments, physical investment and the environment, investments in human capital, intergovernmental grants, tax expenditures and social regulation.
This course presents the tools and techniques used to interpret publicly available accounting reports to evaluate the health and potential of organizations. Students will learn how to measure and analyze a firms current profitability and financial stability and how to forecast the firms future performance. They will learn how to benchmark a firm against its own past performance, competitor performance and industry performance, and how to apply financial statement analysis to financial statements of government and non-profit organizations. Upon completion of the course, each student will have the ability to generate logically consistent and defensible forecasts of a firms future financial performance.
This course provides the foundation and knowledge needed for global management and how to do international business. Operating internationally requires considering a broad range of variables and relationships. In this course we study the environment, markets, institutions, challenges, strategy, and operations of international and cross-cultural management. We examine the globalization of business and associated challenges posed for the competitiveness of the modern enterprise, as well as orientations, strategies, and tactics appropriate for global management success. We consider the balance between strategy and management that are integrated and global, versus responsive and multidomestic.
(Fall Semester of two-semester course) A foundation will delegate to Atkinson School students grant-making responsibility for a dedicated pool of money in the context of this course. Students will specify grant proposal requirements, operationalize criteria, evaluate grant proposals, make funding recommendations, determine reporting/performance requirements, and the like. This is an experience characterized by the autonomy and associated fiduciary responsibility students experience in the Angel Investment Fund, O'Neill Student Investment Fund, and other consequential learning activities offered by the Atkinson School. Students are required to take both semesters of the course to receive credit for either semester.
(Spring semeseter of two-semester course) A foundation will delegate to Atkinson School students grant-making responsibility for a dedicated pool of money in the context of this course. Students will specify grant proposal requirements, operationalize criteria, evaluate grant proposals, make funding recommendations, determine reporting/performance requirements, and the like. This is an experience characterized by the autonomy and associated fiduciary responsibility students experience in the Angel Investment Fund, ONeill Student Investment Fund, and other consequential learning activities offered by the Atkinson School. Students are required to take both semesters of the course to receive credit for either semester.
Analytics is defined as the scientific process of transforming data into insight for making better decisions. Analytical techniques are presented across various industries (e.g., utilities, healthcare, finance, or military) and in all kinds of business, government, and not-for-profit organizations. Management analytics is seen as an end-to-end process from identifying the management problem to evaluating and drawing conclusions about the prescribed solution through the use of analytics tools and methodologies. Management analytics is a strong blend of modern techniques and technologies that span three major areas: operations research and management sciences (OR/MS) methods such as simulation and optimization, advanced statistical methods in data mining and forecasting, and management information systems (MIS). This course teaches how to use generic OR/MS methods to analyze large amounts of data for better decision making. Windows-based Excel is required for this course. Windows-based Excel is required for this couse. NOTE: Windows-based computer required.
Accounting for Decision Making focuses on providing information that aids managers in planning, decision making, and monitoring the organizations performance. Analyses that support decision making are emphasized. The areas covered are cost behavior analysis, cost accounting systems, planning, and management control systems. Specific topics include Cost-Volume-Profit analysis, ABC costing, budgeting, variance analysis interpretation, short term decision making, and performance evaluation measures such as Return on Investment (ROI) and Economic Value Added (EVA). Additionally, the Balanced Scorecard and other managerial innovations will be covered. Applications for nonprofits and government organizations as well as for-profit firms are included. In addition to an intermediate managerial accounting text, course materials will include cases, applied exercises and current articles as appropriate.
Examines concepts and practices of planned organizational change and development. Course topics include methods and strategies for change, change recipients, entry processes, organizational diagnosis, intervention approaches, assessment of change and follow-up. Emphasizes the role of managers and their agents in designing, initiating and carrying out organizational changes. One-day simulation on organizational change, cost $50. The cost covers all materials, training and full access to the simulation for three additional months.
Valuation is the central issue of finance. This course focuses on developing analytical skills appropriate for valuation. Key outcomes include the ability to apply free cash flow analysis, financial ratio analysis, real option analysis, cost of capital estimation, and pro forma analysis to make and assess long term financial decisions.
In this course, we will draw on concepts and theories from organizational behavior, cognitive and social psychology, and behavioral economics in an effort to help students: Better understand how boundedly rational managers make decisions in organizations Learn how to make more effective decisions, both individually and collectively Practice making decisions and negotiating outcomes in a variety of settings Develop sensitivity to the various intrapersonal and external influences on decision making Develop awareness and competency with interpersonal influence strategies within/across groups This course is designed to help future managers and leaders of all fields make better decisions by exploring and analyzing theories and research on decision making and negotiation strategy. More generally, the course covers experimental and theoretical work regarding the challenges that psychology offers to the rationalist expected utility model. A wide range of topics will aim to provide a critical overview of behavioral decision making, negotiation, and conflict resolution. Each week, students will participate in in-class decision making and negotiation exercises to extract a richer understanding and critical analysis of these concepts. The primary goal of the course is to develop students' effective decision making and negotiation strategies by examining contributions of modern behavioral economics, decision-making biases and other phenomena of special relevance to business and public policy.
Business and Economic Forecasting is a fusion of two essential courses - an intermediate course in statistical modeling, coupled with a first course in forecasting (statistical modeling in the time domain.) Built on the introductory modeling content of the required Data Analysis course (GSM-5103), this course provides the natural statistical sequel. Business and Economic Forecasting covers quantitative forecasting techniques with emphasis on the analysis, modeling, and interpretation of time series data. Topics include multiple regression, exponential smoothing, decomposition methods, and Box-Jenkins / ARIMA models. Applications and case work span business, economics, and public policy. Computationally, we rely on a combination of tools - Excel, to support the expression of forecasting outcomes in the managerial context, and R, for its unmatched power and range.
In this course, students will learn the concepts, frameworks, and problem-solving tools of Lean Six Sigma. Lean Six Sigma is a synergized managerial concept of Lean and Six Sigma that results in reducing waste and cost, improving quality and speed, improving business processes, and achieving high organizational performance. A typical Lean Six Sigma project comprises the Leans waste elimination effort and the Six Sigma project based on the critical quality characteristics: The former aims at reducing or eliminating various types of waste (including defects, overproduction, waiting, nonutilized resources, transportation, inventory, motion, and excessive processing), while the latter aims at providing goods and service at a rate of 3.4 defects per million opportunities. This course should be useful for the students who are interested in pursuing their management careers in the area of Operations, Analysis and Systems or Sustainability Management.
Business dynamics is an introductory class on System Dynamics - a method of understanding the world that embraces complexity, feedback, and endogeneity. The class will prepare you to solve real-world problems using a system level view, translate your thinking into feedback diagrams, and evaluate competing explanations for surprising behavior. The class includes discussions and examples of government agencies, corporations, and non-profit groups that have used system dynamics to solve problems facing them. The class will also feature management flight simulators that allow you to test strategies before implementing them in an organization. Business Dynamics is not a math, accounting, or computer programming class. For more information about systems thinking see (http//www.systemdynamics.org/what-is-s/).
Database management is the foundation of any information system and plays a crucial role in the operations of all organizations in the business, government, and nonprofit sectors. This course introduces the fundamentals of modern database concepts and database development skills. Students learn to: analyze an enterprises data management requirements and integrate data management across functional areas; analyze the requirements of data management and design a conceptual database model using entity relationship modeling, relational design, and normalization; use the Structured Query Language (SQL), the current relational database standard, to implement the conceptual database model into a state-of-the art database management system such as MySQL or Microsoft Access; and use SQL to retrieve data to support business operations and decision making. Microsoft Access is required for this course. NOTE: Windows-based computer required.
Experiential learning course where MBA students learn the strategies and details involved with investing in entrepreneurial ventures. Students are embedded as active investing members in Angel investment groups throughout the Pacific Northwest; evaluating deal flow, performing due diligence and making investment decisions. Investment decisions are made by the students with the oversight of the Advisory Board. Additionally, students work on cutting edge research in the fields of angel investing, venture investing, entrepreneurship and economic development.
Experiential learning course where MBA students learn the strategies and details involved with investing in entrepreneurial ventures. Students are embedded as active investing members in Angel investment groups throughout the Pacific Northwest; evaluating deal flow, performing due diligence and making investment decisions. Investment decisions are made by the students with the oversight of the Advisory Board. Additionally, students work on cutting edge research in the fields of angel investing, venture investing, entrepreneurship and economic development.
The objective of the course is to understand how expert entrepreneurs think through opportunities and strategies as they create sustainable for-profit or not-for-profit organizations in an environment of uncertainty. The course will involve working sessions with entrepreneurs in the community, and involve sessions in Portland in addition to Salem class time. Areas of focus: business model design, venture finance, marketing in new organizations, and direct selling.
Principles of Management Consulting focuses on understanding the management consulting profession, consulting practice, the ethics of consulting and the consultant/client relationship. The emphasis of the course is on organizational change consulting. Students develop consulting skills and techniques to objectively diagnose, evaluate, and improve management and organizational performance. Students use their knowledge of the functional disciplines of management to identify and diagnose organizational performance weaknesses and to assemble information to support and implement recommendations for change. The goal of the course is to improve performance by recommending how managers can use available resources to better achieve the organization's intended goals and outcomes.
Identifies and examines processes for assessing, establishing and maintaining value-creating relationships among suppliers, providers and consumers of nonprofit organizations. Places particular emphasis on building productive exchange relationships with donors and clients.
The course integrates critical new HR competencies, personnel skills and the application of business and policy knowledge along three HR processes: (1) acquiring and developing talent; (2) managing the employment relationship; and (3) strategic HRM. This course prepares you to assume an HR generalist role in an organizational setting by developing your proficiency in the basic body of HR knowledge.
Human resources are an often-underutilized source of sustained competitive advantage. Competency management and human resource development are essential components of public, not-for-profit, or for-profit organizations success. This course focuses on enhancing employee and organizational effectiveness through human resource development, and will provide students with an in-depth study of the concepts, processes, statistical analytics, and common pitfalls associated with employee development and management. This course prepares you to take effective managerial action to ensure competitive advantage through HRD in your organization, as well as for positions in organizations' learning, training, or development functions.
More and more work in organizations is done through projects. Managers are often part of project team or expect to lead one. This course views complex projects in organizations from a managerial perspective. The course covers the nine key components of project management as identified by the PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge) such as project integration, project scope management, project time and cost management, quality management, human resource considerations, communication, risk management and procurement management. It focuses on the tasks and challenges of project management with special emphasis on proper planning, especially in the early phases of a new initiative. While the course covers the basic of waterfall-based project management, a portion of the course is devoted to agile project management methodologies. The goal of the course is to increase your ability to initiate and manage project more efficiently and effectively in organizations.
Examines fixed and floating exchange rates and monetary unions. Develops: 1) an understanding of the strategic and tactical foreign exchange exposure of exporters, importers and international corporations; and 2) techniques for hedging foreign exchange exposure with financial derivatives. Course involves intensive computer gaming of international economic scenarios, including international trade and international financial flows.
Designed to help students become wise consumers or users of marketing research. Defines marketing research as a set of techniques and principles for systematically collecting, recording, analyzing, and interpreting data that can aid decision makers who are involved in the marketing of goods, services, and ideas. Emphasizes techniques that provide information which reduces uncertainty in the decision making process and shifts the basis for decision making from intuitive information gathering to systematic and objective investigation.
Explores issues of strategic marketing and the formulation of marketing strategy. Key issues include new product introduction, managing an existing new product, using current strengths to enter new businesses/markets, and how organizational systems and processes relate to strategy formulation and implementation. The course involves case studies and a computer simulation called Markstrat. Students are expected to learn how to present persuasive oral and written reports. The course emphasizes learning-by-doing, and involves a substantial amount of work in teams. Additional course fee at to be determined.
Financial derivatives are options, futures, and swaps, and their use is widespread and growing. The purpose of the course is to help students become better managers through the informed use of financial derivatives to create value. Students explore the use of financial derivatives to hedge price risk, increase profitability, increase the value of a firm, and improve market efficiency. The course also focuses on learning how to avoid the dangers of financial derivatives that flow from their potential to bankrupt organizations, threaten the stability of the financial system, and contribute to fraud.
Analyzes current leadership theories and leadership roles in practical everyday situations (teams, meetings, change, etc.). Each student will be required to purchase assessment inventories used in the course. Students should expect an additional cost of approximately $35 to $77.
This course develops an economic view of strategic decision-making and bargaining/negotiation for managers based on the theory of games. The course is broken into two major areas. With a practical emphasis, we develop decision-trees for ubiquitous problems including moral hazard, adverse selection, the incentives of team production, and optimal contingency planning. The same theory facilitates studying important properties of communication in strategic settings. In the second major area, we study formal games of bargaining and negotiation with discussions of issue linkages and tradeoffs, time-money tradeoffs, optimal strategies, and communications. What should you believe and what are just bluffs? These topics permeate decision problems in the for-profit, nonprofit, and public sectors.
Essentially Data Science for Managers, this first course addresses the full data science workflow in the managerial context; from opportunity identification, to data visualization, statistical modeling, and value creation. Building on the analytical foundation of the required Data Analysis course (GSM 5103,) we extend our statistical modeling work to include a variety of models for prediction, classification, and segmentation. Class participants will have the opportunity to learn and practice the tools of data science using real, large-scale client data to address data-driven opportunities, of strategic importance, that cut across the functional areas of management. We draw upon a comprehensive assortment of computing tools, including Excel (exploration, proof of concept, deployment), Tableau (data visualization), and R (statistical and machine learning models.) The tools and topics of this course have proven to be particularly valuable and attractive to prospective employers of interns and graduates alike.
The value sourced from suppliers and the innovation stemming from the supply base has increased substantially in recent years. As a consequence, suppliers and the purchasing function have become critically important for firms in many manufacturing and service industries. A supply chain is a system of organizations, people, technology, activities, information, and resources involved in moving products and services from suppliers to customers. Essentially, supply chain management (SCM) is a cross-sectoral, interdisciplinary management area, which is reflected in at least two aspects. First, supply chains exist in virtually all private, public, and not-for-profit organizations that provide products and/or services. Second, many SCM problems involve marketing, financial planning, human resources scheduling, cost accounting, competitive analysis, production planning, and/or purchasing. Purchasing and supply chain management is on the agenda of top-management today. This course will familiarize students with modern purchasing and supplier management theory and practice. They will learn how to design and implement purchasing strategies, processes, structures and systems, and how to structure and manage supplier portfolios and buyer-supplier relationships to meet firms supply needs.
This course is a seminar course about the management of organizational social networks and structure (whether in public, private, or not-for-profit organizations) in the contexts of navigating your professional career and creating value for yourself and your organization through coordination and control. Social networks, or those relationships between social actors NOT prescribed by the formal organizational structure, have been shown to be highly reliable conduits of knowledge and information. Both scholars and practitioners by and large agree that informal relationships are the key to what does (or does not) get done in organizations. In this course, you will learn how to identify, map, describe, and analyze the structure of these relations. You will also learn how to make social networks work for you by examining the ways in which through such structures scarce resources (including promotions) are being allocated, decisions are being made, behavior is constrained and/or enabled, and competitive advantages in careers, organizations, and markets are channeled.
Formerly called New Ventures to Launch is focused on the early stages of developing entrepreneurial thinking and action to bridge the gap between plan and plunge. The goal is to let you take an early stage idea and work through the initial steps of turning it into a venture in a way that is systematic, low-cost, and constructed around the expectation that the idea will change many times during the process. The process is designed to elicit the feedback from the marketplace which provides the foundation for such changes or pivots. We'll discuss and practice the process of taking action on a new idea, and how to utilize available people and low-cost resources to build upon experiential efforts to course correct.
Students in corporate finance course will learn how to plan, implement, and evaluate financing, investing, and dividend payout strategies in domestic and multinational corporations. The course is set within an applied analytical framework. Integrating corporate governance, financial and strategic, and regulatory dimensions, course focuses on applying finance concepts, analytical tool, and valuation models to analyze specific situations. Students evaluate corporate finance decisions utilizing case method. The course topics include advanced capital budgeting, equity, debt, and hybrid financing, risk and cost of capital, capital structure and dividend policies, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, ethics, and government regulation of domestic and global corporate entities.
This course studies the financial theory and empirical evidence that are useful for investment decisions. It focuses on building a quantitative foundation for portfolio analysis and asset pricing. Topics include risk and return concept, fixed income assets, asset allocation, capital asset pricing model, arbitrage pricing theory, market efficiency, and portfolio evaluation. This course also serves as a foundation course for GSM-6292A/B. Students interested in taking GSM-6292A must also take GSM-6291.
This is a hands-on investment management course. Students follow economic, financial, and company events, and apply concepts and techniques from the GSM 6291 course and other courses to manage a real portfolio of stocks and exchange traded funds. At the end of the semester, students present their results and outlook to an outside panel. Students interested in taking GSM-6292A must also take GSM-6291.
Continuation of GSM 6292A. Students follow economic, financial, and company events and apply concepts and techniques from the GSM 6291, GSM 6292A, and other courses to manage a real portfolio of stocks and exchange traded funds. At the end of the semester, students present their results and outlook to an outside panel.
This is a hands-on investment management course that meets once per week. Students follow economic, financial, and company events and apply concepts and techniques to manage a real portfolio of stocks and exchange traded funds. Fund utilizes a text written by a high-level investment manager to value companies and make decisions on stock purchases. Students may continue the Student Investment Fund experience with GSM 6292A (fall semester) and GSM 6292B (spring semester), which constitutes a year-long course.
This course is structured as a prerequisite for many of the other courses recommended for the sustainability management area of interest. The overall purpose of this program is to create change agents who have the knowledge and skills to build and/or execute business processes to enhance the viability of the organization and the broader system in which it operates. As such this overview course is designed to provide everyone a base level for understanding the issues involved in becoming an effective change agent.
This course is intended for students participating in their first semester of an internship with an employer. It provides students the opportunity to undertake professional level employment that applies and leverages AGSM core and elective courses and supports students career objectives while earning credits toward the MBA degree. Upon registering for GSM 7251 each student will be assigned a Faculty Internship Coordinator (FIC) by the Director of Career Management. Internship students will interact closely with their FIC who will serve as their advisor and mentor for the term with the goal of maximizing personal and professional development from the internship experience. The student may work with the FIC or other faculty when seeking specific technical advice such as finance, marketing, data analysis, etc. Coursework is designed to clarify goals, strategy, action steps, and metrics, to maximize integration of material, and to aid the student in communication of the implementation of their plan with the employer. The coursework includes a position plan, progress updates, mid-term paper, and final paper. A sampling of professional deliverables is required to be shared with the FIC. Students applying to register for Internship 1 must submit an internship proposal via Internwatch at http://agsm.willamette.edu/internwatch/ and complete an information meeting with the instructor. Students must demonstrate that the application and leverage of MBA level content will occur in depth. Important note for international students: U.S. law applies to students on an F1 or J1 visa. Please see the GSM-7251 course syllabus for a summary of considerations and contact the Office of International Education staff, for complete details.
Internship 2 is for students participating in their second semester of internship with an employer. Internship 2 is limited to students who successfully completed the requirements of Internship 2. This course is intended for students participating in their second semester of an internship with the same employer as for their Internships for Management 1 course. It provides students the opportunity to undertake professional level employment that applies and leverages AGSM core and elective courses and supports students career objectives while earning credits toward the MBA degree. Upon registering for GSM 7252 each student will be assigned a Faculty Internship Coordinator (FIC) by the Director of Career Management. Internship students will interact closely with their FIC who will serve as their advisor and mentor for the term with the goal of maximizing personal and professional development from the internship experience. The student may work with the FIC or other faculty when seeking specific technical advice such as finance, marketing, data analysis, etc. Coursework is designed to clarify goals, strategy, action steps, and metrics, to maximize integration of material, and to aid the student in communication of the implementation of their plan with the employer. The coursework includes a position plan, progress updates, and final paper. A sampling of professional deliverables is required to be shared with the FIC. Students applying to register for Internship 2 must submit an internship proposal via Internwatch at http://agsm.willamette.edu/internwatch/ and complete an information meeting with the instructor. Students must demonstrate that the application and leverage of MBA level content will occur in depth. Important note for international students: U.S. law applies to students on an F1 or J1 visa. Please see the GSM-7251 course syllabus for a summary of considerations and contact the Office of International Education staff, for complete details.
Internship 3 is for students participating in their third semester of internship with an employer. Internship III is limited to students who successfully completed the requirements of Internship I and II. In general, students in Internship III will be continuing a significant project or assignment from Internship II, adding a new project or additional responsibilities to their Internship II experience, or working with a new supervisor or department. Internship III requires students to complete a significant work experience, write a position plan that describes how the student will continue to grow in their position, provide monthly updates to the Contributing Assistant Professor for Internships and Projects, write a final paper (an overview of what they have learned about the role of their function within the company, the company within the industry, and the industry within the economy), and participate in a final meeting with the Contributing Assistant Professor for Internships and Projects. Important note for international students: strict rules apply for students on an F1 or J1 visa. Please see the GSM-7251 course syllabus for a summary of considerations and contact the Office of International Education staff, for complete details.
International Study Trip Course Information available at https://willamette.edu/mba/students/WillametteMBA_ Study_Abroad/index.html
Willamette University
Ecotrust Building
721 NW 9th Ave
Portland
Oregon
97209
U.S.A.