Management MBA

COURSES

• MAN 283.22 & MAN 383.22 Managing Human Capital
  This is an intermediate-level business course designed to inform students about creating and leveraging human capital in organizations. This course takes a knowledge-based perspective on traditional human resources topics (recruitment, selection, performance management, training and development, compensation, and downsizing), by considering how organizations develop, make use of, and retain the valuable knowledge of employees. This course is appropriate for all managers, regardless of functional area, and for those interested in careers in human capital or human resources consulting.
• MAN 383 w/CMS 386P Advocacy
  A crucial component of leading others and fostering innovation is one's skills at influencing others and championing ideas. Like it or not, there is a politics of ideas within organization-good ideas don't sell themselves, people do. In this course we look at what it takes to successfully "sell" ideas within organizations. Topics include:
  (1) How to clearly and memorably communicate your idea.
  (2) How to build credibility and affinity - people don't buy ideas from people they don't respect or like.
  (3) How to create partnerships to support ideas.
  (4) How to "pre-sell" or build internal market for ideas.
  (5) How influence and persuade others in conversations and meetings. Readings form a variety of sources along with two books (Machiavelli's "The Price" and Cialdini's "Influence") are required texts
• MAN 383.22 Creating and Managing Human Capital
  Even in this age of E-business and .com corporations, human resources remain a firm's most vital, irreplaceable, and difficult to manage resource. This course will focus on answering three questions:
  (1) How does the management of a firm's human resources affect the "bottom line?" We will discuss the financial impact of various approaches to managing a firm's human resources and explore how effective management of human resources can be a source of sustained competitive advantage.
  (2) How can a company design human resource systems (i.e., systems to select, motivate, evaluate, and compensate its people) that are consistent with its strategic position and facilitate the achievement of its strategic objectives? The course will focus on everyday human resource decisions made by all managers (e.g., who to hire) rather than on the specialized functions of the human resource department.
  (3) How can you, an individual job seeker, respond effectively to companies' human resource management systems? We will discuss issues such as how to interview effectively, how to assess your "fit" with a company, and how to determine your own market value.
  NOTE: If you have previously taken or are interested in taking Creating and Managing Human Capital: This course and the Human Capital course cover similar core issues-how to make everyday human resource decisions in a more effective manner. This course approaches those decisions from a strategic perspective with a particular emphasis on the links between human resource decisions and a firm's competitive position. The Human Capital course approaches those decisions from a knowledge management perspective with a particular emphasis on how human resource decisions affect the creation, growth, and maintenance of a firm's knowledge base. You can obtain the same core knowledge in either course, and the instructors recommend that you take only one of these two courses. If you have a particular interest in taking both courses, please see the instructor first.
• MAN 383.16 Managing People and Organizations
  Through a sequence of readings, lectures, cases, and experiential exercises, you will be introduced to frameworks from the social sciences that are useful for understanding organizational processes and outcomes, and learn how to apply these frameworks to particular organizational behavior situations. This course is designed to sharpen your ability to diagnose and solve a broad range of organizational problems from a managerial perspective.
• MAN 383.16 Managing People and Organizations - TEMBA
  The purpose of this course is to enhance your learning about people in organizations and to help prepare you to be an effective organizational leader. Many of the courses in this curriculum teach you to manage information, money, and other material organizational resources. All of those skills will help you become a better manager. But it is your “people skills” that will ultimately have the most impact on your success as a leader. This course focuses on understanding the behavior of the individuals and groups within the organizational setting. You will learn the patterns of interaction that occur among people in organizations, and how those interactions impact the organizations they work in. We will take a broad perspective of behavior in organizations emphasizing readings in organizational behavior, case analyses, descriptions of specific organizational problems, lectures, exercises, team projects and class discussions.
• MAN 383.20 The Art and Science of Negotiation
  The purpose of this graduate level course is to understand the theory and processes of negotiation as it is practiced in a variety of settings. The course is designed to be relevant to the broad spectrum of negotiation problems that are faced by the manager and professional. The course will allow the participants to develop a broad array of negotiation skills experientially and to understand negotiations in useful analytical frameworks. Considerable emphasis will be placed on simulations, role playing and cases.
• MAN 385 w/LAW 379M –Business, Law & Innovation
  During this course we will explore the answers to three big questions:
  1) what do ocean waves, flu viruses and fashion trends have to do with how business works;
  2) why does spending on technology make up more than half of all capital expenditure; and
  3) what is the role of law, entrepreneurs and venture capital in this mix.
  Our first question concerns an area of academic study, three decades in the making, which explains business behavior not just in terms of supply and demand economics, but by looking at the common behavioral characteristics of different systems - biological, social, etc. It turns out these very different systems exhibit strikingly similar behavior. Here's an example. During the innovation of the automobile hundreds of companies fought to become Ford, but only a few became dominant. The same process played itself out again in the television industry, the semiconductor industry and in the PC business. This pattern of behavior is strikingly similar to the process of species diversification and weeding out that occurs in evolutionary systems. Indeed, you can be certain that the same process will play itself out again in the green revolution, the wireless industry and all other innovation cycles that follow.
• The second question we will tackle is the widely accepted notion that companies which successfully embrace technology as a competitive differentiator are more likely to win. Ford, which dominated their industry by embracing a new technology called the assembly line and Dell, whose direct model was enabled by technology, are just two of the examples we'll study.
  Finally, we will consider how new technologies, brought to market by entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, become part of how businesses function. From the first glimpse of an innovation, to broad acceptance in the marketplace - we will study each step of the business and legal process and why its role in our economy is vital to growth.
  This class is quite different from others you might have taken. We do not use case studies; we do not read academic texts. Instead, we draw upon two books. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, which explains how trends start, why broken windows cause more crime and why yawns are contagious. We also read Complexity by Mitchell Waldrop, a book which some believe explains everything. In addition to this material, we utilize a number of business articles and in-class exercises. During the course of the semester various guest speakers will present their views on the topics covered in class. More information about the class, as well as a list of previous speakers, can be found at www.adamdell.com.
• MAN 385 Business Practicum
  This course is designed for entrepreneurs who already have a well-developed business plan or concept for a new venture. The goal of the course is to take each venture to the next level. The next level for each venture is likely to be different. For some it may be launching the business; for others it could be formulating a strategy for obtaining capital or further developing the product. The first portion of the course will entail an assessment of the current status of the venture, the setting of goals for the semester, and the formulation of an action plan for achieving the goals. The course accelerates the venture development process by focusing on development and completion of action plans which may deal with risk management, acquisition of funding for the ventures, recruitment of key personnel such as directors, the development of networks, and presentation skills. It provides direct interaction with potential investors, professional service providers in areas such as accounting, banking and law, entrepreneurs with experience in key areas of new company development, and potential customers and suppliers. By focusing on implementation, the course provides a means for aspiring entrepreneurs to launch their new ventures.
• MAN 385 Opportunity Identification and Analysis
  This course teaches students to recognize attractive opportunities. It is especially well suited for students who intend to start their own business, want to be a consultant or are working on new technology evaluation for a larger company. The course can also be valuable for students who want to move into the venture capital field or have a strong interest in marketing. Students learn to apply skills learned in Finance, Accounting, Marketing and Strategy to a series of real world case dilemmas.
• MAN 385 Gathering Resources & Launch
  Gathering Resources and Launch is the second Entrepreneurship core course. The Launch course focuses on how to successfully gather the resources necessary to capitalize on an opportunity and successfully launch a business. The course is taught by the case method. Major course sections include industry competitive analysis; identifying key success factors; gathering resources with a focus on valuation and the deals required to raise financial capital; assembling the right team; corporate partnerships; obtaining the first customers; and adjusting the organization. Students also are asked to reflect on life as an entrepreneur versus their set of personal goals. The course requires active student participation including creating a launch plan for a company in the Austin Technology Incubator.
• MAN 385 Global Management
  This course is for students who want to learn more about how managers anticipate and respond to competitive pressures in rapidly changing international markets. This course will help students enhance their analytical, decision making and implementation skills in an intense, highly competitive classroom environment. This course will also help students understand and apply analytical tools used by managers and management consultants to exploit competitive opportunities and effectively respond to competitive threats.
  This course will focus on significant international marketing, managerial and operational challenges and opportunities from the perspective of managers with decision making responsibility. This course will place an equal emphasis on managerial and marketing issues faced by firms operating in many parts of the world. This course will help students address key financial and accounting issues central to global business activities. Finally, this course will look at the impact that our evolution from an industrial economy to an information-based economy is having on the nature of international business
• MAN 385 International Strategy
  International Strategy focuses on building management skills needed to develop strategies, design organizations, and manage the operations of companies whose activities span national boundaries. This course should be of interest if you expect to be involved in managing or advising companies that either compete internationally or face international competitors in their home markets. The primary objective of the course is to develop a coherent way of thinking about strategy formulation and implementation of multinational enterprises, with special attention devoted to achieving global efficiency, national responsiveness, and organizational learning. The course draws on a combination of lectures, cases, and conceptual readings.
• MAN 385 W/SOC Opportunity Creation in Entrepreneurship
  The purpose of this course is to understand how new opportunities are identified and commercialized, with a special emphasis on wealth creation. The course places an emphasis on using the experiments that were done in Austin, Texas and Silicon Valley; thus there are traditional case studies as well as live case studies. Many of the experiments in Austin and around the globe were done by the IC2 Institute at U.T. This Institute created the Austin Technology Incubator (which has produced over 66 companies with present sales of over 1.8 billon dollars; also many companies were acquired and four went public). There are now 30 dynamic companies in the incubator. Using theory and Austin as a laboratory, this course explores opportunities in areas that include nano/bio tech enterprises, traditional technologies and service enterprises. Guest lectures (live cases) will include the director of the Austin Technology Incubator, founders of bio/nano-tech companies, and the founder of companies that have scaled in Austin, Texas. The readings are both theoretical (the importance of regional advantage in the commercialization and entrepreneurial process) and applied (the development of a reverse business plan)
• MAN 385 w/MKT 382 Corporate Governance
  Senior executives - CEO's and their business unit, functional and regional direct reports - must consistently balance their time between achieving quarterly performance targets and building strong companies that can sustain above market financial performance in the future. As the business environment grows more complex, senior executives have to simultaneously manage business and political relationships, initiate and integrate acquisitions, create/change corporate culture, continually align the organization structure to the business strategy, deal with issues of corporate governance and succession planning, and learn to navigate through potential public relations disasters. In addition, regardless of the size of a company, the senior management team must continually grapple with the question of how to allocate resources to competing programs and disciplines in support of the corporate strategy.
  This course will examine the roles and responsibilities of organizational leadership in a wide variety of settings - large and small companies, startups and established century old companies, global and single country/region companies and non-profit entities - as all organizations face slightly different versions of the issues discussed above.
• MAN 385 w/ME, LAW, CH Enterprise of Technology: From Mind to Market
  One of the primary goals of a research university is the creation of new knowledge. That knowledge has intrinsic intellectual value, and may have significant broader benefits to society. To have social and economic impact beyond the academic community, additional value may need to be created. The process of converting knowledge into products and services-commercialization-is a highly effective way to move ideas from the mind (or the laboratory) to the wider world.
  The course focuses on how to move an idea from the mind of the researcher to the marketplace by examining the activities involved in commercializing a technology from conception to profitable enterprise. Lectures are organized around the technology commercialization process. Additionally, outside speakers will speak on specific topics related to the course objectives. A faculty facilitator is present at each session to set the context and help the students understand the rationale of the course organization.
  This three-hour graduate course is cross-listed in Business, Engineering, Natural Sciences, Law School, and IC2. A significant portion of the course objectives is accomplished through multi-disciplinary teams.
• MAN 385 Advanced Venture Development Practicum
  This course is designed for individuals and teams who have already developed a business plan for a new venture and seek to implement the plan. The course accelerates the venture development process by focusing on development and completion of action plans which may deal with risk management, acquisition of funding for the ventures, recruitment of key personnel such as directors, the development of networks, and presentation skills. It provides direct interaction with potential investors, professional service providers in areas such as accounting, banking and law, entrepreneurs with experience in key areas of new company development, and potential customers and suppliers. By focusing on implementation, the course provides a means for aspiring entrepreneurs to launch their new venture.
• MAN 385 Economics of Competitive Strategy
  This course is designed for individuals and teams who have already developed a business plan for a new venture and seek to implement the plan. The course accelerates the venture development process by focusing on development and completion of action plans which may deal with risk management, acquisition of funding for the ventures, recruitment of key personnel such as directors, the development of networks, and presentation skills. It provides direct interaction with potential investors, professional service providers in areas such as accounting, banking and law, entrepreneurs with experience in key areas of new company development, and potential customers and suppliers. By focusing on implementation, the course provides a means for aspiring entrepreneurs to launch their new venture.
• MAN 385 Entrepreneurship and Incubation
  The purpose of this course is to understand how new opportunities are identified and commercialized. Special emphasis is placed on the process of incubation. Austin, Texas is a “natural laboratory” for the incubation of new enterprises. The course places a great deal of emphasis on “live” case studies of entrepreneurs who have contributed to creating wealth and jobs in this region and around the globe.
• MAN 385 Management Consulting Practicum
  This course is designed for students who are interested in a general management consulting career and provides an opportunity to explore the consulting profession through real consulting projects in local firms. The course has two components, a team project in a local firm and classroom work where students will receive instruction in managing consulting engagements. Permission of instructor is required.
• MAN 385 Management Sustainability Practicum
  This practicum is for students who want to work with senior managers from H.E.B., Wal-Mart, Inc. and the U.S. Council for Sustainable Development to develop a complete “business case” for a series of sustainability projects that are of great importance to these organizations. These projects will be focused on three areas: renewable energy and energy use, waste reduction and organic and sustainable products. This practicum will also benefit from the participation of other members of the McCombs and UT faculty.
• MAN 385 Leadership and Consulting Across Borders
  Class Description: This course explores the skills needed to be a successful social entrepreneur. At a time when more and more of the most complex problems require fresh ideas and insightful innovations, we are seeing the rise of social entrepreneurs who are acting as change agents all around the world . A social entrepreneur is someone who seeks to bring innovation and change, and who spots opportunities to meet critical public needs where others only see obstacles. Through case studies, readings about successful social entrepreneurs and guest speakers who have done this difficult work, the class aims to impart to students both an appreciation of the challenges of being a change agent and the thrill of social entrepreneurship. Students will develop during the course of the semester a plan for a nonprofit or for-profit social venture that they believe can produce significant public value. Student completing a plan may enter the RGK Center's Social Innovation Competition and vie for start-up funding for their ventures.
• MAN 385 Social Entrepreneurship
  This course explores the skills needed to be a successful social entrepreneur. At a time when more and more of the most complex problems require fresh ideas and insightful innovations, we are seeing the rise of social entrepreneurs who are acting as change agents all around the world . A social entrepreneur is someone who seeks to bring innovation and change, and who spots opportunities to meet critical public needs where others only see obstacles. Through case studies, readings about successful social entrepreneurs and guest speakers who have done this difficult work, the class aims to impart to students both an appreciation of the challenges of being a change agent and the thrill of social entrepreneurship. Students will develop during the course of the semester a plan for a nonprofit or for-profit social venture that they believe can produce significant public value. Student completing a plan may enter the RGK Center's Social Innovation Competition and vie for start-up funding for their ventures.
• MAN 385 Strategic Innovation and Design Thinking
  This is an advanced management course on strategic innovation. Strategic innovation can be defined as the fundamental reconceptualization of business models, and the reshaping of existing markets by changing the rules of the game and the nature of competition. Strategic innovation management concentrates on the entire business model and added-value creation far beyond focusing simply on technology improvement, new product development, or supply-chain networks. The course surveys the diversity of sources of strategic innovation ranging from technology development to business model transformation, and the strategic choices that create it and transform it into sustainable competitive advantage. It also covers the principles and methodologies for developing the requisite “big-picture” innovative thinking and for transforming it into a sustained, organization-wide process, as well as the processes for managing key actors in the organizational environment, on which the acceptance of the novel strategies depends.
  The course is designed for the general manager - no technical background is assumed. Although we will cover a number of different technologies and you will have an opportunity to learn about technologies of your choice as part of the required course work, the course does not focus on specific technologies or on technological innovation per se. The goal of the course is to develop your strategic thinking and your strategic decision-making skills for environments where change and innovation are key drivers of competitive success. It covers both the strategic logic and processes for engaging in design thinking and the internal management activities that support the implementation of unconventional strategies. As innovation requires the creative synthesis of several functional areas, the course integrates perspectives from the psychology of creative thinking, strategic management, stakeholder theory of the firm, and organizational design and management.
  The course is an appropriate elective for students interested in careers in general management, innovation management, entrepreneurship, and strategy consulting.
• MAN 385 Texas Venture Labs Practicum
  This course is for students who have completed the interviewing process and have been selected to work in Texas Venture Labs. Full course requirements and qualifications will be reviewed with students during the communications sessions before the interviewing process each semester. This course is housed at McCombs and open to students in other colleges that have cross listed it. The interview process is mandatory and instructor permission is required to take this course.
  Texas Venture Labs is a university-wide initiative to support technology commercialization, entrepreneurship and innovation, while providing a unique and directly applicable educational experience for participating students.
  Our purpose is to provide the intellectual horsepower to promote new venture creation at UT Austin, through education and mentoring; market and business plan validation; team-building and networking; and providing direct links to resources and funding. Students taking this course will be directly involved in delivering these services.
  This is a full semester course that can only be taken for a grade. The course will require meeting during the schedule class time and work to be conducted in between classes.
  More details will be provided during the interview process for this course.
• MAN 385 Managing Innovation and Creativity
  Effectively managing innovation is critical to the survival and growth of organizations, and is an essential component of leadership. This course focuses on developing skills in effectively leading innovation within existing organizations. The course draws on various theoretical foundations and business cases to develop an understanding of the factors that lead to successful management of innovation and creativity in organizations. Among the components of innovation leadership covered in the course are: developing organizational capabilities for innovation, overcoming organizational barriers to innovation, leading innovation at various levels in the organization, developing and nurturing an innovative culture, structuring innovation activities, managing and controlling the innovation process, applying design thinking methodologies for innovation, innovating through well-designed experiments, challenging orthodoxies and assumptions to develop innovations, and stimulating individual and group creativity. The primary instructional method used in the course is case analysis, which is combined with lectures, exercises, and other pedagogical tools.
• Man 385 Venture Fellows Practicum (X-listed w/FIN 394.14)
  Venture Fellows Practicum is a student-led practicum in which the current second year Venture Fellows select the incoming Venture Fellows. The application process is competitive and applicants will be required to interview and compete in a case analysis. First year MBAs can make application to Venture Fellows in the fall semester of their first year and, if selected, will enroll in this practicum in the second semester of their first year. The practicum requires attendance at weekly speaker meetings and fulfilling a 10-20 hours per week internship with a local venture capital firm, private equity firm, Austin Technology Incubator or Clean Energy Incubator. The practicum runs from the second semester of the first year through the first semester of your second year. Topics include early stage venture investing in the spring semester and later stage investing in the fall semester. The internship positions can range from screening business plans and deals to working with portfolio companies. The class is limited to 20 MBAs and you must have applied, completed and been accepted by the current Venture Fellows to enroll in the class.
• MAN 385.2 The Art of Leadership
  It is clear that what separates true leaders from simple managers has more to do with such qualities as vision, communications ability, creativity, an understanding of interpersonal behavior, and personal style. However, such concepts are all too often neglected in traditional management writings, whereas they are the basic stuff of the liberal arts and humanities. This course is based on the fundamental belief that there is a lot to be learned about leadership from the world's greatest works -- books of history, biography, drama, philosophy, and literature, sometimes in the form of movies. Given this reality, the textual sources for this course will be drawn from works that reflect the human condition throughout time. Specifically, we will use a unique set of case materials that are largely excerpts from some of the works alluded to above. The unique value of these materials is that they allow us to examine the role of the leader in a context that is richer than that typically offered, which in turn will allow us to understand the essence of leadership in all its richness and complexity.
   The perspective taken in this course is designed to help you better understand the myriad of personal qualities and skills that effective leaders must possess. For example, in studying Dr. Martin Luther King's Letter from the Birmingham Jail, you will be exposed to the role of language and vision in leadership, while excerpts from Machiavelli's The Prince provide us with an opportunity to learn lessons about the use and abuse of power, and its role in the success or failure of a leader. The ethical issues involved in making decisions is only one of several themes we will address in our discussion of Twelve Angry Men, while leadership lessons that can be drawn from a military context and strategy will emerge in our discussions of Sun Tzu's The Art of War and the movie 12 O’Clock High. Preparing one’s self for leadership is an important theme in John Masefield’s The Bird of Dawning, and gender is among the issues that arise in Antigone. These are just a few examples of materials and issues that we will use to provide a uniquely useful perspective on a topic that is critically important to managers.
   Although we will draw heavily from the liberal arts and humanities, it is important to emphasize that our goal is to make this course practical in its application. Specifically, we will apply leadership lessons that are often best illustrated in those sources to the problems of contemporary organizations. In addition, because you will be reading excerpted portions of the original literature (not the entire original) that have been converted into a case format, the course will be exclusively case discussion. While these cases are not of the kind typically seen in the Business School, you will quickly see that they are of the same length and require similar, rigorous preparation. A typical session will involve the discussion of the issues illustrated in the assigned humanities case (e.g. King's Letter from the Birmingham Jail) and application of those issues to contemporary organizations, organizations which are sometimes illustrated in the "contemporary" case readings that form the last portion of the material, and are typically articles published in the business press.
  You should note that we will discuss several movies – Hoosiers, Twelve Angry Men, Lord of the Flies, 12 O’Clock High, and Apollo 13. With only one exception (i.e. Twelve Angry Men) students are responsible for viewing them prior to class, and they are then discussed during our regularly scheduled class meeting. During those meetings I will make use of specific scenes from the movies that are particularly pertinent to leadership. However, it is imperative that students view the movie in its entirety so that they understand the entire context; this is critical to having a rich in-class discussion.
  Students in this course are evaluated based on a combination of in-class contribution (50%) and a final, written paper (50%). All students must take this course for a grade.
• MAN 385.22 New Venture Creation
  Creating a new venture is a challenging task, one that requires specific domain knowledge as well as general business and entrepreneurial skills. This course utilizes the knowledge and skills gained from both the core MBA and entrepreneurship courses; it provides hands-on experience in the creation and development of a growth-oriented new venture. Students in teams take a multi-disciplinary approach to the preparation and presentation of a professional business plan. In the process, the course focuses on developing skills conducive to venture success including team building, organizing, planning, integrating, and persuading. In addition, students will analyze award winning plans from the MOOT CORP® Competition. Also, selected experts will provide advice and insight on creating, funding and launching a successful venture.
• MAN 385.22 New Venture Creation - TEMBA
  Creating a new venture is a challenging task, one that requires specific domain knowledge as well as general business and entrepreneurial skills. This course utilizes the knowledge and skills gained from both the core MBA and entrepreneurship courses; it provides hands-on experience in the creation and development of a growth-oriented new venture. Students in teams take a multi-disciplinary approach to the preparation and presentation of a professional business plan. In the process, the course focuses on developing skills conducive to venture success including team building, organizing, planning, integrating, and persuading. In addition, students will analyze award winning plans from the MOOT CORP® Competition. Also, selected experts will provide advice and insight on creating, funding and launching a successful venture.
• MAN 385.23 Entrepreneurial Management
  This course is for anyone interested in starting a business, working with an entrepreneurial company, or using entrepreneurial ideas to manage opportunity and risk in a larger company. To be effective, entrepreneurial managers need to have an in-depth understanding of the ongoing challenges in key functional areas such as marketing, finance, MIS, R&D, and operations. Consequently, this course builds on and makes use of the knowledge developed in core classes. Entrepreneurial managers, however, cannot be superficial dabblers who know a little bit about everything but not much about anything. Instead, entrepreneurial management involves a distinct set of skills, perspectives, and insights about the business problems and opportunities confronting the total enterprise. Therefore, students are expected to combine knowledge from other courses with the new material presented in the course to develop sophisticated analyses and solutions to pursuing opportunity and managing risk in today’s fast-paced, global, and highly competitive business environment. The course uses different learning media, especially cases, to examine the life cycle of opportunities in new and established business contexts. This involves identifying a winning business opportunity, getting funding for and launching the opportunity, growing the business and harvesting the rewards. The course invites you to consider how your entrepreneurial initiative can make a difference to business and society.
• MAN 385.24 Entrepreneurial Growth
  The third Entrepreneurship core course. The Growth course provides a brief overview of opportunity identification and launch and picks up at the point when a business appears viable, dealing with issues such as creation of systems to manage growth and identifying organizational needs and strategies.
• MAN 385.33 Management and Marketing in the Global Arena
  This course is for students who want to learn more about how managers anticipate and respond to competitive pressures in rapidly changing international markets. This course will help students enhance their analytical, decision making and implementation skills in an intense, highly competitive classroom environment. This course will also help students understand and apply analytical tools used by managers and management consultants to exploit competitive opportunities and effectively respond to competitive threats.
  This course will focus on significant international marketing, managerial and operational challenges and opportunities from the perspective of managers with decision making responsibility. This course will place an equal emphasis on managerial and marketing issues faced by firms operating in many parts of the world. This course will help students address key financial and accounting issues central to global business activities. Finally, this course will look at the impact that our evolution from an industrial economy to an information-based economy is having on the nature of international business.
• MAN 385.49 Strategic Management
  This course is concerned with the job of the general manager, who has responsibility for the performance of an entire organization or a multi-functional unit of an organization. The primary task faced by such managers is that of developing and managing an overall strategy; hence, the name "strategic management." Accordingly, the objectives of the course are to (1) take the first steps in developing a "general management" orientation in all students, (2) develop the new skills and knowledge needed in such positions, and (3) synthesize the skills and knowledge students have obtained through prior work experience and course work. Among the topics covered in the course are the role of the general manager, formulating business and corporate-level strategy, managing strategic change, strategy implementation, and developing general managers. The objectives of the course will be accomplished primarily through a combination of readings and case discussions. Students will be evaluated based on the quality of their participation in in-class discussions and course papers. The participative nature of the course requires daily preparation and participation of the highest quality.
• MAN 385.61 Perspectives on Public Policy
  (MAN 385.61, PA388K/D, LAW371R)
  In the last 13 years we have witnessed the end of the Cold War and the shift from decades of bi-polar rivalry, to a brief "uni-polar moment for the US. September 11, 2001, represented yet another, and more sudden, transformation of the atmosphere in which US policy is formulated and executed. This course examines the question of what role the United States should play in the world as we move forward. Supported by policy experts in their fields, the course takes a multi-disciplinary approach to examine US policy development and prospects. We will draw on the experiences of practitioners to broaden the student capability to probe the central question from the viewpoints of national security, intelligence, media and others, with due regard for countries and regions that represent current priorities in US relations. Requirements include several short writings, an exam, and a group presentation.
• MAN 385.62 w/ MKT 382 Corporate Governance
  Senior executives – CEO’s and their business unit, functional and regional direct reports – must consistently balance their time between achieving quarterly performance targets and building strong companies that can sustain above market financial performance in the future. As the business environment grows more complex, senior executives have to simultaneously manage business and political relationships, initiate and integrate acquisitions, create/change corporate culture, continually align the organization structure to the business strategy, deal with issues of corporate governance and succession planning, and learn to navigate through potential public relations disasters. In addition, regardless of the size of a company, the senior management team must continually grapple with the question of how to allocate resources to competing programs and disciplines in support of the corporate strategy.
  This course will examine the roles and responsibilities of organizational leadership in a wide variety of settings – large and small companies, startups and established century old companies, global and single country/region companies and non-profit entities – as all organizations face slightly different versions of the issues discussed above.
  The normal format of the class will be to invite one or more guest speakers to address the students. The guests will be encouraged to provide ample opportunity for questions during their presentations. After the guests have completed their presentations, the class will focus on in-class discussion of assigned reading material. The individuals that will be invited to class will include entrepreneurs, senior executives from major corporations, directors of public and private entities, politicians, leaders of non-profit entities, corporate lawyers and partners of major accounting firms.
• MAN 385.64 w/ME, LAW, CH Enterprise of Technology: From Mind to Market
  One of the primary goals of a research university is the creation of new knowledge. That knowledge has intrinsic intellectual value, and may have significant broader benefits to society. To have social and economic impact beyond the academic community, additional value may need to be created. The process of converting knowledge into products and services—commercialization—is a highly effective way to move ideas from the mind (or the laboratory) to the wider world.
  The course focuses on how to move an idea from the mind of the researcher to the marketplace by examining the activities involved in commercializing a technology from conception to profitable enterprise. Lectures are organized around the technology commercialization process. Additionally, outside speakers will speak on specific topics related to the course objectives. A faculty facilitator is present at each session to set the context and help the students understand the rationale of the course organization.
   This three-hour graduate course is cross-listed in Business, Engineering, Natural Sciences, Law School, and IC2. Undergraduate students may register with special permission of the instructors. A significant portion of the course objectives is accomplished through multi-disciplinary teams.
• MAN 385.8 Managing Corporate Diversification and Renewal
  Recent corporate history has seen an unprecedented period of diversification, restructuring, and renewal activities as firms strive to adapt their strategies and corporate capabilities to global realities. This course focuses on the general management problems associated with corporate diversifications in renewal in global firms. During this course, we will explore a series of questions about diversification and renewal including: Why do firms diversity? When do (and should) firms renew their ability to compete through diversification? What vehicles for diversification are possible (e.g., internal development, acquisitions, joint ventures, partnerships)? How do we manage in this context? What are the unique management challenges of diversification across national boundaries? This course is appropriate for people interested in careers in general management and those planning to enter management consulting; operating or staff positions in firms facing global renewal challenges; investment banking; or accounting firms. The course will use a mixture of cases, lectures, and broadly-based readings designed to cover the host of issues raised by diversification. Performance evaluation and feedback will be based on written work and class participation. Two pieces of written work are required for this course. The first in an analysis of one of the cases we'll be studying. The second is a research project on a diversification issue of your choice.
• MAN 385.9 Strategic Analysis for High Technology Industries w/MIS
  This MBA seminar will introduce students to the concepts, procedures, methods, and content of industry, form and product analysis at a strategic level in the context of high technology industries--as illustrated by the information technology industries. The emphasis will be on hypercompetitive situations; where product life cycles are short, rivalry is intense, and strategic advantage is difficult or impossible to maintain. The course will be structured as a set of multi-functional team projects covering one or more aspects of industries such as the computer and telecommunications industries--analogous to the way such an analysis would be structured in the "real world." Readings will cover the basic through advanced material in industry analysis and competitive firm positioning, as well as extensive coverage of industry and trade publications. Strategic issues and questions will be solicited from firms in the information technology sector to provide relevant topics for student investigation. Computerized data bases will be made available through the facilities of the IC2 Institute and the Graduate School of Business, and access to software packages to analyze and present findings in the format of a managerial report will be provided. Periodically, guest lecturers from the industries being studied will be invited to address the seminar, and site visits will be arranged. Students will get hands-on experience analyzing high technology industries, firms and products. At the conclusion of the seminar students should know how to conduct an industry, firm and product analysis in a high technology environment, should know how to apply the tools of industry analysis, should know how to present the resulting information in the form of a computerized managerial slide-show presentation, and should have developed in-depth knowledge of the selected industry as well as a number of firms. BA 388T, the core strategy course is a prerequisite.
• BA 388T Strategic Management
  This course is concerned with the job of the general manager, who has responsibility for the performance of an entire organization or a multi-functional unit of an organization. The primary task faced by such managers is that of developing and managing an overall strategy; hence, the name "strategic management." Accordingly, the objectives of the course are to (1) take the first steps in developing a "general management" orientation in all students, (2) develop the new skills and knowledge needed in such positions, and (3) synthesize the skills and knowledge students have obtained through prior work experience and course work. Among the topics covered in the course are the role of the general manager, formulating business and corporate-level strategy, managing strategic change, strategy implementation, and developing general managers. The objectives of the course will be accomplished primarily through a combination of readings and case discussions. Students will be evaluated based on the quality of their participation in in-class discussions and course papers. The participative nature of the course requires daily preparation and participation of the highest quality.