Master of Business Administration Program (MBA)
MBA Curriculum and Prerequisite Requirements
Core MBA Courses
BUS 505 Organizational Creativity, Discovery, and Innovation
Course Description: This is a multi-disciplinary and management foundations course that examines the processes involved in creativity, discovery, and innovation and explores the motivations involved in innovation both internal to the individual and external to the organization. The concepts of Diffusion of Innovation will be integrated with transformational leadership to harness and nurture creativity and innovation in organizational settings. Course content will draw on the fundamentals of management, psychology, marketing, and leadership disciplines to discover and develop the creativity and innovation skills of students. This course serves as the program’s cornerstone course and as such is designed to be the introductory course in the program. 3 credit hours.
BUS 510 Financial Modeling
Course Description: This course examines the fundamental principles of financial modeling techniques and introduces practical tools for financial decision making in both entrepreneurial and innovative business environments. Students will build flexible financial models, which allow in-depth analysis to evaluate options and make informed recommendations. The class sessions will include exercises and implementation of modeling techniques. Assignments will require students to evaluate a business situation and make and support their decision based on their analysis. Upon completion of the course students will have an understanding of financial reporting, risk and return, the cost of capital, cash management, sensitivity analysis and the ability to utilize sound financial principles to make strategic decisions and convey the results and recommendations in written reports. Because of the hands-on nature of the course, it is assumed that participants have a general knowledge of finance and accounting as well as a basic knowledge of spreadsheets. 3 credit hours.
BUS 515 Organizational Dynamics and Effectiveness
Course Description: This course focuses on managing organizations for high performance in a rapidly changing business environment. This course provides a unifying framework for issues in building and managing human assets in dynamic organizations, to achieve operational and strategic goals. The student will develop an understanding of essential HRM functions that drive and support the changing world of work. Topics include recruitment, selection, compensation, training, retention and turnover, performance management, and the human resource implications of various strategies. Students will also build up knowledge in operations function in industrial, service, and public organizations which includes forecasting, line balancing, aggregate scheduling, work measurement, quality control, and learning curve. 3 credit hours.
BUS 520 Competitive Intelligence
Course Description: In today's dynamic economic environment, effective business decision making requires managers to utilize timely and accurate information. This course will explore techniques of intelligence gathering to gain valuable insight into customers, competitors, products, services, benchmarking, and due diligence, necessary to making well informed decisions. Traditional resources will be explored such as financial records, public documents, databases, government sources and the Internet. The course will also address the non-traditional methods of gathering intelligence that are not readily available to the casual searcher. 3 credit hours.
BUS 525 Business Strategy and Planning
Course Description: This course focuses on application of key strategic and managerial approaches necessary to implement the strategy of a firm in a changing world. It examines and discusses how firms develop and implement business, functional, and technology strategies. Emphasis is placed on the vision of the firm, the strategic planning process, and strategic management. 3 credit hours.
BUS 530 Project Management
Course Description: This course focuses on one of the major growth areas in the field of management, the topic of project management. Projects are defined as temporary endeavors undertaken to create a unique product or service. The course points out that recent interest in project management is based on recognition that many organizational tasks do not fit neatly into business-as-usual. The significant differences between project management and general management are overviewed. The three interrelated objectives of budget, schedule, and specifications are also introduced. The course emphasizes scheduling various projects and concludes with a discussion of monitoring control and learning from projects. The course will also cover benchmarking, quantitative analysis and the voice of the customer. The design of the course involves case discussion, lectures, and problem solving as the primary vehicle for learning. In addition, a project is due at the end of the term, to give the class a laboratory in which the critical thinking skills, which will be sharpened in the class, can be used to initialize and analyze various projects. The class will use computer tools to track projects. 3 credit hours.
Concentrations
A. Corporate Innovation
BUS 660 Leadership and Change Management
Course Description: This course will focus on individual, team, and organizational leadership and will provide students with the foundation for examining and developing their own individual leadership style. Change for most organizations is difficult to navigate, therefore change management and leadership skills are an integral part of this course. The course also examines horizontal and vertical leadership, team leadership, team building and performance, and ethics. Attention is given to the behavioral aspects of innovation and creativity including leadership, interpersonal communication, team building, empowerment, organizational design, change, and other skills needed to start a new venture or to implement and successfully manage innovation in an existing organization. 3 credit hours.
BUS 665 Unleashing and Sustaining Innovation in Organizations
Course Description: The sweeping waves of technological breakthroughs supplemented by geopolitical and social changes, undermine the rigidity and viability of corporate structures, and usher in a new era of innovation and opportunities. The overall scope of this course consists of the analysis and evaluation of how organizations either adapt to or flourish under the constraints of bureaucratic inertia and resistance to change or relegate themselves to mediocrity and possibly extinction. Specifically, the themes of the course focus on technological breakthroughs and the groundwork that is necessary to render an organization amenable to creativity and change and on the process of establishing the right physical and psychological environments to foster successful and sustainable innovations. 3 credit hours.
BUS 670 Complexity of the Innovative Process: Multidimensional Aspects of Innovation
Course Description: The course examines the process of innovation within a multidimensional framework; emerging technologies, changing markets, organization culture, world economy, competitive pressures and leadership. The issue of uncertainty as a by-product of innovation and how organizations recognize uncertainty and respond by modifying their organizational structures, including the structure of executive leadership, is examined. On another front, the role of cross-functionality, of technical communications, of external relationships, and of intra-organizational and inter-organizational networks in promoting innovations is critically assessed and explored. A variety of learning tools will be used; role playing, case studies, and class discussion. 3 credit hours.
BUS 675 Financial Tools for Managing Innovation
Course Description: This course focuses on financial concepts and how they are used to maximize the value of the firm and choose among alternative courses of action regarding technological innovation, focusing on models, sources, flows, and the protection of innovation. Traditional financial and accounting concepts will be presented with specific application to the innovation process. 3 credit hours.
B. Entrepreneurship
BUS 610 New Venture Creation
Course Description: This course will focus on identifying and differentiating between ideas and real business opportunities. Students will develop skills needed to successfully screen and evaluate opportunities. Opportunity recognition, evaluation, and analysis will be emphasized. Emphasis is placed on environmental analysis, opportunity recognition, creativity and innovation, new venture screening, identification of competitive advantages, logistics and implementation issues. Elements of a business plan will be introduced as a tool in conducting feasibility studies. 3 credit hours.
BUS 615 New Product Development and Management
Course Description: In this course, teams of students work together on a product development project and related business plan. This is a project-based course that covers modern tools and methods for product design and development. Students learn to manage innovation and creativity while designing a product that addresses an identified market need. Each project addresses market, financial and technical feasibility and new product positioning, planning, and execution issues. Class sessions are conducted in workshop mode and employ cases and hands-on exercises to reinforce the key ideas. Topics include identifying customer needs, concept generation, product architecture, and industrial design. 3 credit hours.
BUS 620 Financing the New Venture
Course Description: This course will examine the role of finance and the formation of financial strategies needed to support each phase of the business start-up. Sources of equity and debt capital along with entry strategies such as franchising and acquisition are examined. Alternative working capital, capital structure, and investment strategies unique to the start-up are presented. Course focuses on managing the cash cycle, seed and venture capital, cost of capital and capital structure, entry strategies – franchising, acquisition, exit strategies – sale, merger, liquidation, financial distress – bankruptcy and capital investments. 3 credit hours.
BUS 625 Acquisitions in New Business Formation
Course Description: This course will deal with the issues involved in acquiring businesses including identification, due diligence, data acquisition and analysis, valuation and financing. Discussion will include the process of acquisition as well as deal structures, and the intricacies of closing the sale. Case studies will be used through the course as well as group exercises designed to cover various aspect of negotiating. Exercises are based on acquisition situations that require negotiating such as buying (or selling), merging organizations, salary issues, and putting together coalitions. 3 credit hours.
Capstone Course and Culminating Experience
BUS 699 Graduate Seminar and Capstone Project
Course Description: This course represents a culminating experience for the MBA program providing students with an opportunity to integrate and apply the knowledge and conceptual and analytical skills acquired during the program into a specific business project. The requirements of the capstone course will vary depending upon the concentration selected: (1) Entrepreneurship: generation of a business plan and presentation that will be submitted to venture capital firms working with the program, or (2) Corporate Innovation: completing a consulting project designed to introduce an innovation (product or services) into an existing business organization. The capstone project is completed under the direction of a faculty coach. 4 credit hours.
Prerequisite Course Requirements
About the Prerequisites
Prerequisite courses are
NOT required for those students who have graduated from an accredited business or business related degree program. Students who have previously taken accounting, business administration, management information systems, management, finance, economics, etc. will not need to retake these courses. However, if a business graduate has been out of school and wants to prepare for the program by taking prerequisite courses, we recommend taking the financial accounting, organizational behavior, and finance courses. Those who are concerned about their basic knowledge of business statistics may want to complete the business statistics course.
Students who DO NOT HAVE a business or related bachelor’s degree or minor are required to complete coursework in the following subjects or provide evidence of knowledge in the subject area.
Recommended Courses
The following courses are cross-listed as undergraduate and graduate courses:
- ACC 500/ACC 111 Financial Accounting for Managers
- BUS 500/MAT 220 Business Statistics
- ECO 500/ECO 201 Macroeconomic Theory
- FIN 500/FIN 301 Principles of Finance
- MGT 500/MGT 405 Organizational Behavior
- MKT 500/MKT101 Principles of Marketing
Once students have completed coursework for or met the requirements of 1.) financial accounting, 2.) organizational behavior, and 3.) finance, they may begin taking graduate level courses. However, the remaining required prerequisite courses must be completed before graduation.
MBA Program Objectives
To provide additional information about the focus and intent of the Post MBA program we have provided the following statement of program objectives:
The overall intent of the Post MBA program is to:
- Provide a high quality educational experience focused on understanding how creativity and innovation may be used as tools to initiate, grow, and transform organizations.
- Provide an understanding of how local, regional, national, and global trends affect and shape creativity and innovation in organizations.
- Provide participants with the functional business knowledge, decision tools, and planning techniques needed to lead and manage innovation and change within and across existing organizations or to start-up new ventures.
- Enhance “soft” skills such as written communications, teamwork, conflict management, negotiating and leadership and “hard” skills such as financial modeling, competitive analysis, and using metrics and predictive tools in decision making.
- Provide experiences required to function optimally in multi-disciplinary teams.
- Provide an integrated capstone project as a practical “hands-on” learning experience through the application of knowledge and skills acquired in the program.
- Develop sensitivities to the importance of ethics and professionalism in initiating and managing innovations or in the creation of new ventures.
Specific objectives of the Corporate Innovation concentration are to:
- Understand the conceptual frameworks underlying innovation and creativity and the skills needed to initiate and manage innovation in organizations.
- Design and conduct an information inquiry and analyze and interpret data.
- Understand and manage the diffusion of innovation.
- Understand the complexity of the process of innovation and how organizations leverage this process.
- Understand the legal, administrative, technological, marketing, financial management, planning, and project management issues that impact new venture creation.
Specific objectives of the Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation concentration are to:
- Understand the entrepreneurial process and how to recognize and evaluate business opportunities for economic potential.
- Design and conduct an information inquiry and analyze and interpret data.
- Prepare students to document a business plan.
- Understand the personal commitments and the importance of relationships in the business development process.
- Understand the legal, administrative, technological, marketing, financial management, planning, and project management issues that impact new venture creation.
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