Business Administration (BUAD)

The purpose of this class is to provide instruction on Excel spreadsheet software as it applies to Business Analytics. The course will cover how businesses can use spreadsheets to store and manipulate data for the purpose of making informed business decisions. The course will also cover Macros and VBA programming. We will be applying the software to various cases and exercises that are representative of how it is used in an everyday fashion in almost every business situation that requires some analysis of numerical data. Both theoretical concepts and practical skills will be addressed within the scope of the class.

This course provides a broad overview of financial management and accounting practices in the nonprofit sector. Topics include raising, managing, and accounting for resources, from gifts and endowments to earned income and debt. Students will learn to interpret financial statements, ensure accountability to stakeholders, and use managerial tools to guide strategic decisions and foster long-term sustainability.

This is a Special Topics course. Students must participate in one of several weekend workshops offered on campus as a requirement for graduation. Each workshop will be focused on a topical business theme. The workshops will be offered 2-3 times each year, and students may meet this degree requirement by participating in any one of them. Students may opt to participate in more than one weekend workshop, but may only receive one credit toward their degree. Students who are repeating the course as a zero-credit option will participate in all activities and complete all course requirements as stated in the syllabus.

Communicating for Results will help students build skills and knowledge necessary to be a successful leader in business or the professions. The course covers topics such as: setting goals, audience, message, structure, and style and tone. Recognizing that the ability to communicate well is a critical part of professional development, the course presents students with an understanding of the nuances and intricacies of communication in a managerial setting. Students will have many opportunities to develop their communication skills by writing and speaking to increase their personal appreciation and knowledge of the commmunication process.

This course reviews the role that business analytics plays in the digital transformation of companies and how it adds value to its competitive strategy. An overview of business analytics and artificial intelligence tools to obtain and process data that generates valuable information for organizations is undertaken. Likewise, it covers how to interpret, visualize, and effectively communicate information for timely and effective decision-making, within an ethical and inclusive framework.

The need to communicate well is a critical part of a manager's professional development. This course helps prospective and practicing managers assess and develop their communication abilities to be a successful managerial communicator. Through course activities, students will understand the importance of effective communication in managerial and leadership roles, appreciate the value of strategic organizational communication, and enhance their speaking, writing, and other communication abilities. Special topics in the course include: presentation graphics, ethics, intercultural communication, and media relations.

This course is designed specifically for the communication needs of executives. Building on skills and knowledge essential for successful communication, the course will focus on the value of effective managerial communication, provide an understanding of strategic organizational communication, and enhance speaking, writing, and other communication abilities.

This course examines mission-driven marketing and communications in nonprofit organizations. Students analyze strategic marketing, ethical stakeholder engagement, branding, and storytelling to communicate impact. The course also explores resource development, including annual giving, major gifts, planned giving, corporate and foundation support, and special events, integrating marketing and development strategies to advance organizational sustainability.

To provide our OMBA students with a framework for understanding who they are as a leader and the tools and processes to further develop their leadership and critical thinking skills using the Design Thinking model as they identify and develop a plan to address their individual Wicked Problem as they progress through their online MBA journey.

This course provides an intensive, comprehensive study of the theory and practice of financial accounting. Students will explore the conceptual framework of financial reporting under FASB standards, focusing on the measurement and disclosure of complex assets, liabilities, and equity instruments.

Optimization is an analytics methodology found in all business analytics programs at the master’s level. This course will provide knowledge in optimization and analytics that are the foundations of analytics methodology including the theory and application of optimization techniques such as linear programming, integer programming, and mixed-integer programming. 

This course explores how information systems, data analytics, and emerging technologies support evidence-based decision-making in nonprofit organizations. Students examine the use of digital tools for advocacy, stakeholder engagement, and resource optimization, while addressing ethical issues such as data privacy and ai bias. Emphasis is placed on data governance, quality assessment, and impact measurement aligned with mission-driven goals.

This course will develop integrated models of company financial statements, analyze the underlying drivers of company activities, forecast future performance, and develop robust measures of company value. Students will also learn how fair value estimates of specific assets and liabilities are used within company financial statements.

Expands and integrates knowledge of US and international generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) in a rigorous study of financial reporting issues with significant income statement and balance sheet implications. Builds on the Financial Markets Module to develop an in-depth understanding of complex financial transactions. Incorporates related academic literature and research into financial reporting standards. Enrollment is limited to Graduate - Business level students, including BMAP students.

Decision Modeling explores stochastic process modeling through probability theory (distributions, sampling, process interactions), statistical analysis (descriptive, inferential, predictive, multivariate time series models), and modeling techniques (Monte Carlo simulation, decision analytics), with practical exposure to statistical modeling packages.

A specialized MAcc "Sprint" course dedicated to the analysis of current and emerging topics in accounting. Students engage with the most pressing challenges currently facing the profession, ranging from evolving regulatory requirements to technological disruptions. The course emphasizes critical thinking and the application of accounting theory to real-time professional developments.

Most business problems are too large or too complex to solve optimally, where the strict meaning of “optimal” means finding the “probably” best solution to a problem. Satisficing, or finding a heuristic solution that approximates the optimal solution is, therefore the predominant mode of problem solving found in industry. Having the capability of designing and executing heuristics that more closely approach optimal solutions creates a competitive advantage for companies. This course focuses on such methodologies where quick but good solutions to complex problems are needed so that they can be acted upon in a timely manner. The type of heuristic covered in this course is the algorithm, which is a sequence of steps taken to provide a solution to a problem.

Decision modeling provides a framework on how to develop models that improve decision-making under uncertainty. Using a variety of statistical techniques, students will learn how to apply decisions models within a variety of business contexts. The topics include: discrete choice models, simulation models, and forecasting models.

This course prepares early-career accountants to navigate the transition from student to working professional, covering topics such as workplace readiness, ethics, responsible AI use, effective communication, teamwork across differences, giving and receiving feedback, and networking.

This course provides a rigorous and hands-on introduction to regression and classification, two of the most widely used techniques in business analytics. These methods are essential for turning data into insight. They help organizations forecast sales, predict customer churn, assess credit risk, optimize pricing, detect fraud, and improve operational efficiency. Students will learn to build, interpret, and evaluate predictive models that support better decision making across a range of business applications.

This course expands the accounting professional's understanding of corporate finance, financial instruments, and derivatives.

This is the second of the two courses designed to equip learners with fundamental knowledge and hands-on skills in Machine Learning. Building on concepts from Foundations of ML for Business, it extends regression models to nonlinear models in supervised learning and introduces essential tools in unsupervised learning. Emphasis is placed on cultivating a thoughtful and strategic approach to leveraging data for improved business decision-making and performance. Through hands-on computer programming, students will explore the algorithms that drive these methods, gaining both a solid technical understanding and the ability to apply them effectively in real-world contexts.

Optimization is a prescriptive analytics methodology designed to yield the best solution to a given problem. This applied optimization course will examine optimization through a business analytics lens. Students are exposed to the theory and application of optimization, including linear programming, nonlinear programming, discrete optimization, specialized networks, and heuristics. Students will develop an understanding of algebraic formulations, develop spreadsheet model prototypes, and use large-scale optimization software to solve challenging business problems.

This course develops students’ ability to measure, communicate and interpret financial information. Financial accounting provides the most comprehensive source of information used to assess an organization’s past performance and future prospects. Specifically, financial accounting focuses on the financial statements and related disclosures prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. Rather than solely focusing on technical competencies, this course also emphasizes the underlying rationale for accounting practices and the effectiveness of these practices. As such, attention is given to contemporary issues in financial reporting, the use of judgment in financial accounting, and the economic consequences of reporting choices.

Concepts and principles of financial and administrative accounting essential to the interpretation and analysis of accounting information, including financial reports, bankruptcy analysis, budgeting, control, production and costing, stock options, and board governance.

This course introduces the basic concepts of financial accounting necessary to generate financial statements and reports. It examines strategies used to master the economic subtleties of business, and provides the managerial skills needed to analyze and interpret financial statements for internal and external use. BUAD 5705 Statistics for Business (2.5 Credits): This course focuses on data analysis and how managers use data to make better business decisions. We will examine the role and application of statistics in the analysis of business problems including estimation, statistical measures, hypothesis testing, analysis of variance, and regression models.

This course introduces students to the role of accounting systems in organizations and global capital markets. Accounting information is essential for effective communication, operational decision making, and strategic decision making within a company. This course first develops students’ ability to estimate and interpret managerial accounting information useful for internal planning, control, and performance measurement. In addition, external stakeholders are interested in assessing an organization’s past performance and future prospects. This course also develops students’ ability to measure, communicate, and evaluate financial information provided to external stakeholders (e.g., investors, regulators, creditors, and analysts) in the form of financial statements and other disclosures.

This course develops students' ability to prepare accounting information that enhances decision-making within organizations. The accounting information is non-financial as well as financial, primarily forward -looking, generally model-based, assembled in reference to the needs of managers within an organization (as opposed to regulators, creditors , or shareholders), and often disaggregated to enable various analyses (on products, services, activities, divisions, tasks, operations, etc.) to be performed, which support the performance of management planning and control functions. The course emphasizes managerial decision-making and control of operations using accounting information systems. Included are basic accounting concepts, accounting for manufacturing and investment decisions, and designing management control systems to implement strategies (e.g., transfer pricing, balanced scorecard.)

This course will include a survey of the state-of-the-art in business analytics, exploring how companies use it for competitive advantage, and identifying factors for successful strategic and operational support as business intelligence tools. Topics will include business metrics used for performance measurement and incentives, effective information communication, visualization, process improvement, the development and application of algorithms, and ethical implications. The course will also include a series of opportunities for problem-solving using business analytics in different areas of an organization, such as operations, supply chain management, human resources, finance, and marketing.

This course deals with the use of accounting information for decision-making, planning, and control. The goal is to acquaint the student of management with the fundamentals of internal accounting, better known as management accounting. The emphasis is on using accounting information in managing an organization, rather than product costing and income determination.

This course continues the accounting series with cost accounting, activities analysis, profit planning and budgetary systems, cost allocations, transfer pricing, and performance evaluation.

This course introduces core machine learning methods for business analytics, including regression, classification, and model evaluation. It extends to tree-based models, support vector machines, and unsupervised learning. Emphasis is on practical application, with R used to build, evaluate, and interpret predictive models for real-world decision-making.

This course develops an understanding of the principles of finance and equips students to make informed personal and business financial decisions in real-world contexts over time and under uncertainty. Students will gain insights and tools to improve their own financial decisions, such as leasing or buying an automobile, choosing the right mortgage, or planning for retirement. Students will also learn how to apply the principles of finance to valuing financial securities (such as stocks and bonds), allocating a firm’s capital across potential projects, and raising capital for a firm in modern financial markets. The goal is to build both a theoretical framework for thinking strategically about financial decisions and an applied set of tools for family financial planning and for value creation for firm owners.

This course is designed to provide students with a deep understanding of big data and cloud computing. The data storage and retrieval techniques that have served the information processing industry for decades have proven inadequate in the face of the huge collections of data. Businesses are requiring a new set of technologies that are specifically designed to deal with these huge data sets. This course will focus on applications of big data and cloud computing techniques that will be used to process large-scale data sets.

Renaissance Marketer is a four-credit course and serves as the foundation for the Online Master of Marketing program. It will introduce students to a view of the traditional “4Ps of Marketing: Product, Price, Promotion and Place” through a new lens: Renaissance Marketing. Renaissance Marketing acknowledges the new world of marketing—one that is more collaborative, dynamic, and faster moving than ever before. In this environment, today’s successful marketers must apply the principles of the discipline in a different way. The course will also introduce students to a 5th “P” - Participation. With Participation, marketers engage consumers in the marketing process using technology, new forms of market research and advanced feedback techniques to co-create products, services, experiences, and business models.

This course has two foci related to information technology, the first emphasizing information and the second emphasizing technology. In the first focus, students will gain an understanding of how IT enables fundamental transformations in firms, markets, products and business processes through readings and case discussions. These transformations have important implications for the way companies organize (both internally and with customers and suppliers) and compete. Accordingly, this focus addresses the management issues surrounding the impact of information technology in organizations and is designed with the line and general managers in mind, rather than the managers of the IT function. The objective in the technology focus is to provide students with advanced skills in the computer technologies of the modern workplace—namely spreadsheets , databases, and visualization tools. When applied creatively, these technologies enable more efficient execution, enhance decision making and support the design of more effective business processes, all of which are essential for success in an increasingly competitive business environment.

This course provides MBA students with a managerial understanding of information systems and digital technologies that drive organizational performance, innovation, and competitive advantage, within the framework of digital transformation. Students learn how data, analytics, enterprise platforms, cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence support business strategy and decision-making. The course also covers IT project execution and governance from a leadership perspective, preparing students to participate effectively in technology-enabled transformations. The students develop an incremental digital transformation assessment project in selected organizations.

The course focuses upon strategic influence of information technology (IT) within organizations. Designed primarily for non-IT executives, the course will prepare for understanding of technological vocabulary, emerging technologies and how they enhance core business functions, and demonstrating the business value of IT investment. Practice based exercises will augment the learning experience through modeling IT choices and information utilization.

The course focuses on qualitative and quantitative analytics techniques designed to assess the current state of any marketing environment. Special emphasis is given to how consumers are responding to current efforts, how their responses fit with expectations, and the effect on purchase, repeat purchase, and recommendations.

The focus of Management of Information Systems is on the technology that enables its use in the business and organizational setting. Issues such as hardware, software, databases, telecommunications, and the Internet will be discussed. Students will experience hands-on applications in some areas. An understanding of how Information Technology enables fundamental transformations in firms, markets, products, and business processes will be gained. This course addresses the management issues surrounding the impact of information technology in organizations. It is designed with the line and general managers in mind, rather than the managers of the IS function.

This course is designed to introduce students to the basic information technology and digital fluency. Emphasis will be placed on understanding how managers can participate in opportunities to select and successfully implement information technologies in order to promote business strategy. Interactive analytic tool will be used to solve business problems involving various functional areas.

This is a Special Topics course. Students must participate in one of several weekend workshops offered on campus as a requirement for graduation. Each workshop will be focused on a topical business theme. The workshops will be offered 2-3 times each year, and students may meet this degree requirement by participating in any one of them. Students may opt to participate in more than one weekend workshop, but may only receive one credit toward their degree. Students who are repeating the course as a zero-credit option will participate in all activities and complete all course requirements as stated in the syllabus.

This course focuses on the use of research to plan and optimize future marketing efforts. Consumers expect personalization in exchange for loyalty. Customer analytics allow marketers to use customer behavior data to identify insights and make key business decisions. Market segmentation is complemented with predictive analytics to drive tactics such as product and service innovation, promotional activities such as direct marketing, distribution decisions like site selection, pricing tactics, and customer relationship management.

The course will focus on an ability to innovate through several interrelated capabilities: a) the ability to identify unique insights into customers’ needs and motivations, b) the ability to identify and define the best opportunities for innovation given these insights, c) the ability to generate creative product and service solution concepts to exploit these opportunities, and d) the ability to continually learn from customer feedback and to iterate towards products and services that capture a disproportionate market share and/or that create new markets. Course activities will promote the development of each student’s innovation skills (including AI) and mindset (e.g., design thinking), as well as equip each student to participate in and to lead cross-functional innovation projects.

This course is focused on innovation tools and techniques (including AI) appropriate to corporate strategy along with innovation management. Success factors in innovation management include: innovation strategy, innovation process, resources and organization, and innovation culture. Visual design, innovation techniques, and cutting-edge tools are added to the traditional strategic toolbox to bring new insights into innovation management including business model canvas, value proposition canvas, strategy canvas, service blueprinting, corporate identity, branding, and other visual marketing strategy tools.

This course introduces the fundamental concepts, methods, and tools for designing, developing, and leveraging databases in data-driven organizations. Students will explore how organizations manage and use two primary types of databases: operational (supporting day-to-day transactions) and analytical (supporting decision-making and strategy). Throughout the course, students will also learn how to integrate and complement their work with AI-driven tools to enhance database design, coding efficiency, and analytical insights.

This course explores how to develop and manage integrated marketing campaigns across the media ecosystem. Students will learn to orchestrate paid, earned, owned, and shared channels into seamless brand experiences that engage audiences, build equity, and drive measurable growth. Ultimately, students will craft communication strategies that align creative content, data-driven insights, and emerging technologies.

This course explores the evolving world of digital content management and its role in integrated marketing communications. Students will examine how digital media tools and tactics such as AI can be leveraged to promote products and services. Upon completion of this course, students will have a working knowledge of the digital marketing ecosystem, content marketing, and ethical practices.

This course helps students with insights into the tenets of leadership—how to lead and motivate a team, how to handle crises, and how to manage ethical considerations in modern marketing. The leadership content is designed to prepare students to practice the skills they learn in the program in a senior-level marketing position. It also serves to complete the study of the Marketing Challenge. Each student will prepare a presentation to give to the class on their Marketing Challenge.

This course provides students an introduction to important financial concepts critical to both investing and running a successful business.  Students will gain an understanding of various financial markets, as well as different approaches to calculating risk and return. Valuable corporate finance skills will be developed to prepare students to become successful financial managers. Financial analysis and forecasting, project evaluation, and financial policy are some of the topics to be covered. The primary objectives of the course are to provide a framework for students to approach the financial decisions they will face in their future careers and to build a solid foundation for graduate students interested in pursuing more advanced coursework in the field. 

The course covers basic principles and theories of financial valuation, risk pricing and risk management. These principles are applied to corporate finance topics such as: how a firm decides to invest its resources in long term assets and growth opportunities; how a firm will manage its sources of capital and raise funds to finance chosen investments; and how the firm will plan and control funds flow.

This course is structured on the concepts and tools of valuation. It covers financial and project analysis, financial forecasting, risk and return, cost of capital, mergers and acquisitions, and valuation.

Students will learn about concepts and tools of valuation, financial and project analysis, financial forecasting, risk and return, cost of capital, mergers and acquisitions, and valuation.

This course will familiarize students with the tools and techniques necessary for valuing various types of assets. The goal of this course is to develop an understanding of how to value a wide range of corporate investment projects and companies, with a focus on bridging financial theory and practice. Students will also learn how different sets of pro forma operating assumptions impact corporate valuation and creditworthiness.

Building on the topics in Financial Management, Corporate Financial Policy covers advanced topics in financial markets and strategy, including debt and equity management policy, financing, derivatives and risk management, and international finance.

Focuses on developing integrated marketing programs that address customer needs, competitive activity, channel and supplier behavior, macro environmental factors, and market evolution. Emphasis is placed on assessing the market and developing a responsive marketing mix: product policy, pricing, channels of distribution, integrated marketing communications, and support structure.

Focuses on developing integrated marketing programs that address customer needs, competitive activity, channel and supplier behavior, macro environmental factors, and market evolution. Emphasis is placed on assessing the market and developing a responsive marketing mix: product policy, pricing, channels of distribution, integrated marketing communications, and support structure.

This course focuses on the problems of building an integrated marketing program in light of external forces, such as the consumer, the trade, the competition and the regulatory environment. Specific emphasis is placed on the marketing concept, the marketing mix, market definition and dynamics, segmentation and positioning, and product/market evolution.

This course focuses on developing strategic marketing programs that address customer needs in the context of the organization, macroenvironment, and competition. Emphasis is placed on assessing opportunities and developing a responsive marketing mix to include product development, pricing, channels of distribution, integrated marketing communications, and support structure.

The objective of this course is to study the major decision-making areas of managerial finance. The course reviews the theory and empirical evidence related to investment and financing policies of the firm and to develop decision-making ability in these areas. Building on previous courses, this course incorporates richer institutional details and deepens understanding of how firms interact with the financial markets. Topics to be included are: financing investments with capital market imperfections, corporate control, governance, and risk management.

This course focuses on the formulation of marketing strategy, including balancing market opportunities and threats with available resources and alternative responses, as well as analysis of markets, product and pricing strategies.

Designed to provide you with the analytic frameworks and tools to diagnose events in and to take effective action in today’s changing organizations. The course draws on knowledge from the domains of Organization Behavior (OB), Organization Theory (OT), and Human Resource Management (HRM) to provide you with the understanding and skills that you need to be an effective manager of people in these changing organizations. OT, OB and HRM are concerned with developing understanding about how human beings act in organized settings and how organized systems affect human behavior through policies, structures and strategies. In addition to conceptual understanding, ongoing assessments and experiential exercises provide you opportunities to reflect on your own behavior in order to develop new and more effective ways of interacting with others to accomplish work.

Designed to provide you with the analytic frameworks and tools to diagnose events in and to take effective action in today's changing organizations. The course draws on knowledge from the domains of Organization Behavior (OB), Organization Theory (OT), and Human Resource Management (HRM) to provide you with the understanding and skills that you need to be an effective manager of people in these changing organizations. OT, OB and HRM are concerned with developing understanding about how human beings act in organized settings and how organized systems affect human behavior through policies, structures and strategies. In addition to conceptual understanding, ongoing assessments and experiential exercises provide you opportunities to reflect on your own behavior in order to develop new and more effective ways of interacting with others to accomplish work.

This course is designed to improve your effectiveness as a manager by deepening your understanding of how organizations work. To succeed in the business world, you must (a) analyze organizational events and processes and (b) design and implement actions to increase organizational effectiveness. These critical leadership skills are even more important today, as organizations enter a period of enormous upheaval and change. The course begins with an intensive two-day leadership forum that focuses on heightening your awareness of leadership challenges and enhancing your ability to address them. As the semester continues, we build upon that seminal experience by exploring how the structure, power relations, and culture of organizations shape and constrain the behavior of individuals within them. The course culminates in a project in which you apply both conceptual tools and leadership skills to events in your current organization.

Organizational behavior is a field of study that seeks to understand, explain, and improve human behavior. The structure of this course is organized around how renaissance managers can improve two aspects of human behavior: (1) job performance – the degree to which employees perform the behaviors needed for the organization to achieve its goals, and (2) organizational commitment – the degree to which employees remain loyal to the organization rather than seeking employment elsewhere. This course will guide you through a model that seeks to explain these two areas of organizational behavior.

This course equips students to lead through effective communication in dynamic and disruptive environments. By combining leadership development with applied communication practice, students cultivate the skills to articulate vision, manage complexity, and act with integrity and influence at all levels of leadership.

Building on the concepts from Leadership in an Uncertain Era, this course examines the leader's role in diagnosing, anticipating, planning, implementing, and evaluating change within organizations. Case studies and group projects focus on organizational analysis, barriers to change, overcoming resistance to change, change intervention strategies and methods, and change evaluation.

Leadership in the 21st century involves much more than the traditional topics of culture, networking, change management, and diversity. In a society in which technologies are constantly disrupting modes of communication and teams are increasingly global, today’s manager needs to understand coping with constant change, messaging and empathy, and the powerful emerging leadership trends.

In this course, Executive MBA students will put into practice leadership and communication tools, strategies and behaviors needed to advance to the next level in their careers.  Students will develop personalized action plans and goals that they will advance with the help of an executive coach.

The course introduces the theory and practice of portfolio management and investments in various asset classes. Emphasis is placed on wealth/asset management and hands-on development and use of financial software tools. Topics include financial markets and intermediaries, measuring risk and return, asset allocation, portfolio optimization, and wealth management. Students will emerge from this course with a thorough understanding of modern techniques in asset management and the ability to apply these techniques in practice.

In this course, Executive MBA students will put into practice leadership and communication tools, strategies and behaviors needed to advance to the next level in their careers. Students will develop personalized action plans and goals that they will advance with the help of an executive coach.

In this course, the Executive MBA student will study and practice audience analysis and audience transformation; executive presentation strategy and delivery; developing and delivering the big idea; the story/visual/delivery model of leadership communication; storytelling & leadership; building empathy and creating emotional appeal all while learning and experiencing the latest and most effective communication tools (video, podcasts, social media, etc.) needed to influence and inform important audiences.

This course introduces students to Operations Management, one of the major functional areas of business. Operations Management is devoted to how an organization efficiently converts resources into products and services. These resources include an organization's facilities, workforce, equipment, information, and materials. The course will use two perspectives to explore Operations Management. The first is the “process” view – a set of activities and resources that transform inputs into outputs. We will explore how to design, analyze, and control business processes within a firm. The second half of this course will use the supply chain -- a network of firms that source, make, and deliver the product or service to the customer -- as the overarching model to explore the latest operations-related initiatives.

Study of the design, operation, and control of production and operating systems from a managerial standpoint, with emphasis on quantitative methods of analysis.

To achieve competitive advantage, managers must understand how to design and control products and services, as well as the systems for their delivery. To reach that understanding, this course focuses on issues of planning and control of complex products and services, managing quality and continuous improvement, and control of the supply chain.

To achieve competitive advantage, managers must understand how to design and control products and services, as well as the systems for their delivery. To reach that understanding, this course focuses on issues of planning and control of complex products and services, managing quality and continuous improvement, and control of the supply chain.

This course introduces students to the economic principles and practical skills that are essential to managing investment portfolios. Students will explore equity, fixed-income, and derivatives strategies and their applications in achieving investment goals and managing investment risks. Students will also learn up-to-date knowledge on financial markets and the asset management industry.

The aim of this course is to supply the student with the analytical tools needed to succeed in business. The material will be closely coordinated and integrated with the other course offerings in the first year core (economics, marketing, finance, etc.). The course covers the tools that are necessary to analyze and understand the implications of collected data. These include probability distributions, hypothesis testing, correlation and covariance analysis, ANOVA, simple and multiple regression, and forecasting. Emphasis will be placed on a student’s ability to apply the appropriate tool to collected data and to understand and interpret the results of their analyses.

Role and application of statistics in the analysis of business problems including estimation, statistical measures, hypothesis testing, analysis of variance, simple and multiple linear regression and time series analysis.

This course focuses on data analysis and how managers use data to make better business decisions. We will examine the role and application of statistics in the analysis of business problems including estimation, statistical measures, hypothesis testing, analysis of variance, and regression models.

The aim of this course is to supply the student with the analytical tools needed to succeed in business. The material will be closely coordinated and integrated with the other course offerings in the first year core (marketing, finance, etc.). The course covers various tools that are necessary to analyze and understand the implications of collected data. These include statistical tools (hypothesis testing, correlation and covariance analysis, probability distributions, simple and multiple regression, and forecasting) along with statistical decision making, simulation, constrained optimization, and sensitivity analysis. Emphasis will be placed on a student’s ability to understand and interpret the results of their analyses.

Accounting professionals provide the models and data that drive operating, investment and financing decisions of all organizations: large and small, public and private, profit and non-profit. Accountants must ensure decision makers have relevant information that is complete, neutral, and free from error. In this course, students gain an appreciation for the valuable insights provided by financial reporting and develop an in-depth understanding of the conceptual framework and generally accepted accounting principles necessary to prepare and interpret financial statements.

This course is designed to introduce students to basic modeling, analysis, and simulation techniques. Emphasis will be placed on problem identification and formulation, sensitivity analysis, and model construction. Tools such as MS Excel, Solver, Crystal Ball, and @Risk will be used to solve business problems across all business functional areas: Finance, Accounting, Operations, Marketing, Information Systems, Policy, and Human Resource Management.

This course is designed to introduce students to basic modeling, analysis and simulation techniques. Emphasis will be placed on problem identification and formulation, sensitivity analysis and model construction. Spreadsheet tools will be used to solve business problems across various business functional areas.

How is accounting data produced and how can effective data analysis inform business decisions? This course introduces data analytics skills and techniques relevant to various fields of accounting, with a focus on the role of accounting information systems and controls pertaining to data quality. Students engage in descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive analysis of large datasets, using a variety of software tools.

Economic Analysis and Insights (2.0 hours). Decision-making is one of the most crucial roles of managers in public and private firms, large and small. This course draws on microeconomics to develop concepts and techniques that help managers allocate resources efficiently and determine appropriate strategies across their organization including pricing, production, and marketing in the context of various competitive market conditions. This is an applied course where students are actively engaged in using the concepts being covered, culminating in a major team project/presentation.

This course teaches students to collect, process, and analyze large-scale data using distributed computing technologies and cloud platforms. Students gain hands-on experience with industry-standard big data frameworks, covering the complete data pipeline from ingestion through visualization. Core topics include distributed computing architectures, batch and stream processing, cloud-based storage and retrieval, programmatic data collection via APIs, and deploying open-source Large Language Models (LLMs) for data analysis.

This course studies economic analysis applied to managerial decision making. Besides basic topics of demand, cost and production, and market structures, this course also covers demand forecasting, pricing strategies, game theory, and information economics.

This introductory applied economics class examines the basic concepts and applications of demand and supply analysis. The course also explores topics of production and pricing in both domestic and international markets. Furthering the understanding of different market structures, this course focuses on the causes and consequences of market failures, the application of game theory to corporate decision-making, and the impact of technological change, international competition and government regulation.

This course provides students a deeper understanding of the audit process through the application of fundamental concepts to a variety of business situations. This course emphasizes research of audit standards, case analysis of corporate audit failures and practical experience in group and individual audit exercises.

This course introduces principles and techniques for data visualization for business. Effective visuals communicate information to maximize readability, comprehension, and understanding. Information visualization principles are drawn from the fields of statistics, perception, graphic and information design, and data mining. Students will learn visual representation techniques that increase the understanding of complex data and models. Human information processing and encoding of visual and textual information will be discussed in terms of selecting the appropriate method for displaying of appropriate data, both quantitative and qualitative. Topics include charts, tables, graphics, effective presentations, and dashboard design. Examples will be used from a variety of industries.

This course provides students with advanced skills in the computer technologies of the modern workplace - namely spreadsheets and visualization tools. When applied creatively, these technologies enable more efficient execution, enhance decision making, and support the design of more effective business processes, all of which are essential for success in an increasingly competitive business environment.

In recent years, accounting standards have moved towards reporting fair values on the balance sheet. This course first introduces the accounting requirements for the measurement and recognition of fair value, and then covers the valuation techniques commonly used to estimate fair values, such as a discounted cash flow model or a market-based approach. Students also learn how to carefully analyze financial statements, with an emphasis on risk management activities and transactions impacting owner’s equity.

This course covers deep learning models for regression, classification, vision, language and recommendations, and an introduction to reinforcement learning. Students develop intuition for the mathematical underpinnings of modern AI architectures, hands-on experience in training AI models, and technical skills in the evaluation and management of AI model risks.

Accountants and analysts assist management in the formulation and implementation of operational and strategic decision making. Focusing on contemporary and conceptually advanced tools, this course improves students’ ability to prepare, analyze, interpret, measure, and communicate financial and non-financial information so they can make appropriate recommendations to support management decision-making that improves organizational performance.

This course provides tax and accounting professionals the ability to recognize tax factors that influence business decisions, and the ability to integrate them into the business decision-making process. 

This experiential-based practicum course will include a comprehensive business analytics project that students will complete in small work teams. The projects will be hosted by businesses, government, or non-profit organizations. The students will complete the project from start to finish integrating the skills that have been acquired from the previous course work in the business analytics program. They will define and frame a complex problem, develop a systematic approach to solving it using analytics, identify methodologies that are suited to the problem, quickly prototype solutions with those methodologies to identify the best approach and, ultimately, generate an innovative solution and persuasively convey that solution using data visualization techniques and communication skills.

This course covers fundamental topics related to developing and using databases and data warehouses to provide business intelligence (BI). The course includes: in-depth coverage of structured query language (SQL), stored programs, and database design and implementation, data warehousing concepts, dimensional modeling (star schemas), the extraction/transformation/load (ETL) process, and online analytical processing (OLAP)/ BI functionalities. As a final project, students build a small data warehouse, populate it with data, and create a dashboard to analyze and communicate the data to a broad audience.

This course covers advanced financial reporting topics, focusing particularly on the concept of the business entity – both conceptually and from an accounting standpoint. Cases in this course require students to become proficient with the Accounting Standards Codification in order to develop the professional judgment necessary to accurately account for complex business transactions. As many accounting issues do not have black and white answers, this course helps students craft well-reasoned, justifiable interpretations of accounting standards. The course also highlights some of the topics and central issues currently being addressed by accounting standard setters.

Companies and organizations partner with student teams to address real-world business challenges. These projects involve analyzing large and complex datasets and require students to select and apply appropriate analytical techniques. Emphasis is placed on translating analysis into actionable insights and persuasively communicating recommendations through effective data visualization and professional presentation skills.

The LDE program is designed to enhance professional effectiveness by promoting students’ personal development and supporting their absorption of key leadership skills. A Mason School EP coach participates in a parallel program so as to be able to partner with each student in this effort. In the program we will focus on the following domains of leadership practice: Self, Relationships and Systems. I. SELF - Leader as Highly Skilled Individual: The focus here is on developing self awareness so students understand ‘Who shows Up When They Walk Into the Room?’ Through use of a range of assessments and feedback mechanisms students determine: • What do they bring to the table? • What are their core strengths & how can they best communicate them? • How do they know how they show up to others? II. RELATIONSHIPS Leader as Influencer of the Team: The focus here is on helping students develop the skills to be able to have conversations that matter? These range from feedback and performance related conversations to those involved in speaking truth to power and promoting ethical conduct. Specifically students will: • Become more comfortable and skilled at making their voice appropriately heard? • Become more skilled at making space for other voices? Drawing on frameworks provided by the course instructor students and their coach will focus on practicing making their voices heard for the good of the team and organization. III. Leader as Collaborative Enterprise Manager: The focus here is attending to the movement of information across units so as to help the parts work together to achieve larger system objectives? Through participation in an enterprise simulation students and will practice (and receive feedback from their EP coaches on) developing and translating strategy into coordinated action.

This course focuses on artificial intelligence (AI) applications in business, and covers implementations of contemporary AI techniques, such as Deep Learning, Large Language Models, Agentic AI, Context Engineering, and solutions for risk management and responsible business practices.

In a world of increased global trade and commerce, this course focuses on understanding and managing the differing standards for everything from earnings to ethics. The course serves to help us better understand values, our accountabilities, and the impact of our decisions and actions in the workplace. To reach this understanding, issues of business ethics, business strategy and emerging technologies, and managing conflicting interests in a global economy will be discussed.

This offering provides students the opportunity to engage in meaningful discussions on important topics of the day with a small group of classmates. Students select the topics for each group and develop the resources, which may include books, business publications, speakers, faculty, etc. Students organize these weekly meetings in order to explore and expand their understanding of the particular topic. Course progress is recorded weekly in a group wiki, and each group will present a summary of what they have learned to the class and core faculty as the end of each Module. Grading is pass/fail, based on the value of each student’s contribution to the group.

An examination of the distinctive management issues that arise when firms are either contemplating or already doing business across national boundaries. This course requires the integration and application of knowledge and skills learned in earlier courses and also introduces the critical business skills of understanding and managing strategic issues in international settings.

In a world of increased global trade and commerce, this course focuses on understanding and managing the differing standards for everything from earnings to ethics. The course serves to help us better understand values, our accountabilities, and the impact of our decisions and actions in the workplace. To reach this understanding, issues of business ethics, business strategy and emerging technologies, and managing conflicting interests in a global economy will be discussed.

This course will survey key features of American national politics, including public opinion, Congress, the executive branch, the judiciary, and the policy-making process. There will be an emphasis on war and national defense, including public opinion on war and military conflict, political control of the defense department, national security decision-making, and the question of who has the power to commit the nation to war.

This course will provide a detailed examination of the federal budget and the budget process, with special emphasis on funding the defense department. Topics will include appropriations, entitlements, the House and Senate Appropriations committees, deficits, public debt, continuing resolutions, supplemental appropriations, authorizations, reprogramming, rescissions, and the Defense Department Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution System (PPBES).

The objective of this course is for graduate business students to develop the capacity to think strategically about a company, its business position, and how it gains sustainable competitive advantages in the global environment. In so doing, students will be exposed to the issues that influence the competitive behavior and performance of organizations. Skills will be developed and applied for conducting strategic analysis in a variety of industry and competitive situations by analyzing and crafting business strategies through case studies and class discussion. The primary outcome of this course is that students will be able to apply a manager’s strategic perspective to the resolution of major business problems at different levels within the organization, with the goal of improving performance.

The objective of this course is for graduate business students to develop the capacity to think strategically about an organization by analyzing its business position and competitive advantage in the global marketplace. Students will visit and craft business strategies through case studies, class discussions, and assignments. Skills will be developed, practiced, and applied for conducting strategic analysis in a variety of industries and competitive situations. Students will be able to apply a leader’s strategic perspective to the resolution of both large and small business problems at various levels within an organization, to improve performance

This course is the study of the management of organizations with special focus on the roles and tasks of individual managers. The course deals with analyzing external and internal environmental forces; formulating organizational objectives; understanding the often conflicting needs and expectations of customers, employees, investors and other stakeholders; defining and appraising alternative courses of action; formulating and executing action plans; and establishing systems for monitoring and measuring results.

Covers analysis for decision making at industry, firm and business levels, focusing especially on multi-business firms and global industries. Firm resources and competencies, business and environmental demands, and the sources of competitive advantage are the major focus points of this course, which stresses practical applications of theory.

The MGJW Core Capstone course is a project based course where small teams of officers work on a real-world Lean-Six Sigma project for the U.S. Army. Students work full-time on the projects over an approximately 6 week period. The course involves research, in-depth analysis using both Lean and Six Sigma tools, development of a proposed solution to the problem as well as multiple presentations to different audiences including members of the Senior Executive Service and General Officers. Students are expected to coordinate, and successfully work with, numerous parties including staff at government agencies, contractors and vendors. Students also write a major technical report on the project. Students who successfully complete the course requirements receive their Lean Six Sigma Green Belt from the Mason School of Business.

This course integrates microeconomic and macroeconomic analysis to develop a unified framework for managerial decision-making in a global environment. Topics include demand and cost analysis, market structure and pricing, game theory, and information economics, as well as national income determination, fiscal and monetary policy, international trade, and exchange rate dynamics. Emphasis is placed on the application of economic principles to managerial strategy, forecasting, and risk assessment in the context of an increasingly interconnected global economy.

This course is designed to introduce students to the fundamentals of planning and executing a successful career and job search strategy. Emphasis is placed on identification of individual career goals, assessment of skills and career motivations, exploration of career options, analysis of the job market, effective use of individual marketing tools (e.g., resumes, cover letters, LinkedIn), interviewing skills, effective networking, and evaluating/negotiating job offers. Learning will be through career management staff, guest speakers and experts in talent acquisition, recruiting and interviewing by providing frameworks, theories and real-world examples.

This course introduces the basic macroeconomic concepts in the global economy for both industrialized and developing countries. Students are encouraged to analyze business and economic policies and money and capital markets.

This course is intended to provide information that can be used to interpret economic events and assess their impact on the economy and an organization. Part of this information concerns not just economics but an understanding of how some political choices are made in various countries. This knowledge is critical for risk assessment and a realistic planning of business operations over the next year. You leave the course with some fundamental "rules of thumb" that allow you to assess potential large scale economic risks to your organization.

This course focuses on how domestic and international product and financial markets operate. Students will develop expertise in applying models to generate qualitative forecasts of economic growth, interest rates, exchange rates and inflation. Through the analysis of case studies, the students will develop an understanding of policy decisions at the Federal Reserve and the effect that these policies have in the money and exchange rate markets.

This course explores essential macro- and microeconomic theories and evidence on how markets work and factors that impede their proper functioning in an applied, global framework. In this course students will relate the effects of countries’ differing monetary and fiscal policies to competitive conditions in various industries. They will apply demand and cost analysis as well as industrial structure to frame and answer questions of optimal pricing, resource allocation, global outsourcing, and competitive strategies.

Two one-week (40 hour, 1 credit hour) Sprint sessions, to be held once during the fall semester and once during the spring semester, allow William & Mary students to devote a concentrated block of time to new, emerging or important business topics, problems and opportunities. The Sprints, led by faculty, are designed to allow for corporate or industry interaction. The Sprint weeks increase the amount of experiential learning in the program; increase interaction with businesses and professionals; expose students to real-world, real-time issues; provide an opportunity for teamwork and competition; and place the school in a unique and differentiated position in terms of bringing business into the business school. Just as what is topical and current in business issues is evolutionary, the sprint content is expected to change from time to time to reflect the current general and specific interests of our students.

Students participate in all phases of consulting engagements for actual client firms: problem definition, proposal, research and implementation recommendations. Lectures and speakers are included with emphasis placed on field work and professional presentations.

This capstone course analyzes the sources of competitive success for organizations by breaking down organizational strategic management as a decision-making process that has four basic steps - (1) Analysis [A] – doing a thorough diagnosis of the competitive challenge/landscape facing the organization as well as internal analyses of strengths and weaknesses to undertake this challenge, (2) strategy formulation [F] – developing guiding polices and strategic alternatives to address the competitive challenge, (3) strategy implementation [I] – taking coherent and goal directed actions to respond to the competitive challenge, and (4) strategy evaluation – periodically evaluating the effectiveness of implemented strategy. The most important purpose of this class is to teach students to be a strategic leader - meaning a more systematic, logical, complete, critical thinker and communicator tasked with generating relevant-to-business and sustainable competitive strategies using the [AFI] framework.

The Business Analytics and Supply Chain Career Acceleration Module combines two major themes: Machine Learning techniques and topics in Supply Chain Management. These themes are complimentary since many of the analytical techniques in Machine Learning that are discussed are readily applicable to the Supply Chain discussion topics. The Machine Learning topics include Cross Validation, Subset Selection, Smoothing Splines, Principal Component Analysis, and Support Vector Machines. The topics in Supply Chain Management include time series analysis, forecasting, inventory management, and the application of algorithms to supply chain problems. Students also visit local port and distribution facilities to gain insight into real-world supply chain management and the context for the applications in this course.

This course focuses on diagnosing and solving complex marketing challenges, applying tools of marketing strategy and analytics to ambiguous problems, working with real companies to generate actionable insights and recommendations. The Marketing CAM strengthens your ability: 1) to diagnose the root causes of poor sales performance, whether due to pricing, awareness, distribution, brand relevance, or competitive pressures; 2) apply strategic frameworks and evidence-based analysis to design effective marketing actions; 3) experience the realities of marketing practice through company projects, cases, and site interactions; and 4) build teamwork and communication skills by presenting solutions that bridge theory and practice.

The module in Corporate Finance is designed to prepare students for careers in corporate financial decision-making, consulting, and financial analysis. The module aims to develop students' understanding of financial analytical tools and to improve students' ability to interpret and analyze issues typically faced by corporate controllers, treasurers, CFOs, and their staffs.

This course will consolidate students' learning through individual leadership projects that apply nonprofit management principles to a specific organizational context. Through guided mentorship and peer collaboration, students will refine their projects and present their findings, showcasing their ability to contribute meaningfully to the field of nonprofit management.

This course is for international students completing CPT or students needing educational credit for an internship. Two parts will include: a written paper evaluating the internship and two class sessions due before the end of the semester. The credit associated with this course does not count towards your degree requirements.

This is a Special Topics course. Students may participate in one of several weekend workshops offered on campus as an elective for their program. Each workshop will be focused on a topical business theme. The workshops will be offered 2-3 times each year, and students may participate in any of them. Students may opt to participate in more than one weekend workshop. Students who are repeating the course as a zero-credit option will participate in all activities and complete all course requirements as stated in the syllabus.

The course is designed to expose students to the breadth of nonprofit organizations and organizational work. It will include multiple short-term organizational rotations, each of which will involve both volunteer work and shadowing back-office activities. In addition, students will participate in a speaker series that will feature leaders in the nonprofit sector. Each student will also be paired with a DC-area mentor for real-world advice and guidance on how to build a career in nonprofit management.

This course analyzes how individuals, firms, and other organizations make decisions. Standard economic and financial models assume rational agents, even though people may not always act rationally. In this course, we will study theories and evidence from psychology on individual decision-making, focusing on biases, heuristics, and other factors that are missing from these standard models. We will discuss and analyze topical applications to economics (e.g., intertemporal choice, retirement savings) and finance (e.g., efficient markets, investor psychology), including improved economic theory and potential public policy responses. The course will also improve students’ understanding of individual behavior with an aim to improve their own decision-making in professional and personal settings.

Legal considerations influence many aspects of business decision-making. Understanding business law helps accountants, managers, entrepreneurs, and board members manage risk, ensure compliance and develop informed strategies. Following an introduction of the American legal system, this course will expose students to contract law, commercial law, negotiable instruments, secured transactions and creditors rights. Additional topics covered include bankruptcy, agency law, and business organizations, including sole proprietorships, partnerships, LLC, and corporations. Enrollment is limited to OMACC, OMBA and MAcc students.

This course provides business leaders and professionals with the knowledge and frame works to build and lead data-driven organizations. While covering key technical concepts, the focus is on how to align data initiatives with business goals, develop a data-centric culture, and leverage analytics for effective decision-making. The course will utilize case studies, frameworks, and practical tools to understand how organizations can successfully integrate data into their operations and strategy. Students will be equipped to make informed decisions about data initiatives, collaborate effectively with technical teams, and drive data-led transformation.

Strategic Leadership Communication equips students with the skills to communicate clearly, credibly, and persuasively in today’s evolving workplace. Through performance-based assignments and AI-enhanced practice, students develop executive presence, strategic messaging, and visual storytelling skills. The course emphasizes how communication operates across organizational levels and in high-stakes contexts, encouraging students to connect their personal leadership perspectives with emerging industry challenges. By integrating modern tools with enduring communication principles, this course supports both career readiness and long-term professional growth.

This course provides a comprehensive, life-cycle–based examination of personal and family tax, insurance, and estate planning, emphasizing informed decision-making under uncertainty. Students will integrate economic reasoning, behavioral insights, and practical tools to analyze how households manage risk, allocate resources over time, and plan for financial security across generations. Major topics include risk management and insurance planning, with attention to identifying exposures, evaluating insurance products, and understanding the role of insurance in household balance sheets; tax planning, focusing on the structure of the U.S. tax system and strategies for minimizing tax liability while remaining compliant; retirement savings and income planning, including employer-sponsored plans, individual retirement accounts, Social Security, and strategies for converting accumulated wealth into sustainable retirement income; and estate planning, covering wealth transfer, beneficiary designations, wills, trusts, and the financial and ethical considerations surrounding intergenerational transfers. Throughout the course, students will apply concepts to realistic family scenarios, assess trade-offs among competing goals, and evaluate how policy, market conditions, and life events influence financial outcomes. The course is suitable for students seeking a practical and analytical foundation in personal and family financial planning.

To create meaningful societal impact, nonprofits and governments must fund essential services, maintain accountability, and ensure long-run financial sustainability. After providing an overview of the nonprofit and public sectors, this course examines how reporting and disclosure tools support decision making and foster trust. It also explores how financial management practices contribute to financial health and organizational performance. Topics include IRS Form 990,CAFRs, tax-exempt financing, endowment management, fundraising strategies, governance practices, budgeting and sector-specific considerations. Enrollment is limited to OMACC, OMBA and MAcc students.

This course will introduce Lean Six Sigma process improvement methodologies to prepare them to contribute to process improvement initiatives within organizations. These methodologies are used to reduce defects, process variation, lead time, and inventory levels, improve responsiveness to customers, increase customer satisfaction, and improve efficiency. Methodologies covered in this course include a variety of mapping and qualitative tools which are recognized as best practices for quality and process improvement.  Students will be introduced to how artificial intelligence can be leveraged in applying Lean Six Sigma methods.  Successful completion of this course qualifies the student for a White Belt certification.

This course is a comprehensive, strategic-focused course designed to equip students with the knowledge and tools to integrate artificial intelligence into organizational decision-making. Participants will explore foundational AI concepts—agentic AI, machine learning, deep learning, and data analytics—and gain a clear understanding of how to identify high-impact AI opportunities across diverse business functions. Through case studies, ethical frameworks, and hands-on activities, the course will introduce the opportunities and challenges of AI adoption and align AI initiatives with organizational goals. The course will cover responsible deployment, risk management, and leadership strategies for fostering an AI-ready culture. Students will emerge with a practical AI roadmap and the ability to drive innovation, efficiency, and competitive advantage in their organizations.

In this course students will advance their knowledge of Lean Six Sigma process improvement methodologies to prepare them to contribute to and lead process improvement initiatives within organizations.  These methodologies are used to reduce defects, process variation, lead time, and inventory levels, improve responsiveness to customers, increase customer satisfaction, and improve efficiency. Lean Six Sigma methodologies include a variety of process mapping tools, quantitative and qualitative tools, and statistical techniques which are recognized best practices for quality and process improvement.  Attention will be paid to how artificial intelligence tools can be leveraged to apply Lean Six Sigma methodologies.  Successful completion of this course qualifies the student for a Yellow Belt certification.

The goal of this course is to develop a sophisticated understanding of national and international finance markets and financial institutions – their purpose, how they interact with each other and interact with the broader economic environment. We will develop the basic tools for understanding how the underlying economy-wide short and long interest rates are determined, how they are related, and how these core interest rates impact specific financial products. We explore forecasting models for interest rates using a case study approach emphasizing the post-financial-crisis financial environment. The course will also include basic modeling of the relationship between international interest rates and exchange rates. As the course progresses it will consider in detail the money markets, how central banks operate in these markets, and how monetary policy in the United States and other developed economies is decided on and implemented Short-term funding outlets such as the commercial bank lending, the commercial paper market and the Eurocurrency market are analyzed. The economic role of government debt in the bond markets is also examined.

This is a Special Topics course. Students may participate in one of several weekend workshops offered on campus as an elective for their program. Each workshop will be focused on a topical business theme. The workshops will be offered 2-3 times each year, and students may participate in any of them. Students may opt to participate in more than one weekend workshop. Students who are repeating the course as a zero-credit option will participate in all activities and complete all course requirements as stated in the syllabus.

This course provides depth to the student’s nonprofit experience by immersing students in a 20-hour-a-week, program-approved internship at a DC-area non-profit organization that meaningfully engages students in organizational management activities. Alternatively, students may choose to participate instead in a DC-based Incubator/Accelerator for non-profits (e.g., SEED SPOT, Global Development Incubator, PeaceTech Lab, Halcyon, Village Capital, etc.).

This unique course provides students with the opportunity to meet and interact with national and international leaders involved with financial markets, government fiscal policy and regulations as well as in the field of accounting and learn about the most current challenging issues in the field of financial reporting, auditing, and taxation.

This course is designed to assist students in successfully integrating workplace issues into past and future academic education. Students will learn to use academically rigorous conceptual frameworks in analyzing and solving problems that arise in field.

This course will cover managerial accounting topics such as: customer lifetime value estimation, cost of service delays, cost of quality analyses, time-driven Activity-Based-Costing, profit planning along the value chain, financial and operational forecasting, outsourcing, supplier choice and performance measurement, and analyses of profit drivers. This course replaces the Accounting for Business Strategies course, which met the cost credit requirement.

This course provides students an introduction to important financial concepts critical to both investing and running a successful business.  Students will gain an understanding of various financial markets, as well as different approaches to calculating risk and return. Valuable corporate finance skills will be developed to prepare students to become successful financial managers. Financial analysis and forecasting, project evaluation, and financial policy are some of the topics to be covered. The primary objectives of the course are to provide a framework for students to approach the financial decisions they will face in their future careers and to build a solid foundation for graduate students interested in pursuing more advanced coursework in the field.

Following an introduction of the American legal system, Business Law will expose students to an in-depth look at contract law, commercial law, including the Uniform Commercial Code's Articles on Sales, Negotiable Instruments, Secured Transactions and Creditors Rights. Additional topics covered include bankruptcy, agency law, business organizations, including sole proprietorships, partnerships, LLC, and corporations.

This course provides an introduction to the principles of estate and financial planning, with an emphasis on tax planning opportunities. Topics include a study of the estate and gift tax laws, effective use of trusts and life insurance, valuation techniques, integrated family tax and financial planning, succession planning for the closely-held business, and elections available to taxpayers. Also featured are debt management, retirement planning and investment planning, with an emphasis on issues facing both younger professionals as well as high net worth individuals. Enrollment is limited to Graduate - Business level students and BMAP students.

Expands and integrates knowledge of US and international generally accepted auditing principles (GAAS) in a rigorous study of financial reporting issues with significant balance sheet implications. Topics include advanced treatments of analytical procedures, audit planning, risk assessment, internal controls, audit evidence, audit documentation, and auditing fair. Incorporates related academic research, research into auditing standards, and contemporary auditing issues.

The real estate market collapse, which led to a global financial crisis, has changed the way we view and evaluate commercial and residential real estate. This class will cover a wide range of real estate topics from programming various mortgages to funding complex real estate deals.

This course is designed to expose graduate business students to the financial accounting and auditing issues related to state and local governmental and not-for-profit organizations in the United States. Students will review the body of accounting and auditing literature, specifically related to organizations in the public sector. Due to time constraints, Federal government accounting will not be addressed.

This course reviews theories of equity valuation, applies these theories by building valuation models using financial statements, introduces students to the elements of financial statement analysis, and increases students' ability to extract and use information from financial reports. While financial statements are prepared in accordance with specific accounting rules and principles, most of the numbers in financial statements are based on a set of assumptions and choices made by management. In this class, students learn how to identify and adjust for the effects of accounting choices on the comparability of reported earnings and other accounting performance measures across countries, across firms, and over time. Students also learn how to evaluate circumstances where accounting rules can cause disruptions in trends making it difficult to forecast earnings and free cash flows. In addition, students learn techniques to identify earnings management, as well as assess whether the financial statements reflect the riskiness of the firm. Finally, because many large companies operate in a global environment, the class will examine problems created by differences in accounting standards across countries (e.g., U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles versus International Financial Reporting Standards), as well as issues inherent in multinational companies such as how foreign currency affects financial statements. Enrollment is limited to Graduate - Business level students and BMAP students.

This course will introduce data analytics skills and techniques relevant to various fields of accounting, with a focus on the role of accounting information systems and controls pertaining to data quality. Students will engage in descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive analysis of large datasets, using a variety of software tools. Students should leave this course with the skills necessary to translate accounting and business problems into meaningful information, and actionable proposals that they can provide to managers and data scientists.

EMBA students get to choose an elective towards the end of the third semester of residency.

This course introduces programming tools and data analysis techniques from the analytics realm as they relate to the accounting profession. The course gives an overview of the questions and tools that accounting professionals encounter. With an emphasis on turning data into actionable knowledge, students will encounter a practical and hands-on introduction to commonly used programming tools.

To provide the accountant and the manager with the ability to recognize tax factors that influence business decisions and to integrate them into the business decision-making process. This will include the development of a tax foundation, the ability to read and apply the Code and Regulations, the ability to conduct tax research using both online and offline tax research data bases, the ability to engage in effective tax planning, and the ability to present the identified tax consequences in both oral and written presentations. Ethical influences will be identified and discussed as related to taxation and the related business decision.

This course considers the application, logical structure and physical implementation of databases to aid in developing business intelligence. Primary topics include data modeling, relational databases, structured query language, data analytics and visualization, amongst other contemporary data management topics. Multiple database management systems and analytical platforms may be introduced.

This course is an introduction to forensic accounting. Forensic accounting encompasses those services an accountant provides to assist a court or a client in settling a legal dispute and includes the following specialized knowledge and skills: 1) accounting, auditing, economics, finance, business law, quantitative methods, statistics, tax; 2) investigative skills to collect, analyze, and evaluate evidential matter; and 3) written and oral communication skills. The content of this court will include: 1) fraud and fraud investigation services; 2) commercial and individual litigations and litigation consulting services; 3) computer forensics; and 4) business valuation. To illustrate concepts, the class will discuss recent high profile cases (e.g., investment frauds such as Madoff, and financial statements frauds such as WorldCom, Enron, etc.). Guest speakers who possess specialized expertise will present on such topics as fraud investigation, interviewing and interrogation techniques, cybercrime and digital forensics analysis, and the legal environment. Undergraduate students enrolled in the BMAP program must have successfully completed BUAD 301 and BUAD 404 or equivalents.

Selected Problems in the Taxation of Mergers & Acquisitions This advanced course focuses primarily on corporate transactions and by using a series of examples, this course will explore different ways to structure both nontaxable and taxable combinations of business entities considering the tax goals and consequences of such transactions, and the role of the tax lawyer in representing a party to a business combination.

Partnership Taxation: This course is an introduction to the federal income tax treatment of partnerships, including LLCs treated as partnerships, and their owners. Topics covered will include the tax classification of business entities as partnerships, partnership formations, allocations of partnership income and losses to partners, transfers of ownership interests by partners, distributions from partnerships to partners, terminations of partnerships, and a comparison of "S corporations" to partnerships. Prerequisite: Law 311 Federal Income Taxation Recommended: Law 320 Business Associations.

Real estate assets compose a large proportion of the world’s wealth, yet few investors truly understand the unique nature of real estate. This class will prepare students to operate in a real estate world where assets are unique and lumpy, transaction costs are high, and price discovery is infrequent.

The objective of this course is to broaden the ability of the student to engage in tax compliance, tax research, and tax planning in a team-oriented environment. Group communication opportunities, both oral and written, are emphasized.

This course is intended to give the students a forum to investigate both the theory and practice of finance in a corporate setting. It covers a broad spectrum of issues facing a financial manager including: planning and financial control; working capital policy; analysis of financing alternatives; capital structure and equity management policy; investment analysis; resource allocation policy; and corporate restructure and merger analysis.

Students will develop a framework for understanding scholarly research in accounting and will gain exposure to classic and current accounting research studies.

Building on the core finance class, this class will further develop a theoretical and applied understanding of corporate finance. The goal is to develop insights into the methods by which financial managers can create value for their shareholders.

Students will develop findamental empirical skills, such as the use of databases and regression analysis. Applications will include the replication of a published accounting research study.

This course will examine the structure and operation of equity markets, the theory and practice of portfolio management, equity valuation, investor behavior, performance measurement, and equity options.

Students will learn to apply the scientific method to accounting research questions by studying research designs used in scholarly accounting research and their effectiveness for causal inference. Applications will include addressing a research question using alternative designs.

This course will examine the structure and operation of fixed income markets, the characteristics and pricing of bonds, interest rates and interest rate risk management, credit risk, and fixed income portfolio management.

Students read and discuss current academic research papers presented by William and Mary faculty and external accounting researchers. This course is open to any student interested in how research informs business practices and is well-suited for students considering careers in academia. Attendance at research presentations is required. Topics change each year so this course may be repeated once for credit.

This course is designed to give students an understanding of the principles of portfolio management in a global capital market. Emphasis is placed on mutual fund management. Topics include individual and institutional investor behaviors, international diversification, latest developments in trading, fundamental analysis and technical analysis, performance measurement, mutual fund structures and management, risk management and hedging. Students will emerge from this course with an understanding of the portfolio management process, and with the ability to evaluate the performance of portfolios with respect to different investor objectives and to articulate recommendations for changes.

This course lays the foundation for the follow-on course, BUAD 6381 International Financial Management, and may be taken separately as well. The course covers the basics of international economic and financial analysis including recent trends in globalization and trade, the structure of the foreign exchange markets, and global arbitrage. Also covered are country risk analysis, currency valuation, and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. There is a project evaluating the investment potential in an emerging country.

This course covers important concepts in international financial analysis and management including forward, futures, and options as hedges of foreign exchange exposures. The course stresses applied  financial management of multinational corporations, such as assessing risks and valuing foreign direct investment decisions. There is a team project managing various aspects of a foreign subsidiary of a US multinational company.

This is a Special Topics course. Students may participate in one of several weekend workshops offered on campus as an elective for their program. Each workshop will be focused on a topical business theme. The workshops will be offered 2-3 times each year, and students may participate in any of them. Students may opt to participate in more than one weekend workshop. Students who are repeating the course as a zero-credit option will participate in all activities and complete all course requirements as stated in the syllabus.

This course is designed to examine marketing research as a systematic process that delivers actionable insights. Special emphasis will be given to digital tools that can be used for data collection and analysis. Topics will include research design and methods, with a focus on how to utilize marketing research for effective management decisions.

This course focuses on the formulation of marketing strategy, including balancing market opportunities and threats with available resources and alternative responses, as well as analysis of markets, product, pricing, promotion, and distribution that supports the strategic positioning.

This course explores the evolving world of integrated marketing communications, with special emphasis on digital media. Students will create an integrated marketing communications plan to effectively promote a selected product to a target market through various media channels. In addition, students will examine how digital media tools can be applied to advance professional products and services as well as their personal brands.

To be competitive in today's marketplace, service organizations must provide a quality experience for their customers. Customer experience management (CEM) is the process of strategically managing a customer's entire experience with a company. Specifically, this course identifies the key dimensions on which customer perceptions of service excellence are based, and describes strategies for offering superior customer service. Key course concepts include: (1) identifying the key drivers of service excellence, (2) reducing problems (i.e., failures) in service performance, (3) measuring customer and employee satisfaction, (4) developing a service recovery system, (5) understanding the role of employees in the service process, (6) managing and measuring financial customer outcomes, (7) developing social media marketing strategy, and (8) managing customer rewards/loyalty programs. Students who complete this course will not only have a better understanding of how customers evaluate service firms; they will also have a "tool kit" of ideas, measures and techniques to help improve service excellence.

Product Management is an advanced course that focuses on operational-level marketing analysis, with an emphasis on translating marketing strategies into coherent operating plans. While all marketing functions, there is a strong focus on product decisions and the new product development process in marketing programs. The course also develops quantitative and qualitative analysis of market data as part of the planning and control functions.

This course considers the relationship between theories and practice in the two very different realms of strategy and design. The course focuses on analyzing complex information, developing and exploring alternative solutions, and prototyping future innovations and scenarios. Visual and other design techniques and tools are added to the traditional strategic toolbox to bring new insights into new venture strategy, competitive strategy, marketing strategy and tactics, decision sciences, entrepreneurship, business plan writing, and innovation. Personal insights are also a possibility. This course is both a survey of design tools and techniques appropriate to strategy along with an opportunity to apply those appropriate for the project.

Working in teams as become the norm in most organizations, yet most people have many misconceptions about what makes groups effective. Groups can be exhilarating or maddening. This course is designed to develop the knowledge that enabels you to improve the performance of most teams.

This course applies the core strategic marketing framework to the sports ecosystem to include situation analysis, segmenting-targeting-positioning, branding, the marketing mix, and emerging technologies. Students evaluate leagues, teams, athletes, media partners, brands, events, and venues as interconnected platforms for value creation and fan engagement. This course emphasizes community identity, sponsorship value, media rights, platform fragmentation, and ethics.

Building on the foundation of Managing Project Teams I, this course focuses on developing the skills to design, manage and facilitate project teams. Specific tools for improving team performance will be introduced and applied.

This course examines the management consulting process and prepares students for a role as either an internal or external consultant. The course is designed to provide a framework for understanding the art and science of providing management counsel to client organizations in the public and private sectors. The course follows the process of a typical consulting engagement in identifying key project requirements, feasibility, and design alternatives.

This course will provide an overview of human resource management (HRM) and the connection between HRM principles an how those play out in organizations. This course focuses on the every day decisions made by all managers (e.g., selection, evaluation, compensation, termination).

This course will provide an overview of human resource management (HRM) and the connection between HRM principles and how those play out in organizations. The course focuses on a) HRM professionals and their role in working with other organizational managers and leaders to develop and implement effective and efficient HRM practices that support the strategic objectives of their organizations, b) the everyday HRM decisions made by all managers (e.g., selection, evaluation, compensation, termination), and c) puts students in the role of a HRM Director for a growing organization and offers students valuable experience with decisions that affect selection, evaluation, compensation, turnover, productivity, diversity, morale, quality, accident rate, grievances, fringe benefits, absenteeism, termination, and budget utilization.

Examines current issues in leadership and managerial strategies for successfully implementing, institutionalizing and evaluating change initiatives.

Building on the foundation of Human Resource Management I, this course takes a strategic perspective on human resource management (HRM), understanding how HRM professionals work with other organizational managers and leaders to develop and implement effective and efficient HRM practices that support the strategic objectives of their organizations.

This course is designed to provide students with a deep understanding of the theory and practice fo Classification techniques, which constitutes perhaps the most commonly used techniques in the Data Scientists's toolkit. These Predictive Analytics techniques are important members of a family of analytics often referred to as Machine Learning techniques. An important part of this course is an introduction to a powerful and ubiquitous software package called R, which is used extensively in labs and assignments in this class.

This course focuses on the state-of-the-art techniques for developing and managing the development of new products and software, especially those technologies for identifying competitive product and software configurations, rapid prototyping, and discovering what users what and need in a quick, cost-effective manner. Topics include 3D printing, prototyping, voice of the customer, agile development, maturity models, collaborative design, and Scrum.

This course deals primarily with the design and operation of logistics networks or supply chains, and the flow of materials and information on them. Students in this course will be exposed to both the strategic and operational aspects of managing today’s complex supply chains. Specific topics include vendor-managed inventory; efficient customer response; collaborative planning, forecasting and replenishment; planning distribution and supply; managing product variety, transportation, supply chain planning, distribution and supply; managed product variety; transportation; supply chain planning software; eMarketplaces; inter- and meta-mediaries and design and optimization of supply networks.

This course focuses on the management of complex projects and the rules and techniques, which have been developed in the past 25 years to assist managers with such projects. All three phases of project management - Planning, Scheduling, and Control are explored in detail. In addition to studying various scheduling techniques for projects, this course explores issues dealing with project selection methods, project risk assessment, project team dynamics, new product development projects, runaway projects, and monitoring and control of projects.

This course picks up where Project Management Part I ends. The objectives of this course are to: • extend the student’s knowledge of project management, particularly in the areas of project cost management (cost estimating and application of earned value management) and project risk management. We will use a (30 day trial version) of an add-on software package to MS Project for quantitative risk management. • expand the student’s capabilities with MS Project • extend the student’s knowledge in other areas of project management including (1) project selection, (2) value engineering as well as (3) program management and (4) project portfolio management. Similar to Project Management Part I, students should understand that the Project Management Part II is “flipped”. On-line lectures and quizzes are viewed prior to each class. Class time is spent working advanced project management problems, case studies and in the application of various project management tools. A typical (face-to-face) class might involve developing an MS Project schedule based on information from a case study, developing a cost estimate, developing earned value reporting and drafting a status report for upper management on the project. Without having viewed the on-line lectures, effective participation in the class sessions is difficult. The goal in “flipping” the class is to develop the student’s confidence in their ability to apply these advanced project management tools and practices to real-world problems. The class will also make use of other eLearning technologies including blogs, simulations, virtual environments and supplementary videos and recordings. As noted above, we will also make much more use of Microsoft’s MS Project 2010. There is not an “Apple” compatible version of MS Project, nor is there an Apple compatible version of the Risk Management software we will use. To run this software on an Apple computer, students must partition their hard drive and run Windows. For students who choose not to partition their hard drives and run Windows, they will need to use the computers in the Peninsula Center computer lab that have MS Project installed on them. This presents potential scheduling and other logistics issues which are the responsibility of the student.

In this course, students learn the Lean methodology, which is used to reduce process lead time, improve responsiveness to customers, increase efficiency, and reduce inventory. Specifically, students learn how to identify inefficiencies in processes using a particular type of business process mapping (value stream mapping) and, subsequently, lean tools aimed at reducing those inefficiencies. This course in combination with Six Sigma Toolkit qualifies a student for Yellow Belt Certification. A Yellow Belt Certification is required to take Lean/Six Sigma Project, which leads to a Green Belt Certification.

In this course, students are introduced to the many tools and techniques for improving the quality of products, processes, and services. Six Sigma tools are often based on statistics and they are widely acknowledged as the Best Practices for improving quality. This course in combination with Lean Toolkit qualifies a student for Yellow Belt Certification. A Yellow Belt Certification is required to take Lean/Six Sigma Project, which leads to a Green Belt Certification.

In this course students will learn Lean and Six Sigma process improvement methodologies to prepare them to contribute to and lead process improvement initiatives within organizations.  These methodologies are used to reduce defects, process variation, lead time, and inventory levels, improve responsiveness to customers, increase customer satisfaction, and improve efficiency.  Lean Six Sigma methodologies include a variety of process mapping tools, quantitative and qualitative tools, and statistical techniques which are recognized best practices for quality and process improvement. Attention will be paid to how artificial intelligence tools can be leveraged to apply Lean Six Sigma methodologies. Successful completion of this course qualifies the student for a Yellow Belt certification. 

This course requires students to apply Lean Six Sigma tools in a project context. Under the supervision of the instructor, students apply the Lean Six Sigma framework to analyze a complex set of process data and make recommendations for process improvement.  Attention is paid to appropriate tools selection and decision-making at each stage of the Lean Six Sigma framework.  Successful completion of this course qualifies the student for a Green Belt certification.

Organizations that do engineering and/or technology development must address the economic aspects of their projects. Early portions of the course assume that benefits, costs, and quantities have a high degree of certainty. The latter portion of the course explores risk (uncertainty) with regard to benefits, costs, and quantities.

This course introduces the main tools and ideas in the business analytics professional’s toolbox. The course gives an overview of the data, questions, and tools that data analysts work with. Two themes are emphasized in the course. First, students will be introduced to the ideas behind turning data into actionable knowledge. The second theme is a practical and hands-on introduction to commonly used programming tools in the field of business analytics.

This course is designed to provide students with the skills necessary to develop advanced decision models using a variety of programming and database tools.

This 2-credit elective is designed to equip students with the kinds of analytical skills used in the era of Big Data to reveal the hidden patterns in, and relationships among, data elements being created by internal transaction systems, social media and the Internet of Things. A family of non-parametric analytical methods collectively referred to as “Data Mining” methods has grown out of the Artificial Intelligence community and has become commonplace in many of the world’s leading analytics competitors. This course introduces students to one of the leading software applications for such tools (the open source system called R), and uses it to discuss several of the most frequently used techniques in Machine Learning, in both supervised and unsupervised learning. The course is taught as a combination of lectures and demonstrations on the data mining topic of the day followed by workshops wherein students work through practice problems selected to illustrate applications in various business disciplines and then complete assignments based on that material. Student teams are then required to conduct a data mining project of their own choosing.

This course covers the application of the CRISP-DM model. Specifically, identifying a business problem, finding a solution to the problem (using data analytics), and effectively communicating a resolution. Special emphasis will be given to technical skills such as data visualization and preparation using Business Intelligence software, and several modeling techniques using statistical computing software. Students will also be exposed to the theory of effective visualizations, presentation, and data modeling.

Health Informatics involves the management and use of resources – technology, capital, governance and people – and methods such as process management and innovation to promote efficient and effective delivery of healthcare. The objective of this course is to provide an understanding of how to use information, and information systems to support clinical, administrative and patient services in conducting the business of healthcare. Through hands-on experience, students will learn from analysis of operational or strategic problems in a health care setting and explore challenges and opportunities in various segments of the healthcare industry such as consulting and policy making, supply chain, pharmaceuticals and insurance.

This course uses Game Theory to provide a theoretical foundation for understanding negotiation, and it provides first hand experience in different bargaining situations. A number of tools are developed that are useful in planning and preparing for a negotiation.

This course exposes students to fundamental innovation and entrepreneurship concepts and provides a first year entry point into the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Specialization. Students will learn about the mindsets and tools associated with innovation and entrepreneurship and will be prepared to hit the ground running in subsequent, project-based Innovation & Entrepreneurship Specialization courses. Through an assessment and various in-class activities, students will have the opportunity to better understand the presence of the mindsets associated with innovation and entrepreneurship in themselves and how to further develop those mindsets. Finally, the course covers the origins, relationships, and application of tools such as Design Thinking and Lean Startup which are used in a variety of innovative and entrepreneurial settings.

The objectives of this course are: 1) to introduce students to the interactive concepts of marketing and culture, 2) to enable students to understand the cultural issues at the corporate, national and transnational levels, 3) to provide insights on effective marketing and management decision making in unfamiliar or cross-cultural settings, particularly with respect to various international contexts, and 4) most importantly to give students unique experiences with cultural immersion.

This course will 1) strengthen students' understanding of diverse cultures and their business practices by meeting and interacting with business executives and gaining real-world international business experience from various industries and 2) experience cultural highlights of the area.

The objective of this course is to analyze the role of non-profit organizations as economic entities in a market economy (for example, methods of financing these organizations.) The course will also explore the liability, application of strategic planning to identify potentially useful market niches of these organizations, the legal obligations of management, and portfolio management appropriate for these organizations.

Design Thinking is a systematic, iterative, human-centered approach to solving tough, real-world problems that are often ill-defined and stubbornly immune to traditional problem solving approaches. Design Thinking is a methodology for generating innovative solutions that are at the intersection of people's needs, technological feasibility, and business viability. This course provides a hands-on introduction to Design Thinking methodologies and mindsets and encourages students to immediately put them into practice.

This hands-on course provides real world, experiential learning about how scalable startups are built. The focus of this course is not how to write a business plan. Rather, it is designed to be more of a practical course, essentially a startup lab. You will work in teams learning how to turn a great idea into a great company. In fact, you won't just learn about doing it, you'll really do it.

Covers the essential principles of the risks and rewards associated with Private Equity and Venture Capital. Financial analysis of a business and risk/return characteristics, business valuation methods, and the financing sources are covered to better understand the required returns to risk investors. Other topics include: fundraising, early stage, middle stage, and ultimately late stage investments; buyouts and exit strategies; the structuring of the “deal”; the creation of term sheets, negotiation strategies, and human capital and resources.

Special topics courses allows the faculty to teach cutting edge material.

Special topics courses allows the faculty to teach cutting edge material.

Special topics courses allows the faculty to teach cutting edge material.

Special topics courses allows the faculty to teach cutting edge material. 

Special topics courses allows the faculty to teach cutting edge material.

The Batten Fund project tasks 16 - 17 selected second year MBA students to research stocks in depth, develop an investment thesis, complete valuation analysis, sell the idea to fellow Batten analysts and track the performance of stocks within the Fund if their stock is selected by the group.  The funds used are real dollars, donated 17 years ago by Frank Batten.