Course Descriptions Library

1.5 credit hours.  A study of the fundamental concepts of financial accounting and reporting by business entities in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. The course approaches the material from the perspective of the financial statement user rather than the financial statement preparer. Therefore, emphasis is placed on the use and interpretation of information contained in business financial statements by managers, investors, and creditors.

1 credit hour. This course introduces the concepts and terminology of accounting and financial reporting for modern business enterprises. This course will help students learn to analyze and interpret accounting information for use in making decisions about organizations. Students will learn to analyze the accounting reports to assess how well they are performing and to identify major strengths and weaknesses revealed by their financial reports. Students will also practice problem-solving, critical thinking, and communication skills that are necessary to use accounting information, to form conclusions about business activities, and to communicate these conclusions to others.

1.5 credit hours.  Prerequisite: ACCT 60010. A study of the basic concepts, measures, techniques, and approaches of managerial accounting. The emphasis is on understanding and developing accounting and economic concepts for decision making within profit-making and not-for-profit organizations related to such topics as short-term and long-term planning, performance measurement, transfer pricing, and traditional and contemporary product costing systems. The application of the basic concepts and approaches to small and large-sized domestic and global organizations is emphasized. Where appropriate, contemporary managerial accounting issues are stressed.

1.5 credit hours. Prerequisites: ACCT 60011. This course allows students to explore how accounting information contributes to business analytics and how analytical methods can be used to investigate past financial performance, forecast future financial performance, and deliver insights for decision making. You will gain an understanding of how financial data and non-financial data interact by applying analytical techniques to realistic data in a series of cases to arrive at business decisions.

1.5 credit hours. Prerequisites: Admitted to Master of Science in Business Analytics program. This course is designed to give you the foundations to read, understand, and analyze financial statements. You will also learn variety of analytical skills to identify and assess business risks within key transaction processing cycles fundamental to companies across industries. Effectively communicating with accounting professional will enhance your business decisions. Our goal is to have you understand the language of accounting and the logic of the accounting system in order to effectively use financial information.

1.5 credit hours. Prerequisites: ACCT 60100. This course addresses the emerging roles of accounting analytics in business and auditing settings. Students will learn a variety of analytical skills to identify and assess business and audit risks within key transaction processing cycles fundamental to companies across industries. Students will also learn to understand data within the context of accounting information systems to generate effective responses to mitigate risks exposures.

1.5 credit hours. This course is designed to be an introduction to international business. As such, the student will be introduced to those strategic, managerial, organizational and/or legal implications of doing business overseas. In addition, the course will consider those international institutions and cultural differences that impact the conduct of the global firm.

1.5 credit hours. This course helps students integrate concepts from the different business disciplines by involving them in a complex computer simulation of realistic business situations. Teams of students are required to make business decisions involving a diverse set of business functions and activities over a series of rounds in which conditions change. Through successive phases of the simulation, students must respond to the actions of competing company teams represented by their classmates and are exposed to the consequences of their previous decisions. The course, which is taught at the end of the required core courses, requires students to draw on the material from those courses in making their decisions. Student performance in the simulation is reflected in a balance scorecard of multiple metrics. At the end of the simulation, students present their rationales for their decisions.

1.5 credit hours. Prerequisites: Admitted to Masters of Science in Business Analytics program. 1.5 credit hours. Data Ethics and Privacy addresses the ethics of the collection, management, and use of data by business organizations. Frameworks are introduced for addressing the governance of data at the level of individuals and organizations. Case studies are used to develop analytical skills and provide context.

1.5 credit hours. Prerequisites: Graduate standing. The key objectives of this course are two-fold: (1) to provide you with a theoretical and practical understanding of core data mining and analysis concepts and techniques; and (2) to provide you with hands on experience in applying these techniques to practical real-word business problems using commercial data mining and analysis software. As an applied course, the emphasis will be less on the inner working of each method and more on when and how to use each technique and how to interpret the results.

1.5 credit hours. Assesses and develops skills in the following areas: career management, intercultural dynamics, leadership, professional communication, and team building. Students must complete various assessments and attend feedback sessions, and complete the START workshop. Students must also complete several career management requirements and submit a career development plan for approval. Students enroll in this course on a pass/no credit basis.

1.5 credit hours. Business Intelligence Accounting Analytics combines financial and operational data with mining tools to improve the timeliness and quality of inputs to decision processes. It encompasses both top-town (confirmatory or hypothesis driven) analysis using traditional statistical techniques and bottom-up (exploratory) analysis using database and machine learning techniques to discover regularities, relations, or local structure/patterns that are at first unknown. The topics and related methods discussed include information retrieval and enterprise reporting, classification, predictive modeling, clustering, association rules mining, and social network analysis. The application of these methods is illustrated using modern software tools via examples, homework assignments and group term projects.

1.5 credit hours. Theory, methods and principles of valuation; cost, market and income approaches to value; the appraisal process applied both to residential and commercial property.

1.5 credit hours. Prerequisites: BUSI 70220. Theory, methods and principles of valuation; cost, market and income approaches to value; the appraisal process applied both to residential and commercial property. During the eight-week session, students will be required to complete an appraisal project.

3 credit hours. Prerequisites: Mana 60050. This course focuses on the opportunities and challenges of doing business outside of the United States. More specifically, this course focuses on developing an understanding of the issues and opportunities related to business in a defined country or geography. In addition to classes at TCU, students will travel to the country or countries and interact with businesses including identifying the standards, practices, and structures of business as appropriate to the focus of the course. In so doing, the role of history, politics, culture, social norms, and legal environment will be explored. Opportunities, challenges and risks associated with doing business in an international setting will be identified.

1.5 credit hours. This is an interdisciplinary, team-taught course that provides a broad-based overview of energy: its exploration and production, its controversies, its geopolitics and the process by which it is provided.

1.5 credit hours. This course will focus on the commodity markets and how they affect the energy industry. We will gain an understanding of the differences between various markets (stock and commodity) while also learning the similarities. We will look at the instruments and uses of hedging in industry, and debate the pros and cons of doing so. We will have conversations on speculation, Black Swan events and current topics, and how they relate to price.

1.5 credit hours. This course explores the unique features and characteristics of healthcare markets, whether and how the economics of healthcare markets diverges from traditional economic theory, and the specific challenges and opportunities thus presented. Reimbursement and revenue cycle models in various healthcare sectors are discussed, with specific consideration of the implications of the revenue model on strategy, operations, and management.

1.5 credit hours. The primary focus of this course will be to examine the laws, policies, regulations, and norms that influence decision making for entrepreneurs and managers. Specifically, the course will examine the legal environments of new and established businesses including contract law, intellectual property law, and employment discrimination law.

3 credit hours. The course provides an in-depth overview of the challenges involved in identifying and systematically evaluating opportunities for creating new ventures across a wide range of contexts, including startups, social enterprises, and large, established corporations. As such, the focus of the course is centered on what should be done before writing a business plan and embarking on the development and launch of a new venture.

3 credit hours. The course focuses on providing practical experience associated with the business start-up process. Specifically, students working in teams will take an identified business opportunity and develop a proposed new business centered on a product or service. Additionally, discussions centered on the challenges and opportunities associated with new venture creation will be conducted. The overarching goal of the course is to provide students with an understanding of the entrepreneurial process, and the implications of entrepreneurial management for business leaders.

1.5 credit hours. Prerequisites: ACCT 60010, and must be an MBA or MAc student. Financial Management I is the core MBA course in finance. It is the first part of a two-course introduction to financial decision making. The fundamental question in finance is how to determine value. To answer this question, in this course we will focus on how financial managers identify projects that create value to the firm (investment decisions.) The course topics will include cash flow valuation, bond and stock valuation, capital budgeting and project evaluation, and a brief introduction to the concepts of cost of capital.

1 credit hour. The course is designed to help bridge the gap between an undergraduate experience in Finance and a graduate level course. As such, there is less emphasis on memorization of terminology and much greater emphasis on critical thinking, analytics, and decision-making. This course will review some of the basic concepts, but a major emphasis will be placed on identifying and describing practical applications of key concepts by means of case studies and projects, with emphasis on the ambiguities and nuances occurring in applying theory to empirical projects. This is also supplemented by developing students' critical thinking skills through in-depth analysis of financial decisions from a managerial perspective. This course will help students better understand the key issues that managers face when they make investment decisions, including technical issues, such as knowledge of cash flows, time-value of money, valuation principles, but also big picture issues, examining what the sources of value creation are, how to deal with managerial biases and estimation uncertainty, and how investment decisions must fit with the strategic vision of the firm.

3 credit hours. Prerequisite: ACCT 60010, or concurrent enrollment in ACCT 60010. Cannot receive credit for FINA 60013 if credit has been received for FINA 60010, FINA 60011 or FINA 70010. A study of the acquisition and management of the financial resources of the firm. The emphasis is on developing and understanding decision making concepts related to such topics as valuation, cost of capital, capital budgeting, dividend policy, debt policy, and corporate control. The interaction between investment and financing decisions in the marketplace is emphasized in the context of risk-return considerations, and the obligation of management to security holders is considered. Where appropriate, the global environment of decisions is stressed.

1.5 credit hours. Price and output determination in free markets is covered first. Then the relationship between the firm's production function and its cost structure is described. Costs and industry market structure and its importance to pricing strategies are discussed in detail. Public policy, such as anti-trust legislation and government price supports that affect firm/industry behavior are covered throughout the course. Actual business examples will be used to illustrate application of theory.

1.5 credit hour. Prerequisites: FINA 60020 or equivalent. A contemporary, real-world course focusing on the global economic environment within which today's businesses operate, taught from the perspective of the practicing manager. Content is both national and international in flavor. Highlights include study of the general economy, monetary/fiscal policy, business cycles, exchange rates, and economic indicators. The impact of domestic and international forces on business strategy is stressed. The course is taught through the use of materials, tools, and databases readily available to the manager.

3 credit hours. Prerequisite: FINA 70010 or 60013. By application. Participation in the operation of the Educational Investment Fund student managed investment portfolio. Students participating in the Educational Investment Fund are strongly encouraged to take six (6) additional hours of finance electives beyond the program requirements (with possible exception made in the case of extensive finance background).

3 credit hours. Prerequisite: FINA 70183. Participation in the operation of the Educational Investment Fund student managed investment portfolio. Students participating in the Educational Investment Fund are strongly encouraged to take six (6) additional hours of finance electives beyond the program requirements (with possible exception made in the case of extensive finance background).

1.5 credit hours. Prerequisite: FINA 70010 or 60013. Must be a full-time second-year MBA student or equivalent. Introduction to derivatives - financial contracts that derive "value from other instruments or prices. An in-depth study of the valuation of derivatives. Valuation techniques include methods such as binomials and Black-Scholes models."

1.5 credit hours. Prerequisite: FINA 70010 or 60013. An examination of mortgage markets and instruments, including an introduction to basic real estate law, mortgage calculations, loan underwriting, primary and secondary mortgage markets, and securitization.

3 credit hours. Prerequisite: FINA 70010 or 60013. Theory of security selection focusing on its economic, financial and accounting aspects. Some attention directed to the role of technical analysis as an adjunct to the more traditional fundamentalist approach. Critical review of significant investment literature is included along with consideration of the Chartered Financial Analyst C.F.A. program and its professional objectives.

1.5 credit hours. Prerequisite: FINA 70420. Study of current usage of derivative instruments in financial engineering. Financial engineering is the science of managing financial risk exposure through derivatives, as well as the construction of new financial products, such as SWAPS. Topics include corporate risk management, hedge fund strategies, and operation of derivative markets.

3 credit hours. Prerequisites: FINA 70010 or 60013 or equivalent. The emphasis of the course is on developing skills for financial modeling. After completion of this course, students will acquire the tools needed to build financial models, and design the analysis to create insights from the models.

1.5 credit hours. This course focuses on the fundamentals of global supply and demand for primary fuels - oil, coal, natural gas, hydroelectricity, nuclear and alternatives. The electric power generation industry and the transportation fuel industry is examined to determine the impact of newly discovered natural gas resources in the United States. The case for a long-term US national energy policy is studied in detail. Finally, the impact of technology on improved energy efficiency and new energy supply is discussed.

1.5 credit hours. Prerequisites: ACCT 60010 and either FINA 60013 or both FINA 60010 and 70010; or student must have ACCL-MBA, ACCP-MBA or ACCE-MBA degree plan. This course focuses on corporate finance issues affecting the energy industry. The material covered includes a review of macroeconomic view of energy supply, demand price and government policy for all forms of primary energy: oil, gas, coal, nuclear, hydroelectric, wind and other renewables. Capital structures are analyzed in the EP, oil service, mid-stream and power sectors. Emphasis is placed on reserve-based accounting and borrowing base determination in the oil and gas sector. Other topics covered include energy startups, IPO's, mergers, acquisitions and divestitures.

1.5 credit hours. This course teaches quantitative methods used in data analysis and business decision-making with an orientation towards regression analysis. This course presents the basic topics in regression including statistical inference from regression output, limitations of regression models and the pitfalls involved in their use. Analysis of both cross-sectional data and time-series data will be discussed. Additional topics include aspects of statistical process control, ANOVA, chi-square tests and logistic regression. The course is taught from an applied perspective using computer software (Excel and Minitab) to perform statistical analyses.

1 credit hour. The course is designed to bridge the gap between an undergraduate knowledge of operations and/or supply chain management and a graduate level course. As such, there is less emphasis on memorization of terminology and much greater emphasis on critical thinking, analytics, and decision-making. The course demonstrates how various processes and partnerships within a company's supply chain can be integrated to deliver value to customers. Students who do well in this course will learn to speak the language of supply chain management and they will understand fundamental supply chain strategies and tactics that can be used to gain competitive advantage.

1.5 credit hours. Prerequisites: INSC 60600 or 60011. Develops concepts and analytical skills to address issues related to the efficient and effective management of work. Emphasizes the role of integrated processes as competitive weapons, including product and service development, and examines alignment of operational capabilities with firm strategy. Discusses the increasingly important role of process choice, design, analysis, integration, synchronization, and improvement, including lean and six sigma.

1.5 credit hours. An investigation of information technology as a facilitator of organizational strategy and business process redesign. The role of information in the evaluation and control of corporate uncertainty at the organizational and interorganizational levels is examined. Particular emphasis is placed on the successful design, implementation, and use of information technologies in both national and international organizations. Technology is emphasized.

1.5 credits. Prerequisites: Graduate standing. Students may not receive credit for both INSC 70600 and INSC 60050. This course is an introduction to the fundamentals of business analytics. Business analytics are enabled by business intelligence (BI) tools for the purpose of analytic decision making. BI systems combine gathering data, storing it, and analyzing it to present complicated company and competitive information to planners and decision makers. By providing wider visibility to plans and supporting data, analytical tools increase the return on existing organizational planning applications because they help companies understand where and how they deviate from their plan objectives. In addition, they provide shared data availability that encourages a global perspective on business performance. Real-world case studies will show students the ways organizations are using analytics to support both tactical and strategic decision-making.

1 credit hour. Prerequisites: Admitted to Masters of Science in Business Analytics program. This course is a survey course, introducing a range of programming tools and modeling techniques. No technical knowledge is assumed on the part of the student. Specifically, we will use the Python scikit-learn library via Jupiter notebooks and several R packages through the RStudio IDE. Through these tools, we will explore functions for unsupervised machine learning (k-means, k-medoids, hierarchical clustering) and supervised learning (logistic regression, decision trees, and naïve Bayesian) models. We will also explore artificial intelligence via functions for neural nets.

1.5 credit hours. Prerequisites: INSC 60050. Designed for students who have an interest in developing data visualization skills. Big Data is everywhere, but a big data set can be difficult to understand and interpret. Presenting data to your audience in the right aesthetic form and functionality is critical to convey the information effectively. This hands-on course will focus on how to use various data analysis tools and techniques to communicate complex information with visually appealing charts, graphs and maps. The course will focus on: 1) employing best practices for using databases to create visualizations and maps that tell stories with data, 2) learning how to prepare data visualizations, 3) creating interactive data illustrations including dashboards, and 4) building business analytic skills using Tableau.

1.5 credit hours. Effective Supply Chain Management (SCM) has become increasingly important to businesses. This course will provide an overview of the major concepts associated with SCM. Topics include logistics, transportation, procurement, demand forecasting, supply chain operations, information technology and global SCM.

1.5 credit hours. Prerequisites: Graduate Standing. This course is designed to provide students exposure to multiple facets for leading business transformation including strategy, organization, process, people, technology and measurements. Students are introduced to leading edge technology in the area of robotic process automation and will apply their knowledge through experiential learning opportunities.

1.5 credit hours. Prerequisites: INSC 60600 or 60011. This course serves as an MBA elective. An in-depth study of the theory and practice of supply chain management function in manufacturing and service industries. Supply chain management is the integration of the activities associated with the flow and transformation of goods from the raw materials stage through to the end user, to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. This course provides insights into the conceptual foundations and facilitates an understanding of the strategic concepts and tools necessary for meeting the challenges in the management of supply chains. Topics include management of logistics networks; material flows and the role of information systems technology.

1.5 credit hours. Prerequisites: Graduate Standing. This course provides the foundation understanding the key issues associated with protecting information assets. It teaches basic concepts and principles of information security and fundamental approaches to secure computers and networks.

1.5 credit hours. Prerequisites: Graduate Standing. The course introduces basic concepts of machine learning and the methods and tools necessary to learn from data for computational data analysis, including pattern recognition, prediction, and visualization. The course is oriented heavily to applications in business giving students the tools needed in the modern data analytics space. Students finish the class with a basic understanding of how to use machine learning models and analytic algorithms to solve business problems.

1.5 credit hours. Prerequisites: INSC 60600.  This course is an introduction to the fundamentals of supply chain analytics. Supply chain analytics are enabled by business intelligence (BI) tools for the purpose of analytic decision making. BI systems combine gathering data, storing it, and analyzing it to present complicated company and competitive information to planners and decision makers. By providing wider visibility to plans and supporting data, analytical tools increase the return on existing supply chain planning applications because they help companies understand where and how they deviate from their plan objectives. In addition, they provide shared data availability that encourages a global perspective on business performance. Real-world case studies will show students the ways organizations are using analeptics in their supply chain to support decision-making.

1.5 credit hours. Prerequisites: INSC 60600 or 60011. Logistics is a core business process that facilitates the creation of value for the external customer and helps to integrate the other functions and processes within the firm. Logistics is defined as that part of the supply chain process that plans, implements, and controls the efficient, effective forward and reverse flow and storage of goods, services, and related information between the point of origin and the point of consumption in order to meet customers' requirements. This course will cover many aspects of business logistics, including materials management, physical distribution, customer service, order processing, information flows, transportation, warehousing and inventory management.

1.5 credit hours. Prerequisites: INSC 60600 or 60011. Effective supply chain management is heavily dependent on integration of state-of-the-art information tools and technologies. This course will provide an understanding of supply chain models and practical tools for effective decision making and integrated supply chain management (for example ABC segmentation, demand forecasting and planning, inventory management, distribution management and multi-plant coordination). The emphasis will be on exploring tools and off-the-shelf software packages that have been proven effective in many industries, and on identifying and understanding implementation issues associated with the use of such tools.

1.5 credit hours. Prerequisite: INSC 60600 or 60011. This course provides an in-depth study of the processes that balance customer demands with production, procurement, and distribution capabilities. Accurate demand forecasting provides for added flexibility and visibility of inventory, and reduced variability in supply chain outcomes. Core conceptual areas include demand forecasting and management, synchronization of supply and demand, inventory capacity, balancing and positioning, inventory planning, sales and operations planning, and strategic order fulfillment issues.

1.5 credit hours. Prerequisites: INSC 60600 or 60011. This course will deal with (a) the diversity and complexity to be understood and managed in the globalization of supply chain activities, (b) unique characteristics of global transportation (ocean shipping, intermodal, and air) system, (c) legal and regulatory issues impacting global supply chain decisions, (d) import and export processes, (e) documentation requirements, and (f) challenges and integration issues with global supply chain management.

1.5 credit hours. Prerequisite: INSC 60600 or 60011. This course focuses on the key issues related to the strategic implications of sourcing of products, the purchasing of goods and services, and the role of purchasing in a supply chain context. Provides students with an understanding of purchasing processes, issues, and best practices. Emphasis areas include supplier quality, relationship management, and global sourcing.

1.5 credit hours. Prerequisites: INSC 60600 or 60011. This course is designed to be the capstone course for the MBA with a concentration in Supply Chain Management. It will help students integrate all the elements of supply chain management and examine how they might be applied to achieve strategic advantage for the firm. The course will use a combination of readings on supply chain strategy and case analysis.

This project-oriented course provides integration and application of the MS SCM curricula. Each student will identify a field study opportunity, define the scope of a research/problem solving project, execute the project, and report on solution value and lessons learned.

3 credits. Prerequisites: Student must have SCMT-MS degree plan. This global immersion course provides students with an immersive experience in a region of the globe. The course typically involves travel to multiples countries within one of the major regions (Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific) where students will tour various supply chain operations. The focus of the course is challenges and opportunities associated with sourcing from and serving global markets. Topics include manufacturing capabilities and transportation infrastructures, labor availabilities, input cost and quality differences, and differences in national culture and business practices.

3 credit hours. Prerequisite: INSC 60020 or 60011. Presents, discusses, and applies major concepts and techniques of project management. Familiarizes students with problems and issues confronting project managers and provides vocabulary, concepts, insights, and tools to address these issues. Topics include project planning, scheduling, budgeting, monitoring, metrics, control, scope, time, cost, quality, and risk. Tools include activity network scheduling, critical path method, design structure matrix, Monte Carlo simulation, and earned value management. Assignments include working with software tools, analyzing cases, and studying a real project. The course is also helpful for those seeking to attain the (external) Project Management Professional (PMP) certification from the Project Management Institute.

1.5 credit hours. Prerequisites: INSC 60010 or 60013, and INSC 60020. This course builds upon concepts and methods from other MBA courses and supplements these to complete the requirements for a Six Sigma Green Belt certification. Topics include the Six Sigma process (DMAIC), process definition and measurement, process analysis and improvement tools, process capability measures and statistical process control. Students will apply their skills to an improvement project in industry (a typical requirement for any Green Belt certification.) Upon successful completion of the course, students will receive a Green Belt Certification from the Neeley School. Students should also be sufficiently equipped to gain a similar certification from other sources.

1.5 credit hours. This course addresses the challenges of leading supply chain management organizations in complex environments. Students will learn how to manage integrative, cross-functional relationships in dynamic business contexts. The specific focus will be developing business acumen, organizational leadership and communication strengths, and strategic thinking. Students will leave the course with a better understanding of the challenges being faced, how they as leaders need to approach those challenges, and how supply chain management contributes to business success.

1.5 credit hours. This course provides an overview of Business Process Management (BPM) as both a management discipline and as a set of enabling techniques to analyze and design business operations. The course teaches the student the key concepts, terms, methodologies, techniques in BPM. It describes the nature of business processes and how to apply the tools and techniques to improve and reengineer business processes and procedures. Students will learn about the practices that are making process thinking a new approach to solving business problems and are continuously improving organizational performance. Students will learn how to apply critical success factors and discover the pitfalls to avoid. In addition, students will practice key process measurement skills on case studies and apply these to their own organization through connection exercises.

1.5 credit hours. The purpose of this class is to introduce students to the various applications of IT and big data in health care. We will understand the broader policy context that has led to this deluge of information, such as the HITECH Act. We will explore different sources of health care data, such as Electronic Health Record data, social media databases, wireless sensor networks. For each of these data sources, we will review associated analytic techniques, such as Natural Language Processing (NLP) of free text from EHRs and social media. We will also explore the language of medicine, as expressed in various coding systems, such as ICD9-CM, ICD10-CM, and SNOMED, and how complex medical jargon can be made more accessible to patients.

1.5 credit hours. This course introduces the frameworks, strategies, and practical techniques to prepare healthcare leaders to implement the principles, tools, measurement techniques and cultural elements necessary to lead healthcare quality, outcomes and safety improvements initiatives.

1.5 credit hours. Corporations operate within an environment that is comprised of relationships with customers, investors, employees, competitors, and suppliers. The primary focus of this course will be to examine those federal and state laws that regulate these relationships. Specifically, the course will examine various torts that arise in business, contract law, agency law, intellectual property law and employment discrimination law.

1.5 credit hours. Development of knowledge, skills, and perspectives needed for engaging employees. Topics include decision making, employee engagement and performance management. Written and oral communication skills are emphasized.

1.5 credit hours. Development of knowledge, skills and perspectives needed for leading groups, teams, and organizations. Topics include leadership foundations, the role of trust in organizations, organizational culture, leading in complex environments, group and team dynamics, leadership ethics, global and cross-cultural issues, leveraging diversity, and leading organizational change initiatives. Written and oral communication skills are emphasized.

1.5 credit hours. Students must have PMBA-MBA, ACCP-MBA, ENRG-MBA, ACCE-MBA or SCMT-MS degree plan. This course is about people working in organizations and how to help them align their efforts with organizational goals. Far from authority- or coercion-based approaches, the management skills we will explore in this course focus on connecting with people--the vital and necessary first step in influencing others--and on creating work experiences that people are likely to find motivating. The more motivated people are, the more likely they are to strive toward the goals awaiting them. In addition to exploring the theories behind what motivates people to engage in certain workplace behaviors we will discuss the motivational differences that exist among different sub-groups of employees and key factors to consider in motivating teams.

1.5 credit hours. Managing Business Ethics addresses moral reasoning and decision making in a business context. Tools for addressing ethical dilemmas are addressed from a personal, managerial, and organizational framework. Case studies are used to develop moral reasoning skills.

1.5 credit hours. Student must have BUAD-MBA or ACCL-MBA degree plan. A final integrative course in contemporary global strategic management that integrates the basic business functions. Comprehensive cases deal with global competition in complex changing environments within which the organization seeks to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. Issues of strategy formulation and implementation are addressed. Technology and communication skills are emphasized.

1.5 credit hours. Student must have PMBA-MBA, ENRG-MBA, ACCP-MBA, or ACCE-MBA degree plans. This course examines the main issues involved in company strategic management, including how to formulate strategies for achieving competitive advantage in a single industry, and when and how to consider expansion through related and unrelated diversification, vertical integration or international expansion. Topics include: industry analysis, strategic positioning, business portfolio composition and portfolio change via alliances, mergers and acquisitions, or internal development.

1.5 credit hours. Prerequisites: MANA 60670. Many sound company strategies fail in their implementation. This course examines the building blocks of successful strategy implementation, include: interactive formulation and implementation; broad participation; appropriate organization structures, integrating devises and incentives; effective evaluation and control mechanisms; and frequent feedback for course correction. Topics include the difficulty of changing an organization, typical structure and control changes as organizations grow, managing in different structures, plus turnarounds and strategic renewal.

1.5 credit hours. Prerequisite: MANA 60033, or MANA 60330 and 60340, or MANA 60350 or student must have ACCL-MBA or ACCP-MBA or ACCE-MBA degree plan. Study of distributive, integrative/principled, and intraorganizational negotiation. Includes coverage of negotiation strategies, tactics, preparation, errors, cognitive biases, social structure, ethics, and international negotiations.

1.5 credit hours. Explores concepts related to using data to guide decisions about managing people. Topics include statistical/technical skills (e.g., multiple regression, measurement theory, big data modeling) in addition to interpretative and critical thinking around reasoning from data (e.g., probabilistic inference, research design, inferential validity).

1.5 credit hours. Prerequisites: MANA 60350 or MANA 60330 or student must have ACCL-MBA or ACCP-MBA or ACCE-MBA degree plan. This course is designed to help students learn directly from successful leaders who are serving as Chief Executive Officers in their organizations. Upon completion of the course students will have more than an intellectual understanding of leadership. They will understand the requirements for self-leadership and leading others. They will also learn what is necessary to successfully lead an organization. The course involves class presentations by CEO's; active verbal interaction and engagement by students; submission of written analyses or reflections on the approaches, styles, and knowledge gained from CEO presenters, and in-depth written reports and presentations on a prominent CEO.

1.5 credit hours. Perquisites: FINA 70610. In recent years, major changes in the environment in the energy sector have led to much more interest in effective leadership. This course is designed to help you to learn directly from successful leaders who are serving as the Chief Executive Officers in their energy organizations. When you complete this course, you will leave with more than an intellectual understanding of what leadership is. You will learn what it takes to lead yourself and then what is required to lead others. You will also learn what is necessary to lead a successful energy organization.

1.5 credit hours. This course gives students the opportunity to integrate, apply, and expand the concepts and tools learned throughout the Energy MBA curriculum. The field study project is operated as an independent study with focus on a specific problem, innovation, or research opportunity in an organization. Students must develop and present a final project prior to graduation.

3 credit hours. Prerequisites: Student must have ENRG-MBA or ACCE-MBA degree plan. With increasing per capita incomes around the world, the global community will demand higher levels of more efficient, cleaner, and environmentally less obtrusive energy services. The central issue addressed in this course is what kind of companies will supply energy services, and how, around the globe.

1.5 credit hours. Introduction to the basic functions of boards of directors, with a particular focus on how boards manage the competing interests of shareholders, managers, employees, and other stakeholders. Topics covered will include: governance of firm strategy, executive compensation, the structure and composition of boards, and shareholder activism. Case studies are used and students are expected to participate actively.

1.5 credit hours. Prerequisite: Graduate business student or permission of instructor. This course is designed to give students an understanding of how to manage conflict and confront others in difficult interpersonal situations. A developmental approach is taken in this course to build critical skills that will lead to positive results and stronger performance. We will focus on introducing and cultivating skills necessary for preventing unnecessary conflict, managing emotions, generating resolution alternatives, and other competencies important for confrontational interactions. Learning through active application and experiential exercises will be emphasized.

1.5 credit hours. This course is designed to give students an understanding of leadership processes that underlie the survival, effective functioning and self-determination of organizations in the 21st century. To this end, we will examine a number of relevant topics that reflect the nature of the challenge being faced, key people and organizational issues in meeting this leadership challenge, and how organizations can select, nurture and develop future leaders.

1.5 credit hours. This course gives students the opportunity to integrate, apply, and expand the concepts and tools learned throughout the Energy MBA curriculum/program. The field study project is operated as an independent study with focus on a specific problem or research opportunity in an energy organization for 1.5 credit hours. Students must develop a project proposal and execute the project over a 6-month period, with deliverables due in the final 8-week course. Students will learn how their MBA curriculum may be applied and develop project-specific skills and content knowledge. Students must complete this course to earn their Energy MBA.

1.5 credit hours. Prerequisites: Graduate business student or permission of instructor. This course takes a managerial perspective to white collar crime, assuming that criminal activities and corrupt practices occur frequently enough that managers are likely to encounter them at some point during their careers. White-collar professionals are often silently involved in false advertising, health care fraud, political corruption, price fixing, telemarketing fraud, computer crimes, and a plethora of consumer scams affecting our social and economic well-being. Students will analyze these and other illegal and corrupt practices that managers are likely to encounter. In so doing, they will learn how to detect and distinguish between proper and improper practices. They will consider criminal activities and related practices through an ethical lens, exploring associated costs (for individuals, organizations, and society), preventative approaches, and appropriate organizational responses.

1.5 credit hours. Prerequisites: MANA 60330 or MANA 60350 or student must have ACL-MBA or ACCP-MBA or ACCE-MBA degree plan. This course examines key issues and challenges in the business and process of consultation, as well as in consultation as a career field. The goals are to help students understand the business side of consulting by exploring the structure and scope of the consulting industry and to begin developing the core skills necessary to be successful in the practice of consulting. Students will be exposed to academic and professional theory associated with successful consulting skills and practice, and they will have the opportunity to interact with practicing consultants who reflect different backgrounds and perspectives-e.g., working for a large consulting company, working as an internal consultant, starting/running a boutique consulting practice/business.

1.5 credit hours. This course introduces the intricacies of the health industry that represents 17% of US GDP and growing. Rather than an in-depth study of one particular segment, the topics are selected to give the student a general overview of multiple parts of the industry to include providers, payers, historical developments and efforts to reform the system, quality care, and the Accountable Care Act. (Note: this course will only focus on the US system and will not focus on global health issues).

1.5 credit hours. What is population health and why does it matter? How does the U.S. health care system compare to health systems in other countries? Why are U.S. health care costs so high? How is the U.S. health system financed? What are the basic principles of health insurance? What is the state of U.S. health care reform? Financing accessibility and accessibility of care. It is critical that health care professionals be able to answer these questions. This course will answer these questions through an introduction to the areas of Health Policy concerned with the delivery quality and costs of health care for individuals and populations. The course will examine the history and possible futures of U.S. health care policy with respect to health services.

1.5 credit hours. In this course we will use managerial epidemiology as a healthcare management tool. Successful healthcare management in the future must simultaneously aim to improve population health, deliver excellent quality of care, and reduce per capita cost.

1.5 credit hours. This course is a study of the fundamental legal issues, including structural and operational issues affecting health care providers and payers. Discussions will cover federal and state fraud and abuse issues, patient safety, patient rights and responsibilities, privacy, confidentiality, Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement issues, and medical records.

1.5 credit hours. This course requires students to integrate, apply, and expand the concepts and tools learned throughout the Healthcare MBA curriculum. The integrative project focuses on a specific idea, problem or research opportunity within a healthcare sector. Through project design, execution and completion, students integrate and apply their cumulative learning while developing project management skills. Students must complete this course to earn the Healthcare MBA. Substitutions are not permitted.

3 credit hours. This capstone course is designed to allow students the opportunity to apply methods and techniques learned in the MBA for Health Care Professionals Program to a practical health administration problem. All students will participate as members of a team to conduct a project in partnership with a local healthcare organization and that is focused on a health administration problem or need. The capstone project consists of identification of a new service, product or innovative process within the current healthcare environment. Once identified, teams will create a business plan to implement this delivery of care.

1.5 credit hours. The purpose of this course is to introduce students to common marketing problems encountered by marketing managers and general managers. Emphasis is placed on the analysis, development, and implementation of the organization's marketing policy, strategy, and tactics. The goal of this course is to develop an overall framework for addressing marking issues and problems in a variety of business settings.

1 credit hours. Broadly speaking, this course is designed to help bridge the gap between an undergraduate experience in Marketing and graduate level course. As such, there is less emphasis on memorization of terminology and much greater emphasis on critical thinking, analytics, and decision-making This course will review some of the basic concepts, but a major emphasis will be placed on identifying and describing practical applications of key concepts. In this way, the nuances and boundaries of concepts will be identified. This is also supplemented by developing students' critical thinking skills through in-depth analysis of classic marketing decisions form a managerial perspective. This course will help students better understand the key decisions that are made in developing a marketing plan. The course will take both a managerial and analytical perspective, emphasizing a graduate level approach to these topics. The course focus is on the big picture, examining both how marketing decisions must fit with the strategic vision of the firm and within the financial objectives of the firm. In other words, a good idea is tough to sell in an organization unless it can be shown to be financially viable.

1.5 credit hours. Prerequisites: Admitted to Master of Science in Business Analytics program. This course is designed for students to gain understanding of the marketing function and how key decisions are made in developing a marketing plan. Using both an analytical and managerial perspective, students will examine how marketing decisions fit into an entity's strategic vision, marketing objectives and constraints of the organization. We place an emphasis on critical thinking and the integration of analytical tools in decision-making.

1.5 credit hours. Prerequisite: MARK 60010 or 60011, or permission of department chair. The most complex aspect of marketing is understanding the mind and heart of the consumer. If consumer behavior was easy to explicate, then all products would sell as well as projected, all ads would be effective, economies would be efficient, and marketing would be a simple prospect. In actuality, consumers are frustrating and irrational and difficult to predict. This course focuses on providing the basic tools to gain insights into consumer behavior. It addresses both managerial and psychological applications of consumer behavior. We apply tools from psychology, economics, and other social sciences to particular marketing problems. The focus will be on specific results, such as what marketing strategies are likely to be effective given a certain consumer response.

1.5 credit hours. Prerequisite: MARK 60010 or 60011, or permission of department chair. This course focuses on the measurement and management of customer selection, customer acquisition, and customer value. Key concepts explored in the course include: (1) identifying and selecting customers, (2) understanding management of customer acquisition, (3) estimating the value of a customer, (4) linking customer value to shareholder value, and (5) understanding which marketing actions are most appropriate for growing the value of a customer segment.

1.5 credit hours. Prerequisites: MARK 60010 or 60011. Tools and applications surrounding innovation (Conjoint analysis, diffusion, outcome-driven innovation research) and other key marketing issues (pricing and customer lifetime value). Focus on practical applications, including combining these tools with segmentation techniques. Use of small cases and projects to illustrate use of methods.

1.5 credit hours Prerequisites: MARK 60010 or MARK 60011 or permission of department chair. Social media has disrupted communication channels and created challenges for marketing in the digital age. This has led to consumers having more and more control of brands. In this course, students will learn key aspects of owned and earned media, particularly how to create compelling content and disseminate it along various social media platforms.

1.5 credit hours. Prerequisites: MARK 60010 or 60011. Design thinking is a method of applying creativity to come up with novel solutions to tough problems. It's the process of immersing yourself in a problem space, thinking creatively around pain points and opportunity areas, then iteratively prototyping totally new solutions. Focused on listening, user empathy, whole-brain thinking, collaboration, and experimentation, design thinking can be applied within any team and in any field--from architecture and design to healthcare and product development. This intensive course delves into the fundamentals of this creative approach by immersing you in dynamic discussions, relevant readings, and team exercises. Throughout the course students learn how to empathize with the needs and motivations of the end users, come up with a large number of ideas for solving a problem, hone in on the right value proposition, and start to prototype a new offering.

1.5 credit hours. Prerequisite: MARK 60010 or 60011 or permission of department chair. This course provides in-depth knowledge relating to the management of product innovation and new product development strategy. New product development is considered in relation to market opportunity and competitive advantage. We will evaluate changes in competition, customer demands, and technology and their effects upon the product development process. We will employ research skills and methods relating to idea generation, prototype building and commercial production. Case studies of actual firms will be analyzed in order to examine successes and failures in the context of real product development scenarios. A managerial perspective will be taken. The primary emphasis is on understanding theoretical concepts relevant to the subject and applying them to a variety of real-world marketing decision making scenarios. In keeping with current business realities, the course has both a technology and a global focus.

1.5 credit hours. Prerequisite: MARK 60010 or 60011 or permission of department chair. A brand is often a company's most important asset and as such has received immense attention in recent years. This course will provide an overview about branding, and the ways that brands acquire and sustain value in the marketplace. This is a course with a decided point-of-view on the nature of brands and the skills and tasks this requires of the brand manager. We will consider brands as co-creations of consumers and marketers. If brand management is a collaborative process of meaning management, the job of the brand manager then becomes one of navigating the meaning making processes, attaining meanings that resonate therein, and to managing these meanings deftly through time so as to maximize brand value, capture opportunities, and diminish risk. Cases, as microcosm of brand management, deliver the power off real-world, applied setting and reveal concepts and frameworks that can inform management thoughts and actions.

1.5 credit hours. Prerequisites: MARK 60010 or 60011, INSC 60010 or INSC 60013; or permission of department chair. Marketing research is about providing relevant, accurate and timely information for marketing decisions. This includes information about competition, external environment and current as well as potential customers. Whether or not you ever work in a marketing research function, at some point in your business career, you most likely will need to deal with marketing research, either as a producer or as a user. The course is designed to provide an overview of marketing research and its use in making more effective marketing decisions. The primary emphases are designing research studies that are both valid and pertinent, and accurately interpreting analysis to guide managerial decisions.

1.5 credit hours. Prerequisites: MARK 60010 or 60011, or permission of department chair. An examination of current marketing problems and related problem-solving techniques.

This course is intended to be a challenging and exciting capstone for the MS in Business Analytics curriculum.
This class has elements of ambiguity and uncertainty. In that way it will probably be a lot like most workplaces. The challenges of business do not come wrapped as case studies or textbooks or exams. This course is designed to help prepare you to recognize challenges faced by organizations and to create innovative, value-oriented solutions and to explain and sell those solutions to management. This is a core competency youmust have in the 21st century.

Business analytics is the process of using quantitative methods to derive meaning from data in order to make informed business decisions. It is a powerful tool in today’s marketplace. Across industries, organizations are generating vast amounts of data which, in turn, has heightened the need for professionals who know how to interpret and analyze that information and who are comfortable with the machine/human interface.

According to a recent study by MicroStrategy, companies worldwide are using data to:

• Boost process and cost efficiency (60 percent)
• Drive strategy and change (57 percent)
• Monitor and improve financial performance (52 percent)

There are three primary methods of business analysis:

• Descriptive: The interpretation of historical data to identify trends and patterns
• Predictive: The use of statistics to forecast future outcomes
• Prescriptive: The application of testing and other techniques to determine which outcome will yield the best result in a given scenario

Deciding which method to employ is dependent on the business situation at hand.

This capstone course project is designed to help you, through experiential learning, better understand how to use each and to illustrate how data insights can drive organizational performance through:

1. More Informed Decision-Making
2. Greater Revenue
3. Improved Operational Efficiency

Through learning how to recognize trends, test hypotheses, and draw conclusions from population samples, you can build an analytical framework that can be applied in your everyday decision-making and help your organization thrive.

Faculty: Michael Sherrod

There will be some group work and exercises, and each group will have a final presentation based on the exercises that have been executed over the session. We will learn the principles and rationale behind IP Law and Protections, explore current cases in the news as well as established case law and settled matters, and relate what we learn to the intangible assets of a company.

Course Objectives:

• Delineate the difference between the Big 3 of IP: copyright, trademark, patent
• Identify the non-tangible assets of a business that are ripe for protection
• Understand how to leverage IP assets for capital raises
• Navigate the various mechanisms of protection and registration
• Navigate contractual obligations for trade secrets and licensing
• Effectively manage discussions in anticipation of forging a business relationship that requires disclosure of confidential and proprietary information

Faculty: Kelly Trager

This course is intended to be a challenging and exciting elective course for the MBA curriculum. It is first and foremost a course about entrepreneurially managing innovation within organizations.

Corporate Entrepreneurship refers to entrepreneurship within existing for-profit or not-for-profit organizations. It is the practice of seeking innovative uses, markets, or owners of the organization’s existing products, services, and technologies. It draws the creativity of the organization’s personnel to new business possibilities that go beyond the current business model of the organization. It engages the entrepreneurial spirit in spawning a new vision from within the organization.

By equipping yourselves with the information you’ll learn in this class, you will be positioned to participate in the constant economic renewal of your company, and potentially, your city, state and nation. This course is not designed to cover all aspects of corporate entrepreneurship. It is designed to impart only the most proven, useful and effective techniques for managing innovation and entrepreneurship within corporations and help you succeed.

This class has elements of ambiguity and uncertainty. In that way it will probably be a lot like your workplace. The challenges of business do not come wrapped as case studies or textbooks or exams. This course is designed to help prepare you to recognize challenges faced by your organization and to create innovative, value oriented solutions and sell those solutions to management. This is a core competency you will have to have in the 21st century.

Students are expected to come to class having read text material. Class lectures are designed to supplement the reading material not review it.

Faculty: Michael Sherrod

How to get money for a business, how to plan and project financials, how to manage cash, how to value the business.

Faculty: Thomas Allison

Course Description: This course empowers students to develop the skills needed to successfully execute a capital raise or financing for an early-stage venture. Students will focus on the application of practical knowledge, rather than theoretical concepts. Working in assigned teams throughout the semester, students will incrementally deliver elements of a real-world fundraising package—the cumulative product of which will be presented in the place of an exam. While the course relies heavily on financial concepts, it should not be thought of as a quantitative course. The student’s ability to develop the course deliverables has little to do with financial skills. Pro forma financial models are little more than a means to communicate a comprehensive understanding of a business opportunity to capital providers. In the interest of delivering practical knowledge, a number of subject matter experts will serve as guest lecturers. Examples of these industry experts include successful entrepreneurs with multiple exits, venture capital and private equity investment professionals, and securities attorneys. Students will have the unique opportunity to engage in a dialogue with seasoned practitioners. It is expected that students will research the speakers prior to class and come prepared with thoughtful questions to drive the conversation.

Faculty: Joe K. Dickerson

No matter your career stage, job title or industry, the ability to persuade others is critical for success. This course will provide you with practical tools that you can utilize immediately in your career. This workshop combines social psychology research and marketing insights to build time- tested principles that deliver practical application to your real-world challenges.

This interactive course is designed to teach you to communicate more effectively, thereby making your contributions more influential and impactful. Utilizing exercises and in-class evaluations, you will receive first-hand experience practicing persuasive communication and customizing the approaches to your individual personality style. Throughout the course you are provided with frameworks, based on both fundamental ideas in social psychology and cutting- edge research that will allow you to apply these techniques to your daily business goals.

Faculty: Zachary Hall

The course is focused on providing a sound understanding of the range of standards and frameworks that exist for climate accounting and more broadly ESG disclosures. This interactive course includes mini-cases and case work on ESG data and ESG disclosures in Annual reports. The course will address the interlinkages between financial reporting and ESG reporting.

Participants will gain technical and contextual approaches that will equip them to understand, among other things; carbon accounting, materiality matrixes and voluntary versus mandatory ESG disclosures and the benefits and risks of both.

• New trends and hot topics in ESG
• Benchmark best practices and industry standards on ESG
• Maximize ESG value creation
• Practical guidance on how companies can leverage existing data to better identify ESG risk, stay ahead of the ESG curve, create value and make ESG good for business

Faculty: Ann Bluntzer

The Transition to Sustainable Energy won’t give you the answer. Instead, we will focus on how to ask the right questions and estimate the consequences of different choices. Ultimately, the key questions we address in this course are (1) can renewables, like wind and solar, provide a long-term solution to reducing our carbon footprint? And (2) is nuclear power really a sustainable alternative? Much of our discussion will be framed around climate change, but we will also address issues such as air pollution and deforestation and how they play into the transition debate. Overall, my goal is to provide an opportunity to become familiar with environmental issues, sensitivities, and impacts around the energy industry.

Please note: my presentation and framing of these issues may not necessarily be yours (in fact, I hope it is not!) and thus the ability to adequately defend a position for controversial aspects is the paramount feature of each discussion.

Faculty: Mike Slattery

This course will focus on the commodity markets and how they affect the energy industry.  We will gain an understanding of the differences between various markets (stock and commodity) while also learning the similarities.  We will look at the instruments and uses of hedging in industry, and debate the pros and cons of doing so. We will have conversations on speculation, Black Swan events and current topics, and how they relate to price. The format of the class will consist of conversational lectures; discussion of the current week’s reading assignment and how it affects the commodity markets or a marketing shop; and individual presentations. Weekly readings will be assigned in a timely manner via email, with a one-page summary due prior to the next week’s class for this discussion.Students who complete this course will be able to understand commodity markets, hedging, and be conversational in these topics.

Faculty: Jay Lauderdale

Through executing the project, students will learn how their MBA curriculum may be applied and develop project-specific skills and content knowledge. Students must complete this course to earn their Energy MBA. Substitutions are not permitted.

Faculty: Ann Bluntzer

1. Communicate the history and scale of US shale exploration and development. Understand the scale of investment and volumes produced.
2. Understand current investor pressure on the E&P sector. What metrics are investors demanding be positive and why? Articulate 1) the metrics investors demand to be trending positive and 2) the rationale for why this is.
3. Articulate what the future of US onshore looks like. Be able to argue if consolidation does or does not happen. How will decarbonization pressures impact the US independents and US Majors?
4. Know what types of assets will build a resilient portfolio. Be able to SWOT shale vs deepwater vs energy transition projects.
5. Demonstrate knowledge in valuing oil and gas properties. What variables drive the most value and are commodity prices more or less important that well performance and cost? Identify high value variables and contrast the importance of commodity prices.
6. Showcase awareness and understanding of the rapidly unfolding energy transition. Will fossil fuel demand drop? Where, why, and how?

Faculty: Robert Clarke