Curriculum

This course will introduce you to transformational and charismatic leadership, and passive and unethical leadership (sometimes referred to as "pseudo-transformational leadership"). The goals of this course are (a) to provide a conceptual understanding of these different forms of leadership, their antecedents and consequences, and (b) to take the opportunity to provide an understanding of how you can use charismatic and transformational leadership in your personal work situations.

The overall objectives of the course are to enable participants to develop a fundamental, structured and disciplined framework for understanding how a business grows and operates. Specifically, the objectives are to understand:

• The role of the General Manager as leader, strategist, and change agent
• The fundamentals of business strategy
• The relationship between business and functional strategies
• The strategy formulation process – strategic planning
• The challenges of strategy execution

This course will advance students’ understanding of how to use, analyze and forecast financial information, as well as improve financial literacy. Our focus will be on the financial accounting and reporting system—the goal of which is to produce periodic financial statements used by outside stakeholders including investors and creditors. We will build knowledge in order to become sophisticated users of this information. Throughout the course, we will examine the role of financial reporting in capital markets and the limitations of financial reporting under GAAP.

This course focuses on the strategic use of accounting information to facilitate business decision-making. We will explore examples for manufacturers, service firms, as well as governmental and non-profit sector organizations. Topics covered include: break-even analysis, product costing, activity-based costing, performance measurement, and decision-making.

In this course you will learn how to use accounting information to get things done. Many of the ideas and concepts in this course are universally employed in organizations – while management or cost accounting information is typically prepared by accountants, it forms the foundation from which marketing, production, personnel and financial decisions are made. Therefore, regardless of your future plans, this material will be beneficial in strengthening your skill set as an effective and efficient manager.

This course examines the uses (and potential abuses) of mathematical models in business, industry, and government. Descriptive analytics (what is happening now) are covered first followed by predictive analytics (what might happen next) and lastly prescriptive analytics (what decisions will lead to the best outcomes). We will practice the formulation of mathematical models, develop an understanding of how solution methods work, review examples of successful applications, solve problems both manually and with the aid of the computer, and learn how to interpret results from the point of view of decision makers. The analytical power of modern spreadsheet programs is emphasized throughout.

As individuals and managers, we operate within various markets, and are subject to their rules. These markets are themselves part of the economy as a whole – Canadian and global. This economy goes through booms and busts over time – the business cycle – and these fluctuations have an important impact on prices, national output, and unemployment, and indeed affect our daily lives. Beyond understanding markets and the economy, today’s managers face a myriad of economic issues when formulating strategies. Should we enter this market? Should we exit that one? What price should we charge? How much should we produce? The right answers to these questions depend on the market environment in which we are operating in. MBUS881 is a course that aims to provide guidance to understand how do world events shape our markets and our economy, and how governments reacts to these events through their policies as well as how managers ought to react to changes in their competitive environment.

In MBUS 851 we take a strategic perspective on how to best attract, organize, develop, and manage talent to achieve organization objectives. We draw on knowledge from organizational behaviour and human resource management to understand how the intentional management of people supports the execution of strategy and overall success of an organization. Assignments are practical opportunities to assess and improve learners’ personal management skills and human capital management practices.

A vibrant new venture ecosystem is a vital to part of any economy. This course covers the entrepreneurial thinking and know-how required to create and sustain a thriving new venture ecosystem, and allows students, through its experiential learning format, to ‘walk a mile in an entrepreneur’ shoes’.

When we think of innovation, we often focus of the realm of products – shiny, larger, smaller, faster, connected products. More applicable for most of us, however, is an innovation focus giving us the ability to improve processes, services, and even our business model and the way the firm operates and competes. This interactive course provides students with the perspective and tools necessary to identify customer-focused opportunities and free up the time, space, and funds they need to focus on what matters most.

The objective of this course is to provide you with background knowledge of certain legal matters that have an impact on business and not the technicalities or specific nuances of substantive law. The goal of the course is to provide an overview of relevant legal factors, so that you may:

1. become more aware of legal issues that you may face in business and how to deal with them;
2. be able to make informed choices on how to structure a business to ensure the best likelihood for success;
3. understand legal issues around raising capital;
4. gain an understanding of the different types of Intellectual Property and how to protect one of the major assets (other than people) of modern Canadian businesses;
5. gain a better understanding of how to deal with an organization’s biggest asset – its employees; and
6. understand and implement good corporate governance practices in order to protect an organization’s

This course is the first and only required course dedicated solely to finance in the Executive MBA program. MBUS 821 discusses the key concepts and tools of finance required in financial management. The specific topics include: an overview of the financial system; the time value of money; capital markets and valuation issues; an introduction to risk management; and, a discussion of financing alternatives and a firm's cost of capital.

Organizations must evolve to survive, and as leaders, we are ultimately measured on our ability execute both change strategies and day-to-day operations. That is, delivering prolonged value as an organization requires a keen sense of not only the needs of today’s customer, but tomorrow’s as well. In this capstone course, students will apply tools from across the program, developing skills and experience with concepts and frameworks for driving change in their environments.

This course has a simple objective: to help you (and your company) make money. The vehicle is "marketing strategy". But don't be misled by the name: while it is billed as a "marketing" course, this moniker has less to do with the concepts covered and more to do with the approach we'll take to "making money". By course end, you should:

1. be able to identify the alternative generic competitive strategies available to a firm,
2. have a general management perspective on the requirements for successful use of those strategies;
3. be able to evaluate the degree to which those conditions are met;
4. be able to lead a discussion of the tactics required to overcome deficiencies in connection with (3) above;
5. understand the inevitable stages of market evolution and the kinds of pressures it creates for each functional area.

The Global Strategy course is designed to foster an appreciation for how multinational enterprises approach strategic decision-making. Through a combination of readings, theory-based lectures and case study-based analyses and discussions, the course will explore: why corporations engage in the process of internationalization; the nature of the internal and external factors that influence the analysis, development and implementation of global strategies; the issues, opportunities and problems faced by managers tasked with the responsibility of formulating and executing global strategies for multinational enterprises; the various market entry strategies through which corporations engage in foreign expansion (as well as reflecting on considerations pertaining to the choice of target foreign markets); the benefits and risks of embarking upon collaborative corporate relationships in an international context; and, the strategic, operational, organizational, structural and legal decisions and challenges encountered by multinational enterprises.

This course aims to develop a general management perspective on the role of operations in service and manufacturing organizations. Students will sharpen their skills in problem solving and decision making in situations marked by complexity and uncertainty, and to understand the managerial issues surrounding technology in operations. These goals are achieved by doing practical appraisals of actual managerial situations described in detailed business cases and through the use of simulation exercises. Students take on the roles of practicing managers and apply a systems approach to balancing the conflicting demands of people, technology and economics.

This course is designed to provide you with a deeper understanding of the role of a sales leader in the setting of sales strategy, the management of sales operations and the forces that are driving changes in how sales forces are utilized across start-ups to multinationals

Essential to survival in the digital age is an organization’s ability to meet customer and employee demands by effectively executing on initiatives that leverage digital technology to improve business operations (i.e., digitalization). The challenge is the fusion of the digital and physical worlds is transforming existing business models and ushering in an unprecedented convergence of people, business, technologies, and things. This course covers a range of topics to demonstrate modern thinking related to transforming to a digital business.

This course will discuss the role of advanced analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities that rely on big data assets. Students will learn the story of AI, from its origins and early development to its current, exciting potential to improve business outcomes for organizations and their customers. Students will explore the AI landscape and see the opportunities to apply AI to your organization’s needs and gain a working knowledge of core AI disciplines, learning via practical real-world examples. Finally, students will learn how to develop an AI strategy: where and when to start, project planning considerations, and how to get on the path to AI execution.

Global virtual teams (GVT) have become an essential part of how multinational organizations organize to meet the needs of the global marketplace, yet members of GVTs face challenges with collaborating across cultural, geographical, and time differences. This course will cover core principles and tools for managing GVTs such that team members will enhance their personal effectiveness and virtual collaboration skills while sustaining high-performing virtual project teams.

Your team will complete a comprehensive analysis of a real global business issue or opportunity anywhere in the world outside of North America. To complete this “live case”, your team will travel to an international location to interview business managers and conduct field research prior to writing your final report. This provides an outstanding opportunity to put all that you have learned into practice.

Negotiation involves resolving differences, reaching agreements, and managing conflict between individuals, groups, organizations, and even nations. These are obviously important activities in the world of management. Indeed, such expertise is now considered a core competency for managers and leaders. This course is designed to provide you with the opportunity to develop your own negotiation style and skills in the safe environment of a classroom, and to place negotiation behaviour into a broader theoretical context to allow you to analyze your past behaviours and future negotiating strategies more systematically.

New Venture Project

The objective of this individual project is to create a business case and comprehensive business plan for a new stand-alone business, or a new line of business within an existing organization. The new venture Project will give you an opportunity to use the management concepts and tools you have acquired in the program to create a business plan for a new venture. You will identify market opportunities, investigate business potential, consider financing options, and create a business plan.

Management Consulting Project

The objective of this individual project is to analyze a business challenge and develop a comprehensive set of recommendations and implementation plans to address it. Participants are given a wide scope in the nature of the project. Typically projects focus on performance improvements in operating processes, supply chain management, customer service, information systems, profit margin improvement, or the business planning process.