Business (BUS)

This is an introductory course on the fundamentals of doing business in an increasingly interconnected and hypercompetitive world where rapid information flows, environmental degradation, and societal challenges (e.g., poverty and ethics) can be viewed as both threats and opportunities facing for-profit enterprises. Students will learn that sustainable businesses are also innovative businesses and that sustainability often drives innovation. Students will not only be exposed to the basics of starting, growing, and running a profitable business but also learn how to do so in an environmentally and socially sustainable fashion. They will learn how companies create and capture value and how to analyze the business environment, industry, competitors, and customers. They will be introduced to corporate, business, and functional strategy and learn about different business functions (accounting, finance, operations, marketing, and information management). Students will be introduced to critical challenges of global sustainability and will explore through case studies how leading companies are implementing triple bottom line accounting, sustainable growth, and stakeholder value creation strategies. Finally, they will develop an innovative business idea to start a brand new company that has sustainable growth in its mission statement.

This course covers statistics, optimization, and simulation tools that are critical for managers in enabling their firms to have a competitive advantage. The course covers probability, sampling, estimation, hypothesis testing, linear regression, goodness-of-fit tests, linear optimization models, nonlinear optimization models, and managerial decision-making under uncertainty. The models address problems in finance, marketing, and operations and include applications such as media selection, capital budgeting, portfolio selection, advertising effectiveness, facility location, distribution planning, and production planning. The focus of the course is on using business analytics to build models and using software to aid in decision-making.

This is a forward-looking and experiential course that helps students understand how companies could successfully compete in the "next economy" through innovation and integrative problem-solving. It aims to integrate all of the key lessons from the M. B. A., M. S. EMS, and M. S. MAC programs to develop innovative solutions to solve real-world problems that actual companies face. The course is heavily project-based. Cross-disciplinary teams of students will act as management consultants to companies to identify and solve problems taking a holistic and integrative perspective. There will be lectures on various aspects of business strategy, sustainability, systems thinking, execution, innovation, and team effectiveness from faculty members and industry experts. Student teams will present their findings to fellow students, faculty members, and client companies. Prerequisite: Students should have successfully completed all of their respective program core courses.

This course provides graduate students with a supervised, immersive, hands-on experience in a US workplace where they will gain exposure to an industry and practical experience with projects related to their interests. Students will work for a minimum of eight weeks, 32 hours/week. Students will be matched with an organization according to their area of study, related experience, and/or relevant skillset.