Core Courses

Throughout the core courses, you’ll explore how globalization, entrepreneurship and technology are changing business practice, as well as build critical management skills in leadership, teamwork, integrative analysis, and oral and written communication. Recognizing that today’s business students need flexibility, students have various options for accelerating Smith’s 21-month MBA program should they choose.

Core Course Descriptions

BUSI 605 Culture, Ethics & Communication (2 credits)

Opens up the floor for student discussion and dramatization of vital topics in today’s business world. The daily news surrounds us with tales of scandal, global pressures on traditional prerogatives’, and visions of environmental doom and gloom. In the midst of all this, business leaders must make choices that balance stakeholder desires and concerns. These issues will be brought to life through projects, guest speakers and student-created dramatic performances.

BUSI 610 Introduction to Financial Accounting; (2 credits)

Overview of financial accounting, periodic financial statements and the financial reporting process. Importance of financial statements as information source for creditors and investors and as a means by which managers can communicate information about their firms.

BUSI 611 Managerial Accounting; (2 credits)

Use of accounting data in corporate planning and control. Cost-volume- profit analysis, budgeting, pricing decisions and cost data, transfer pricing, activity-based management, performance measures, and standard costing.

BUSI 630 Data Models and Decisions; (3 credits)

To develop probabilistic and statistical concepts, methods and models through examples motivated by real-life data from business and to stress the role that statistics plays in the managerial decision making process.

BUSI 634: Operations Management (2 Credits)

Examines the strategic role that the operations function can play, and offers tools and techniques that the firm can use for strategy execution. We cover concepts of operations management applied to both manufacturing and services, which can be divided into two broad areas. The first area relates to productivity improvement: process flowcharting, analysis of process flows and bottlenecks, impact of variability on processes (queuing), quality management, six-sigma, and lean operations. The second area relates to choosing optimal capacity, given costs - inventory management and revenue management.

BUSI 640 Financial Management; (3 credits)

Analysis of major corporate financial decisions using a market-oriented framework. Topics include capital budgeting, security portfolio theory, operation and efficiency of financial markets, options pricing, financing decisions, capital structure, payout policy and international finance.

BUSI 650 Marketing Management; (2 credits)

An overview of decisions marketing managers make to create and maintain enduring customer-based equity. These decisions involve identifying marketing opportunities, selecting customer targets, effectively positioning products and services, and implementing competitive marketing support programs. Students will learn marketing decision-making models and how to apply them.

BUSI 664 Leadership & Managing Human Capital; (3 credits)

Examines concepts of leadership and human resource management principles. Emphasizes skill building and creating a competitive advantage by creating a culture that develops extraordinary leaders and unleashes employee talent. Topics include leadership, decision making, communication and conflict, work motivation, teams, ensuring legal compliance and leveraging diversity, recruiting, selecting and retaining qualified employees who fit the job and the organization, measuring performance and providing feedback, and managing changes in leadership and HR strategy.

BUSI 681 Managerial Economics and Public Policy; (2 credits)

Basic microeconomic principles used by firms, including supply and demand, elasticities, costs, productivity, pricing, market structure and competitive implications of alternative market structures. Market failures and government intervention. Public policy processes affecting business operations.

BUSI 683 The Global Economic Environment; (2 credits)

Relationship between national and international economic environments. Determinants of output, interest rates, prices and exchange rates. Analysis of effect of economic policies (fiscal, monetary, trade, tax) on the firm and the economy.

BUSI 690 Strategic Management; (2 credits)

Integrative strategic management focusing on strategy formulation and implementation in domestic and global settings. Industry and competitor analysis, industry and firm value chain, leadership, goal setting, organizational structure and culture. Case study approach to top management and organizational problems.

BUSI6##: Integration and Teams (2 credits)

Develop the skills and perspectives necessary for thinking and working integratively by developing an understanding of how different functional areas work together and the skills that are critical for working in and leading cross-functional teams.

BUSI6##: Integrative Business Plan Competition (2 credits)

Integrates functional knowledge of business processes by guiding your design of a complete business plan for the Smith MBA business plan competition. Topics include idea-getting, innovation, opportunity evaluation, organizing for success, financing, and growth strategies.