Required Course Descriptions
course descriptions
Data Analysis
BUAD 5701 | 2 credits
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 convariance 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.
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Communicating for Results
BUAD 5011 | 2 credits
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 communication process.
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The Principled Professional
BUAD 5801 | 2 credits
This course is intended to help students enhance their professional effectiveness by promoting personal development and the understanding and practice of key leadership skills. Through a range of experiential activities student will cultivate an understanding of their unique strengths, learn how they show up behaviorally and develop skills to push their edge in acting on their values and promoting ethical conduct. In this program, students will be paired with a Mason Executive Partner who will provide personalized coaching to both support and challenge them as they engage in a range of assessments, exercises, and simulations.
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Financial Accounting and Disclosure
BUAD 5101 | 2 credits
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.
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Financial Management
BUAD 5301 | 2 credits
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.
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Marketing Management
BUAD 5401 | 2 credits
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.
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Economics Analysis and Insights
BUAD 5721 | 2 credits
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 include 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.
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Organizational Behavior & Processes
BUAD 5501 | 2 credits
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.
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Business, Government, and the Global Economy
BUAD 5941 | 2 credits
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.
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Accounting for Managerial Decision Making
BUAD 5111 | 2 credits
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.)
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Operations & Supply Chain Management
BUAD 5601 | 2 credits
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.
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IT Infrastructure & Business Transformation
BUAD 5211 | 2 credits
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 and databases. 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.
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Global Competitive Strategy
BUAD 5901 | 2 credits
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.
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Charting your MBA Career
BUAD 5931 | .5 credit
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.
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Sprint
BUAD 5951 | 1 credit
There are four 1 credit-hour Sprints required in the full-time MBA program, two in each academic year. One is held in the fall of each year and one in the spring. Sprints are designed to allow students to focus on a single project for an entire week. The topics and project designs vary by Sprint. Every Sprint has these common characteristics: they are team-based, they are multi-disciplinary, they engage alumni or other outside corporate participants, and they have a significant communications component. These unique, real-world projects differentiate the W&M MBA program and its students, and provide meaningful resume-building experiences.
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Elective Course Descriptions
While we highly encourage our full-time MBA students to choose a specialization to tailor their experience, we do offer a generalist degree option for students who prefer to take a variety of electives across multiple specialization areas.
course descriptions
Taxation and Business Strategy
BUAD 6151 | 3 credits
This economics-based course provides a conceptual framework for understanding tax issues in the context of business decisions and business strategy. Students learn about the role of taxes throughout the firm’s life cycle: choice of organizational form, employee compensation, investment opportunities, capital structure and dividend policy, financial innovations, international operations, and business combinations. The key conceptual components include: (a) consideration of the tax implications for all parties to the transaction; (b) consideration of both explicit and implicit taxes, such as lower before-tax rates of return on tax-favored investments; and (c) consideration of both tax and non-tax costs. Ultimately, the course provides a useful framework for thinking about taxes in all tax regimes (i.e., across countries and over time).
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Tax Compliance, Research & Planning
BUAD 6181 | 3 credits
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.
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Database Management
BUAD 6271 | 3 credits
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.
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Forecasting
BUAD 6311 | 1.5 - 3 credits
The course deals with methods and processes for evaluating the future. About two-thirds of the time will be devoted to short-term forecasting, preparing monthly and quarterly forecasts for the next one-two years. The remaining one-third of the course will focus on the long-term, the strategic foresight perspective using futuring methods such as scenarios to explore plausible futures for a 5-15 year time horizon.
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Corporate Financial Policy
BUAD 6321 | 3 credits
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.
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Advanced Financial Management
BUAD 6331 | 2 credits
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.
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Investment Management: Equity Markets
BUAD 6341 | 1.5 credits
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.
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Investment Management: Fixed Income Markets
BUAD 6351 | 1.5 credits
This course will examine the structure and operation of fixed income markets, the characteristics and pricing of bonds, interest rates and interest risk management, credit risk, and fixed income portfolio management.
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Portfolio Management
BUAD 6361 | 3 credits
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.
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International Financial Foundations
BUAD 6371 | 1.5 credits
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.
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International Financial Management
BUAD 6381 | 1.5 credits
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 U.S. multinational company.
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Real Estate Finance
BUAD 6391 | 3 credits
The real estate market collapse which led to a global financial crisis has changed the way we view and evaluate commercial real estate. This Real Estate Finance CAM will provide students with an essential understanding of the key forces underlying various real estate related financing decisions from unsecuritized local commercial properties to real estate-based financial derivatives traded on Wall Street.
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Market Research
BUAD 6411 | 2 credits
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.
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Marketing Strategy
BUAD 6421 | 3 credits
Focuses on analyzing market threats and opportunities, assessing competitive advantages, forecasting patterns of market evolution and developing marketing strategies that are consistent with these assessments.
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Digital and Integrated Marketing Communications
BUAD 6431 | 3 credits
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.
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Customer Experience Management
BUAD 6441 | 3 credits
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.
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Creative Problems Solving
BUAD 6451 | 3 credits
A study of the processes of creativity and innovation in complex problem-solving, informed by both business and inter-disciplinary approaches. Throughout the course, students engage in a mix of experiential, experimental, and reflective exercises designed to promote integrative and creative problem-solving, with an emphasis on the techniques, frameworks and mindsets that drive innovation in organizations.
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Product Management
BUAD 6461 | 3 credits
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.
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Design as Marketing Strategy
BUAD 6471 | 3 credits
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.
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Managing Project Teams I
BUAD 6501 | 1.5 credits
Working in teams has 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 enables you to improve the performance of most teams.
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Managing Project Teams II
BUAD 6511 | 1.5 credits
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.
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Management Consulting
BUAD 6521 | 2 credits
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.
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Human Resources Management I
BUAD 6541 | 1.5 credits
This course will provide an overview of human resource management (HRM) and the connection HRM principles and how those play out in organizations. This course focuses on the everyday decision made by all managers (e.g. selection, evaluation, compensation, termination).
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Teams: Design, Selection, & Development
BUAD 6551 | 3 credits
Working in teams has become the norm in most organizations yet most people have many misconceptions about what makes groups effective. We will cover work in a variety of teams including: project teams, self-directed teams, research teams, consulting teams, and multinational teams. Groups can be exhilarating or maddening. This course is designed to develop the knowledge and skills to enable you to improve the performance of most teams. The course includes a refresher on practical theories of group effectiveness, application of human resource management techniques to teams; selecting team members; developing the team and its members; applying appropriate rewards, and coverage of skills and tools designed to diagnose and improve team functioning.
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Human Resource Management
BUAD 6561 | 3 credits
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 an 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.
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Leadership and Planned Change
BUAD 6571 | 3 credits
Examines current issues in leadership and managerial strategies for successfully implementing, institutionalizing and evaluating change initiatives.
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Human Resources Management II
BUAD 6581 | 1.5 credits
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 an 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.
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Predictive Analytics
BUAD 6591 | 3 credits
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.
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Management of Emerging Technologies
BUAD 6601 | 3 credits
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 want 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.
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Supply Chain Management
BUAD 6611 | 3 credits
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.
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Project Management
BUAD 6621 | 1.5 - 3 credits
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.
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Advanced Project Management
BUAD 6631 | 1.5 credits
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.
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Lean Toolkit
BUAD 6641 | 1.5 credits
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.
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Six Sigma Toolkit
BUAD 6651 | 1.5 credits
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.
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Lean Six Sigma Project
BUAD 6671 | 1.5 credits
Students learn Lean and Six Sigma tools in the Lean Toolkit and Six Sigma Toolkit courses for improving the quality and efficiency of business processes. These courses also offer a first exposure to the application of those tools. This course offers more experience in applying Lean and Six Sigma tools to a real-world project in the student’s workplace. Analogous with industry standards, a student who completes this course earns a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certification.
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Engineering Economic Analysis
BUAD 6691 | 3 credits
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.
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Tools for Business Analytics
BUAD 6701 | 2 credits
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.
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Advanced Modeling Techniques
BUAD 6711 | 3 credits
This course is designed to provide students with the skills necessary to develop advance decision models using a variety of programming and database tools.
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Healthcare Informatics
BUAD 6731 | 3 credits
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.
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Principles of Negotiation
BUAD 6741 | 3 credits
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.
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Global Business Immersion
BUAD 6811 | 1.5 - 3 credits
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.
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Non-Profit Organization
BUAD 6831 | 3 credits
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 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.
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Design Thinking
BUAD 6851 | 3 credits
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.
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Entrepreneurial Ventures
BUAD 6861 | 3 credits
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. This course provides students with a live opportunity to build a venture. You’ll learn how to use a business model to brainstorm each part of a company and customer development to validate your model and to see whether anyone other than you would want/use your product. You will get your hands dirty talking to customers, partners, competitors, as you encounter the chaos and uncertainty of the early stages of a startup. The goal, within the constraints of a classroom and a limited amount of time, is to create an entrepreneurial experience with all of the pressures and demands of a startup. Finally, based on the customer and market feedback you gathered, you will rapidly iterate your product to build something customers would actually use and buy. Each week you will test each part of your business model outside of the classroom and share your knowledge/insight gained with the rest of the class.
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Mng & Fin Small Bus Enterprise
BUAD 6871 | 3 credits
Designed for those who wish to undertake a career journey in the direction of running a smaller business enterprise or a family business. It is structured to allow the students to develop an alternative to a large company or professional service firm. Every aspect of a business is covered, from the legal entity utilized through the management and financing of the enterprise. The creation and review of individual Business Plans will be required.
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Financing Entrepreneurial Ventures
BUAD 6881 | 3 credits
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.
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Entrepreneurial Launch Pad
BUAD 6891 | 3 credits
This course is designed to provide students with an opportunity to apply problem solving, analytical and communications skills and introduce them to the complexities of working in a team to solve a current business problem. The problem will be defined by a corporation or organization that will be paying the Raymond A. Mason School of Business for the students to conduct the consultancy project. The client will expect the student team to work 500/700 hours during the project and produce actionable results.
This course will provide the student with actual experience in conducting a real-world management consulting project. The learning process will consist of project definition, project planning and management, client interface and communication, data collection and analysis, making specific recommendations, report writing, and formal and informal presentations.
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