Master of Business Administration - Corporate Residency

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Dalhousie University

Comments about Master of Business Administration - Corporate Residency - At the institution - Halifax - Nova Scotia

• Objectives
  The Corporate Residency MBA focuses on preparing students to implement the theory learned in the classroom. It is designed to develop ethical business practices and give students the skills they need to get things done.
• Practical experience
  There is a paid internship couse associated with this program.
• Academic title
  Master of Business Administration - Corporate Residency
• Course description

  Core Courses
  Business Economics
  Domestic and international markets, government policy and central bank decisions present opportunities, challenges and threats to the operating and competitive decisions of business owners, managers and investors. This class provides a framework for the economic analysis of these issues.

  Accounting
  This course introduces the principles and practices used to process and communicate financial information about an organization to various stakeholders. One element of the course relates to financial statements for external reporting, providing students with the foundation for the subsequent course in Financial Statement Analysis. A second critical element of the course provides focus on appropriate information to support internal information needs. Information must be provided to support performance analysis, decision-making, and provide a framework for effective planning and control of the organization’s operations.

  Quantitative Decision Making
  This is an introductory course in quantitative methods with emphasis on business applications. Throughout this class an emphasis is placed on helping the student to recognize situations and areas in business in which quantitative analysis might be useful.

  Orientation
  The two-week orientation program aims to develop key skills and knowledge students need to succeed in the MBA program and future careers. Business skills such as presentation and public speaking, interviewing, networking, critical thinking, conflict management and etiquette will be enhanced through workshops and interaction with employer partners and alumni. A general understanding of business functions, work processes and managerial decision-making will be acquired through case studies and a business simulation. As well, students will receive an orientation to the Faculty of Management, information resources and managing with integrity.

  Financial Management
  Financial Management provides a comprehensive framework for analyzing and understanding the financial issues faced by finance professionals in the corporate, financial and capital markets sectors. The course emphasizes a blend between the theoretical and the practical and provides students with a basis for integrating financial concepts in other disciplines as well as advanced finance related courses. The tools and techniques of finance are introduced along with the theory, but always with the end goal of implementation in the corporate, small business, institutional, or investment settings.

  Marketing Management
  Marketing is the business function responsible for understanding the needs of consumers, suppliers and retailers and for creating value for these and other stakeholder groups. As such, it is more than a department within a firm – it is a function that must be undertaken on a company-wide basis.  Marketing drives choices about what markets to serve and which needs to satisfy, about what partnerships and relationships to pursue, about product and service design, about prices that can be levied, and about the channels that can best be used for distribution and communication. The concepts presented in the course apply to businesses large and small as well as to not-for-profit organizations.

  
  Managing People
  This course offers an exploration of the theory and practice involved in working with people in organizations, from both formal and informal leadership perspectives. The emphasis is on understanding individual (micro) and organizational (macro) factors and the processes through which they influence behaviour, with a view to improving managerial effectiveness. Students have the opportunity to develop and apply this understanding through experiential exercises, case studies and assignments situated in real organizations.

  Operations Management
  Operations Management is the study of the processes used in the production of goods and services. In this abbreviated course we will examine the approaches used in the key areas of Quality and Inventory. Other topics such as Forecasting are important in OM, but have a wider applicability. We will make limited use of cases to illustrate processes and how the techniques are applied. This approach will be continued with the interdisciplinary courses at the end of the term.

  Global Business
  This course provides an introduction to international business. It builds on the economic foundations of trade and investment, and introduces the students to global trade, finance and regulatory frameworks, and the relationships between international companies and nation-states. By the end of the course students will have developed an understanding of the nuances of the costs and benefits of foreign investments, the alternative controls and responses required for trans-national trade, as well as the effects of local environmental characteristics on the operations of multi-national enterprises.

  
  Management Without Borders: An Interdisciplinary Foundation Course for Master's Students in Management
  This class places management in its broadest context and helps students from diverse disciplines understand the complex social, economic, ecological, political and technological forces that affect individuals and organizations in the 21st century. Key themes and skills explored in the course include systems thinking, collaboration across sectoral boundaries, sustainable economic development, social (and green) enterprise development and personal/professional development.

  Personal & Professional Development I
  Using a variety of strategies, students reflect on and evaluate their learning experiences and plan for their own development in preparation for the Corporate Residency. An effective plan may address areas such as: improving organizational performance and team effectiveness; improving self-awareness; improving personal communication with others; and improving personal relationships with others. Other goals could include: career assessment, effective job-search strategies, resume development; salary negotiation; interview coaching; networking; self-marketing; or entrepreneurial ventures. Skills will be developed through a variety of workshops, practice sessions, and action learning groups.

  Leveraging Technology (online)
  Developments in technology have enabled tremendous improvements not only to knowledge workers’ daily lives but also to organisations’ business processes, competitive position, and strategic partnerships. This course examines how information technology is used in business to transform data to information and knowledge for strategic and competitive purposes. Topics covered include the Foundations of Information Technology, Knowledge Management Systems, Decision Support Systems, e-Business Systems and IT Strategy, as well as issues related to IT implementation, security, ethical and legal considerations.

  Corporate Residency (paid internship)
  The eight month corporate residency focuses on enhancing human capital, leadership development and the creation of social capital in organizations. Since job assignments and action learning are effective ways to develop leadership skills, the overall purpose of the residency is to provide students with an opportunity to bridge the practice and science of leadership development by showing the importance of building both human and social capital in organizations. Ways that this can be achieved include 360-degree feedback; experiential skill development programs; on-the-job learning projects; professional reading and reflective conversations; executive coaching; mentoring; networking.

  Financial Statement Analysis (online)
  This class is intended to provide an analytical understanding of the usefulness of conventionally reported financial data in investment and credit decision-making. It covers topics that include the following: prediction of future earning, prediction of financial distress, and the relationship between financial statement numbers and behaviour of stock prices.

  Prerequisites: BUSI 5103, BUSI 5201, BUSI 5503

  Strategy and Competitiveness
  This class is about the general manager's task of managing strategy in all types of organizations. The class develops concepts, frameworks, techniques, and skills that are foundational to the development and execution of strategies that are competitively sound, organizationally doable, and effective in guiding organizational decisions and actions.

  Personal & Professional Development II
  In the second year of the program, Personal and Professional Development continues to support the development and refinement of skills and competencies needed for successful careers with leading organizations. At this stage, MBA candidates will build on the experience gained in their Corporate Residency to refine their strengths. Special attention will be given to establishing effective feedback systems and mechanisms to identify and address professional and personal learning needs related to career goals. Action learning sets will continue to be a key element of this process.

  Strategy Implementation
  Strategy Implementation builds on Strategy and Competitiveness and other MBA courses by focusing on the implementation of strategies once they are developed. It is integrative, dealing with the organization as an integrated whole, from the perspective of the general manager. Specific topics include implementing strategy, strategy and organization, leadership, corporate culture, and the management of strategic change in organizations. Students are exposed to a wide variety of organizations through case studies and have the opportunity to examine a single organization in detail through their field consulting projects. (Open to second-year students only.)

  Corporate Social Responsibility, Business Ethics and Sustainability
  This course examines how business leaders manage a broad set of corporate objectives in an increasingly interdependent global economy. The class explores ways to balance social, economic development and environmental objectives with conventional financial objectives on a ‘win-win’ basis. It examines the role of public, private and civil society actors in domestic and international domains.

  Elective Courses
  Disclaimer: Information on elective courses is subject to change. Official details on elective courses are available on the Faculty of Graduate Studies calendar.

  Buyer Behaviour
  Designed to emphasize the ‘marketing concept,’ this class is basically an overview of the literature in consumer/industrial buyer segmentation and consumer/industrial buyer behaviour models.

  New Venture Creation
  This course is about entrepreneurship: the process of creating new businesses. It employs cases, experiential exercises, and a major project to expose students to the issues, problems and challenges of creating viable new businesses. The project provides students with the opportunity, within the framework of a formal class, to explore and develop business ideas they have been considering or wish to investigate. The final output of the project is a feasibility study, business plan and financing proposal for a new venture.

  Starting the Emerging Technology Venture
  This class has three modules: New Product Development, Financing the Emerging Technology Venture, and Marketing the Emerging Technology Venture.

  Derivatives & Risk Management
  This course is designed to introduce students to the principles, tools and techniques of risk management. The course is divided into two separate components. The first deals with financial risk management and derivatives and covers the different types of derivatives, how they are used in both an investment and in a corporate context and, finally, how a financial institution can use derivatives as a tool for internal risk management and as a product offering for investors and corporate hedgers. The major concepts of pricing will also be covered. The second component of the course will cover the basics of strategic risk management, including the tactics used for enterprise risk management (ERM).

  Global Markets & Institutions
  This course focuses on financial markets and institutional management from a macroeconomic perspective. It examines the relationship between financial institutions and financial markets and the impact of regulation in a global context.

  Organizational Design
  The behaviour and performance of individuals are significantly influenced by organizational design. The design involves the formal systems and process, specialization, hierarchy, authority-power, communications, reward systems, and accountability. The purpose of the course is to examine the evolution of design strategies, review some of the different approaches to design now being utilized in organizations, and consider differences in behaviour and performance in organizational systems employing different design strategies. The course will not offer a particular design as the answer to organizational-managerial problems but will propose some steps that managers should consider before designing their organizations.

  Organizational Change in a Global Economy
  This class is designed to familiarize participants with behavioural problems and challenges facing managers interacting with people from other cultures in foreign or domestic work settings. The class also examines research findings in the field to investigate the similarities and differences found in managerial practices of selected cultures.

  Management Skills Development
  This class exposes students to key knowledge, skills and attitudes (KSAs) considered critical to managerial success. Such exposure is designed to provide the student with behaviours that will help ensure that, when managing human resources, staff will perform at or near peak capabilities. This is a skill-building class. Significant amounts of classroom time are devoted to behaviour modeling exercises, role-plays, case studies and group discussions.

  Marketing Research
  This class is designed to give the student an appreciation of the scope of marketing research techniques. The goal of the class is to provide students with sufficient background to make them knowledgeable users of marketing research information. Marketing research will be related to model building, information systems, and the concept of value of information.

  Advertising Management
  Designed to improve analytical skills and decision-making capabilities through the practical application of advertising concepts and principles, this class considers market positioning, the psychology of mass communication, copy strategy, media selection, budgeting and advertising research.

  Trade & Logistics
  The globalization of production and distribution systems and the development of sophisticated global supply chains are features of the modern trading environment. To be successful in this new trading environment, knowledge of transportation alternatives and sound logistics planning are absolutely critical. This course will examine the relationship between international trade (and investment) concerns and those of delivering parts and finished products to markets; it will take a customer-driven solutions approach.

  Marketing Strategy Seminar
  This is the capstone class in marketing. As such, it is designed to draw together the individual marketing classes offered in the MBA program. Extensive use will be made of case studies requiring students to develop complete marketing strategies for companies in ‘real-life’ situations. Student presentations of their case analyses will form an important part of the class. Presentations will be videotaped and a critique provided by the instructor.

  Strategic Management of International Operations
  This class critically examines the generic and functional strategies open to multinational enterprises and, through numerous industry and business case studies, seeks to test the applicability of these concepts to actual situations. Each student is expected to prepare a major research paper, and a simulated negotiation is included to help sharpen top management skills crucial for success in international operations.

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