Core Courses

Pre-requisite: A pass on the Financial Accounting Online Course

This course focuses on the nature and scope of using accounting information for economic decision making. The first half of the course focuses on financial reporting. The emphases are on the nature of accounting information and its uses and limitations. While the focus of the course is on the users’ perspective, it is essential that the user understands the building blocks of accounting, the process by which the information is generated and the incentives underlying the preparation of the accounting information. A proper understanding of the accounting process would enable the user to understand the limitations of the accounting information, and to ask the appropriate questions when using the information. In the second half of the course, we seek to understand how accounting information is used in planning, costing, decision making, and management control. The organizational architecture will be used as the organizing framework. The major topics covered include activity-based costing and management, tools for decision making such as cost-volume-profit (CVP) analysis, and performance evaluation ​and measurement including a discussion on sustainability issues and measurement of these objectives.

IT and the e-Business are transforming the way businesses organize and compete. This course has hence been structured to offer all MBA students the necessary foundation in IT and Internet for them to be effective executives in the new economy. The course will examine key IT management issues, clarify the principles of e-Business, and delve into the exploding arena area of telecommunications and mobile communications markets. It will specifically look at these areas from a holistic strategic perspective while examining key technology trends that are likely to have a disruptive impact on industry. The key learning components of the course include: (i) Understanding important IT management issues and developments, (ii) Examination of key technologies and their strategic value and disruptive potential, (iii) Understanding the impact of IT, in particular e-Business, in a number of key industries and (iv) The viability of e-Business opportunities — how value is created, what are the critical costs associated with creating this value, and to what extent a sustainable competitive advantage can be maintained in an electronic commerce business. 

The objective of this course is to provide a rigorous introduction to the foundations of financial management in competitive financial markets. The course is designed to equip students with the basic tools that are necessary in managing a firm in a dynamic financial environment. The topics to be covered include the time value of money, risk and return, portfolio management, stock and bond valuation, cost of capital, capital budgeting, capital structure, dividend policy, corporate financing, and agency theory, and financial derivatives. Strategic applications of these concepts to real world problems will be given equal emphasis. The method of instruction, depending on the topic, will include lectures, case studies, and/or other pedagogical tools. 

This course examines the critical role of marketing as a boundary-spanning function in driving the overall performance of the firm. In this course, students will deal with issues concerning the relationships between marketing and other functions within the firm, as well as between marketing and external entities within the value delivery system including channel members, supply chain vendors and brand alliance partners. Students will address the management challenge of designing and coordinating marketing strategies, based on in-depth customer insights and sound understanding of industry forces, to create and sustain the firm’s competitive advantage. At heart of these topics is the view that marketing is not simply a set tactical actions or just the marketing manager’s job, but it is also about building a total organization-wide market-oriented culture that underlies the firm’s strategy and that enables the firm to secure financial success. More broadly, students will also appreciate the role of marketing in connecting the firm with societal stakeholders and in implementing corporate social responsibility initiatives. 

Operations is the core function of any organisation. Managing the operations, business processes and the supply chain effectively and efficiently can have a significant impact on the bottom line of the firm. It also impacts the service level delivered for fulfillment of customer orders, whether it be a manufacturing or service organisation. This course addresses key strategic as well as tactical issues important in managing the operations in an organisation. The focus of the course will be on important concepts and strategic insights that can help the firm gain competitive advantage through operations. Topics covered include operations strategy, analysis and design of business processes, capacity management, inventory and supply chain management, sustainable operations, quality management and lean operations. Technology is seen as an enabler that influences the three components of processes, queues and inventories. References will be made with regards to blockchain and IOT on how they influence these three components of the course.

This course stimulates participants to develop creative thinking skills required of CEOs as they develop strategies for their companies. The focus is on the development of strategic thinking through the application of strategy tools, principles and theories to analyse companies based on live data. It is taught from the viewpoint of the CEO and is essentially practice-orientated. Participants are also encouraged to apply tools taught elsewhere in the MBA Programme where relevant. 

Astute business leadership hinges on a deep understanding of risks and uncertainties. In the presence of uncertainties, business managers will need a set of tools that incorporate the uncertainties in a manner that would enhance understanding of the situation, thereby leading to better decisions being made. In this course, we would develop a grasp of the underlying principles behind uncertainties and risks, and build upon those principles to get a big picture view of the possible inferences, even with uncertain assumptions. Through practical examples, in-depth exercises, and cases, we would build an understanding of how these principles apply in practice. With a firm grasp of these foundational principles grounded on probability theory and statistics, participants will benefit greatly from other courses and topics that build on top of results learned in this course. 

This course aims to change the mindset of corporate managers and leaders about key priorities in business and to equip them with essential knowledge, skills and attitude in making difficult but crucial business decisions. It also lends insights into what it takes to develop an effective governance structure that steers the organization towards meeting increasingly challenging goals set by key stakeholders that the organization cannot ignore. Block chain is also becoming a critical tool to implement & monitor various aspects in governance and this will be discussed. Through extensive case discussions on pertinent and pressing issues, the course will provoke participants’ thinking about what accountability and responsible risk-taking really mean.

Economics and Markets aims to give students an in-depth understanding of important macro- economic principles and to apply the knowledge in their business decision-making. The class will discuss common economic phenomena (economic growth, cycle, inflation, bubbles, recession, unemployment, crisis etc.) and government policy tools (monetary, fiscal policy etc.) The goal is for students to understand macro-economic environments that their firms operate in, possible government policy response to the economic phenomena, and implications for managers to properly respond to and benefit from the macro environments.