Communications model: sender, receiver, encoding, decoding, feedback, the medium, the message. Barriers to communications. Verbal vs. nonverbal communications. Formal vs. informal communications. Writing reports. Making presentations. Conducting meetings. Practical exercises in effective communication. Dealing effectively with colleagues, supervisors, team members, and customers.

Commercial law at the national, state (provincial), and municipal levels. Forms of organizational structure (e.g., sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation). Taxes. Occupational safety and health. Labor regulations. Ethics.

An overview of basic quantitative skills needed to make effective management decisions. Topics covered include displaying and summarizing data, random variables and probability distributions, sampling, statistical inference, regression analysis, forecasting, statistical quality control, risk analysis, Monte Carlo simulation, decision trees, and linear and integer optimization modeling. Requires Microsoft Excel®.

This course covers the set of activities that creates goods and services through the transformation of inputs into outputs. OM is one of the three major functions of any organization (manufacturing or service), the other two being financing/accounting and marketing.

An introduction to the role of information technology in contemporary organizations. A review of the history of computers, the evolution of management information systems, the employment of computers in contemporary organizations, and basic information on software development. Hands-on exercises in using the Internet and creating web pages.

A review of the history of management thought. The role of vision, leadership, and values in organizations. Teams and team-building. Conflict management. Organizational design.

An overview of the key functions of marketing: pricing, promotion, distribution channels, and product definition. The market research function. An understanding of who customers are (both internal and external) and how to define their needs and wants. Sales strategies.

This course addresses the central role of project management today. Topics include a review of the project life-cycle; techniques in the areas of cost management, scheduling, and resource allocation; identifying and managing project requirements; and an overview of project management software.

This advanced course presents the essentials of entrepreneurship and how to start and manage successful business ventures. Topics covered include: developing entrepreneurial ideas, forms of business ownership and franchising, marketing analysis and marketing planning, advertising and promotion, financial planning and financing, developing winning business plans, operational and service planning, global aspects of entrepreneurship, leading and growing a new venture, planning management succession.

Projects as businesses and project managers as CEOs. Finance and investment tools for selecting projects. Developing charts of accounts for organizing financial data. Using financial metrics to improve project decision making. Creating, implementing, and monitoring project budgets. Capital budgeting techniques. Real option approach to making go/no go decisions on projects. *Prerequisite: Mgt 250.

Risk identification, risk impact analysis, risk response planning. Mitigating risk. Risk management techniques, such as Monte Carlo simulation. Defining quality. Total quality management (TQM). Quality control. The ISO 9000 perspective on quality.

Pre-award and post-award phases. Contracting modalities: firm fixed-price, cost plus, cost plus fixed fee, cost plus award fee, cost plus incentive fee, time and materials. The bid process. RFPs, RFQs, and IFBs. The statement of work (SOW). Resolving disputes.

Financial statement analysis: balance sheets, income statements, cash flow statements. Depreciation of capital. Taxes. Role of the Financial Accounting Standards Board. Auditing. Managerial accounting. Hands-on examples of employing accounting techniques with spreadsheets.

An overview of micro-economic and macro-economic principles, including: law of scarcity, competition, division of labor, fiscal policy, government intervention, and international trade.

The MBA capstone course, conducted as a seminar. Students apply their business knowledge by analyzing a series of case studies. Students make public presentations of their findings.