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The course is based on the essential concepts and terminology of financial accounting introduced in the accounting core course. Students learn to evaluate financial statements through the use of case studies drawn from actual corporate financial reports.
Budgeting, accumulating costs for product costing, activity-based costing, standard costs, the analysis of cost variances, cost estimation and prediction, cost-price-volume decisions, performance measurement, non-manufacturing cost analysis, cost allocation, and transfer pricing. Lectures and cases.
Fundamental concepts and techniques of tax planning for individuals and businesses: changing the timing and nature of income, investments, and expenses; choosing an organizational form; constructing transactions that allow two or more parties to engage in tax arbitrage. Tax research techniques and issues of tax compliance.
Develops a set of core skills essential to financial statement analysis. Covers strategic ratio analysis, cash flow analysis, pro forma financial statements, financial modeling, credit analysis, bond rating and bankruptcy predictions, and firm valuation using discounted cash flow techniques. Emphasis is on practical applications. Lectures
and cases.
Builds on the core financial analysis skills developed in NBA506. Equity valuation, residual income models, quality of earnings assessments, earnings manipulation detection, market efficiency issues, fairness opinions in MBOs, and large sample stock screening strategies. Focuses on using accounting-based information to make investment decisions, cultivating analytical and communication skills. Lectures and cases.
Financial modeling is the art and science of constructing spreadsheet models of firms' future financial statements. Builds on the brief introduction to financial modeling in NBA 506 by modeling the effect on the income statement, balance sheet, and statement
of cash flows of more complicated financial transactions such
as leveraged buyouts, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate
reorganizations. The class meets in the state-of-the-art Parker Center computer lab.
Focuses on the management of an investment fund.
Applies basic macroeconomic theory to such problems as inflation, unemployment, economic growth, and productivity; examines how those problems interact with international trade and finance. Students learn to be informed observers of national and international economic policies and discerning users of economic analyses
and forecasts. Lectures and discussion.
Students team up with entrepreneurs in the Ithaca area on projects integral to the companies' operations, such as production planning, new product launches, or assessing organizational structure. Students gain first-hand exposure to the application of functional knowledge in a start-up setting, while bringing value to the host company.
Focuses on research at Cornell that may be a basis for new business ventures. Addresses the fundamental ways in which university-
based research differs from industrial research. Students explore
and critique the business potential of each concept.
The course will examine the role of the business development executive in managing partnerships between big companies and new ventures. Topics include setting growth targets, negotiating partnership agreements, managing expectations, licensing, and divestiture.
This course focuses on the development of entrepreneurial companies and their financing by venture capitalists. The course is built around a series of real-world cases which are actual business plans that were developed by entrepreneurs and later evaluated and invested in by venture capitalists. In class, we do due diligence of these business plans, i.e. analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the product, marketing plan, management team, etc. We also discuss what venture capitalists do to help the entrepreneurs and to mitigate investment risks that are specific to the financing of early stage companies. Each case is presented by both the entrepreneur who developed the business plan and the venture capitalist who invested in the company. In addition to the cases, the course has a lecture series where some broader perspectives on the entrepreneurial process and venture capital investment strategies are presented.
An introduction to the private equity market focusing on the transactions that define the industry, its structure, participants, history, and trends; institutional private equity investing - now an increasingly important part of the asset allocation mix; issues in private equity investing such as concentration in fewer, larger funds and the critical role of a new class of gatekeeper/consultants for limited partners.
IPO statutory frameworks, pre-offering corporate preparation (such as poison pills and stock option plans), due diligence, corporate
governance policies for a public company, the offering registration process, liability under federal securities laws, the Securities and Exchange Commission review process, underwriting arrangements, pricing, selection of a trading forum (i.e., NYSE, NASDAQ, or AMEX) and the consequences of going public. Acquisitions: financing alternatives, accounting, due diligence, transaction structure
(i.e., stock versus asset sale), letters of intent, continuity of employees, anti-takeover strategies, and non-competition agreements.
Case studies and lectures integrate marketing, finance, operations, and human-resource topics in the context of high-growth business ventures; planning, obtaining resources, management of growth, and cashing out. Guest lecturers speak on topics such as corporate and patent law, bankruptcy, leveraged buy-outs, and valuations of businesses. Students team up to write and present business plans.
Overview of the diffusion of entrepreneurship institutions outside the U.S. vis-a-vis traditional forms of start-up finance (i.e., family backing, intrapreneurship); selecting, financing, managing, and
exiting venture capital deals abroad. Features guest speakers involved in various stages of international entrepreneurship activities.
This is an advanced finance course that studies the institutions of venture capital and buyout markets. The course has three goals. The first goal is to strengthen students' ability to apply the theories and tools of finance to real-world situations in private equity investments. The second goal is to teach students how private equity markets are organized and to give an understanding of why these structures are in place. The third goal is to teach students the lingo that sorrounds venture capital and buyout transactions. The course is divided into six different modules: (i) Overview of recent trends in private equity, (ii) Risk and return of private equity investments, (iii) contracts and deal structure, (iv) Valuation, and (v) Buyouts. The level of the material presented requires that students are comfortable with tools and theories from primarily corporate finance.
Relevant for both investment banking and the treasurer's functions in corporations. Common stock, preferred stock, debt securities (duration, convexity, inverse floaters, bond refunding, term structure, swaps), hybrids, security design, weighted average cost of capital, basic capital structure issues, cash distribution policy, the buy versus lease decision, use of debt to add value, mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructuring, LBOs and MBOs and Merchant Banking. Lectures/discussion and cases.
Portfolio diversification theory, asset allocation, asset pricing models, empirical anomalies such as size effect, January effect. Evaluating portfolio and mutual fund performance; investment strategies based on patterns in historical security returns (technical analysis), and based on accounting and other market statistics, earnings forecasts, etc. (fundamental analysis); constraints imposed by the institutional structure of securities markets.
Applies principles of finance to modern financial markets. Structure of financial markets, their pricing function, interaction between financial markets and macroeconomic conditions, processes of innovation and regulation; the workings of a variety of markets and
problems addressed by each; market efficiency and the interaction between government policies and financial markets (innovation and regulation).
Basic principles of international finance applied to the practical
problems of the increasingly globalized business world. Exchange rate volatility, barriers to international capital flows, the value of international diversification, corporate finance applications of capital budgeting, portfolio management strategies.
Pricing, hedging, and risk management of fixed income securities and interest rate derivatives. The term structure of interest rates, interest rate swaps (caps, floors, collars), the risk structure of interest rates, credit risk spreads, and corporate bond valuation. Lectures,
discussion, computer illustrations.
This course focuses on the development of entrepreneurial companies and their financing by venture capitalists. The course is built around a series of real-world cases which are actual business plans that were developed by entrepreneurs and later evaluated and invested in by venture capitalists. In class, we do due diligence of these business plans, i.e. analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the product, marketing plan, management team, etc. We also discuss what venture capitalists do to help the entrepreneurs and to mitigate investment risks that are specific to the financing of early stage companies. Each case is presented by both the entrepreneur who developed the business plan and the venture capitalist who invested in the company. In addition to the cases, the course has a lecture series where some broader perspectives on the entrepreneurial process and venture capital investment strategies are presented.
Frontier topics in corporate finance and investment strategy.
New financial products are coming to the markets, and the financial structure of many corporations is becoming more and more
complicated. Corporate financial officers and investors (such as money managers) need to know the driving forces behind the
financial products (debt, equity, and more complicated products) to
understand the products themselves. Understanding these issues will enable us to estimate firms' values more precisely.
See description under "Entrepreneurship."
Prerequisites: NCC 506 and NBA 656 or permission of instructor.
Corporate governance deals with the ways in which different investors assure themselves of getting a return on their investments. How do investors get managers to return some of the profits to them? How do they make sure that managers do not invest their money in bad projects? This course explores these issues through case studies and examples. We will start with the venture capital process and discuss the ways venture capitalists monitor projects, and the role of stage financing in mitigating VC losses and its effect on project valuation. We will then explore different governance mechanisms in more established firms, in particular, the board of directors, merger and acquisition market, institutional investors, compensation contracts, debt contracts, and bankruptcy proceedings.
The advanced valuation course builds on the valuation principles course. It applies discounted cash flow valuation (DCF) and valuation by multiples using comparables to multinational contexts.
We consider mergers and acquisitions, and multinational project
and firm valuations, from the viewpoint of a U.S. manager. Issues such as differences in parent and project cash flows, accounting
differences, exchange risks, political risks, and valuation in developing countries are discussed. Then, we examine the contingent
claims valuation approach, with emphasis on flexibility in managerial decision-making. We focus on the valuation of strategic options, growth options, and flexibility in capital investments using
traditional and non-traditional option pricing techniques. Valuation of growth options, expansion options, natural resource investments, land development, R&D, young-high-growth companies, etc., using the Black-Scholes option pricing model and its variants are discussed. Grading is based on cases, a valuation project involving a
foreign company, and a final exam.
Publicly traded firms, divisions of publicly traded firms, or private firms that have publicly traded comparables. There are three approaches to valuation: (1) discounted cash flow valuation (DCF), (2) valuation by multiples using comparables, and (3) contingent claims (derivatives/option) valuation.
Prerequisite: NCC-506 (Finance Core) or permission
of the instructor.
The course introduces students to the pricing and hedging of
derivative securities. The course briefly covers forward contracts, futures contracts and swaps. The primary emphasis is on option
contracts. Underlying assets include stocks, currencies, and
commodities.
Prerequisite: NCC-506 (Finance Core) or permission of the instructor. See above, NBA 673.
This is an advanced finance course that studies the institutions of venture capital and buyout markets. The course has three goals. The first goal is to strengthen students' ability to apply the theories and tools of finance to real-world situations in private equity investments. The second goal is to teach students how private equity markets are organized and to give an understanding of why these structures are in place. The third goal is to teach students the lingo that sorrounds venture capital and buyout transactions. The course is divided into six different modules: (i) Overview of recent trends in private equity, (ii) Risk and return of private equity investments, (iii) contracts and deal structure, (iv) Valuation, and (v) Buyouts. The level of the material presented requires that students are comfortable with tools and theories from primarily corporate finance.
Focuses on projects as work environments characterized by
significant technical complexity, multiple stakeholders, severe time and resource constraints, and very high levels of uncertainty.
This course will prepare students for leadership in diverse organizations of today and the future. Discussions and readings about accountability, fairness, stereotyping, mentoring, networking, and the impact of challenging assignments will be used to (1) help
students become aware of ways they may discriminate against, judge, or exclude people, and (2) help students initiate and develop relationships with people who are different from themselves.
Case studies, group activities, a diversity awareness profile, and
written assignments that will require students to critically reflect on situations where they felt excluded will be the primary teaching methods used in the course.
Introduces the basic tenets of law as they apply to businesses and their operations: personal property, contracts, agency, real property, and landlord-tenant concerns. Text readings and case studies.
Legal issues in the formation and operation of business enterprises, particularly partnerships, corporations, and limited liability
companies; selected topics in business law, such as employment
discrimination, secured transactions, product liability, unfair
competition, and international business law.
The law and use of trusts, the law of wills, federal and New York State estate and gift taxes, and substitutes for probate procedures.
Legal accountability dictated by corporate law (e.g., fiduciary duties) and federal disclosure requirements; market discipline imposed
via takeovers, mergers, and leveraged buyouts (i.e., the market for corporate control); the role of institutional investors; executive accountability through pay-for-performance incentive compensation; how chief executive officers and other senior executives are hired, evaluated, and replaced by boards of directors; the role of the board in ensuring the integrity of financial reporting; and how directors themselves are selected, evaluated, compensated, and replaced.
Cases and guest lectures.
Audience perspective, style, organization, strategy and persuasion. Weekly writing assignments.
Speaking formats, delivery, organization, visual aids, and question/answer. Student speeches constitute the bulk of class time, with each student presenting seven or eight speeches in the
seven-week session.
Provides students with the opportunity to understand the role of
the consultant and to gain indirect experience in that role, through dealing with a broad range of practical and real-world issues.
Case studies.
Five full-day training sessions. The first two days focus on self-
awareness and employ several experiential exercises and self-assessment instruments, including Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI),
the Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation-Behavior (FIRO-B), the change style indicator (CSI), and Hogan Psychological Inventory (HPI). Mid-week activities include leadership and team challenges, including a business simulation.
Computer-based simulation played by small teams who make marketing, production, and finance decisions for one of five companies operating competitively in the same industry.
The seminar will assist participants in remaining current with the rapidly evolving state of the art in the analysis and management
of environmental policy and practice in enterprises. Although focused on the private sector, attention is given to understanding the economic basis for government's role in environmental protection. Another focus will be the analysis of the operational significance
of the concepts of sustainability, and ecoefficiency, and market-based environmental policies. Seminar speakers from finance, marketing, electricity, forest products, construction, and other businesses with environmental responsibilities will meet with the class. Each student will make a case study of an individual enterprise or organization.
This seminar-style course will involve readings and discussion
of issues in environmental management, and will also involve four significant outside speakers on the subject of environmental
management.
The course teaches how to frame unstructured business problems through a hands-on team project. Teams must identify what the
central issues are, and then determine the most appropriate tools and concepts to provide insight into these issues. Students also
learn to approach business problems from a cross-functional perspective. Project management; power, politics, and personalities
in work groups; managing in for-profit versus not-for-profit organizations; and organizational change.
Many of the most important decisions that top management
makes are driven by political, legal, and regulatory considerations. Environmental and waste-management concerns are leading
to new laws and regulations that will affect many aspects of
business. The course begins with a discussion of the political and economic foundations of business regulation. Students examine
different areas of application, including economic regulation,
environmental regulation, antitrust, and product liability.
Guest speakers.
Focuses on the process of effective strategy formulation from the perspective of the general manager of a business unit. Corporate strategy and its interaction with business unit strategies, tools useful for industry and company analysis. Situational strategies, guest speakers.
Overview of the spectrum of alliances, examining the strategic rationale and pros and cons of each major type of alliance. Alliances will be contrasted with M & A as vehicles for growth. A primary focus will be on joint ventures: the strategic rationale for a joint
venture, what is important in choosing a partner, structuring the deal - the basic building blocks, organizational structure and key roles - critical skills needed, control and compensation, special issues for international joint ventures, stages in the life cycle of a joint venture, and typical problems and what you do about them.
Examines actual situations in business, both in the United States and abroad, that involve ethical issues affecting individuals and organizations.
This course is designed as a follow-up to NBA 570 Leadership Assessment for Managers. It will provide structured support for
personal change through personal learning plans, learning and development strategies, and feedback and coaching support from peers. The course will include a workshop on establishing a personal values statement to help guide personal learning plans and align them with career aspirations. The course employs a web-based,
follow-through support system to facilitate further leadership growth by prompting students regularly to assess and document their progress. Learning coaching strategies and serving as a coach for
the year for a classmate will further enhance leadership growth. The course is scheduled throughout the year to allow students time
to develop personal goals and provide numerous opportunities to practice coaching.
Topics include: choice of entity, driven by accounting/tax factors and corporation (S and C), LLC, partnership; protecting confidential information: the importance of third-party NDAs and how they work; invention assignment agreements with employees; patents, trademarks, copyrights; sources of capital: applicable federal and state securities laws; bridge loans, lease lines, and down rounds; common stock, preferred stock, employee options, warrants; basic employment practices: discrimination policies, company policies for e-mail and privacy, use of written employment agreements, benefits, noncompete covenants; legal responsibilities of boards of directors and executives; advisory/scientific boards; technology licenses, particularly from universities where technology was developed; negotiating relationships with distributors, resellers, and customers: exclusivity, pay to play; foreign corrupt practices laws, foreign subsidiaries, and foreign employees; dealing with creditors; key accounting issues.
Topics include developments in western and eastern Europe, the
former Soviet Union, the Pacific Rim, Central and South America, and the Middle East, and the role and fate of developing countries
in the world economy. Guest speakers.
Explores the role of government in several private-market industrialized nations - Japan, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Italy - including the impact of government policies on the global competitiveness of the country's firms. Differential policies appropriate to each of a range of industries, from the mature to the high tech, and to stages of development in each economy. Possible lessons are then tested for less developed or emergent countries (e.g., Venezuela, Malaysia, Singapore).
Provides frameworks for understanding the international dimensions of management, for formulating effective strategies in an increasingly complex world economy, and for building and leveraging organizations that cross borders. Cases cover a variety of
countries and regions and a range of industries, from consulting
to manufacturing.The first part of the course studies strategy in international context that involves not only the analysis of the
external environments of companies, but also their internal organizational capabilities and core competencies. In the second part, we focus on the steps by which companies extend their activities to
new locations and the competencies they need to operate effectively in diverse locations. In the last part, we analyze more closely the
link between organizational competencies and managerial processes in operating across national borders.
This course combines classroom sessions and international experience to increase awareness of business environments outside of
the U.S. Students participate in a study trip to visit local businesses, subsidiaries of foreign multinationals, government officials, local business school students, and others.
See description under "Entrepreneurship."
Overview of the elements of management of technological
activities unique to the multinational corporation (MNC). Main
concepts and managerial activities associated with technology
generation and transfer in the enterprise; role of technology in
the MNC, and the tools at its disposal to manage technology
transfer; benefits of technology transfer for the MNC and for its
host countries.
Analysis of the causes, nature, and consequences of financial crises; the economics of financial instability and alternative strategies for dealing with them. Financial instability/crisis; empirical episodes of crisis in various emerging market countries; the relevant theoretical concepts. Post-crisis episodes, different paths of recovery, and major policy responses to the crisis: financial and monetary policies and the unsettled relationship between interest rates and exchange rates.
Designed to train students to take a domestic product and expand it into international markets successfully. Market selection, international market research issues, and international marketing strategies are all discussed. The term project requires that students choose some product and develop a plan for taking it abroad.
This course is designed to teach students the frameworks and skills needed to design and initiate plans for international extension
of a current business. The course is intended as a six-unit sequence (three units during the fall semester and three units during winter break and the spring semester). During the fall semester, material needed to develop an entry strategy and related tactics for a new
market will be presented. During winter break, student will travel to the target country to gather information and develop a business
plan. The spring semester segment of the course will cover topics associated with the implementation of the business plans (e.g.,
negotiation) and end with presentation of the plan to the corporate partners. Though the course is designed as a six-unit sequence, the fall section can also stand alone. This was done because the course will displace established fall classes (NBA 585 and NBA 590). Students who want a three-unit fall international management course can still be satisfied with this course.
Explores the problems and opportunities that integration poses for U.S. multinationals as well as European corporations. Provides
background on the European Union and the political environment
of business; current issues include macro-economic management and monetary union, EU trade policy and external relations,
competition policy, and EU regulation of employment relations.
Electronic commerce is the use of information technology in conducting economic transactions and managing businesses over
computer networks. Electronic commerce involves a wide variety of cooperating technologies such as communications, networks, databases, expert systems, and multimedia. It also impacts a wide variety of managerial issues. This course will cover all major technical
and managerial issues through computer exercises on the Internet, and case studies and examples of businesses on the Internet.
Discusses historical technological advances that previously created major paradigm shifts for communications. Recent advances in
computer technology emphasizing the fundamentals behind the increases in processing power, video and computer graphics capabilities, and network transmission; the current effect of these advances on areas including photography and the film industry, the entertainment and animation industry, television, broadcasting, as well as
e-commerce and the computer industry itself. Social and legal issues. Interactive live demonstrations in the laboratory of Cornell's Program of Computer Graphics.
Basic topics in computer science and communications that underlie the current information revolution, combined with analysis of
dominant business applications. No prior computer science background is assumed. Key topics will be supported in depth by guest faculty from the Department of Computer Science.
This course builds on topics raised in the Special Edition (09-10-01) of Forbes, "Rebooting the Revolution." With input and support
from the school's Technology Advisory Board, the course will investigate the strategies of the major players in IT; prepare the student
to understand and exploit the many real business opportunities of 2002 and beyond; and to determine how, where and why to introduce e-business approaches into established brick and mortar firms.
The course will focus on real-world, industry-sponsored projects exploring strategic aspects of information-rich opportunities in the business environment, especially with brick and mortar businesses.
Marketing research as a critical support function in corporations. Research methods employed by better managed firms or proposed by leading academicians. Obtaining, analyzing, and interpreting results of research. Use of secondary sources of marketing information, designing studies for collecting primary date. Up-to-date
methods in research design, qualitative research, measurement,
data collection, and analysis.
The advertising and promotion management process. The components of a successful advertising campaign; issues involved in
advertising planning and decision making. How recent social-science findings and theory can facilitate advertising management.
Development and evaluation of marketing strategies for multi-
product firms; evaluating integrated marketing strategies for new and established products and services. Recent research results
are applied to decisions on product-market boundary definition, resource allocation, product positioning, and competitive reactions. Selected current topics such as brand equity, acquisitions, and
lead-user analyses. Case studies, guest speakers.
Models and methods useful to managers in the development and marketing of new products. Emphasis on measurement of consumer preferences. Cases, group project.
See description under "International Management."
Factors that influence response to advertising of various kinds,
purchase decisions, product perceptions, response to promotion, consumer satisfaction, and the basic methodologies for under-
standing consumer behavior.
Opportunity for students to make marketing strategy decisions
in a realistic, dynamic, simulated, competitive environment. Students, working in teams, manage a portfolio of a firm's
products for several years (periods). How to make long-term
decisions (introduction of new products); cross-functional issues related to marketing management (e.g., research and development, product design, and budgeting). Basic concepts (e.g., competitive positioning, resource allocation, market segmentation, and product design), suitable methods of data analysis. Students develop an
initial strategy statement and strategic marketing plan for their firm.
Overview of the on-line industry, business models for the Internet, advertising and promotions on the Internet, marketing research on the Internet, loyalty programs for Internet marketing, and disintermediation or channel conflict resulting from Internet distribution. Guest lectures.
Introduces the future brand manager or marketing consultant to the use of market data to evaluate and construct pricing and promotional strategies. Introduces new sources of data available on product
purchases and consumers' reactions to the marketing environment. Focuses on the practical use of popular data sources. The course
covers panel data on high-volume consumer packaged goods and direct or "database" marketing. Introduces these new data sources and provides a solid foundation for the development of analytic
tools. Examples are drawn from the consumer packaged goods industry. This course makes intensive use of EXCEL and the WINDOWS computing environment.
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