Global Executive MBA Curriculum

Leading People and Building Resilient Organizations

Leading people and building resilient organizations requires critical processes: setting direction, aligning people behind it, setting and maintaining values, and growth of self and others. Today’s executives face unprecedented levels of complexity and have to make decisions with foresight and integrity in our uncertain, high-pressure, turbulent world. To navigate through periods of radical change and disruption, to survive and thrive in global environments that are fraught with uncertainty, difficulties and ethical dilemmas responsible leadership is a key success factor.

Strategic Marketing Management

Examine the management challenge of building sustainable brands developing successful marketing strategies. Develop skills in applying analytical perspectives, leveraging the use of new technologies and data to design a competitive marketing mix.

Financial Reporting and Analysis

This course introduces accounting as the language of business and its primary information system. The course provides an introduction to financial statements and the financial reporting process. The purpose of financial reporting is to provide information to owners and other stakeholders of the firm to serve as the basis for making decisions about the firm. The course explains fundamental accounting concepts and accounting procedures that convert economic events into information reported in financial statements. Based on this foundational knowledge, the course then conveys evaluation methods to analyze financial statements and interpret them, in order to assess the performance of a company and its future prospects. A student who successfully completes this course should be able to (i) understand the basic concepts and principles of accounting, (ii) appreciate the rationale behind accounting rules and differences and similarities between rules used across the world, (iii) gain the technical knowhow to record and report business transactions, and (iv) become informed users of financial reports by developing some level of expertise in reading, understanding, and analyzing basic financial statements. 

Economies in Transition

Examine the technological, political and ethical forces which shape a competitive environment. Look at those theoretical considerations used to analyze such forces, as well as businesses’ responses to specific issues. Coursework will include projects and cases of current interest to companies in the country of the first International Immersion.

Strategic Management of Supply Chains and Operations

Supply chain and operations (SCO) has become a critical focus area for executives across all industries, whether it is manufacturing, or services such as retail, finance, healthcare, insurance, hospitality, or transportation and logistics. Rapid changes such as digital technologies and increased focus on sustainability require executives to fine-tune their business and operations strategies. This course will focus on identifying strategic decision-making frameworks that are industry-agnostic and broadly applicable across industries. We will focus on bread and butter issues in the contemporary landscape that allows firms to deliver value to customers. With this in mind, the fundamental purpose of this course is to demonstrate: 

• how SCO decisions are inherently connected to a firm’s business strategy,
• how a better understanding of SCO decisions can help executives unlock unrealized potential for efficiencies within their firms and supply chains, and
• why SCO decisions can be a source of sustained competitive advantage for firms locally and globally.

We will dive into topics relating to the development of SCO strategy, process analysis and capacity planning, inventory management strategies, and global sourcing.

Data Analytics for Business Decisions

This course will provide a broad, deep, but not too technical, understanding of how executives can use data analytics to make better business decisions. The students will learn about all the different elements that it takes to create a data-driven organization to compete in the digital age, including analytics strategy, IT infrastructure, Machine Learning and AI, data governance and Responsible AI. The course will use a mix of case studies, examples, and analytics design sprints to help students identify business problems that can be addressed with data analytics and create a roadmap for solving them.  

The course first gives an overview of the basic concepts in data analysis and focuses on how executives can develop strategies using insights from business data, including a discussion of A/B testing and experimentation for innovation. It then introduces students to the topic of investing in digital infrastructures for data analytics and how to generate ROI through examples in exploratory analytics. This is followed by an overview of the key methods in business analytics – descriptive, predictive, causal, and prescriptive methods, as well as an introduction to Generative AI. We conclude the course with a discussion of the need to implement processes to support a data-driven organizational culture, including discussion of data governance, risk management, and responsible AI. Throughout, we focus on basic concepts and the practical use of these methods in management environments. Students will work in small group to ideate and develop business questions that can be addressed using the analytics solutions learned in the course. This course provides the background in data analytics methods that are required for several other courses in the curriculum, such as marketing, operations, and finance.

Contemporary Issues Linking Business, Government, and Macroeconomic Trends

In this course we will identify broad macro-trends and analyze their implications for firms and investors looking for an edge when dealing with governments and rival firms.  We will identify and analyze the business implications of three big macro trends in three modules: firm and investor strategies for dealing with industry deregulation; firm and investor strategies for dealing with liberalization and democratization; and firm and investor strategies for dealing with privatization. Module 1 analyzes firm strategies for managing industry deregulation running from the US airline experience in the 1970s and 1980s to European online advertising in the 2010s and 2020s. Module 2 analyzes foreign investor strategies to manage classic host-country government threats of expropriation as well as emerging threats related to host-country government elections and political violence. Module 3 puts students into teams negotiating the potential sale of a state-owned enterprise similar to those currently up for privatization in many developing countries. Students should come away from the course with a deeper understanding of key concepts like political risk, key theories like those explaining the likelihood of industry deregulation, and key analytical techniques like those permitting the valuation of privatizing state-owned enterprises. 

The Language of Business: Financial Management & Value Creation

This module will provide you with the core concepts and tools of finance. Internalizing these
ideas will provide the foundation for addressing financial issues with confidence and curiosity
both for your personal financial decisions and for your future career. The course will utilize a
framework to help organize our discussions.

Key elements include: 

• Tools, techniques, and tips for financial and business performance assessment & analysis.
• Capital budgeting: investing decisions with a deep dive into valuation tools for applications ranging from project evaluation to company valuation.
• Capital structure: financing decisions. We will follow the lifecycle of a firm and evaluate financing options from early stage (such as angel investors and venture capital) through decisions to “go public” to late stage “take-private” transactions.
• Capital allocation: decisions on what to do with free cash flows. Topics will include dividend and buyback decisions as well as techniques to evaluate growth drivers such as mergers and acquisitions.

Managing Sustainable Performance

Learn how to create and use internal accounting numbers and other important KPIs to manage business performance, lead organizational members, and drive value creation that is both superior and sustainable across economic, social, and environmental dimensions. Understand the key tools and techniques that top executives use for planning and control in organizations, such as internal P&Ls, accounting systems, transfer pricing, target setting, budgeting and variance analysis, comprehensive KPI systems like the Balanced Scorecard, and, last but not least, the important and emerging ESG controlling.

Managing Globalization

Develop international strategies for companies wishing to expand in the global marketplace. The emphasis is on analyzing opportunities and how the international environment constrains decision-making. Learn how to implement global strategies, including managing strategic alliances and networks.

Module is taught during the International Immersion in Asia.

Information Technology Management

Manage information resources and technology. Gain exposure to various information technologies. See how information systems can support business processes, examine their applications. Explore the competitive advantages and address organizational and managerial implications. Learn how information and communication technology can help create new business models.

Module is taught during the International Immersion in Asia.

Watch Prof. Deepa Mani from ISB on the topic of "Organisation of Technology and the Impact of Technology Interventions on Business and Society".

Corporate and Entrepreneurial Strategy

Why do some organizations fail while others succeed? Exploring the underlying principles of strategy analysis and formulation, including the analysis of industries and competition and the appraisal of firms´ resources and capabilities represent core topics covered in this module. Megatrends of digitization (including AI) as well as sustainability (ESG) and their implications for strategy and competitive advantage are equally discussed, as new business models which emerge as a result of these mega trends.

Negotiations Strategies: Creative Solutions for Complex Problems

Negotiation is the art and science of securing agreements between two or more parties who are interdependent and who are seeking to maximize their own outcomes. The central issues of this course deal with understanding the behavior of individuals, groups, and organizations in the context of competitive situations. The emphasis will be finding creative solutions to building relationships with negotiation partners while maximizing joint benefits.

The purpose of this course is to understand the theory and process of negotiation in a variety of settings. This course is designed to be relevant to the broad spectrum of negotiation problems that are faced by managers and professionals. In particular, in one exercise, we will be tackling current problems associated with the overuse of environmental resources and how to negotiate sustainable solutions.

This course is designed to complement the technical and diagnostic skills learned in other courses in your program. A basic premise of this course is that while a manager needs analytical skills to discover optimal solutions to problems, a broad array of negotiation skills are needed to get these solutions accepted and implemented. This course will allow participants the opportunity to develop these skills experientially and to understand negotiation in useful analytic frameworks. As such, considerable emphasis will be placed on simulations, role- playing, and cases. Students will also gain valuable insight on how they negotiation from the self-diagnostic personality inventories and personalized peer feedback received in class.

Global Strategies and Innovation

Multiple perspectives on global strategy and innovations are brought together in this integrative course. Theory and practice are bridged by involvement of faculty and corporate executives, site visits to global companies and student projects.

Module is taught during U.S.A Residency in New York and Minneapolis

Contemporary Issues in Global Business

This two-day workshop on the future of business brings students in contact with alumni and offers insights into trends shaping the future of global business.

Global Teams: global thinking, global working

The Global Team Project (GTP) provides Global Executive MBA students with the unique opportunity to work in a collaborative team environment across cultures, industries, and markets. As participants in the GTP, students develop advanced skills in teamwork, cross-cultural collaboration, and business plan development within a dynamic environment shaped by academic rigor and the demands of real-world international business.

Our partner university, the Carlson School of Management of the University of Minnesota, is running two additional Executive MBA programs - in China and the USA. Each global team consists of students from all three Executive MBA programs:

• Minneapolis, USA
• Vienna, Austria
• Guangzhou, China

It is up to each team to develop norms and processes for the development of an integrated business plan designed for success in the real world.

Guided by a faculty leader in each program, the GTP participants learn from each other, develop a detailed business plan, and ultimately present to their fellow students and faculty evaluators at the conclusion of their degree program on the Carlson School campus in Minnesota.

Graduates of the Global Executive MBA programs often refer to the GTP as one of their most meaningful learning experiences, with immediate application to their professional lives and careers. Relationships formed during the GTP often endure and enhance the participants' global network of colleagues and friends.