CURRICULUM OVERVIEW

Core Course, 3 Credits

Financial statements are a key source of information about the economic activities of a firm. This course addresses the construction and interpretation of financial statements. The goal of the course is not to train you to become an accountant. Rather, the course should equip you to become an informed user of financial statement information. Because annual reports are somewhat formidable, we will study how firms present the information for various accounts in their financial statements, including the footnotes. By the end of the course, you should have a basic understanding of financial statements and the ability to use them for decision-making.  

Core Course, 3 Credits

The ever-increasing capacity of computers to analyze data and the explosion of the amount of data available have resulted in an increased role for data analysis as an aid to business decision-making. This course exposes the student to the most important ideas and methods relevant for data analysis in a business context. Emphasizing practical applications to real problems, the course covers the following topics: sampling, descriptive statistics, probability distributions and regression analysis.

Core Course, 3 Credits

With a focus on both theory and practice, this course will teach you core marketing concepts through integrative case studies and interactive class discussions. You will learn how key decisions are made through rigorous application of core marketing strategy. Specifically, you will learn to assess marketing fundamentals, develop marketing strategy and product offerings and implement strategy by leveraging the 4P’s of marketing and branding (product, price, promotion and place).

Core Course, 3 Credits

Introduction to the theory and practice of corporate finance, with emphasis on topics such as valuation, capital budgeting, risk and return, and capital structure. Required for MBA.

Core Course, 3 Credits

The MBA Capstone course gives students the opportunity to apply the functional knowledge, critical decision-making frameworks and strategic thinking skills gained in the program to solve a complex, real-world managerial problem. Student teams work with executives from not-for-profit, community-based organizations over the course of the term to develop actionable solutions to strategic challenges.

Core Course, 1.5 Credits

This course provides the framework for a systematic examination of models and techniques used to analyze a competitive situation within an industry from a strategic perspective. We examine the roles of key players in competitive situations and the fundamentals of analytical and fact-oriented strategic reasoning. Examples of applied competitive and industry analysis are emphasized. 

Core Course, 1.5 Credits

Issues involving power and influence, norms and values, and incentives and rewards shape individual and group behavior in organizations. Throughout your work life, you have accrued experiences and insights concerning the “human” side of management. In this course, we will discuss your experiences, evaluate and interpret them, and develop a toolkit that will further enhance your ability to make effective decisions, motivate and lead employees and understand the processes underlying social interaction in organizations.

Core Course, 1.5 Credits

This course teaches students the theory and practice of strategic business communication. Students first learn how to structure their communication strategically and then work to practice implementing new communication skills in a highly experiential environment. Students practice oral presentations and written business communication, receiving frequent, actionable feedback from the instructor and peers.

Core Course, 1.5 Credits

We study production and pricing decisions under different assumptions about firm market power. Emphasis is placed on understanding the relevant costs in firm decision-making. Examples are used from marketing and accounting areas.

Core Course, 1.5 Credits

Introduction to the use of financial and cost information by managers in budgeting, resource allocation, pricing, quality control and other contexts to help managers set goals and monitor and evaluate performance.

Core Course, 1.5 Credits

In a dynamic, competitive world, a company’s effectiveness depends significantly on how well its resources are managed. Managing a company’s critical performance dimensions—quality, speed, flexibility and cost—warrants a thorough understanding of both the physical and information processes that are required for developing and manufacturing products and services as well as delivering them to customers. This course aims to familiarize you with the major operational problems and issues that confront managers and provide you with language, concepts, insights and tools to deal with them in order to gain competitive advantage through operations.

Core Course, 1.5 Credits

This course stresses an understanding of the major macroeconomic forces affecting business in today’s global economy. The course focuses on the key economic policy goals and how they are related: 1) low unemployment, price stability and long-term sustainable growth; 2) the primary economic policy tools: fiscal policy and monetary policy; and 3) key economy-wide prices: inflation, interest rates and exchange rates.

Core Course, 1.5 Credits

Study of how public policy influences the private competitive environment of the firm. Examines the major political institutions and actors—Congress, the president, interest groups, the media and administrative agencies—that shape U.S. public policy. Students analyze business political strategies and formulate several of their own.

Core Course, 1.5 Credits

This course focuses on formulating and implementing effective organizational strategy, including competitive positioning, core competencies and competitive advantage, cooperative arrangements and tools for implementation.

Core Course, 1.5 Credits

The primary goal of this course is to help you become an effective leader of organizational change. In this course, you will learn, discuss and put into action an important framework for managing organizational change. Your participation in this course will provide you with an effective framework for managing organizational change and improve your competencies as both a leader and participant in change.

Core Course, 1.5 Credits

This course examines the broad subject of law as it relates to business and is designed to help the student develop “legal astuteness.” That is, the ability to communicate effectively with counsel and to work together with counsel to solve complex problems and/or to protect and leverage the firm’s resources. It is designed to be a guide to understanding how the law impacts daily management decisions and business strategies, to spotting legal issues before they become legal problems, and to using laws and legal tools to marshal resources and manage risk.

Core Course, 1.5 Credits

Corporate responsibility is an interdisciplinary, interactive study of business ethics and the social responsibility of business organizations. It is not designed to dictate individual values, but to show how values can be integrated effectively in successful business decision-making. It encompasses an in-depth examination of ethical conflicts that arise in business and an exploration of the interplay between professional and applied ethics, law and management. Emphasis is placed on consideration of stakeholder concerns and the development of personal ethical decision-making skills.

Core Course, 1.5 Credits

This course focuses on evaluating opportunities for a new innovation-based enterprise; conceptualizing and developing a venture plan through an iterative process; articulating venture assumptions; and testing venture assumptions through experimentation. Most importantly, the course teaches students how to think entrepreneurially and gives them practice applying entrepreneur-driven frameworks. The course also prepares students to start their own venture or join an early-stage venture.

Core Course, 1.5 Credits

The second of the main entrepreneurship core courses, Enterprise Acquisition focuses on the needs approach to buying and selling businesses. Students will learn about enterprise valuation, deal and contract structuring, mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts and how to consolidate fragmented industries.

Elective Course, 1.5 Credits

In this course, you will study the paradigm that the success of a product lies not only in its acceptance by the end consumer but also in how it is priced and how it reaches the intended consumer. The course emphasizes understanding and analyzing the issues, problems and opportunities characteristic of the channel relationship and of the various faces of pricing.

Elective Course, 1.5 Credits

This course introduces the leadership thinking and skills required to drive performance in operations processes in terms of quality and other key performance characteristics, including service and finance. Upon completing the course, students will understand the different facets of change, as well as the balance between strategic change, performance improvement and operational sustainability. The course draws heavily on practical, real-world examples and actual experiences from students’ professional lives.

Elective Course, 1.5 Credits

The demographics of the workforce are changing. Across industries, the talent pool is becoming increasingly diverse by many measures. To keep up with this change and to position themselves well for future success, organizations need to acknowledge this shift and embrace the idea of diversifying their workforce. This shift is not easy and cannot be done overnight; businesses need leaders who can spearhead this change, confront biases, and help the company’s practices and culture evolve. This course equips students with the knowledge and skills to lead such change.

This course is designed to provide you with optimal ways to learn about, plan for, encourage and manage diversity in organizations. We explore the data and analyze the business case for diversity and evaluate strategies to recruit and retain future and diverse talent. Through a combination of direct instruction, testimonials from experts and group discussions, students will gain an understanding of what it takes to lead this change in the workplace and why it is so important. Additionally, a group project gives students the opportunity to practice leading this change in real-world settings with their current employers.

Elective Course, 1.5 Credits

This course has two major objectives. First, this course provides an overview of topics related to real estate finance. Specifically, this course provides a detailed description of the discounted cash flow (DCF) model applied to real estate. The DCF model is the main financial decision tool used in the real estate industry, and we use it extensively in this course. Second, this course provides a brief overview of basic concepts commonly used in the real estate industry.

You need to have a good grasp of many different topics to become a successful real estate investor. First, you need to know how your investment properties work: Why do people drive to my retail center? What is the signage in my center? What is the income of the renters in my apartment building? Second, you have to develop a very good sense of the local economy: What are the main sources of employment in the area where I invest? How sensitive is the income of my properties to the local unemployment rate? Third, you need to understand how events in the capital markets may affect your investment: What happens to the value of my properties when interest rates come down? Or up? What if inflation goes up? What are the sources of capital available for the possible buyers of my real estate assets? Finally, you need to be able to put all these different aspects of your analysis on a single investment decision model (the DCF model) that allows you to properly evaluate the relative importance of all aspects of your investment. In this course, we do not have time to properly address all these topics in detail; however, this course aims to make you aware that successful real estate investors take into consideration many different issues when investing. Moreover, this course aims to teach you the mechanics of applying the DCF model, which is the tool that summarizes the assumptions of real estate investments.

This course aims to be useful to students interested in pursuing a career in real estate investment who have no experience in real estate. Students with a prior career in real estate may already be aware of many of the concepts described in this course. As a result, some of the lectures may be basic for these students. However, it is unlikely that these students have had previous exposure to the entire material of this course.

Elective Course, 1.5 Credits

This course examines the investment decisions faced by corporate managers. We begin by developing a general framework for corporate valuation, and then we use this framework to review and expand on the capital budgeting issues developed in the core finance course. For example, we review the foundations of option valuation, and then apply these tools to value real options. We also cover new material on estimating the cost of capital and the effects of leverage and taxes. In this course, you will learn the state-of-the-art tools and techniques for the evaluation of corporate investment decisions.

The course format is a mixture of theory, empirical evidence and practical application. The theory provides the framework for our analysis. The empirical evidence provides a core of stylized facts to support our theoretical intuition. Practical applications put to use the theoretical foundations and empirical evidence in “real world” decision-making situations.

Elective Course, 1.5 Credits

We all may know that innovation is critical to firms if they are to achieve enhanced performance and sustain a competitive advantage. However, the management of innovation is inherently difficult and risky, and most new products and technologies are not a commercial success. This is particularly true in industries where customer demand and preferences change quickly and technological changes are highly unpredictable.

This course focuses on the management of innovation and firm growth from the perspective of top executives. It helps executives recognize why innovation is an essential and integral part of strategic management and how to apply key strategic frameworks and concepts in different settings. This course draws upon strategic management, organization theory, product innovation and technology management for analytical tools to address important challenges facing top executives.

Using case discussions of various real-life situations, this course will address the following issues:

Elective Course, 1.5 Credits

The aim of this course is to introduce the tools of modern finance in the context of investment management in practice. The focus will primarily be on the analysis and behavior of portfolios. This is not an individual stock selection course.

We examine both the data and the theory to develop analytical-investment and portfolio-management tools. We consider several models of the risk-return relation and work to understand how various financial instruments and investment strategies slice and dice risk and return. Topics covered include optimal portfolio selection and asset allocation, fundamental asset pricing models, market efficiency, behavioral finance, performance evaluation, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and hedge funds.

The course is designed to provide a deep understanding of investment returns and real-life portfolio-management processes coupled with a strong quantitative focus that develops analytical tools and spreadsheet-modeling techniques. The format of the course is a combination of lectures and case studies.

Elective Course, 1.5 Credits

This course provides an introduction to derivative securities. A basic understanding of derivatives is useful for examining many issues in finance. This includes obvious issues such as whether an investor should trade futures or option contracts on an asset rather than trading the asset itself or how a firm can use derivatives to hedge its exposure to interest rate, currency or commodity price risk. It also includes more subtle issues such as whether an oil producer should stop production when oil prices fall or how a portfolio manager can guarantee some minimum asset value over a future investment horizon. The goal of the course is to develop a sufficient understanding of derivatives to consider these types of issues. The course begins with an overview of the different types of derivative securities and how they can be used. We will examine the participants in derivative markets—hedgers, speculators, dealers and arbitrageurs—to understand their objectives and the roles they play in the market, and we will consider various strategies using derivatives for speculation and for risk management, including price caps, floors and collars. We will also develop methods for valuing derivative securities. We will show how trading a derivative security is related to trading the underlying asset, and we will use this relation to develop the cost-of-carry model for pricing futures and forward contracts and the binomial and Black-Scholes models for valuing options. We will show how these models are used by derivatives traders in practice to hedge the risks associated with their trading activities, and we will consider applications of the option pricing models to value corporate investment projects embedded with real options.

The course format will be lecture-style, with emphasis on both theory and practical applications. The theory is important because it provides a framework for developing your understanding, but ultimately the point of this is to make better investment or risk management decisions. Therefore, we will cover numerous in-class examples, the “live” sessions will focus on problem sets based on the lecture material, and the final exam will emphasize practical application of the material developed throughout the course.

Elective Course, 1.5 Credits

With an ever-growing number of industries becoming global in scope, managers are being increasingly challenged to manage strategies within a global perspective. Strategic Issues for Global Business seeks to provide students with the skills, knowledge and sensitivity required to attain and maintain sustainable competitive advantage within a global environment. The course will adopt a strategic perspective and will highlight the following topics from this perspective: the motivation of going global; the competitive context in which companies operate in global industries; the characteristics of global, multi-domestic and transnational strategies; the unique challenges of globalization in knowledge-intensive industries; and the globalization of emerging market firms. Case studies used in the course will help you develop your analytical and decision skills and also highlight the reality of environmental uncertainties influencing decision-making in the global context. Cases also seek to develop your capacity to identify issues, to reason carefully through various options and to improve your ability to manage the organizational process by which decisions get formed and executed. In addition to case analyses, we will also read and discuss recent articles from the business press and academic journals on issues relevant to operating in a global context. Thus, students will develop historical and current, theoretical and practical, perspectives on operating in a global context.

Elective Course, 1.5 Credits

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) can be critical to the growth of firms as they evolve through their life cycle. Yet many M&A transactions destroy value instead of creating it. The purpose of this course is to provide you with the financial and economic tools to understand M&A more deeply.

In this course, we examine the core concepts involved in mergers and acquisitions: the takeover process, the legal and regulatory framework, accounting issues, tax considerations, payment method, motivations for mergers and acquisitions, empirical evidence and valuation. We also focus on corporate restructuring and divestitures, cross-border transactions, valuation of privately held firms, financing strategies and post-merger performance.

The course format is a mixture of theory, empirical evidence and practical application. The theory provides the framework for our analysis. The empirical evidence provides a core of stylized facts to support our theoretical intuition. And the practical applications put to use the theoretical foundations and empirical evidence in “real world” decision-making situations. Presentations by guest speakers will complement lectures.

Elective Course, 1.5 Credits

The healthcare system in the United States is massive, complex and dysfunctional. This course will serve as an introduction to students interested in leading healthcare organizations. We will describe the providers and the financial system that comprise healthcare and the challenges healthcare faces. Next, we will turn to important opportunities for healthcare executives to alter the current value equation through changes in organizational behavior, operations, strategy, technology and policy. Finally, we will consider the short- and long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on an already strained system.

Elective Course, 1.5 Credits

The Brand Strategy course is designed to build on your first-year marketing course and explore the elements of brand strategy to build capabilities on brand management and how brands drive business strategy and long-term value: what it is; what it is not; how to manage, execute, measure and value.

The course is built around cases on B-B and B-C, national and global companies and will cover a broad range of industry types (information technology, airlines, consumer products and financial brands) and brand strategies (master brand vs. house of brands). It will begin with understanding and completing a brand audit (the Brand Report Card), building a brand platform, brand positioning, brand architecture and extensions and brand equity.

Elective Course, 1.5 Credits

The objective of this course, which directly builds on materials from the Using Financial Statements to Evaluate Firm Performance course, is to further increase your ability to extract, interpret and use information from financial statements. We will emphasize the understanding, organizing and summarizing of financial data for decision-making purposes related to valuation.

The course starts with exploring important advanced financial accounting topics such as pensions, leases, taxes and restructuring/discontinued operations. The remainder of the course is devoted to using financial statement information for equity valuation. Specifically, you will learn to create and forecast a full set of pro forma financial statements to obtain the intrinsic value of the firm using discounted cash flow and residual operating income models. The course will supplement your knowledge of valuation from previous finance courses by focusing on using information in the financial statements to guide the valuation process.

After completing this course, you should be able to:

Elective Course, 1.5 Credits

This course develops advanced skills for applying the core concepts of finance to the real world. Building on skills developed in the core finance, accounting and data analysis courses, this course provides an extensive opportunity to implement finance theory at a practical level, and to develop advanced analytical spreadsheet modeling expertise.

Upon completion of this course, you should have a deeper understanding of firm valuation techniques, bond pricing, portfolio selection and financial engineering. Along the way, you will also develop advanced experience with spreadsheet modeling. Spreadsheets are the primary modeling tool used by most finance professionals. By the end of this course, you should be able to build both simple and complex financial models using spreadsheets. The best way to build proficiency in modeling is to practice it. To this end, the course contains five individual spreadsheet assignments, as well as a group valuation project. The course will include extensive use of spreadsheet models in class.

Elective Course, 1.5 Credits

The objective of this course is to increase your ability to extract, interpret and use information from financial statements. We will emphasize the understanding, organizing and summarizing of financial data for decision-making purposes related to valuation.

The course focuses on financial and accounting analysis, which consists of documenting and understanding a firm’s profitability relative to past performance and comparable firms. Ratio analysis, accounting quality, earnings management and credit analysis will be focal points of this course.

After completing this course, you should be able to:

Elective Course, 1.5 Credits

A manager’s primary purpose is to use power to influence subordinates and create an effective organization. This course will teach students how to build power, how to influence people and the proper use of power in the modern organization through lecture, discussion and experiential activities.

After completing this course, you should be able to:

Elective Course, 3 Credits (Full Term)

Two tracks are available in the Entrepreneurship Lab: New Enterprise and Enterprise Acquisition. In the New Enterprise track, students apply the processes and lessons from the New Enterprise course to further evaluate and continue working on a startup idea. In the Enterprise Acquisition track students develop their own acquisition plan and can start the process to acquire a company, support an active student or alumni searcher, or start their own Search Fund. In both tracks, students are assigned a coach and attend check-in meetings to present updates and receive feedback from faculty, mentors and other students in the course. Department permission required.

Elective Course, 1.5 Credits

This course affords students the opportunity to apply their academic marketing knowledge to a real-world project, in a consultative role with a firm that serves as the client/project sponsor. Clients represent a variety of industries and challenge their student-managed teams to address a focused and strategically important marketing-related problem. In addition to core marketing, students must complete the Brand Strategy marketing elective prior to taking this lab.

MBA@Rice Residential Core Course, 3 Credits

In this Intensive Learning Experience (ILE), you will complete two 1.5 credit courses focused around negotiations and organizational change. In these courses, you will learn the scientific concepts and practical tools to become more effective at leading change. You will explore, discuss and put into action important concepts and frameworks through a variety of simulations, seminars, group projects and guided leadership exercises that bring you face to face with peers, faculty and industry leaders.

This course fulfills the MBA@Rice Residential requirement for online MBA students. MBA@Rice Residentials are frequently held on the Rice University campus in Houston, Texas, for an extended four- to five-day weekend at the end of the summer (July) or winter (January) semester.

MBA@Rice Residential Core Course, 3 Credits

Managers and professionals cannot be successful without possessing effective negotiation skills and strategies. The purpose of this ILE is to help one develop the analytical and behavioral skills for effective negotiation. Topics include diagnosing conflict, decision-making, adversarial versus cooperative strategies, ethical and cultural factors, and third-party intervention.

MBA@Rice ILE Core Course, 1.5 Credits

As ambassadors of Rice and leaders in the business world, you will travel abroad to apply what you have learned in the first year of your program to a short-term project for an organization or community in a diverse cultural setting. Throughout the immersive learning experience, you will have the opportunity to develop new perspectives, learn how others do business and practice critical thinking to solve a real-world business challenge.