Curriculum

This 36-credit-hour program is split across two semesters. Here's a step-by-step look at your next 12 months:

Fall Semester

Statistics & Decision Modeling

MBAC 511 — Fall Semester 3 Credit Hours

This course provides the foundations of statistical and operations research methodologies for managerial decision-making. Topics covered include using sample data to (a) estimate quantities of interest and create confidence intervals, (b) perform hypothesis tests, and (c) make forecasts with simple and multiple regression. Decision modeling involves using mathematical models to provide a quantitative approach to analyzing and solving complex decision problems and includes an introduction to linear and integer programming models and applications, queuing models, and simulation models, all solved by appropriate computer software packages.

Corporate Finance I

MBAC 504 — Fall Semester 3 Credit Hours

In this course, students are introduced to the basics of corporate finance, including the objectives of and the decisions made by corporate financial managers. Topics covered include time value of money, stock and bond valuation, cost of capital, risk and return, investment decision rules, cash flows and free cash flows, cash flow projections and planning, and capital budgeting. Other topics may be covered from time to time.

Financial Accounting

MBAC 502 — Fall Semester 3 Credit Hours

This course covers financial accounting: concepts, principles, and analyses. The major emphasis is development of an understanding of accounting information and reporting to enable you to be an effective manager. Although considerable importance is placed on the evaluation, interpretation, and analysis of accounting information for decision making: the fundamentals of accounting measurement and disclosure are also covered.

Leading People & Organizations

MBAC 515 — Fall Semester 3 Credit Hours

The primary objective of this course is to develop students' capability to be effective leaders and life-long learners. Drawing upon the field of organizational behavior, the course examines leadership effectiveness on three levels: developing the leader from the inside out, working effectively with diverse teams and leading effectively in organizations. Topics include resonant leadership, emotional intelligence, coaching relationships, team learning and development, employee engagement, diversity and inclusion and organizational culture. Students will work in diverse learning teams and complete a personal vision, receive 360-degree feedback on their emotional and social competence and create a personalized learning plan to guide their development throughout the MBA program and beyond. Leadership development coaches meet privately with each student twice throughout the semester and students become peer coaches for classmates. Fundamentally, this course is about developing the leader within so that each individual is best positioned to lead and manage others effectively.

Project Management

OPMT 450 — Fall Semester 3 Credit Hours

Project Management is concerned with the management and control of a group of interrelated tasks required to be completed in an efficient and timely manner for the successful accomplishment of the objectives of the project. Since each project is usually unique in terms of task structure, risk characteristics and objectives, the management of projects is significantly different from the management of repetitive processes designed to produce a series of similar products or outputs. Large-scale projects are characterized by a significant commitment of organizational and economic resources coupled with a high degree of uncertainty. Thus, the objective of the course is to understand what are the main issues and problems in the management of projects and to have a thorough knowledge of the conceptual models and techniques available to deal with them.

Spring Semester

Technology Marketing Strategy

IIME 475 — Spring Semester 3 Credit Hours

High technology products and services are unique in the levels of ambiguity and risk that challenge a manager's ability to craft a marketing strategy.  Understanding the customer, reading market trends, creating a compelling vision of value, and launching marketing programs (already foreboding tasks in traditional marketing situations) have a heightened sense of uncertainty in the context of high technology platforms such as nanotechnology and regulated medical devices.  This course draws on contemporary ideas in the literature by thought leaders in technology marketing.  We work through several marketing models and methods in practice today to assist students to synthesize and build appropriate conceptual and managerial frameworks for technology marketing practice.

Engineering Entrepreneurship

IIME 450 — Spring Semester 3 Credit Hours

Entrepreneurship is an area of importance to business leaders, educators, politicians, and individual members of the society. It is a driver of economic development and wealth creation in organizational units ranging in size from the individual company to entire nations. Technology-based entrepreneurship is particularly important to economic development due to its impact on productivity (innovations in action) and its potential for exponential growth. This course will emphasize and explore a variety of issues related to innovation and entrepreneurship, demonstrating that there are not many "absolute truths," but there are numerous best practices. Successful students will conclude this course with new knowledge about opportunity analysis and insight on entrepreneurship & innovation, as well as having demonstrated measurable improvement in their critical thinking skills. This course is one-semester version of a course taught alternatively as a two-semester course. Recent growth in CWRU curricula centered on entrepreneurship and related subjects enables students to specialize in, say, wealth creation, leadership, and finance topics once included under the broader two-semester umbrella.

Product & Process Design and Development

IIME 430 — Spring Semester 3 Credit Hours

An integrated approach to the teaching of the complex relationship of customer to designer and to manufacturer, this course will be team taught by faculty from WSOM and CSE, with participation of corporate representatives sponsoring projects for the teams. The course will be built on a series of projects, each emphasizing different aspects of the product/process design experience, selected to provide exposure to a wide variety of entrepreneurial activities. The project activities are expected to promote the development of realistic activities of cross-functional teams.

Experimental Learning with Six Sigma Green Belt 

OPMT 420 — Spring Semester 3 Credit Hours

The Six Sigma process is the standard for quality improvement in organizations around the globe. In this course, we study the details of the five steps in the Six Sigma process: DEFINE, MEASURE, ANALYZE, IMPROVE, and CONTROL (DMAIC). We introduce the concept of sustainability into the criteria to use to evaluate proposed solutions during the Six Sigma process. Many tools, concepts, and processes that are often an integral part of Six Sigma projects in companies are included in the course content. They range from the very basic tools of quality (such as cause-and-effect diagrams for brainstorming) to complete processes (such as benchmarking, quality function deployment, failure mode and effects analysis-FMEA). Statistical concepts that are central to Six Sigma including statistical process control and introduction design of experiments are also included. Once the Six Sigma process and its various components are understood, we study quality management including quality control, quality planning, quality improvement, strategic quality management, and quality strategy. Students meeting the required standards of performance will earn a Green Belt Certification in Six Sigma and Quality Management from the Weatherhead School of Management. 

Operations and Supply Chain Management

MBAC 507 — Spring Semester 3 Credit Hours

This course is an introduction to Operations Research, and then focusing on applying Operations Research tools to manage business and organizations' Supply Chain Operations. Operations Research (also called Management Science) is the discipline of applying advanced mathematical methods to help make better decisions. By using techniques such as mathematical modeling to analyze complex situations, Operations Research gives executives the power to make more effective decisions and build more productive systems based on considerations of all available options, careful predictions of outcomes and estimates of risk, and the latest decision tools and techniques. Operations Research solves problems that arise in every business function (e.g., operations, finance, marketing, accounting, HR), every economy sector (e.g., financial, healthcare, industrial goods, technology, utilities), and every business type (e.g., for-profit and non-profit, start-ups and Fortune 500 companies), even government.

Electives By Track

• Optimization Modeling (Fall)
• Foundations of Probability and Stats (Fall)
• Analytics and Control (Fall)
• Intro to Program for Business (Spring)
• Quantitative Risk Modeling (Spring)
• Business Analytics (Spring)

Consulting

• Lean Operations (Fall)
• Leading Change (Fall)
• Economics of Business Strategy (Fall)
• Managerial Consultancy (Spring)
• Customer Relationship Management (Spring)
• Economics of Negotiation & Conflict Resolution (Spring)

Manufacturing

• Lean Operations (Fall & Spring)
• Strategic Sourcing (Fall)
• Optimization Modeling(Fall)
• Operational Excellence(Spring)
• Supply Chain Logistics (Spring)
• ERP in the Supply Chain (Spring)

Healthcare

• Health Economics and Strategy (Fall)
• Health Care Info Systems (Fall)
• Models of Healthcare Systems (Spring)
• Health Policy & Management Decisions (Spring)
• Reg Affairs for Biosciences(Spring)

Entrepreneurship

• Entrepreneur & Personal Wealth (Fall)
• Business Model Innovation (Fall)
• Commercialization & IP Management (Fall)
• International Institute (Spring)
• Beyond Silicon Valley (Spring)
• Lead Digital Innovation by Design(Spring)

Supply Chain 

• Lean Operations (Fall/Spring)
• Supply Chain Strategy (Fall)
• Strategic Sourcing (Fall)
• Supply Chain Risk Management (Fall)
• Supply Chain Logistics (Spring)
• ERP in the Supply Chain (Spring)
• Computer Simulation (Spring)