stanford detailed first year curriculum

8/3/2019 Stanford Detailed First Year Curriculum

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Detailed First Year Curriculum

General Management Perspectives

Quarter Course Name Course Description

AUTUMN

QUARTER

Critical Analytical

Thinking

Critical Analytical Thinking (CAT) will addressissues that transcend any single discipline or

function of management. In 16-person sections,

you will analyze, write about, and debatefundamental issues, questions, and phenomena

that arise in many forms in management. CAT

will enhance your ability to identify criticalquestions when exploring a new business issue,

to parse issues, to develop reasoned positions,

and to make compelling arguments.

Ethics and

Management*

This course emphasizes frameworks forconducting ethical analysis (on what basis can

you say that a course of action is or is not

ethical), the analysis of ethical dilemmas (howdo you think about situations in which different

ethical precepts collide), and how to deal on a

day-to-day basis with the practical issues ofethical behavior in organizations. This course is

taught in Winter Quarter.

*Taught in Winter Quarter

Global Context of

Management

The economies of the world are ever more

closely linked. Record levels of international

trade and investment are achieved every year.Cross-border mergers and acquisitions are

booming. Few businesses today can avoid being

connected to the world economy, and it is quitelikely that the process of globalization will

continue at this pace. To succeed as a leader in

your career, you will need to be able to think

systematically about the challenges broughtabout by globalization. This course is designed

to help you develop as a leader in this

international environment.

Leadership Labs This experiential course focuses on questions

such as: How do we maximize the performance

of the teams we become a part of? Whatinterpersonal skills give us influence? Which


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interpersonal strengths can propel us to our next

promotion? What development areas might

prevent our ascension to the executive suite? TheLeadership Labs are designed for deep self-

reflection about what behaviors we choose to

use, the consequences of those behaviors, andgiven choices, how we might be even more

productive. Each Lab session includes

progressively more difficult business simulationsfacilitated initially by Arbuckle Leadership

Fellows, then Faculty, and then finally, the most

challenging cases are facilitated byexperienced senior GSB alumni in our final

examThe Executive Challenge.

Managerial Finance

This course covers the foundations of finance

with an emphasis on applications that are vital

for corporate managers. We begin with anoverview of accounting fundamentals, including

basic financial statement analysis. With thisbackground, we will then consider the major

financial decisions made by corporate managers

both within the firm and in their interactions withinvestors. Essential in most of these decisions is

the process of valuation, which will be an

important emphasis of the course. Topics include

criteria for making investment decisions,valuation of financial assets and liabilities,

relationships between risk and return, marketefficiency, capital structure choice, payoutpolicy, the effective use and valuation of

derivative securities, and risk management.

Managerial Skills In the Managerial Skills Labs, we examine

several common managerial challenges faced byexecutives. Together with faculty, students

explore these topics using four case examples,

each asking students to evaluate a series ofsituations, develop alternatives for their

resolution, and ultimately recommend and

implement a course of action from the point ofview of the company's owner/manager. We have

selected small to midsized businesses as the

context for these discussions in order to highlightthe impact that key decisions and their

implementation can have on the broader

organization. Class preparation should include

not only analysis and conclusions, but also


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specific recommendations on implementation.

Students should come to class prepared to role

play important conversations betweenmanagement and other key individuals.

Managing Groups

and Teams

This course introduces you to the structures and

processes that affect group performance andhighlights some of the common pitfalls

associated with working in teams. Topics include

team culture, fostering creativity andcoordination, making group decisions, and

dealing with a variety of personalities. You will

participate in a number of group exercises to

illustrate principles of teamwork and to give youpractice not only diagnosing team problems but

also taking action to improve total team

performance.

Organizational

Behavior

Building on the discipline of social psychology,this course helps you cultivate mindsets and

build skills to understand the ways in whichorganizations and their members affect each

other. You will learn frameworks for diagnosing

and resolving problems in organizational

settings. The course relates theory and researchto organizational problems by reviewing basic

concepts such as individual motivation and

behavior; decision making; interpersonalcommunication and influence; small group

behavior; and dyadic, individual, and inter-groupconflict and cooperation.

Strategic Leadership

This course examines fundamental issues of

general management and leadership within an

organization. You will learn about setting an

organization's strategic direction, aligningstructure to implement strategy, and leading

individuals within the firm. You will study the

interplay among formal structure, informalnetworks, and culture in shaping organizational

performance.

General Management Foundations

Quarter Course Name Course Description


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WINTER/SPRING

QUARTERS

Data Analysis and

Decision Making

General managers require a sophisticated

understanding of what one can (and cannot)

infer from data, and how to use thoseinferences to make good decisions. Our courses

in data analysis provide the analytical

techniques for using data to make appropriateinferences and good decisions.

Financial

Accounting

Business leaders must read, understand, and

use corporate financial statements. The base-level and accelerated courses in this area are

broad courses in how financial accounting

information is produced and used. The

advanced applications option assumesknowledge of most of the information in the

base-level courses and covers advanced

financial reporting topics, including

consolidation, derivatives, hedging, leases,revenue recognition, variable interest entities,

and equity compensation.

Human Resource

Management

The human resources of an organization are

often the most valuable assets of the

organization, and the assets that are most

difficult to manage. Drawing on the disciplinesof economics, social psychology, and

organizational sociology, the course offerings

in Human Resource Management give youframeworks and concepts that help you manage

your organization's personnel.

Information

Management

Knowledge of technology (computing,networks, software applications, etc.) is a

prerequisite for a successful manager.

Understanding the implications of technology

for management, strategy and organization iseven more important. So rather than just look at

a snapshot of the current status of different

technologies (which will obviously change overtime), the Information Management courses

focus on management issues, such as: How do

information technologies create value? How doyou implement them? How do they affect the

structure of competition?

Managerial

Accounting

To evaluate business strategies and outcomes,

you must understand the many ways that firmsaccount for, control, and manage costs. Courses

in this area explore alternative costing methods

and how the resulting cost information can be


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used for decision-making, planning, and

performance measurement.

Marketing

These courses introduce you to the substantiveand procedural aspects of marketing

management. Youll learn about analyzing the

needs and wants of potential customers, andcreating and delivering goods and services

profitably.

Microeconomics

The discipline of microeconomics is thefoundation of much of what you study in

business school, as well as being a tool of

analysis of specific market and non-market

interactions. The base-level course providesyou with the essential frameworks and concepts

to study market equilibrium, firm and consumer

behavior, and competitive interactions through

the lens of microeconomics. The advancedapplications option spends less time on the

basics and instead applies those basics tospecific contexts, such as auctions, price

discrimination, and business strategy.

Modeling for

Optimization &

Decision Support(MODS)

Disciplined thought is often based on analytical

models: simplified, quantitative depictions of acomplex reality that allow you to focus your

attention on a few key issues. Management

runs on numbers and models. Whatever is yourcurrent level of modeling skills, improving

those skills is a key to success. Even if younever construct models yourself, as a manageryou will be a consumer of them; to be an

intelligent consumer, you must know from

experience the strengths and weaknesses of

quantitative models.

Strategy Beyond

Markets

Markets and the business environment are

increasingly interrelated; conversely, the profit-

maximizing activities of firms often give rise toissues that involve governments and the public.

As a business leader, you will need to

participate in complex decision-makinginvolving the legal, political, and social

environments of business. This area considers

the strategic interactions of firms with

important constituents, organizations, andinstitutions outside of markets.

Operations This area addresses basic managerial issues

arising in the operations of both manufacturing


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and service industries. You will learn about the

problems and issues confronting operations

managers and gain language, conceptualmodels, and analytical techniques that are

broadly applicable in confronting such

problems.

stanford detailed first year curriculum

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