Managerial Analytics Certificate Courses
The Managerial Analytics Certificate curriculum consists of four courses, as detailed below. MA Students must take the Principles of Finance, Section 21, during Spring Quarter and may take subsequent courses in any order.
KELLG_FE 310-0: Principles of Finance, Section 21
Instructor: Anthony DeFusco
This foundation course, taken by all MA students during Spring Quarter, provides an overview of financial principles. In this course, students will learn about the impact of time and uncertainty on value; discounted cash flows; equity and debt valuation; the term structure of interest rates; portfolio theory; asset pricing; and efficient market theory. The course also explores firms’ financing decisions, including capital budgeting, capital structure and payout policy. (This course is also featured in the Financial Economics Certificate program.)
Syllabus
Course Prerequisites: Experience with linear regressions is required. If possible, students should complete ECON 381-1, MATH 386-1, IEMS 304-0, STAT 350-0, or an equivalent course that covers linear regressions prior to FE 310. Students who are not familiar with linear regressions will be provided with a free online course that they should complete prior to FE 310 (over spring break).
KELLG_MA 324-0: Operations and Supply Chain Strategy
Instructor: Martin Lariviere
Operations management is the management of business processes--that is, the management of the recurring activities of a firm. This course aims to familiarize students with the problems and issues confronting operations managers, and to provide the language, concepts, insights and tools to deal with these issues to gain competitive advantage through operations and supply chains. We examine how different business strategies require different business processes and supply chain structures and how different operational capabilities allow and support different strategies to gain competitive advantage.
Syllabus
Course Prerequisites: FE 310
KELLG_MA 326-0: Topics in Managerial Analytics: Analytics for Strategy
Instructor: Elena Prager
This course is an advanced analytics elective that uses data to inform strategic decisions. Should a fast food chain enter the highly profitable breakfast market segment? Not if the incumbents will respond by competing aggressively. Can a bank raise profits by attracting more customers through generous loan terms? Not if it inadvertently attracts risky customers. Data-driven analyses of such issues require going beyond statistically significant relationships (profitability in current market conditions, overall demand for generous loans) to assess underlying cause and effect. The course tackles a broad range of topics in competitive strategy, such as product portfolios (is it profitable to enter a rival’s niche?), personnel (do workplace perks reduce absenteeism?), and cost reduction (is it profitable to adopt a new technology?). Students will learn through hands-on experience with performing advanced regression analyses and interpreting their results.
Syllabus
Course Prerequisites: FE 310
KELLG_MA 322-0: Pricing
Instructor: Don Dale
Comparison of the three main ways to set prices-haggling/negotiation, posted price, and auctions. How to choose the best method in a given situation. Customizing the price of the same product or service to different segments, using optimization models to set prices when volume is uncertain, pricing multiple products. Introduction to techniques for gathering information about buyer valuations and demands, including regression, conjoint analysis, and enterprise value creation.
Course Prerequisites: FE 310
KELLG_MA 328-0: Competitive Strategy and Industrial Structure (not offered 2020-2021)
Instructor: Yuval Salant
The course studies competitive strategy in a variety of industrial structures. We consider how the structure of a firm's industry affects its strategic choices and performance, how to evaluate and respond to competitors’ strategic moves, and how to formulate strategies that take into account objective structural issues as well as competitors’ responses and biases in decision making. Topics include product positioning decisions, price discrimination, dynamic aspects of pricing, entry and predation in concentrated industries, and various strategies such as proliferation, consolidation, innovation and platform building.
Syllabus
Course Prerequisites: FE 310 AND ECON 381-1, MATH 386-1, IEMS 304-0, or STAT 350-0 or equivalent.
