Master in Business Administration

Corporate governance is the set of control mechanisms to enable achievement of organizational objectives and dissuade potentially self-interested managers from activities detrimental to the welfare of owners and stakeholders. Good corporate governance is therefore a key element of corporations’ desire to create value. Time and again corporate governance has been on the forefront of public and political debate. While many critics argue the ineffectiveness of current corporate governance practices, due to factors such as dispersed ownership, detrimental activism by active investors, management entrenchment and short termism, or narrowly focused corporate objectives; there is also an absence of fundamental frameworks in this discourse to understand effective corporate governance and evidence-based logics that can inform best practices. In this course, we introduce these frameworks and provide evidence-based best practices that can be implemented across all types of organizations, operating in all types of institutional settings.
 

The objective of Financial Statement Analysis is to provide you with the ability to use financial statements to evaluate value creation. Creating value is the objective of every business. Financial statements are the primary source of information about business performance. Hence, if you want to be a successful entrepreneur, executive, director, etc., you need to know how to use financial statements to assess business performance and link your assessment to value. This course teaches you how to do that. In particular, we develop a framework that links financial statements to value. This framework has two important features. First, it is intuitive, so it is easy to understand, remember, use and explain to others. Second, it is rigorous; hence, when applied correctly, it leads to good decisions

This course builds on material covered in the Managerial Accounting course (‘mechanics … and conceptual thinking’) by bringing into focus the practice of management accounting.  It looks at the information typically provided by companies and the way it is used by executives. Both are flawed, resulting in ‘unforced errors’. The problem facing MBAs is that companies and executives are unaware of this, otherwise they wouldn’t do it. The course identifies the ‘red flags’ that indicate things are wrong and the questions to ask to get the right information. The elective is not for those who are certain that they would not make such ‘unforced errors’.

The abundance of data revolutionises many industries, and creates new, data-intensive business models. Today’s MBAs need to be more comfortable with “data science” – an emerging discipline that combines data analytics and business. In this course, students will build their capability in data science so as to effectively add value through the intelligent management and use of data in organisations. The course combines three key elements: analytical techniques, business applications, and basic coding and programming.

This course explores the ways that people negotiate, to create value and overcome common as well as complex negotiation obstacles such as the tension between substance and relationship, and value distribution. This course aims to enable you to become a more effective and reflective negotiator through a series of hands-on simulations building from simple two-party encounters to complex multiparty scenarios. Some of the exercises emphasize psychological aspects of bargaining, value creation and distribution, and coalition dynamics, with a special focus on organized preparation and process analysis. Participants will finish the programme having acquired a clear conceptual framework to diagnose problems and promote agreement.

 

Pricing is the single most important lever of profits. Yet many companies still take an ad hocapproach to pricing decisions. This pricing analytics course provides a systematic process and tools to sell the right product to the right customer at the right time – at the right price. The focus is on the tactical (rather than strategic) management of pricing, using quantitative models of demand/consumer behavior and constrained optimisation tools – the two main building blocks of revenue optimisation.

Business, investments and personal decisions are all about taking calculated risks. There is rarely an important decision where uncertainty and risk are not a key determining factor. This course is about helping participants better understand, assess, and manage risk in a wide cross-section of scenarios. The course provides students with a framework to assess and manage risk in a variety of professional settings and generates a critical discussion of the present best practices.

It’s a place where you can practice and refine your storytelling. It’s not as much of a how-to course as it is a place -- a safe space -- to explore how you can develop your own storytelling approach. You will learn by doing and by observing others doing.

 

What makes a conscious, authentic decision? Authenticity is an art, not a science. This course offers an experimental platform for students to explore the forces that motivate and limit their individual choices. They will be relying on creative expression and personal evidence, rather than general frameworks and theory, as primary material for the course. All sessions are experiential, delivered in a workshop style format, in the spirit of self-discovery, non-judgement and reflection.

 

This course focuses on the behavioral aspects of judgment and decision making.  How do people make decisions?  What are the common pitfalls of managerial decisions? Research shows that people rely on a small number of heuristics in making decisions.  These heuristics are extremely useful: they are fast, easy and they get us close to the right answer most of the time.  However, they can also lead to serious mistakes. While intuition often serves us well, there are many decision traps that we tend to fall into on a repeated basis. The objective of the course is to improve your decision making skills by illustrating these traps and suggesting how to avoid them: Knowing what can go wrong and knowing the right questions to ask will help a decision maker or a manager think smarter, and maybe only a little harder.

 

• With the help of spreadsheet models, students will develop conceptual skills, such as framing a complex managerial decision problem in the form of a model and technical skills like how to build, use, and derive insights from decision models. The focus is for students to apply decision technology and interpret the results for guiding management, as well as individual, action.

This mini-elective takes place over two days where we will use simulations and role-plays to experience Agile. It will include discussions with guest speakers with knowledge of Agile organisations. The purpose is to better understand what Agile is, how it works and how we can make it work in different kinds of environments.

Deep financial crises are among the most traumatic experiences for societies and businesses. Understanding and anticipating such a macroeconomic accident is essential for both for policy makers and for business leaders. The objective of this course is to understand how countries get into financial crisis and what are the trade-offs that decision-makers face in crisis: bail out, austerity, conditionality, debt restructuring, and contagion. Using case studies to examine why the crisis occurred, how it was managed and how it changed the global monetary system, students can conclude with analysing the strength of the global financial safety net and its increasing regionalisation and fragmentation.

This class shows students how to use game theory to give an analytic treatment of business problems. The target audience is those who are intrigued by the game theory presented in the core class and would like to gain a deeper understanding of such analytic methods. We will touch on issues such as: How can you affect your rival's actions? How can you signal your talent to potential employers? We will include applications to financial markets and the financial crisis.

To be an effective manager in emerging country markets, it is essential to understand the opportunities these countries offer and the constraints that managers and businesses face in such countries. In this course, students will tackle current issues such as: the debate on the failure of aid, the telecom revolution in the creation of new markets and services, the role of foreign direct Investment, the role of the new emerging economic powers, attempts of multinationals to innovate in emerging markets and their varying success record and strategies to deal with corruption

For students planning a career in the health care sector, or with innovative organisations that interact with the health care sector, having a comprehensive understanding of the growing role of the health and health care sectors in the economy is essential. This course examines the role of government in the financing and delivery of health care, and how government decisions affect firm strategy and behaviour. It will also provide context and analysis on health care cost growth and containment strategies.

• Growing inequality is one of the biggest social, economic and political challenges of our time. The concentration of wealth at the very top is part of a much broader rise in disparities all along the income distribution. While people at the top enjoy increasing income and employment opportunities, the middle-class face narrowing employment options and stagnating incomes. In this course, students will gain an understanding of the causes and implications of these changes for both society and for business, and explore in greater detail one of the major issues facing businesses and governments today. 

China has emerged as an economic superpower and dynamic entrepreneurial force. It has made the entire world wake up to new economic models. On this field trip you will see these new models in action and learn about the unique opportunities and obstacles faced by entrepreneurs in China. Even for those who are not planning to start a company in China, the course will help them understand investment opportunities and the future of Chinese business in the global economy. Students will meet – and learn from – a wide variety of entrepreneurs, executives and INSEAD alumni who are living, working and building companies in China.
 

What opportunities and obstacles face those who build a company in the hot-bed of growth entrepreneurship that is India? How does the Indian context and rich entrepreneurial tradition shape the country’s growth ventures? What ideas can you borrow from India’s dynamic entrepreneurs to help build a company elsewhere? The best way to answer these questions is to go there in person, meet members of the Indian entrepreneurial community and learn through asking further questions. With two days in New Delhi and three in Mumbai, this field trip will expose students to a whole new world of entrepreneurial opportunity.

The course is about building and leading a business in a turbulent environment.  It provides students with opportunities to look beyond the official façade of Russian business and gain insights into how Russian and foreign entrepreneurs and corporations navigate the Russian economic maze. They will learn how to design, build and grow businesses in highly uncertain and dynamic environment by meeting accomplished businesses leaders, interacting with founders of start-ups and questioning venture and private equity capitalists. During three days in Moscow and two days in St. Petersburg the students will work as consultants to entrepreneurial companies and their owners and will explore rich Russian culture and its impact on business. The lessons from this course go beyond Russia and could be applied to building and growing businesses in all turbulent environments
 

The only way to understand Silicon Valley fully is to be there. And so this entire one-week mini-elective takes place in Silicon Valley itself. It will enable you to meet key Valley players – entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and executives in large companies – some of whom will host sessions. Above all, it will teach you how to break into the world entrepreneurship – and succeed – in Silicon Valley or anywhere else in the world.
 

Building new businesses inside established firms presents very special challenges. Whether you are starting a new line, setting up a new practice, opening an office in a new geography, managing a spin-off or creating a new joint venture, you have to be entrepreneurial yet follow internal processes to be successful. Through case studies, guest speakers and a final project, this course addresses issues such as: getting the resources you need; preventing the old business from holding back the new; deciding how far to integrate with the rest of the firm; and selecting, managing and motivating the right employees.
 

Since the development of Bitcoin and Ethereum, there has been an explosion of decentralized venture formation and a democratization of participation in blockchains more generally. Tremendous value has been created through the entrepreneurial activities of individuals and teams who have discovered new opportunities that leverage crypto-blockchain technologies in what some are calling the “Web3” ecosystem.  The course will cover new developments and hot topics in Crypto Entrepreneurship such as liquidity pooling and yield farming in decentralized finance (“DeFi”), digital asset ownership through non-fungible-tokens (“NFTs”), smart contracts using Ethereum and other infrastructure, and decentralized autonomous organizations (“DAOs”) that can be used to govern ventures without centralized leadership.

Companies like Amazon, Airbnb, Zillow, and Uber are creating new ventures or corporate ventures that leverage digital technologies to create and exploit new markets. Although digital entrepreneurship shares some features of traditional new venture management – forming founding teams, business model analysis, board management – it also differs in important ways because of the accelerated growth potential of these technologies. This course provides a series of frameworks for innovating and managing ventures founded around digital technologies.
 

This dynamic business simulation puts participants in the shoes of an entrepreneurial team competing in a consumer-durable market. The aim is to simulate the pressure-cooker environment of managing a new venture in the critical second-round financing stage. The highlight is the relentless focus on action and the realism – as you take dozens of strategic and tactical decisions under enormous time pressure, significant uncertainty and intense competition. Prepare for long hours and late nights!
 

Research shows that family-controlled firms outperform publicly owned companies – and that they are also the most prevalent form of business in the world. This course therefore has a wide appeal. Whether students are part of a business family, whether they intend to work for, advise or buy/sell family firms, they will gain important insights about what makes family businesses so different from other organisations, yet so similar across geographies. In particular, the elective covers the main recurring themes of family business: relationships, values, communication, strategy, governance, ownership, succession, conflict and stewardship.
 

This course teaches the principles of buying into entrepreneurship. Students will explore the main value-creation strategies involved in successful leveraged buy-outs and evaluate the respective risks and rewards. There is a strong practical focus: analysis of real-life case studies and practitioner guest speakers. The class will also cover leveraged buy-outs from all perspectives: the equity provider, the management team, the banks and the vendor. The course concludes with a practical team assignment in which students have to submit a recommendation for a buy-out – including a 100-day plan and post-buy-out value creation plan – to private equity investors.

When times are good, anyone can lead a business. But turning around a failing business requires special skills – which are relevant to regular business practice as well as the turnaround industry. This course addresses the reasons why companies slide into decline and the mechanics of executing a successful turnaround in such a way that shareholder value can be preserved through the ups and downs of the business cycle. Using case studies and guest speakers, the course covers: the turnaround profession; typical stages of a turnaround; “special situations” investment vehicles; legal and financial issues; marketing and operational issues; change management and HR; and communication with stakeholders.
 

How can an entrepreneurial idea be converted into an up-and-running, revenue-generating business? This course is for anyone interested in the answer to this question, regardless of whether or not they have a definite plan to build a business from scratch. It draws on case studies, experiences of guest-speakers and a final group project – complete with a pitch to a real panel of angel investors–to give students a blueprint for starting a new venture. By the end, students will be able to develop a concept, design a compelling business model, recruit a team and embark with confidence on their entrepreneurial journey.
 

Even though the course was originally motivated by the phenomenal growth of the private equity industry over the past two decades, the recent financial turmoil has given it additional relevance: will the private equity industry become a role model for the "new" financial markets of tomorrow or will it face dramatic changes as well? The course attempts to provide a balanced overview of the private equity landscape and covers the entire spectrum from early to late stage investing, with a focus on recent developments and industry specific discussions. Using mainly the case method and industry speakers, it addresses the mechanisms and principles of private equity deals that are common across the various private equity types and highlights the most important differences.
 

If you think that someday you would like to buy a company for yourself and will be involved in the acquisition process as a private equity professional, an investment banker or a consultant, this course is for you. Using cases and class discussion, students will learn how to find a company, acquire it, manage it, add value to it, turn it around and ultimately sell it. Class discussions will be enhanced by examples from real business situations and guests will bring cases to life with added insight. The course involves a project whereby participants will search for a suitable company to buy, analyse the opportunity, value it, develop a business plan and seek backing through a final presentation to a panel of seasoned private equity professionals.

In this course, we will explore the drivers of strategic and operational challenges specific to the field of social entrepreneurship. This course has a particular focus on enterprises whose businesses concentrate on improving the lives of people living at the bottom of the wealth pyramid in emerging markets. This course will be built around a field trip to an emerging market economy. During the field trip, we will engage with not-for-profit and for-profit institutions and enterprises with a social mission or 'bottom of the pyramid' strategy. By taking this course, people will also acquire practical insight into the dynamics of planning, implementing and scaling social enterprises. At the end of this course, students will be equipped to address some of the key practical issues that would confront someone who wishes to establish or contribute to the development of a social enterprise initiative.
 

This is an experiential module designed for students who have already started a venture or would want to start a venture or joining one as an early team member. This is an opportunity for students, working alone or in teams, to immerse in a high-impact entrepreneurial venture during three periods (P3-P5) and develop business ideas through teambuilding, customer development, prototyping and networking.
 

This Capstone is designed to bring together everything students have learnt during the MBA year into an integrative, immersive, and inspirational experience. This course is meant to provide a stimulating experience where students will work as a team to confront the real-life challenge of the first two years after taking over a healthy growth venture.
 

This Capstone is designed to bring together everything students have learnt during the MBA year into an integrative, immersive, and inspirational experience. This course is meant to provide a stimulating experience where students will work as a team to confront the real-life challenge of the first two years after taking over a healthy growth venture

Why do corporations issue increasingly complex securities? How can the success or failure of financial securities be explained? A complement to the Applied Corporate Finance course, this elective will answer such questions and bring students right up to date with new issues in the field.  These include: the pricing of convertibles, warrants and PERCS; the use of option contracts in mergers and acquisitions; the protection of minority shareholders with option-like contracts; and the valuation of natural resources with option-pricing models.

Put your insights from the core finance classes into action with this practical, hands-on course. You will apply the concepts and tools of capital structure, valuation, capital asset pricing and option pricing (among others) to a series of real-life business cases – and discover not only their benefits but also their limitations.

The banking industry is facing several challenges: Digital disruption and competition from ‘Fintechs’, Basel 4 regulations that follow the global financial crisis, ultra-low interest rates and globalisation vs balkanisation. Students will learn about bank valuation and strategic restructuring, drivers of value creation and economic profit, the control of liquidity and market risks, as well as competition from fintechs. 

In the last 30 years, China’s capital market has evolved from non-existence to become one of the most dynamic, if not efficient, in the world. It will undoubtedly play an important role, positive or negative, in the transition of the Chinese economy. Yet China’s capital market is not well understood, and there is an obvious gap in most people’s insights. This elective attempts to fill the gap by helping participants discover the most important aspects of this market. Specific topics include: the architecture of the market, the Renminbi, the equity market, as well as the role of banks and the private capital market.
 

In this course, students will acquire a variety of value creation techniques involving restructuring and reorganisation for non-distressed corporations. The emphasis will be on understanding restructuring tools and the reasons behind their potential success or failure, and how to implement these schemes to maximise shareholder value.
 

Companies are nowadays becoming more international. How can we create value going abroad? How do we account for country and currency risk? How do we choose our shareholders when we go international? Which market should we tap into to raise new capital?
 

Providing students with a broad and integrated framework, this course allows them to master the complexity of the problems facing a firm that is exposed to international markets, with an emphasis on global perspective and integrated problem solving.
 

This course emphasises the financing of growth firms, and of innovative firms (e.g. in the healthcare and technology sectors). There is also a focus on the unique role that private equity can play in the financing and growth of family, or other closely held firms.

Relations between stakeholders in firms (managers, workers, shareholders, creditors) are governed by explicit contracts as well as implicit contracts. While ideally, we would like to eliminate ambiguity through explicit contracts, many of these contracts are imperfect and often create negative side-effects. Hence, ethical behaviour is not so much about promoting highly subjective “values” but about building a more efficient organisation, where ethics can replace costly explicit contracts. This course gives students a view on ethics, which is not based on subjective values (often based on politics and religion) but finds its roots in economic theory.

Digital disruption is receiving great attention around the world. New players, FinTechs, are challenging incumbent financial institutions. In this course, students will analyse digital disruption in the financial sector and present several dimensions of the FinTech world: payments, digital currency, P2P and marketplace funding, blockchain technology, robot-advisors in asset management, and strategic dimensions of digital disruption.
 

Fixed-income markets are bigger in size than stock markets are. They represent a vitally important asset class. And, after a significant shift into equity in the 80s and 90s by pension funds and insurance companies, the tide has turned back towards fixed income. But bonds are risky. Doomsayers in the US are predicting the onset of a long-term falling market.  This elective will enable students to make their own mind up. Its goal is to cover the fixed-income markets at large

Are hedge funds a fad or a new asset class? No longer the privilege of a small number of wealthy investors, the industry has grown spectacularly in the last five years. First, this course covers the development and the success of the hedge fund industry to date – with particular comparison to the decline of traditional fund management. Next, it teaches students about the different types of hedge funds, their style and their strategy. Finally, it offers a detailed analysis of the performance and rewards of hedge funds and their usefulness as a diversification vehicle.
 

Project finance differs from Corporate Finance in that it involves the creation of an independent project company (usually with a limited life), financed with debt and equity from the sponsoring firm(s), for the purpose of creating a single-purpose capital asset. Historically, it was used for industrial projects such as mines, pipes or oil fields, but today it is taking on a new importance, especially for infrastructure projects in the developing world. This course covers four topics: defining project finance; valuation issues and methods; financing issues; the securitisation of projects and its implications for investors.

Gain an understanding of the modern theory of investments and the current practice of the asset management industry. Students will gain an understanding of the fund management industry and discuss theories of investing and their practical implementation, and risk management in the fund management industry.

Fusing psychology of human behaviour with finance and strategies, students are introduced a structural framework for analysing how human, social, cognitive and emotional factors impact financial and strategic decisions and the way they are quantified. An operating framework is developed to think critically and to lay out how to move forward and cope with these new challenges, turning them into opportunities and sources of competitive advantage.
 

Sustainable investing has evolved from a niche specialisation focusing mostly on value-based exclusions to cover a wide range of value-driven strategies; from those that invest according to environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria to activist approaches. In this module, students will study Sustainable Finance (investing and financing) mostly from a capital markets perspective.

The objective of this elective is to further enhance the expertise of the class in evaluating and formulating strategic marketing decisions. It looks in greater detail at the different challenges that firms face in their quest for achieving and sustaining market leadership and profitable growth in competitive, fast-changing, global markets. The course uses a mixture of cases, discussions, lectures and readings to provide integrated concepts and hands-on problem solving. Most importantly, students will have the opportunity to apply the material from the course as well as the knowledge, concepts and tools from your core courses by developing and implementing a growth strategy for your own business using the Markstrat business simulation.
 

Gain the most important competitive advantage of them all: the ability to understand and influence your customer. This course is brief and intensive with a very practical focus. It examines cutting-edge concepts from psychology and behavioural economics to help you understand, predict and shape your customers’ preferences and behaviour. Classes are highly interactive, blending discussions, exercises, case studies, presentations and project work.
 

Many firms move from selling products (i.e. ‘pushing boxes’) to providing service(s) across various industries. Students will explore how firms unleash growth opportunities through service(s), develop new service business models, leverage innovation for better service experiences, use new technologies for providing excellent service(s) at lower costs, and differentiate from competition through a truly customer‐centric service culture.
 

With the highest number of startups per capita of any country, and massive venture capital investments, Israel is one of the world's premier entrepreneurship hubs. In this 5-day fieldtrip, students will visit high tech and entrepreneurial firms, meet and network with remarkable Israeli professionals, and experience cultural and tourist activities.

The course begins with an examination of the role of brand management within the firm and the relation of brand management to product management, marketing and competitive strategy, and corporate strategy. You will learn how brand value is measured, how brands cope with competitive and environmental threats and opportunities and how brand assets are managed for the long term. This course is designed to help general managers learn the tools and rules of brand marketing, or for people interested in a career as a marketing manager or consultant in the field of marketing. The course consists of a rich mix of topical case discussions, conceptual lecture-discussions and a hands-on project

How can organisations and individuals create value by leveraging digital technologies in their advertising strategy and execution? By utilising both classic and contemporary advertising, with a specific focus on digital and social media, students will understand the rapidly changing advertising and media landscape, with a focus on new media channels.

Understand how neuroscience‐based AI can be leveraged to make better business decisions. This elective is for MBAs who areconsidering founding a start‐up in this new field,  work in the management (but not programming) of this cutting‐edge data science and biotech space, as well as forthose who simply want to better understand the brain, neuro-marketing and neuroscience‐driven artificial intelligence applications.
 

Customer intelligence is an essential part of any business (established company or start-up) that wants to offer products or services that are focused and well targeted. The last decade has seen an explosion in the quantity and quality of information available to managers and only business decisions that are based on good intelligence and good research can minimise risk and allow you to pursue lucrative growth opportunities in the future.
 

Building on cutting-edge economics and marketing research, and organisational and strategic insights on the role of status and style in consumer behaviours and business decisions, this course is designed to provide and hone critical thinking and managerial skills related to planning and executing effective luxury and premium strategies. Students will gain hands-on experience and understanding on the economics of global luxury and fashion markets.
 

Half of exchanges in the global economy are B2B transactions, and nearly 90% of global ecommerce is B2B. B2B Marketing has its own specificities (e.g. complex purchasing organisations; multiple stakeholders; or highly skilled procurement professionals). This elective helps students build and grow their B2B marketing skills through value‐based marketing concepts and frameworks.
 

This marketing elective provides participants with the conceptual, analytical, and statistical tools as well as insights in consumer and competitive behaviour to design profit maximizing pricing strategies and set prices accordingly. It focuses on linking pricing to brand strategy, not to issues of capacity utilisation.
 

Who says the 4th P of the marketing mix (product, price, promotion, place) is the least glamorous? Today, product proliferation, media fragmentation, intermediary power and e-commerce have put a premium on the internal and external “channels” that transmit products and services to the points of consumption and beyond. Using mainly case studies, this course gives you not only in-depth understanding, but also a set of analytical frameworks and tools to optimise channel design, coordination and performance.
 

This course will look into entrepreneurial opportunities not only in the food and wellness industry, but also in fitness, alternative healthcare, detoxing and mindfulness centres. Students will understand the rules of the body business and how to take better care of their bodies.
 

What are the differences between human and non‐human intelligence and what is the degree to which these differences matter? This course will introduce, demystify and investigate value creation strategies in eco‐systems relating to AI, machine learning, robotics, and advanced analytics, with an emphasis on value creation opportunities along the way.
 

Marketing in the biopharmaceutical industry is challenging because the industry faces high societal expectations, rapid scientific, technological and economic change, and marketing elements are heavily regulated. In this course, students will understand the key characteristics of the biopharmaceutical industry, learn how to manage market access and biopharmaceutical brand management.
 

For any organisation, the salesforce is a major growth engine as well as a critical source for market feedback. It is also one of the most significant capital investments for an organisation. This course provides students with an understanding of what it takes to create and manage a salesforce that generates the right balance between stimulating the salesforce and controlling its cost. More importantly, in a world where innovations in products, pricing and communications are easily copied/replicated by competitors, building an effective salesforce can be a key source of competitive advantage.