MBA Course Descriptions

MGMT6100 - Found of Teamwrk & Ldrsh (Course Syllabus)

MGMT 610 is the first core course in the MBA Program and it cannot be waived. The first week of the fall term (in August) is dedicated to this formative and foundational experience. This course focuses on developing students' knowledge and skill set for teamwork and leadership. It is meant to be an intense immersion experience that draws strongly on the pedagogy of the Wharton Teamwork and Leadership Simulation, a team-based, highly interactive simulation that was custom-designed specifically to allow students to experience the core concepts they learn in this class. The three goals of this course are for students to learn: 1. Leadership behaviors: how to enact the skills that contribute to a team's effective performance. 2. Team dynamics: how to be an effective team member, as well as how to best design work teams; 3. Organizational awareness: understanding organizational culture. Format: A custom-designed Wharton-only simulation is paired with course sessions to deliver a unique learning experience. Classes will include experiental learning combined with debriefings, lectures, readings, class discussion and personal and group performance feedback. This course reflects the realities that informal leadership occurs in teams on an ongoing basis, that being a good team player is a part of leadership, and that many of one's early experiences with leadership will occur while working on teams. Because of the team-based nature of this course, and time intensive nature of this experience, attendance is mandatory for ALL five sessions of this class.

MGMT6110 - Managing Est Enterprise (Course Syllabus)

This course is about managing large enterprises that face the strategic challenge of being the incumbent in the market and the organizational challenge of needing to balance the forces of inertia and change. The firms of interest in this course tend to operate in a wide range of markets and segments, frequently on a global basis, and need to constantly deploy their resources to fend off challenges from new entrants and technologies that threaten their established positions. The class is organized around three distinct but related topics that managers of established firms must consider: strategy, human and social capital, and global strategy.

MGMT6120 - Managing Emerg Entrprse (Course Syllabus)

This course is about managing during the early stages of an enterprise, when the firm faces the strategic challenge of being a new entrant in the market and the organizational challenge of needing to scale rapidly. The enterprises of interest in this course have moved past the purely entrepreneurial phase and need to systematically formalize strategies and organizational processes to reach maturity and stability, but they still lack the resources of a mature firm. The class is organized around three distinct but related topics that managers of emerging firms must consider: strategy, human and social capital, and global strategy.

MGMT6130 - Manag Estab Enterprise (Course Syllabus)

MGMT6240 - Leading Diversity in Org (Course Syllabus)

People in the workplace are constantly interacting with peers, managers, and customers with very different backgrounds and experiences. When harnessed effectively, these differences can be the catalyst for creative breakthroughs and the pathway to team and organizational learning and effectiveness; but when misunderstood, these differences can challenge employees' values, performance, workplace relationships, and team effectiveness. This course is designed to help students navigate diverse organizational settings more effectively and improve their ability to work within and lead diverse teams and organizations. It also offers students the opportunity to develop their critical thinking on topics such as identity, relationships across difference, discrimination and bias, equality, and equity in organizations and society and how they relate to organizational issues of power, privilege, opportunity, inclusion,creativity and innovation and organizational effectiveness. Class sessions will be experiential and discussion-based. Readings, self-reflection, guest speakers from organizations, case studies and a final project will also be emphasized. By the end of this course, you should be able to: 1)Evaluate the aspects of yo ur identity and personal experiences that shape how you interact and engage with others and how they interact and engage with you in organizations 2)Explain how issues of power, privilege, discrimination, bias, equality, and equity influence opportunity and effectiveness in organizations 3)Propose ways to make relationships across difference in organizations more effective 4)Describe current perspectives on the relationships among diversity, inclusion, creativity, and innovation in organizations 5)Analyze a company's current approach to leading diversity and use content from this course to propose ways to enhance learning and effectiveness in that company.

MGMT6250 - Corp. Governance Exec (Course Syllabus)

This course examines the relationships between corporate managers, the boards of directors charged with overseeing them, and investors. We'll review the responsibilities of the board, including financial statement approval, CEO performance assessment, executive compensation, and succession planning. While boards are legally bound to represent the interests of equity investors, in the course of carrying out this role they are often called on to respond to the needs of numerous other stakeholders, including customers, employees, government and society at large. With global brands at risk and mistakes instantly transmitted via Internet and social media, the reputational stakes are very high. The course is a combination of lecture, guest lecture, discussion, case analysis and in-class research workshops. We will review some of the theory underlying modern governance practice, drawing from theories and evidence provided by research across diverse fields, including finance, sociology, and organization and management theory. We'll study specific situations where boards and management teams faced governance challenges, and assess the strategies used to deal with them. Finally, we'll examine the ways in which governance arrangements and external stakeholder involvement in governance affects corporate social behaviorand global citizenship.

MGMT6560 - Global Immersion Program (Course Syllabus)

The Global Immersion Program is a pass/fail, 0.5 credit course that is designed to provide students with an in-depth exposure to international business practices and first-hand insights into a foreign culture. In past years, programs were offered in India, the Middle East, China, South America, Southeast, Asia, and Africa. The program offers students the opportunity to learn about a foreign business environment by way of academic lectures and a multi-week study tour, allowing students to visit with corporate and government officials, network with alumni, and take cultural excursions.

MGMT6710 - Executive Leadership (Course Syllabus)

Despite the business world’s obsession with leadership, what it takes to be an effective leader is often not commonly understood nor commonly practiced. In this course, the focus is on growing the student's capacity as a leader. Students will learn practical and customized lessons about how to improve their performance and results at work. We use the evidence from the science of leadership and teams to understand the key tactics and principles that will enable students to better lead others as they strive to attain shared goals. We will cover topics such as leadership effectiveness, adaptive leadership, empowering leadership as well as how to motivate, inspire, and lead teams effectively (e.g., decision making, coordination, coaching). This course offers students the opportunity to learn and practice the skills needed to become better leaders, now and in the future.

MGMT6900 - Manag Decsn Making (Course Syllabus)

The course is built around lectures reviewing multiple empirical studies, class discussion,and a few cases. Depending on the instructor, grading is determined by some combination of short written assignments, tests, class participation and a final project (see each instructor's syllabus for details).

MGMT6910 - Negotiations (Course Syllabus)

This course examines the art and science of negotiation, with additional emphasis on conflict resolution. Students will engage in a number of simulated negotiations ranging from simple one-issue transactions to multi-party joint ventures. Through these exercises and associated readings, students explore the basic theoretical models of bargaining and have an opportunity to test and improve their negotiation skills. Cross-listed with MGMT 6910/OIDD 6910/LGST 8060. Format: Lecture, class discussion, simulation/role play, and video demonstrations. Materials: Textbook and course pack.

MGMT6920 - Advanced Negotiation (Course Syllabus)

This is a course the builds on the basic Negotiation course. In this course, we explore a wide range of negotiation topics from crisis and hostage negotiations, to the role of emotions including anxiety, envy and anger in negotiations, to backlash effects for women in negotiations, and the role of alcohol in negotiations. We will survey many aspects of current negotiation research, discuss historic negotiation cases, and students will participate in role-play exercises. Many of the role play exercises will involve multi-party negotiations and afford opportunities to hone skills in team-based negotiations.

MGMT7010 - Strat & Compet Advantage (Course Syllabus)

This course is concerned with strategy issues at the business unit level. Its focus is on the question of how firms can create and sustain a competitive advantage. A central part of the course deals with concepts that have been developed around the notions of complementarities and fit. Other topics covered in the course include the creation of competitive advantage through commitment, competitor analysis, different organizational responses to environmental changes, modularity, and increasing returns. An important feature of the course is a term-length project in which groups of students work on firm analyses that require the application of the course concepts.

Prerequisites: MGMT 6110 OR MGMT 6120

MGMT7110 - Comp Str/Ind Str (Course Syllabus)

This is a course in analyzing competitive interactions. The course emphasizes a vision of strategy in which each competitor simultaneously chooses its strategy, taking into account the strategies of its opponents. Crucial to this vision is the anticipation of the moves of your opponent and, in particular, the expectation that your opponent is (almost) as smart as you are. Equal attention will be given to the development of techniques for analyzing competitive interactions and to the application of those techniques. Game theory and the economics of industrial organization provide the basis for the theoretical constructs developed in the course. Topics that will be explored include: market failures and profitability, competitive bidding, signaling, entry deterrence, agenda setting, regulations, and price wars.

MGMT7120 - Mng Strat Partnerships (Course Syllabus)

This course explores the management of strategic partnerships between firms, which have surged in recent years in response to globalization, technological evolution, deregulation, shortened product life cycles, and intensified competition. Today's alliances drive corporate growth and change, and vary greatly in terms of partner type, commitment, equity investment, degree of control, between scale, and scope. They range from bilateral arrangements to ecosystems to outsourcing, often blurring traditional organizational boundaries and leading to the creation of globally distributed enterprises. In view of these contemporary developments, the objectives of the course are two-fold: (1) to arm you with a set of tools to facilitate the selection of an appropriate alliance strategy in a given situation; and, (2) to provide you with frameworks to help the initiate and implement different kinds of partnerships. The emphasis lies on strategic and organizational aspects in the formation and management of these transactions, rather than financial considerations. Alternative growth strategies to strategic alliances (e.g., acquisitions), the impact of these partnerships on competition within an industry, and regulatory constraints will also be discussed. In terms of its pedagogical approach, this is designed to be an interactive, applied, case-based course with accompanying conceptual readings to help structure your thinking. Given the nature of the course, we will also apply the lessons from the cases to understand the challenges and implications of relevant recent and on-going deals. In addition, guest speakers with experience in investment banking, consulting, and industry will be invited to share their perspectives. A group project is intended to give you the opportunity to apply your learning from the course to a context that is most interesting and relevant to you.

Prerequisites: MGMT 6110 OR MGMT 6120

MGMT7140 - Value Creation & Val Cap (Course Syllabus)

This course examines how the kind of firms in which most Wharton students will spend the next stage of their careers came to be as they are today. At a superficial level, the course's objectives are descriptive and narrative. But history, considered thoughtfully and critically, is never just description and a narrative and the course's deeper purpose is to give students some idea of how to think about the future evolution of firms and industries. In this the course is as much an applied strategy course as it is a historical survey. The course considers the development of the business enterprise as an economic institution. It also covers the evolution of competition and strategy, marketing institutions, some aspects of the history of operations management, and corporate finance. Issues arising in these different management disciplines are considered in part for the purpose of showing off their interrelationships. Questions of how value can be created and captured at the enterprise level form the core of the perspective. The course's focus is on American developments, since many of the innovations took place here, but there is scope for comparison with Japan and the leading European economies if there is student interest. Chronologically the course runs from Franklin's days through the early twenty-first century. The individual classes proceed through discussion of actual business decisions and performance in a series of challenging and otherwise interesting moments in the evolution of the American business environment. The materials are unusual for the Wharton School--they are not just often case-like but wherever possible draw on documents contemporary to the decisions such as correspondence, internal memoranda, minutes of meetings, old newspaper and magazine stories, and eyewitness accounts. The objective in this is to give students as minimally mediated access as is feasible to what the embedded actors knew and thought. The materials require thoughtful preparation. Weekly short writing assignments during the first twelve weeks of the term develop students' skill in turning such preparation into crisp analytical prose. (This will be valuable to most ex-students in the early phases of their post-Wharton careers.) The course as a process is much more focused on the students than many and the most productive experience of it demands that the students both engage with the materials when they prepare and then take an active role in the class discussion. The largest single element in the grading is a substantial term paper on a topic agreeable to both the student and the instructor. (To everyone's surprise, the lack of easy access

MGMT7150 - Pol & Soc Environ of Mm (Course Syllabus)

All successful firms go global. This course provides a broad introduction to international business. You will learn about who loses and who gains from trade, what are the effects of tariffs and non-tariff barriers, the World Trade Organization (WTO), regional trading blocs, and NAFTA. The course then turns to the international financial architecture, focusing on exchange rate risk. We then move to multinational firm strategies, including a discussion of the reasons for why firms choose to do business globally through trade or FDI, international tax strategy, joint ventures, technology transfer, different ways to be a multinational firm, and ethical dilemmas. The class is a mix of lectures and cases that allow students to synthesize the extensive materials on multinational management, international institutions, economic policies, and politics with a goal towards formulating multinational firm strategy.

MGMT7170 - Deals: Econ Struc Trans (Course Syllabus)

This course focuses on the role of professionals, including lawyers of all types (corporate, tax, securities, etc.), direct private equity investors, corporate business development officers, and investment bankers, in creating value through transaction engineering. The overall goal of the course is to explore how private parties could order their commercial interactions, to develop a theory of how they ought to do this, and to gain a thorough understanding of how business deals are actually done. The course is offered in springtime terms only. The long first half of the course is devoted to analyzing impediments to transacting, including asymmetric information, exogenous risk and uncertainty, difficulties intrinsic to contracting over time, enforceability, and various forms of strategic behavior, all with a view to understanding the logic of the variety of techniques used to ameliorate them and more broadly to create distributable value through transaction structuring. These Part I classes are accompanied by exercises of various sorts. In the second part of the course, student teams apply the conceptual tools and techniques developed in the first half to analyzing the fine detail of a series of recently completed and interestingly complex transactions. Each team is given access to the original documents implementing their deal. A week of class time is devoted to each transaction. In the first (Monday) session, the student teams present their deal to the class, laying out strategic motivations, analyzing key structuring moves, and exploring the advantages and disadvantages of proceeding in the way the participants did. In the second, on the Wednesday, one or (usually) more of the professionals who worked on it will present the deal from the participant perspective, address the always interesting process questions, and take questions from the class. The requirements for the class are regular attendance, active participation in class discussions, a series of homework assignments and a short individual paper in Part I, the group presentation project and a group memorandum from each deal team on what there was to be learned from the Wednesday presentation their week in Part II, and a six-hour take-home exam.

MGMT7200 - Corporate Diplomacy (Course Syllabus)

The share of executives, board members, and investment managers who consider climate risk, racial justice and other ESG issues as well as stakeholder’s opinions of the firm to be material to their business decisions has risen dramatically. If this business case for engagement with stakeholders on ESG issues can be demonstrated to mainstream investors, pools of capital can be mobilized to harness grand societal challenges. However, executives, board members, and investment managers are actually growing less confident in the ESG data available to guide capital allocations and strategic decisions. ESG scores have been demonstrated to be unreliable, incomplete and biased and often lean on outdated and/or incomplete information obtained through voluntary unaudited disclosure. This course provides students the latest tools to assess and map stakeholder opinions as well as integrate them into financial valuation. It also offers behavioral skills critical for stakeholder engagement including trust building, strategic communications and shaping organizational culture. In short, it prepares students to engage in Corporate Diplomacy (i.e., to influence external stakeholders’ opinions of the acceptability of a company’s operations at a moment in time and to convince internal stakeholders to adapt their behaviors, systems and outputs` when necessary to support an organizational mission).

MGMT7210 - Corp Dev: Merg & Acquis (Course Syllabus)

This interactive, applied, and case-based course explores the various modes of corporate development available to managers to drive firm growth and change, including alliances, outsourcing, corporate venturing, and particularly mergers and acquisitions. The objectives are three-fold: (1) to arm the student with a set of tools to facilitate the selection of the appropriate growth strategy in a given situation; (2) to provide insights as to how to manage partnerships like alliances, outsourcing, and corporate venturing; and, (3) to develop a comprehensive framework for executing M&As, from initiation to implementation. The emphasis is on strategic and operational aspects of these transactions, rather than financial considerations. Please note that you must fulfill the prerequisites in order to enroll in this class.

Prerequisites: MGMT 6110 OR MGMT 6120

MGMT7230 - Strat & Environ Sustainability (Course Syllabus)

Environmental sustainability issues are one of the defining problems of our time. While governments and NGOs will have to play important roles, without active involvement of businesses it will be impossible to make sufficient progress on these issues. Globalization and Digitization have been two major disruptive developments that organizations have faced (and are still facing). ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) issues are the latest large-scale development that will shape companies’ futures. This course will focus on the “E” of ESG. As with any large change, environmental sustainability poses significant business challenges but also tremendous opportunities. We will study these issues both from the perspective of incumbent firms that have to adapt their business practices and from firms (incumbents and new start-ups) that will take advantage of the new opportunities that are being created.

MGMT7280 - Navigating Difficult Conversat (Course Syllabus)

Learn the skills to navigate difficult conversations that arise in personal and professional settings. Whether it’s resolving team conflicts, giving constructive feedback, repairing a rift at work or at home, or addressing tough organizational challenges, this course equips you with the tools to communicate effectively and build stronger relationships. You’ll explore key concepts, strategies, and research on managing emotional triggers and handling high-stakes conversations. Through readings, discussions, and role-playing exercises, you’ll gain confidence in identifying what makes conversations succeed or fail, preparing for tough talks, and improving your ability to foster positive outcomes in work, relationships, and communities.

MGMT7290 - Intel Property Strategy (Course Syllabus)

Announcing the first iPhone at Macworld 2007, Apple CEO Steve Jobs famously boasted: "And boy, have we patented it!" How, and to what extent, do patents and intellectual property really provide competitive advantage for innovative technology companies? What makes an IP asset strategically powerful? How do patents impact, and even drive, major corporate decisions including M&A, venture funding and exits, and entry into new markets? In this course, students will learn to critically analyze and answer these questions, gaining insights they can leverage in their future roles as innovation industry executives, entrepreneurs, strategist and investors. The course includes three major units. In Unit 1, Patents and Innovation Value, we examine closely the relationship between competitive advantage, value proposition, and intellectual property (particularly patents). We will apply our understanding of that relationship to critique and sharpen patent strategy to protect examples of cutting-edge technologies. In Unit 2, Patent Leverage and the Corporate Playbook, we study theory and examples of how intellectual property leverage strategically informs corporate transactions and decisions, for established companies as well as for start-ups. In unit 3, Limits and Alternatives to Patents, we confront the recent legal trend toward reigning in the power and scope of patents. We also consider the growing importance of data as a proprietary technology asset, and discuss options for adapting intellectual property strategy appropriately. Throughout, students will learn and practice applying the concepts we learn to decision-making in examples based on innovative real-world technologies and businesses.

MGMT7310 - Technology Strategy (Course Syllabus)

The course is designed to meet the needs of future managers, entrepreneurs, consultants and investors who must analyze and develop business strategies in technology-based industries. The emphasis is on learning conceptual models and frameworks to help navigate the complexity and dynamism in such industries. This is not a course in new product development or in using information technology to improve business processes and offerings. We will take a perspective of both established and emerging firms competing through technological innovations, and study the key strategic drivers of value creation and appropriation in the context of business ecosystems. The course uses a combination of cases, simulation and readings. The cases are drawn primarily from technology-based industries. Note, however, that the case discussions are mainly based on strategic (not technical) issues. Hence, a technical background is not required for fruitful participation.

MGMT7430 - Wrk & Tech:Choices & Out (Course Syllabus)

This course is situated at the intersection of technological and social/human issues involving work. The first module “Technology and Its Impact on Jobs and Skills” considers the types of technologies whose impact concerns us and probes which deserve the characterization of “revolutionary”. We’ll examine past anxieties related to automation and evaluate the extent to which the “worst-case” scenarios about, for example, employment loss have or have not come to pass. In the process, we’ll sharpen our lens for which technological changes have effects on entire organizations rather than simply individual jobs. The second module “Intelligent Technologies: How Will They Affect Work and Organizations?” explores how these technologies are changing the structure, performance, and experience of work amid changes in how organizations are managing people. We consider how these technologies provide managers new ways to enact control and to induce commitment – and how workers (both employees and contractors) react. In the third module “Technology and Policy” we will examine the ethics of algorithms and artificial intelligence, proposals for a “universal basic income” (UBI) premised on the idea that technological change will lead to an unprecedented amount of job displacement, and the premise that “technology makes us dumber” by taking tasks away that have helped humans maintain a certain level of competence. Take this course to be ready to manage the strategic and analytic issues involving the design and implementation of technology at work - and if you want a glimpse into the future of your own work life. Students will be evaluated on class participation, in-class quizzes, written work and a group assignment.

MGMT7480 - How To Be the Boss (Course Syllabus)

Despite the press accounts about the "gig" economy, the Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates that about 92 percent of the people working in the US are employees who are supervised by someone. That figure has remained roughly the same for decades. The term "supervisor" is sometimes used for the first-level of supervision in an organization, but in fact that role - and indeed the title - goes all the way up to the very top of any employer organization. Even CEO's are the supervisor of their direct reports. When people talk about their "boss," they are almost always referring to the person who supervises them. Supervisors are the central actors in accomplishing work tasks, especially in projects where they also have autonomy over what is done and how it is done. They have an extraordinary amount of power and influence over their direct reports and considerable responsibility toward them. There is considerable truth to the aphorism that people quit bosses, not organizations, as employee dissatisfaction with supervisors rates as one of the leading causes of turnover. There is little doubt that a bad boss can make the life of a subordinate miserable, while a good boss can do the opposite, i.e. improving job design to make work more motivating, providing support during difficult periods of learning new tasks and facing performance pressures, helping chart a career path, and mentoring in organizational realities. Being a supervisor is not the same as leading a team of peers. Supervisors have formal authority over subordinates that we never have with peers. Supervisors also have decisions they cannot delegate, and are personally accountable for them. Stepping into a supervisor position is challenging, especially so when it comes with a promotion in the same organization having to manage direct reports who were peers. In this class, we examine the role of the supervisor and the unique tasks associated with performing that role.

MGMT7650 - Venture Capital & Ent Mg (Course Syllabus)

This elective half-semester course will highlight venture capital and entrepreneurship in general and will explore selected aspects of this industry, including: industry trends and dynamics in Silicon Valley and the South of Market area (SOMA) of San Francisco; the recent emergence of alternative sources of startup financing, including incubators/accelerators and crowdfunding platforms, angel groups and stage-agnostic institutional investors; business and operational aspects of early stage companies in transition to mezzanine-level stages of growth; and company "exits," including both initial public offerings and merger/sale transactions. MGMT765 and MGMT804 cover separate issues within the same general industry and are not redundant. This course addresses issues faced by later stage VC backed firms, while MGMT804 centers on early stage, pre-revenue startups. It is recommended students take MGMT 801 before enrolling in this course. The format of this course relies heavily on site visits and recognized leaders within the Bay Area to bring forth on-the-ground perspectives of a changing and important industry. While MGMT804 is not a prerequisite, the two courses are complementary.

MGMT7720 - Power & Pol in Organiz (Course Syllabus)

"If you want to test a (person's) character, give (him/her) power." These famous words articulate one of the many tensions of exercising power. Regardless of whether you have an appetite for power or disdain it, power and politics are likely to play an important role in your career. The purpose of this course is to introduce you to concepts that are useful for understanding, analyzing, and developing your political skill. But beyond discovering ways to extend your own power in organizations, we will also uncover lessons about ways in which power and politics can blind you, and how to navigate situations in which you are up against powerful people. Using a range of scholarly articles, cases, exercises, assessments and simulations, we will extract a variety of lessons relevant to your role in organizations. Topics include diagnosing power in organizations, building coalitions, change management, understanding networks, coping with intolerable bosses and incivility, and downsizing. Students will be expected to engage in field research for their coursework and final paper, and the course requires that students submit assignments for almost every class session. Thematically, this course highlights how your relationships with organizational stakeholders and an understanding of the organizational context are crucial to successfully navigating the political terrain of oganizations. Organizations are inherently political arenas that require social astuteness, and an understanding of the "rules of the game." This course is designed for students aiming to develop their leadership, general management and career skills through a better understanding of power and politics, and relates to other courses on these topics in the Management department.

MGMT7730 - Managing Org Change (Course Syllabus)

This course focuses on the nature and process of organization change, and how to be successful as a leader, implementer, and recipient of change. It emphasizes the forces for change, the change implementation process, the skills of successful change leaders, and the behavioral theories and management practices of how individuals and organizations change. All of this will help you to better diagnose, orchestrate, and implement the change agendas of organizations. After the initial session that introduces many of the topics and discussions of the course, Module 1 presents the foundations of successful transformations. The goal here is for you to get an understanding for how these major types of transformations unfold, how the motivation for change affects the type of transformation, how well the changes were instituted, sources of resistance, and how leaders are involved in the whole endeavor. Module II focuses on applications to learn the ingredients for successful change management and implement concepts from Module 1. We will start with a merger integration implementation. Next, we you will make a series of decisions to manage recipients of change by focusing on downsizing and privatization. Finally, you will test your implementation acumen in a real world-based simulation. Module III has two parts. The first is designed to expand your insights and apply them to the experiences of early career professionals who initiate, drive, and experience change as members of larger organizations or as startup founders. The course ends on how to build organizations that have the capacity to successfully change. To teach this course I use cases, simulations, and readings that integrate findings from academic research with practitioner experiences and insights. Importantly, the value of the class is maximized when you integrate your own experiences, and I am excited in anticipation of the discussions and debates we will have.

Prerequisites: MGMT 6110 OR MGMT 6120

MGMT7820 - Strategic Implementation (Course Syllabus)

Much more is known about strategy formulation than its implementation, yet valid, sensible strategies often fail because of problems on the implementation side. This course provides you with tools to turn good strategy into successful reality. It covers the choices, structure, and conditions that enable the successful attainment of strategic objectives. Students learn from rigorous academic research on successful implementation, as well as a series of seasoned business leaders who will visit to share their own experience from the front lines.

Prerequisites: MGMT 6110 OR MGMT 6120

MGMT7860 - Reforming Mass Incarceration (Course Syllabus)

This half-semester course introduces current and future leaders to mass incarceration in the U.S., and its effect on employment and entrepreneurship prospects for formerly incarcerated people. We will explore both the challenges of our correctional system as well as potential solutions. For example, over 600,000 people return home from U.S. prisons each year. For most, the return is short-lived as two-thirds are re-incarcerated within three years of release. We will consider many of the reasons why this occurs, including research indicating that the lack of employment opportunities is a major contributor. We will also hear from those directly impacted by the justice system. By the end of the course, you will be among the more educated leaders not just on mass incarceration, but on how to think about ways that the business community can contribute to the success of those impacted by the criminal justice system. This course will also serve as a pre-requisite for a follow-up experiential course where we will teach business skills and financial acumen justice-impacted people, as well as help with their employment and entrepreneurship opportunities.

MGMT7870 - Global Mgmt Digital Business (Course Syllabus)

Digital businesses enable users to communicate, interact, share, and engage in transactions. They enable individuals to shop, work, play, and learn, and they offer companies new ways of organizing their value chains, reaching customers, collecting and analyzing information, and creating value. This half-semester, 0.5-cu class deals with the international expansion of businesses through the use of digital technologies. The focus is on the tension between the eminent scalability facilitated by digital technologies and the ruggedness of the international landscape, shaped as it is by demographics, consumer preferences, culture, regulatory structures, and network effects operating at the local, national, regional, and global levels. The class covers both companies launched as digital businesses and traditional companies undergoing a digital transformation. Topics include industry dynamics, the impact of network effects, the sequence of foreign market entry, regulatory risk, strategic interaction, and global versus local strategies for both new digital businesses and established firms undergoing digital transformation. While there are no specific requirements, knowledge of the fundamental concepts of competitive strategy and global strategy is essential to follow this class. Students will learn through interactive class discussions, team-based exercises, and self-made short videos to pitch novel new ideas about digital businesses.

MGMT7880 - Mnging & Compet in China (Course Syllabus)

The business environment in China is characterized by both uncertainty and complexity. On the one hand, it is changing fast; on the other hand, it is influenced by deep-rooted political, economic, and cultural forces that exhibit tremendous inertia. This course will help students--as potential managers, entrepreneurs, and investors--gain the knoweledge and analytical skills necessary to compete effectively in China. We will discuss various types of firms in the Chinese economy--from large state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to newly minted Internet giants, from prominent multinational companies (MNCs) to virtually anonymous local suppliers--and the unique institutions in which these firms operate. Such discussions will also help managers whose firms compete or collaborate with Chinese firms on the global stage. We will use a combination of lectures, cases, debates, and role play in class. You will also have the opportunity to apply your learning to real business scenarios.

MGMT7900 - WORKS Immer - Prison Education (Course Syllabus)

This is an experiential learning course in partnership with Resilience Education, where the core organizing activity is teaching business topics inside prisons. While this is a professor-led course, it is also a co-created experience where your role is essential. Your work this term will be hugely impactful for your incarcerated learners and their families, as well as foundational for future Wharton MBAs. For these reasons, I thank you in advance for your co-leadership. I hope you take the opportunity to lend your talents to important initiatives. We are bolstered by the fact that research has consistently shown that there are positive returns to education for incarcerated people. At the same time, formal education in prison is usually limited to liberal arts topics. As a result, returning citizens have a need to understand personal finance and how businesses operate in a way that compliments other forms of education that they may be exposed to. There is a particular interest among incarcerated people to learn about entrepreneurship, either because they have promising business ideas or because they see entrepreneurship as a viable alternative given persistent labor market discrimination. This course provides a means for you to pass along these important skills and tools.

Prerequisites: MGMT 7860

MGMT7920 - Global Capstone (Course Syllabus)

We are living in turbulent times. There are many mutually colliding trends in the realms of demography, technology, the economy, politics, and geopolitics. Acquiring a firm grasp of these trends is needed to ensure continued organizational success and to identify and seize new opportunities for business. How quickly will the world’s population peak? What are the implications of ageing? Are we witnessing deglobalization or just a pause in globalization? Will inequality continue to fuel populism and nationalism? Is net-zero attainable? Which country will be the global hegemon? What are the implications for the future of the dollar?

MGMT7930 - People Analytics (Course Syllabus)

This course examines the use of data to improve how people are managed within organizations. Recent years have seen a growing movement to bring more science to how we manage people. In some cases, that means ensuring that whatever practices and approaches we adopt are backed up by solid evidence as to their effectiveness. Often, organizations will seek to go further, analyzing their own data to identify problems and learn what is working and what is not in their own context. This course applies the insights of the people analytics movement to help students become better managers and more critical analysts within their organizations. The course aims to develop students in three specific ways. First, it provides students with an up-to-the-minute grounding in current evidence about managing people, providing a knowledge base that can ensure that their future management is guided by best practices. Second, it develops the skills and understanding necessary to be thoughtful, critical consumers of evidence on people management, allowing them to make the most of the analysis available to them as they make people decisions. Third, it provides guidance and practice in conducting people analytics, preparing students to gather data of their own, and making them more skilled analysts. The course addresses these topics through a mixture of lecture, case discussion, and hands on exploration of a variety of data sets.

MGMT7940 - Understanding Careers (Course Syllabus)

This course examines the structure of executive careers in order to help understand how those careers can be managed most effectively. By drawing on extensive economic, sociological and psychological research on careers, we will examine such questions as when executives should move on to the next job or evenchange fields altogether, and what are effective means of finding jobs, achieving promotions, managing networks, and achieving work-life balance. The first few sessions of the course explore the basic building blocks of the career, outlining our knowledge on the different orientations that individuals take to their careers, how approaches to the career change as people get older, and how different kinds of job moves within and across firms advance careers. The second part of the course explores in more detail the social resources that affect careers, notably social networks and relationships with mentors. The third section of the course then examines a number of the most important and difficult issues affecting modern careers, including making successful transitions, the effects of gender on careers, work life balance, and international careers.

MGMT7980 - Managing and Motivating (Course Syllabus)

People are the most valuable asset of any business, but they are also the most unpredictable, and the most difficult, asset to manage. And although managing people well is critical to the health of any organization, most managers don't get the training they need to make good management decisions. Now, award-winning authors and renowned management Professors Mike Useem and Peter Cappelli of the Wharton School have designed this course to introduce you to the key elements of managing people. Based on their popular course at Wharton, this course will teach you how to motivate individual performance and design reward systems, how to design jobs and organize work for high performance, how to make good and timely management decisions, and how to design and change the your organization's architecture. By the end of this course, you'll have developed the skills you need to start motivating, organizing, and rewarding people in your organization so that you can thrive as a business and as a social organization. This course can also only be applied towards unrestricted electives at the undergraduate level.

MGMT7990 - Special Topics MGMT (Course Syllabus)

Courses offered of various topics and points of focus, ranging across multiple concentrations of Management, (i.e., Entrepreneurial, Strategy, Organizational Business, etc.).

MGMT8010 - Entrepreneurship (Course Syllabus)

MGMT 801 is the foundation coures in the Entrepeurial Management program. The purpose of this course is to explore the many dimensions of new venture creation and growth. While most of the examples in class will be drawn from new venture formation, the principles also apply to entrepreneurship in corporate settings and to non-profit entrepreneurship. We will be concerned with content and process questions as well as with formulation and implementation issues that relate to conceptualizing, developing, and managing successful new ventures. The emphasis in this course is on applying and synthesizing concepts and techniques from functional areas of strategic management, finance, accounting, managerial economics, marketing, operations management, and organizational behavior in the context of new venture development. The class serves as both a stand alone class and as a preparatory course to those interested in writing and venture implementation (the subject of the semester-long course, MGMT 806). Format: Lectures and case discussions

MGMT8020 - Innov, Chg and Ent (Course Syllabus)

Designed for students with a serious interest in entrepreneurship, this course will provide you with an advanced theoretical foundation and a set of practical tools for the management of startups and entrepreneurial teams in fast-changing and innovative environments. Building on the skills of MGMT 801, every class session is built around an experience where you have to put learning into practice, including the award-winning Looking Glass entrepreneurial simulation, role-playing exercises, and a variety of other games and simulations. The goal is to constantly challenge you to deal with entrepreneurial or innovative experiences, as you learn to navigate complex and changing environments on the fly, applying what you learned to a variety of scenarios. MGMT 802 is built to be challenging and will require a desire to deal with ambiguous and shifting circumstances. It is recommended students take MGMT 801 before enrolling in this course. Format: Lectures, discussion, interim reports, class participation, readings report, and presentations, and an innovation assessment in PowerPoint format.

MGMT8040 - Venture Cap & Ent Mgmt (Course Syllabus)

This elective half-semester course focuses on venture capital management issues in the context of the typical high-growth potential early stage start-up company. The course is fundamentally pragmatic in its outlook. It will cover seven principal areas relevant to the privately held high-growth start-up which include: commentary on the venture capital industry generally, as well as a discussion of the typical venture fund structure and related venture capital objectives and investment strategies; common organizational issues encountered in the formation of a venture backed start-up, including issues relating to initial capitalization, intellectual property and early stage equity arrangements; valuation methodologies that form the basis of the negotiation between the entrepreneur and the venture capitalist in anticipation of a venture investment; the challenges of fundraising, financing strategies and the importance of the business plan and the typical dynamics that play out between VC and entrepreneur. It is recommended students take MGMT 801 before enrolling in this course. typical investment terms found in the term sheet and the dynamics of negotiation between the entrepreneur and the venture capitalist; compensation practices in a venture capital backed company; and corporate governance in the context of a privately-held, venture capital-backed start-up company and the typical dynamics that play out between VC and entrepreneur in an insider-led, "down round" financing.

MGMT8090 - Priv. Equity Emerg. Mar (Course Syllabus)

This course investigates the private equity industry in emerging markets. The goal of the course is to give students a realistic understanding of the roles, responsibilities and analytical skills required of market practitioners, as well as the tensions that arise between various stakeholders, including government officials, investors, entrepreneurs and the press. The underlying premise is that the basic rules for private equity in those countries are similar to the rules in more industrialized countries, but market participants face a broader range of issues in areas such as valuations, governance, legal structures, contract enforcement and regulatory transparency. To provide students with a practical grasp of the issues, classes will be a mix of lectures, expert guest speakers and business cases. Cases will highlight the challenges and tasks at each stage of the investment cycle, such as structuring and launching a new fund, originating new deals, conducting due diligence, creating value, monitoring the performance of portfolio companies and exiting. Each class will focus on a specific topic, ranging from the basics of how and why private equity funds operate to complex issues such as fund governance and adding value to family firms.

Prerequisites: FNCE 6110

MGMT8110 - Entrep Through Acquis. (Course Syllabus)

MGMT 811 focuses on the theoretical, strategic, analytics, and practical issues of acquiring a business. Topics include: locating a business, due diligence, reviewing and analyzing data, valuation, raising capital/financing the deal, search funds, structuring the acquisition, letters of intent, contracts/asset purchase agreements, integrating the target, acquisition growth strategies, and transitioning/exiting the acquisition. Format: The class consists of lectures, in-class discussions of cases, assigned readings, homework problems, case studies, and a group or individual project. It is recommended students take MGMT 801 before enrolling in this course.

MGMT8120 - Social Entrepreneurship (Course Syllabus)

This is a course on creating a business to attack a social problem and thereby accomplish both social impact and financial sustainability. For this course, social entrepreneurship is defined as entrepreneurship used to profitably confront social problems. This definition therefore views social entrepreneurship as a distinct alternative to public sector initiatives. The basic thesis is that many social problems, if looked at through an entrepreneurial lens, create opportunity for someone to launch a venture that generates profits by alleviating that social problem. This sets in motion a virtuous cycle - the entrepreneur is incented to generate more profits and in so doing, the more the profits made, the more the problem is alleviated. Even if it is not possible to eventually create a profit-making enterprise, the process of striving to do so can lead to a resource-lean not-for-profit entity. Creating a profitable social entrepreneurship venture is by no means a simple challenge. Cross-listed with MGMT 212.

MGMT8140 - Search Fund Entrepreneurship (Course Syllabus)

The objective of this course is to study the path to entrepreneurship through the acquisition of an existing operating business using the Search Fund private equity model. We will study the process through a series of lectures, guest presentations, assigned readings, case studies, and a final project.

MGMT8150 - Sports Business Mgmt (Course Syllabus)

This course examines various business disciplines as they apply to the sports industry. The course provides the student with an overview of the business of the intercollegiate, Olympic and professional sports enterprises. In addition, the course investigates the business related issues encountered by managers of sports organizations and covers how business principles can be applied to effectively address these issues.

MGMT8160 - Bldg. Hum Assets (Course Syllabus)

The success of entrepreneurial endeavors depends, even more so than in larger more bureaucratic organizations, on the ability to locate and manage talent effectively. Specifically, on the need to find the right people and keep them engaged in working on the organization's goals. We focus in this course on leading, building, and maintaining human assets in start-up and small, growing operations. The course is designed with several key components, these are: conceptual and practical readings relevant to the topic; case studies illustratng key concepts and issues; lecture on practical application and examples; and lastly every class will also feature a presentation by and conversation with an outside expert whose work is relevant to guiding or advising start-ups and fast-growing small firms. We will focus on the following objectives: identifying the talent needed to initiate and sustain an entrepreneurial endeavor; structuring human resource policies and corporate culture to prepare for and facilitate firm growth; assessing the human aspects of valuing entrepreneurial companies; and responding to conflict and organizational threats within nascent firms. This course will apply recent research from strategic human resource management, personnel economics and organizational behavior to the practical issues of building and managing human assets in new ventures.

MGMT8170 - Global Growth of Emerg (Course Syllabus)

Emerging firms are a critical element of economic growth, and a key source of gains in innovation and social welfare. This course is designed to depart from the U.S.-centric conversation on startups - with its outsized focus on Silicon Valley - and train a critical eye on some of the unique innovations emerging from new regional hotspots across the globe, with a particular focus on developing and emerging economies. We will discuss the challenges faced by founders in different global contexts, the components of a robust institutional ecosystem, and the ways in which creative solutions may flourish in response to local problems. Along the way, students will gain a virtual view into global startup communities, and personalized insights from firm founders operating around the world - from Bogota to Nairobi to Jakarta. The course will be structured in three primary parts. The first and longest section will discuss the Key Challenges for emerging firm growth across the globe, such as access to talent and resources, political risk, and legal institutions. The second section will highlight particularly active areas of Context-Driven Innovation that are thriving in various regions, such as financial technology, mobile health products, and clean energy. The final section will train Regional Spotlights on different geographic areas in turn, so that we may focus on the challenges and opportunities specific to various parts of the world. This course is relevant to both U.S. and non-U.S. students, and it is expected that students will bring their own backgrounds and experiences to contribute to lively class discussions. The course will culminate with a group project done in teams of four, in which groups will give short presentations to the class.

MGMT8310 - Entrepreneurship Launchpad (Course Syllabus)

This advanced course on entrepreneurship focuses on taking your venture from a good idea to a fundable business. Participants need to come to the class with a validated idea that they are committed to pursuing commercially. The course is entirely oriented toward applying concepts and frameworks to advance your venture and provides practical guidance for testing the product or service, forming the entity, establishing partnerships, and engaging with investors. Students must have successfully completed MGMT 801 before enrolling (or obtain the permission of the instructor). Format: Highly interactive Requirements: Class participation, interim assignments.

Prerequisites: MGMT 8010

MGMT8320 - Bus Mod Innov Strategy (Course Syllabus)

Business Model Innovation Strategy is a half semester MBA elective course which centers on the conceptualization, design, analysis and implementation of novel business models by incumbent and by new venture leaders as well as on the organizational challenges associated with a business model innovation strategy. Students will be introduced to a framework for developing and implementing a new business model. The framework will be brought to life through a combination of lectures, in-class exercises, numerous illustrations and case discussions.

MGMT8330 - Strat & Prac of Family (Course Syllabus)

This course is designed for those persons who desire to understand the distinct strategies and practices of family-controlled companies and family wealth creation. It will focus on stakeholder decision making; financial and resource driven options for long-run competitiveness, organizational structures, management team issues; strategic planning from a resource-based perspective; transition planning for the corporate entity, family dynamics, communication issues; and leadership empowerment. The course is intended for those who plan to consult or provide professional services to family-controlled companies and for those planning a career in a family firm. The class is structured around topical lectures with frequent utilization of case studies requiring active class participation, as well as on-site and off-site project work time. Submission of several written case studies, and a term project are required. Open to Wharton MBA and Penn graduate students.

MGMT8710 - Adv Global Strategy (Course Syllabus)

This class is designed to develop world class, globally-minded managers. Many of the most important business issues of today are global in nature. Both "macro" phenomena (e.g. nationalism, protectionism, demographic change) and "micro" trends (e.g. competition within and from emerging markets, distributed talent and innovation, digitization and automation) are inherently international issues. They require firms and managers to think, innovate, and organize globally. This class offers a comprehensive set of tools to evaluate opportunities and challenges in global markets, to leverage cross-country differences to enhance innovation and performance, to manage the complexities of a business spread across multiple countries, and to win against foreign rivals. The course will focus on both the formulation and execution of global strategy, with a heavy emphasis on current events and hands on activities. Sample topics include: quantifying opportunities and risks of foreign investments; formulating and executing strategies that balance local responsiveness, global efficiency, and innovation; exploiting differences across countries to enhance innovation while protecting intellectual property; managing organizational structure, culture, and people in multinational organizations; structuring and managing cross-national and cross-cultural teams; developing a global mindset among managers and employees. This course builds on the global management portion of MGMT 611 or MGMT 612, but taking those classes is not a prerequisite for MGMT 871.

MGMT8750 - Comparative Capitalism (Course Syllabus)

While we often debate capitalism as a system, the nature of capitalist economies differ from country to country and rarely match up to the ideal. Why do these differences arise? Is there a pure form of capitalism? What is the nature of capitalism in advanced and emerging economies? Why are capitalist economies often embedded in other social systems? Why do some economies grow faster than others? How do international institutions and interdependencies affect national capitalist institutions? How are the strategies of multinational corporations (MNCs) influenced by their country of origin? And how is the nature of capitalism changing today? This course provides insight into these questions as it explores the nature of capitalism around the world, with specific reference to Brazil, Russia, Ukraine, China, Hungary, Nigeria, South Africa, Singapore, Israel, Argentina, and the advanced OECD countries. Students will leave this class with understanding key differences in how capitalist economies are organized and competition over the future of the world economy.

MGMT8880 - Venture Acceleration Lab (Course Syllabus)

This Lab emphasizes experiential learning in evaluating and contributing to “live” startup ventures. The goal of the Lab is to accelerate the development of ventures by providing a structured curricular setting in which mentors with industry expertise as operators and investors provide guidance to full-time venture founders. Undergraduate and MBA students learn through witnessing these interactions and through helping ventures structure their value creation and capture strategies. The latter is facilitated via instructor-led classes on focused venture development concepts. This unique Lab therefore brings together communities which rarely mix: startup founders, enrolled students as potential venture “joiners” and consultants, venture mentors, and technical/academic specialists.

MGMT8900 - Advanced Study-Ind (Course Syllabus)

MGMT8910 - Advanced Study-Smgt (Course Syllabus)

MGMT8920 - Adv Study-Organ Effect (Course Syllabus)

Business success is increasingly driven by a firm's ability to create and capture value through innovation. Thus, the processes used by firms to develop innovations, the choices they make regarding how to commercialize their innovations, the changes they make to their business models to adapt to the dynamic environment, and the strategies they use to position and build a dominate competitive position are important issues facing firms. In MGMT. 892, you will learn to address these issues through an action learning approach. MGMT. 892 is a 1.0-credit course conducted in the spirit of an independent study. By working on consulting projects for leading global companies, you will develop and then apply your knowledge about innovation management and help these firms better understand the challenges and opportunities posed by emerging technologies and markets.

MGMT8930 - Advanced Study-Emgt (Course Syllabus)

MGMT8940 - Advanced Study-Mnmt (Course Syllabus)

ASP topics can be individually selected by the student with the advice and consent of any instructor in the management Department. All ASP registrations require the written consent of the instructor and appropriate course and section number on the registration form. If the student has the instructor's written permission, he/she is not required to obtain written consent from the Department. Students, however, should send an email to MGMT-Courseinfo@wharton.upenn.edu to request the course and section numbers

MGMT8960 - Decision Making Ldrship (Course Syllabus)

Contact the Management Department for additional information at: Courseinfo@wharton.upenn.edu. Decision making in the leadership chair is a complex task and one that is difficult to teach in a business school setting. To bridge this gap, Mr. William P. Lauder and invited executives will bring their experiences into the classroom, primarily addressing key decision they made, how they weighed their options, and what they learned from the outcomes. The framework for the class centers around two crucial aspects of decision making in the leadership chair: the need to manage many groups of stakeholders, and the need to play many roles when doing this. This course is by application only to second-year Wharton MBAs and a maximum of 48 students will be selected. A communication will be sent regarding the application details.

MGMT8970 - Global Modular Course A (Course Syllabus)

Special course arranged for Wharton MBA students, focused on global business, management and innovation.

MGMT8980 - Global Modular Course B (Course Syllabus)

removing WH 898 as erroneous crosslist.