The first year is the basis of the program. It is designed to enable students to acquire the tools and skills necessary in each area of the company, though always bearing in mind how each of these areas is interrelated. The object of the course is to create an environment where students can develop and enhance the skills required to make decisions on a managerial level.

All students take the subjects in the same order and during the same period of the year. No validations of any kind are permitted.

Financial Accounting Pre-Course

A brief introductory and voluntary financial accounting course is offered before the beginning of the first year.

The course provides an overview of the fundamental elements of accounting. Sessions in this course are aimed at students who have had no prior preparation in financial accounting through their studies or professional activities. They are designed to give students a view of basic financial accounting principles and concepts, in a practical and straightforward manner.

FIRST ACADEMIC COURSE

First Term


Decisions Analysis
The objective of the course is to examine decision-making in situations involving uncertainty and risk.

We examine how to organize decision-making problems using a 'tree schema'. Economic consequences of decisions spread over time are weighed, and the concept of current net value is examined. In addition, ways of measuring uncertainty using distribution of probability are introduced as well as ways of approaching situations involving risk.

Financial Accountancy
The purpose of this course is to convey sufficient knowledge for adequate interpretation and analysis and to use the information generated in financial accounting.

The first part of the course focuses on generating basic accounting statements (balance sheets, profit and loss accounts and financial statements) and their articulation, bearing in mind the particular characteristics of commercial, industrial and service companies.

The second part of the course focuses on more specialized accounting issues, including alternative presentations of the accounting statements and the examination of accounting criteria or policies implicit within them. Finally, discussion will focus on the possibilities and limitations of financial information as a tool to help analyze, diagnose and solve business problems.

Fundamentals of Marketing Management
This course has been designed with the main goal of helping students develop a conceptual framework covering the basic elements of what is called the "marketing mix."

The case studies examined throughout the course always require decision-making and the development of specific action plans. The second objective of the course consists of helping students achieve both goals.

The course is divided into several parts:

The first part is an introduction to sales concepts and their diverse applications within the large-scale consumer sector, the industrial sector and the services sector.

The second part focuses more on the market: we will discuss and analyze the relationships among the market segments, demand and consumer behavior, and concludes by examining the concept of positioning.

The remaining parts of the course cover the different elements or components of the "marketing mix": the product (product decisions, range, cannibalization, branding); pricing and its variables; the communication of the goods for sale to selected customer group(s); publicity, and finally promotions to the channel and the consumer, etc.

Managerial Communications
The foundation of management communications is fundamentally a humanistic one, based on the classical theory of persuasion. The course introduces the theory of persuasion (based on the classical rhetorical triad of logos, pathos and ethos) and then applies it in a variety of situations such as speeches, presentations and interpersonal encounters.

The course is designed around three main activities:

• Mini-lectures (presentation of theory during the first 20 minutes of each class)
• Class exercise of interpersonal persuasive techniques
• Class exercise applying the theory of presentations and speeches.

Managing People
The aim of this course is to develop the concepts of motivation, dimensions of organization, leadership styles and organizational behavior; all within an anthropological schema.

Course description and objectives:

• Mini-lectures (presentation of the theory during the first 20 minutes of each class)
• Group dynamics and teamwork
• Size of the organization
• People development and managerial coaching
• Processes of change
• Functioning of the organization: the anthropological model

Second Term

Financial Analysis
The Financial Analysis course encompasses two different aspects of the issue of finances, presented in two separate parts.

The first part will deal with issues related to the operational needs of funds, and will analyze the characteristics of different investments in assets, qualities and interpellations of each of them, risks and costs, as well as investment policies in currency congruent with the product, the market and the environment.

The different financial resources, their costs and timeframes will be analyzed. Considerations of the currency flow and its risks will be examined based on the operational need for funds and the working capital.

In the second part, we will begin to examine the broad topic of investment analysis, using a systematic application of the techniques of current value and internal rate of return, the appropriate criteria for determining proper cash flows appropriate for each project and their variability in terms of the type of project in question. Finally, we will examine the implications that investment projects may have on other aspects of the company: organizational, economic, financial, remunerative, information to third parties, etc.

Control II: Economic Analysis of Decisions
This course is an introduction to management accounting, that is, the study of generating and using economic information by company leaders in order to make specific decisions, as well as for planning and monitoring operations.

The course is divided into two parts:

The first part analyzes costs as a tool for decision making. Concepts of full costs, variable costs, contribution margin, differential costs, joint costs, opportunity costs, relevant costs and others will be analyzed, as will their application in matters such as: incorporating new products or dropping current ones, decisions on pricing, whether to manufacture or purchase a specific component, whether to begin or drop a given activity, etc.

In the second part, the basic techniques of cost systems are presented. The following concepts will be examined: cost center, costs by activity, cost by process and by order, historical and standard costs, absorption of general expenses, deviations, etc.

Operations Management
Of all the numerous operative decisions made in a company, there is a small series of variables with global character, which - when properly understood and controlled by General Management - allow the creation of a strategic framework.

The following are the specific objectives of the operations course:

• To become familiar with the nature of operational problems and the way they affect customer satisfaction. Different ways of competing are analyzed: by price, flexibility, novelty, specialty and relationships.
• To study the main types of operations systems and how they influence the company's way of "being the best" (competing).
• To acquire the skills needed to analyze, diagnose and improve the different types of operations systems; human and mechanized work: properties and influence on operations; concurrent processes; types of processes: manufacturing line, manual, automated, etc; and finally the relationship with the company's strategy.
• To establish the main variables that determine the behavior of an operations system and how their values affect the system's performance.
• To develop the skills needed to make these variables evolve in accordance with the desired way of competing.

Implementation of the Sales Function
The course has three main blocks, which are clearly differentiated. In the first, we explore the organization of sales, placing emphasis on sales director's point of view. In the second block, we analyze distribution channels in terms of design and management. And finally, in the third block, we examine overall sales plans for different product-market situations, paying special attention at the end of the program to dealing with large accounts.

Entrepreneurship

Third Term

Personnel Management and Labor Relations
In the first part, labor realities and the application of adequate measures to each of the aspects related to the labor framework, labor unions, and collective bargaining will be examined. Next, change processes that are implicit in new organizational forms, in multinational companies, restructuring, modifications of systems of work, etc. will be discussed. The objectives of the change, its implementation strategy, and the impact on motivation and behavior of people and different HR policies will be focused upon. Finally, different foci of payment systems, as well as professional and career development, will be emphasized following a conceptual format in accordance with the business strategy, values of the company and other HR policies.

Competitive Strategy
This course seeks to foster in students the professional skills needed in the top management of an organization; within the context of a free market subjected to ongoing changes in which competitive rivalry is considered one of the essential instruments for creating and transferring value to society.

One objective of the course is for participants to acquire the skills needed to analyze, interrelate, synthesize and implement each of the functional strategies (finances, marketing, production, etc.) by integrating them into a unified conceptual framework which enables the manager to anticipate and determine the company's strategic future.

The individual person is viewed as the "conclusive, definitive factor" in the company's fate, in which his/her ability to contribute vision and create energy is regarded as crucial.

Financial Policies
The objective of the course is to develop the analytical and managerial skills needed to exercise the financial function within the company, with special emphasis on decisions that are known as structural or long-term (outlined below).

Having examined the main tools for short-term financial analysis and management in the course on Financial Analysis, here we will examine the analysis of more permanent investments and the structure of the company's finances, that is, the composition of its liabilities. The company's relationship with the capital markets is an important feature of this course.

Economic Climate
The goal of this course is to develop the analytical tools needed to understand the economic climate in which companies are operating. To achieve this objective, we will develop a formal theoretical framework for analyzing economic problems. Moreover, with the aim of analyzing and understanding governmental actions, we will adopt the perspective of governments in order to comprehend the pressures and restrictions they must deal with in order to design policy. The course emphasizes, from a global perspective, the analysis of various economic policies.