SECOND ACADEMIC COURSE

The second year of the program is designed to help students to continue analyzing the problems experienced by companies and how these problems are interrelated. At the same time, further insight is given into the functions of top company management.

FOURTH TERM

Competing from Operations
Being competitive means being the "best" at something. This differentiation must not only be achieved but also sustained in the long term. Competing from Operations analyzes the what, why, where, when, who and how of the analyses and decisions one must make and implement in order to achieve and sustain this differentiation from the standpoint of operations.

We will examine both service and industrial companies and analyze the general structure of operations and its components. Part of the course will examine the design of the operations system. "Destroying the problem" and going to the root of its causes are the leitmotivs to being able to diagnose and implement the path towards improvement and competitiveness.

Corporate Strategy and International Competitiveness
The main objective of this course is to introduce and familiarize participants with the factors to be taken into account when making decisions in companies with diversified business portfolios. Running a diversified company tends to confront management with serious dilemmas. Should the businesses be kept independent in order to be able to make quick decisions? Or, conversely, should they be related and coordinated so that they can capture scale economies within their reach? Should the company only diversify into complementary businesses or is it valid to enter into unrelated businesses as long as they are profitable?

Throughout this course we will illustrate the different ways these companies create "corporate value", that is, the competitive advantage derived from the articulation and coordination between the different businesses.

For this reason, the course focuses not only on issues related to the content of corporate strategy (the "what to do") but also on aspects related to the strategic process (the "how we do it") and the contextual factors that must be considered (the "where we do it").

Information Systems
This course has two objectives: to introduce the basic concepts of information systems and to analyze their impact on companies' strategy and business models, both traditional and new ones based on digital infrastructures.
When we talk about an information system, we are referring to the system needed to obtain, store, process, and distribute information relevant to planning, execution, and monitoring of an organization's activities.

Part of the course will be devoted to the classical topics in information systems management. Other sessions will focus on issues of planning and implementing information systems, as well as their impact on the organizational structure. We will also examine how to ensure that the business strategy is coherent. Finally, issues related to managing IT/IS will be examined, including knowledge management, outsourcing and management via ERPs, in order to conclude with a reflection on the real importance of information systems in companies today.

Entrepreneurship

The course is divided into three modules:

1. Overview of Entrepreneurial Management: In this module, we will look at entrepreneurial behavior in five different contexts: a) start-up context; b) social context; c) mature business facing intense competition; d) large multinational context; and e) change of ownership through acquisition. At the end of the five sessions, we will ask ourselves what are the common elements of behavior that cut across the five contexts described.
2. Process of Entrepreneurship: This module looks at the entire entrepreneurial cycle of identifying and assessing opportunities, defining the business model, assembling resources, launching the business, growing the business, and exiting from the business.  It allows you to acquire the skill set necessary for crafting a winning business model for your venture, developing and writing a concise, coherent, effective and complete business plan, and prepare you for launching an entrepreneurial business. The course thus enables you to embark with confidence in the process of converting entrepreneurial aspirations into reality.
3. Business Plan: In this module, the content will focus on the issues to be covered in the business plan.

International Economics and Finances
Economic and financial globalization is confronting companies with new challenges to which they must rise. In particular, these new challenges can be categorized into three different kinds. The first entails fully grasping the underlying economic trends that determine the setting in which one must operate. The second entails integrating its mechanisms into the everyday management of procedures that enable the company to handle and even profit from both these trends and the fluctuations in the global financial markets. The third entails learning how to take advantage of the opportunities that long-term international growth, globalization and the commercial and financial integration of economies offer in a competitive setting in order to secure a better position and create higher shareholder value.

We will examine the determining factors of globalization along with international economic growth and financial integration, in order to identify the entire range of tools that companies can make use of when making decisions on operations and strategies and assessing this environment.

The ultimate goal of the course is to make participants feel more comfortable making business decisions in the context of the global economy and using the tools available in the international financial markets.

Managerial Communications

The foundation of the Management Communication 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 goes on to apply it in various situations such as in speeches, presentations and interpersonal encounters.
The course is designed round three main activities:
- Mini-lectures (presentation of the theory during the first 20 minutes of each class)
- Class exercise in interpersonal persuasive techniques
- Class exercise in the application of the theory in presentations and speeches

FIFTH TERM

Running Small and Medium-sized Companies
The objective of this course is to reflect on the specific issues facing small and medium-sized companies, which are often not highly professionalized and run by families.

To achieve this, we will examine real situation, where numbers are presented in their natural state and in their real setting - that is, very disordered; where business people/executives are the way they are; with and where there is no place for grandiose strategies but with much space to skillfully activate a few critical levers.

Through this practical approach, we will strive to raise students' awareness of the specific problems of SMEs by developing analytical and technical capacities to create accurate diagnoses and realism in providing solutions.

Managing Portfolios and Derivatives

Leadership and Executive Careers

The following are the specific objectives of this course:

• To examine and develop the stages in a successful professional career. To present and stress the notion of personal leadership with emphasis on the notions of freedom and individual responsibility.
• To explore the keys to individual excellence and encourage students to learn more about themselves based on the classics, the only solid foundation for a fruitful life.

Some of the questions to be examined are:
- What are my talents?
- What are my values?
- What do I expect from work?

• In the context of a changing and multicultural society, to reflect on the concept of leadership: its problems, challenges, and answers.
• To ponder and debate the nature of the company as a social and economic institution.

Negotiation
This course is designed to improve negotiating skills in a practical fashion. The premise is that people can improve their negotiating skills when given the chance to practice using new ideas and tools, and not merely by reading or listening to how it should be done. Each part of the course will provide the opportunity to acquire a conceptual framework, to try new tactics, to experiment, and to add to one's own repertoire the ideas that best fit one's personal style or situation.

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