Flex MBA | Academics

The Merage Consulting Program course offers you the opportunity to gain consulting experience with an established company. Under the guidance of a dedicated faculty expert and with coaching by successful business executives, students engage in a 10-week project for course credit. 

Translate Curriculum Into Real-Life Application
Put into practice the business skills and tools you learn by addressing a legitimate business problem faced by a well-known area company. Class lectures augment your project with analyses of relevant managerial issues. Some of the tangible benefits you receive from the course are:

• Sharpen your conceptual, analytical and technical knowledge and skill sets
• Gain valuable insight in a new industry and/or functional area
• Gain skills in project management, management consulting and solution-oriented management
• Enhance your resume with professional experience that may be a stepping stone in your career
• Focus on one or more strategic topics that cut across functional areas
• Deliver an on-site presentation and written report with your team to senior management

Companies that participate in the course regularly report exceptionally high standards of satisfaction with the quality of the work our students provide. Consulting projects have been completed for diverse companies, ranging from consumer goods to high tech to financial institutions to real estate and beyond. A few of these corporations include:

•  Advanced Medical Optics
•  Altos Group
•  Apria Healthcare
•  Beckman Coulter
•  Connexion by Boeing
•  Deloitte
•  Emulex
•  ESI / Dodge
•  First Team Real Estate
•  Ingram Micro
•  Lowe Enterprises
•  Mazda
•  Nestle Waters
•  Northwestern Mutual Financial Network
•  Pacific Life
•  Pepsi
•  Precept
•  Restaurants on the Run
•  The Gallup Organization
•  Verizon Wireless

Our curriculum at the Merage School offers you the high-caliber, holistic preparation you need to become an effective leader in a digitally driven world. Core and elective courses examine how technology is disrupting all aspects of business across a diverse range of industries, from manufacturing and finance to healthcare and retail. Our focus on innovation allows you to prepare now for the career of tomorrow. We offer between 50–60 electives annually across all disciplines (on-campus or online). Below the current elective list, you will find a few course descriptions for some new courses offered in the 2019-2020 academic year:

Accounting

• Driving Profitability Through Managerial Accounting
• Financial Statement Analysis and Valuation I
• Financial Statement Analysis and Valuation II
• International Accounting
• Cybersecurity Risk Management
• Intro to Data Analytics for Accounting (MPAc)

Economics & Public Policy

• Business of Medicine
• Macroeconomics
• Understanding Risk in Health Care

Finance

• Bonds and Fixed Income
• Derivatives
• FinTech and The Digital Economy
• Investments
• Multinational Finance
• Venture Capital and Private Equity
• Programming and Data Analysis for Business (MFin)

Information Systems

• Technologies & Analytics Consulting (MSBA)
• Business Intelligence
• Data & Program Analytics
• Digital Strategies
• Software Thinking for Managers
• Advanced Data Analytics (MSBA)
• Blockchain
• Data Architecture (MSBA)
• Deep Learning Applications (MSBA)
• Python for Management
• Big Data Analytics with Hadoop (MSBA)
• EDGE
• Big Data Management Systems (MSBA)

Interdisciplinary Studies

• Analyzing Organizations from the Inside
• Applied Game Theory
• Business Law
• EDGE
• Intrapreneurship
• Media & Entertainment
• Merage Consulting Projects
• Sustainability & Competitive Advantage

Marketing

• Consumer Behavior
• Brand Management Simulation
• Insight Marketing
• Marketing on the Internet
• Marketing Research
• Micromarketing with Digital Footprints
• Social Media Marketing
• Sales Management
• Digital Marketing for Business Analytics (MSBA)

Operations and Decision Technologies

• Analytical Decision Models
• Decision Analysis
• Predictive Analytics
• Supply Chain Management

Organization and Management

• Global Negotiations
• Managing Performance in 21st Century
• Negotiations
• Organizational Change
• Strategic Communication

Real Estate

• Applied Real Estate Security Analysis and Portfolio Management
• Introduction to the Real Estate Process
• International Real Estate
• The Real Estate Development Process
• Introduction to the Real Estate Process
• Mixed-Use Community Land Development
• Real Estate Capital Markets
• Seminar in Management of the Real Estate Enterprise

Strategy

• Competitive Intelligence
• Corporate Strategy
• Entrepreneurship
• Networks, Platforms, and Ecosystems in Business Strategy
• Practice of General Management
• Strategy in a Digital Age
• Media & Entertainment

Sample Course Descriptions for Electives That Prepare You For the Digital Age:

EDGE

We are in the midst of a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world. Globalization, geopolitical shifts, technology, demographic shifts, macroeconomic trends, changing consumer preferences, and sustainability have fast become catalysts for business reinvention. This course will explore the strategic and operational issues that business leaders face in adapting to the new business environment — what we call managing and competing at the EDGE. EDGE is Merage’s integrative course that explores the crucial roles of global, economic, technological, environmental, societal and political forces in the business landscape as transformative catalysts for change — disrupting markets, changing and erasing boundaries, and reinventing industries.

This course will prepare future business leaders to proactively identify the opportunities and challenges presented by these catalysts, provide valuable frameworks to critically evaluate their implications, and develop the key strategies, insights and approaches needed to innovate, compete, and win at the EDGE.

Networks, Platforms, and Ecosystems in Business Strategy

This course provides a rigorous, economics-based and real-world-grounded development of the theory of networking effects and standards competition, platform economics, ecosystems management and regulatory impacts.

You will study models, synthesize strategies and apply the tools to contemporary and historical situations via class discussions, problems and assignments.

Strategy for a Digital Age

This course examines continuing digitization, including blockchain transaction control, digital manufacturing, cheap robotics and automation and the application of artificial neural networks to large data sets.

We focus on applying the unchanging basic principles of strategy, economics and organization to these new developments.

Digital Transformation: The immersion in Digital Transformation prepares students to lead their organizations to success in the digital economy. Digital technologies are appreciating in power at incredible rates and changing the business environment in profound ways. Digital Transformation is the reinvention of businesses to reflect the digital world. The economics of the digital world are fundamentally different from those of the physical world, and imply new rules of competition. They change business strategy, structure and practices in profound ways. You will learn how to analyze technology-enabled change broadly and how to leverage digital technologies across businesses, from the perspective of both incumbents and startups. Completion of the MBA immersion requires 4+ academic courses and participating in the Center for Digital Transformation’s annual Road to Reinvention conference.

Health Care Management and Policy: The immersion in Healthcare Management and Policy prepares you to excel in today’s complex healthcare business environment. Developed and administered with the Merage School’s Center for Health Care Management and Policy, this immersion builds on the Center’s mission to engage its partners in collaborative education, research and community service programs. You will develop a deep understanding of not only the underlying economics of healthcare, but also the policies, regulations and institutions that impact healthcare markets. Students at the Merage School can earn the MBA immersion in Healthcare Management and Policy by successfully completing a set of key electives and participating in the Center’s annual Health Care Forecast Conference.

Innovation and Entrepreneurship: The Beall Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship provides you with academic and practical training to gain a solid understanding of launching and/or growing a business in today’s competitive environment. The immersion in Innovation and Entrepreneurship prepares students who are either planning to or have already embarked on a career as an entrepreneur (innovating to form new companies) or an intrapreneur (innovating within existing companies). Earn the MBA immersion in Innovation and Entrepreneurship by participating in the Merage School New Venture Competition and completing key electives focused on entrepreneurship and innovation.

Real Estate and Urban Development: The Center for Real Estate provides world-class resources and research to future leaders and entrepreneurs working in real estate. To that end, the Center focuses on the pursuit of emerging best practices in the real estate profession. The MBA immersion in Real Estate and Urban Development provides you the practical skills and theories needed to succeed in an ever-changing marketplace. It takes a holistic approach to real estate, drawing from the lessons of past cycles and current trends in order to best prepare you for your career in real estate. Earn this MBA immersion through successful completion of five academic courses focused on real estate.