Executive MBA Curriculum

This course covers quantitative tools and techniques that will be used throughout the program, including algebra, calculus, accounting, statistics, probability, and Microsoft Excel. You’ll also cover financial accounting basics and the time value of money. We will incorporate concepts and examples from a wide selection of EMBA courses to illustrate how these tools are used in the program and elsewhere.

Explore theories and research in social psychology and build your understanding of concepts such as motivation, social perception, interpersonal influence, communication, commitment, and group decision-making. Through case discussions, group activities, and lectures, you’ll build conceptual frameworks and become a more effective leader.

Leverage financial data to make strategic decisions about your organization’s business model, profitability, risk, growth, and value. In this course, you’ll learn fundamental accounting concepts and principles and how to read and analyze financial reports so you can measure and describe a firm’s economic events. Through lectures and case discussions, you’ll examine how accounting principles play out in real-world corporate settings.

Modern business runs on data. In this course, you’ll master the fundamentals of probability and statistics so you can make sense of complex datasets and forecast future events. By analyzing real-world problems in fields such as finance, marketing, economics, politics, and sports, you’ll prepare to leverage data to make better decisions for your firm.

Master the basic principles of modern microeconomics and learn to leverage them to make business decisions. You’ll learn to think like an economist: to frame problems in economic terms, propose solutions, and assess the tradeoffs. From consumer demand and pricing strategies to game theory, moral hazard, and government regulation, this course will ground you in the fundamentals and empower you to use economic principles to drive better business decisions.

Make better decisions through the use of both intuition and analytical tools. This course leverages Nobel Prize–winning research on behavioral decision theory to teach you about the biases that affect decision-making and the mistakes managers make. Through in-class exercises, you’ll learn to make better decisions—and to recognize the limits on your intuitive skills.

This course provides essential insights into the science and art of negotiation to prepare you for effective leadership. Through readings and case studies, you’ll examine the psychological processes underlying negotiations and learn how to avoid biases. Through practical exercises, you’ll practice your skills and build a systematic approach to negotiation. You’ll come out of the course as a sophisticated negotiator.

Explore who you are as a leader and build strategies for lifelong learning and growth. In this experiential course, you’ll build critical skills such as teamwork, influencing others, conflict management, interpersonal communication, and making effective presentations. You’ll also gain self-awareness and create a plan to guide your continued development at Booth and beyond.

Build your understanding of the basic tools of corporate financial decision-making and the fundamentals of investments. This course will prepare you to evaluate investment opportunities, determine how to finance corporate investments, and compare risks and returns. Combining a theoretical framework with applied analysis, the course covers everything from the term structure of interest rates and derivative security pricing to performance evaluation and market efficiency.

How should a firm determine which projects and operating strategies to pursue? And how should these projects and strategies be financed? Using the case method, this course builds your understanding of funding needs, financing decisions, investment decisions, and how financial decisions affect firm value. You’ll learn simple but powerful models and frameworks to unlock qualitative solutions to pressing problems in business.

Apply tools from microeconomics and game theory to the analysis of strategic business decisions. Explore how firms can anticipate and influence their rivals’ competitive behavior, and the impact this has on profitability. Through lectures and class discussions of real-world cases, you’ll study everything from efficient production and dynamic pricing to vertical integration, product design, and platform markets. You’ll gain a robust set of economic tools and the ability to rigorously evaluate firm strategy.

Learn to create value for customers—while capturing value for your company too. In this course, you’ll master the ability to plan and execute effective marketing strategies. Lectures and discussions illuminate key concepts and current research, while case studies give you a chance to apply theories and concepts to real-world situations. You’ll be ready to develop a marketing plan and defend your recommendations.

How do you formulate a pricing strategy? Which data and methods should you leverage to make pricing decisions? And who should be in charge of decision-making about pricing? This class prepares you to answer these questions and maximize profitability by aligning pricing decisions with the rest of the marketing value proposition.

A deep understanding of operations management is critical to your success in any field, from consulting to entrepreneurship to general management and beyond. In this case-based course, you’ll learn to create and sustain competitive advantage by structuring, managing, and improving a firm’s recurring business processes.

How do you use accounting information to make decisions? How do you control your company’s costs and allocate them over time? In this course you’ll learn to leverage accounting data for planning and control, product costing, evaluating performance, and creating incentives. Armed with these essential tools, you’ll add value to organizations ranging from financial and insurance institutions to service organizations and not-for-profits.

What does it mean to be an employee? What type of corporate culture is most effective? How are firms using analytics to improve management and motivate employees? In this course, you’ll apply tools from microeconomics and social psychology to develop a framework for thinking about organizational design, talent management, motivation, and related topics.

Take a deep dive into economic growth and recessions, unemployment and inflation, and the difference between the short run and the long run. In this course, you’ll explore the aggregate behavior of individuals, households, and firms and discover how the global economy intersects with your business career. You’ll also develop analytical tools to help you analyze national and global economic performance and macroeconomic issues.

This class discusses methods for strategic business decision-making using business analytic tools building on recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI). These tools allow firms to analyze large, detailed data sets and make precise predictions about the effects of their actions on sales and other critical outcomes (KPIs). Key applications include relationship management (CRM), salesforce management, and the role of advertising in business growth, both using traditional media and digital channels. Additionally, we study emerging opportunities from generative AI and large language models like Chat GPT. Finally, we discuss the ethics of using precise customer data and both the societal value and the unintended consequences of new privacy regulations.

This course draws on a diverse assortment of readings to treat a wide variety of issues involving business ethics. Each class will be divided into two parts, and one topic will be taken up in each half of the class. Topics include: automation, customer service, the social responsibility of business, activist capitalism, the responsibilities of success, power in the workplace, the money motive, the nature of self-interest, the future of capitalism, and the role of lying in business. These issues will be discussed and debated in class and in written responses to the day’s readings.

In this capstone lab course, students compete in teams to turn around and grow a startup in a market environment that evolves from perfect monopoly to various degrees of competition. At its core, the simulation is focused on successfully operating a business. Teams need to make financing, investment, pricing, production, product choice, channel, and marketing decisions. Supply chain relationships require negotiations with other teams. Task allocations within teams require effective teamwork and management. Historical and other data provide a basis for modeling and statistical analysis. To succeed, you will draw upon material learned in microeconomics, operations, competitive strategy, financial accounting, managerial accounting, corporate finance, negotiations, marketing, governance, managerial decision-making, and other subjects across the Booth curriculum.

In this capstone course, selected student teams form an innovative business, develop a business plan, and pitch the business to peers, faculty, experienced entrepreneurs, and investors. Each year, more than 80 alumni and members of the business community participate as coaches, judges, panelists, and guest speakers. Top teams from each of the three global campuses are invited to compete at the Global New Venture Challenge finals for investment and in-kind services.