This is a composite MBA curriculum I have synthesised from multiple sources – mostly high-profile MBA curriculums published by prominent universities. The aim was to generate a longlist of topics I might choose to study as part of my Eccentric MBA in 2022. The sources are listed at the bottom.
Finance
- Capital markets (equities, bonds, securities, derivatives) and financial institutions (equity markets, private equity, venture capital)
- Corporate takeovers, mergers, etc [also under Law]
- Capital budgeting, discounted cash flow, risk analysis and management
- Credit market analysis, option/derivative pricing, valuation of interest tax shields, weighted average cost of capital
- Debt finance, equity finance, distributing cash to shareholders
- Deals and transactions (mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, leveraged buyouts, hostile takeovers, initial public offerings)
- Investment strategies, portfolio management, risk/return
Accounting
- Double-entry bookkeeping, ledgers
- International Financial Reporting Standards
- Financial statements
- Accounting reports
- Financial analysis/valuation for financial management and control, investment, and credit decisions
- Reporting policy and strategy
- Budgeting
Microeconomics
- Value creation
- Supply and demand
- Competition and monopoly
- Pricing methods [also in Marketing]
- Strategic interaction between firms and auction design
Organisational behaviour
- Group cultures
- Performance management
- Horizontal influence
- Vision and delivery
- Organisational design
- Management and governance
Marketing & Sales
- Product policy
- Channels of distribution
- Communication, branding, advertising
- Pricing [also in Microeconomics]
Operations Management
- Process analysis
- Cross-functional and cross-firm integration
- Product development
- Supply chain management
- Lean Thinking
- Quality Management
Technology
- Information technology / digital transformation
- Technology and operations strategy
- Silicon Valley style tech world/startups/VCs
- Sharing economy / collaborative economy (Uber, Airbnb, etc)
Environment
- Environmental sustainability and relation to political, social, economic sustainability
- Environmental regulation
- Global environmental issues, climate change
National Political Environment
- Policy development, the legislative process
- National finance and the budget process
- Economic data, governmental accounting (incl GDP)
- Lobbying and influence
- Public procurement
International Environment
- International trade
- Balance of payments
- Foreign direct investment
- Portfolio capital flows
- International institutions and agreements
- ‘Differences and disputes across countries that influence or constrain business opportunities.’
Strategy
- Strategy theory
- Competitive positioning (single business)
- Corporate strategy (multi-business organisation)
- Understanding comparative costs
- Cannibalization, network externalities, and globalization
- Global strategy
- Strategy and innovation
- Systems, systems analysis, systems improvement
Leadership & Management
- Leadership, management and governance systems
- Objectives, KPIs, reporting
- Recruitment, induction, performance management, learning & development, exits (resignations, individual terminations, redundancies)
- Corporate turnaround and organisational transformation
- [see also Organisational behaviour]
Entrepreneurship
- Social entrepreneurship
- Technological entrepreneurship
- Opportunity identification, securing resources, creating an entrepreneurial organisation, managing it, growing to sustainability, creating and harvesting stakeholder value
- Entrepreneurial finance, investment models [some overlaps with Finance and Accounting]
Analytics & decision-making
- Data tools and techniques, statistics, forecasting
- Technical tools: decision trees, simulation, preference analysis, linear programming
- Biases, incl sunk cost fallacy, ignoring opportunity cost
- Value of information
- Stakeholder analysis
- Game theory, auction theory
- Sensitivity analysis
- Risk management/Hedging – insurance, options incl option to wait, moral hazard, adverse selection, diversification [overlap with Finance and Accounting]
Law
- Corporate law
- Contract law
- Torts
- Labour/employment law, trade unions
- Competition law
- Fraud
- Insider trading (US, UK, EU)
- Intellectual property (copyright, designs, patents, DB right, trade secrets)
- Data protection / GDPR
- Regulatory bodies
- [Corporate takeovers, mergers, etc under Finance]
DEI (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) and Ethics
- Shareholder capitalism, political economy, governance, institutions, how capitalism functions and varies
- Alternative conceptions of the corporation.
- Social sustainability and its relation to economic & environmental sustainability
- Accountability and corporate reporting; engaging with NGOs, supply chain and other stakeholders.
- Impact – such as business and society; social capital; measurement of performance; social entrepreneurship; renegotiating boundaries of business and society.
- Impact investing
- Reputation and reputation management
- Trust
- Regulatory capture
- Consequentialism, deontology, virtue ethics
- Book study: Complaint! by Sara Ahmed, which examines what we can learn about power from those who complain about abuses of power
- [These curriculums seem surprisingly threadbare here even coming with low expectations, depressingly.]
Sector specifics (private)
- Retail
- Professional & business services/consulting
- Financial services (banking, insurance)
- Fintech
- Health
- Pharmaceuticals, life sciences
- Chemicals
- Utilities: Energy, Water, Telecoms
- Construction & housing
- Engineering
- Manufacturing
- Extractive (mining, quarrying, forestry, oil & gas, refining)
- Transport & logistics
- Aerospace
- Defence
- Creative (media, entertainment)
- Agriculture
- Hospitality & leisure (incl tourism)
- Automotive
- Aviation
- Telecoms
- Real estate
Sector specifics (public & third)
- Public sector regulatory environment
- Stakeholder analysis
- Education
- Health
- Social care
- Local government
- Charities
Project management
- [often seen as below the MBA/strategic level]
- Programme management, portfolio management, project management
- PRINCE2 for project sponsors
- Agile
Small business specifics (SMEs)
- Structure (company forms, CICs, charities, sole traders)
- Banking and finance
- VAT
- Tax / HMRC
Miscellaneous
- Negotiation
- Motivation and incentives
- Behavioural economics
- Family businesses
- Philanthropic foundations
- Business history
Sources
- Cambridge Judge Business School https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/programmes/mba/curriculum/
- Cranfield University https://www.cranfield.ac.uk/som/cranfield-mba-programmes/mba-full-time
- Harvard Business School https://www.hbs.edu/mba/academic-experience/curriculum/Pages/default.aspx
- London Business School https://www.london.edu/masters-degrees/mba/programme-content
- The Open University http://www.open.ac.uk/postgraduate/qualifications/f61
- Oxford Saïd Business School https://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/programmes/mbas/mba/academic-curriculum
- Stanford Graduate School of Business https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/programs/mba/academic-experience
- Warwick Business School https://www.wbs.ac.uk/courses/mba/full-time/details/
- Wharton @ UPenn https://mba.wharton.upenn.edu/mba-guide/
- Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_of_Business_Administration#Content
- Josh Kaufman, The Personal MBA