Academic Curriculum

The Executive MBA curriculum is tailored to mid- and senior-level professionals who already have significant professional experience and are familiar with the fundamentals of business. Therefore the curriculum is designed to leverage the collective experience of the students as well as insights from academic research and lessons from business leaders. The program is comprised of 20 courses in total, of which 18 are required for all students and 2 are electives.

ENTI 601: Entrepreneurial Thinking (Block Week Format) 
Today’s leaders must think entrepreneurially, seeking out ways to turn opportunities into viable for-profit ventures, social ventures or not-for-profit organizations. They are challenged to do more than just business; giving back to society is expected. The primary learning methodology is through a project in which the students identify an opportunity, research the opportunity, and write and present the results of their feasibility assessment. 

OBHR 601: Managing Human Resources
This course takes an evidence-based approach to leadership and organizational behavior. The course emphasizes the application of management theory on leading the self and others. To effectively lead others, one must have a keen sense of one’s unique strengths and opportunities for development. As such, we will begin with self-awareness and assessment, drawing on concepts that are relevant to understanding and managing the self at work. This will include an exploration of work-related personality, values, and attitudes. Such self- assessment will help students gain awareness of their current strengths and areas for improvement, with the goal of developing these skills throughout the course and MBA program. Through the use of experiential learning, this course will further examine leadership techniques necessary for effective leadership, including such concepts as: motivation, team processes, negotiation, and decision-making. 

ACCT 601: Introductory Financial Accounting
The major decision-making areas confronting financial managers today. Provides a general understanding of financial markets and how they can be used for personal finance. Covers traditional subjects such as capital budgeting, net present value, risk / return, capital structure and dividend policy. Topical areas covered are IPOs, mergers and acquisitions, derivatives and options. The course is integrated with current events from the financial world. 

MGST 613: Managerial Decision Modeling 
The transformation of raw data into useful information for decision-making. Quantitative models are implemented with spreadsheets to develop skills in generating managerial insight from data and in dealing with uncertainty. Topics covered include basic probability with statistics, decision trees, regression analysis, optimization and simulation.

MKTG 601: Marketing Management
An introductory course on marketing management with an emphasis on the marketing concepts as the focus of business strategy. The decision variables as well as functional frameworks used by marketing managers are emphasized by concentrating on the relationship between business and consumers.

FNCE 601: Managerial Finance (Block Week Format) 
The major decision-making areas confronting modern financial managers today. Provides a general understanding of financial markets and how they can be used for personal finance. Covers traditional subjects such as capital budgeting, net present value, risk/return, capital structure and dividend policy. Topical areas covered are IPOs, mergers and acquisitions, derivatives and options. The course is integrated with current events from the financial world. 

ACCT 603: Management Accounting 
Breakeven analysis, activity-based costing and management, budgeting, productivity measures, and other tools and techniques that are part of a planning and control system that will help a manager make better economic decisions. 

OPMA 601: Operations Management 
Management of the production and / or service delivery system of the organization in concert with marketing, human resources, finance, and information systems. Management decision making on a continuum from day-to- day operating decisions such as quality control to long-term strategic decision such as capacity planning. Topics covered in the course may include operations strategy, project management and inventory and supply chain management. 

FNCE 613: Corporate Finance 
Classical and contemporary topics in the theory and practice of financial management including capital structure, cost of capital, real options valuation, bankruptcy costs and debt holder-equity holder conflicts, corporate financial strategy, managerial incentives and financial decisions, information conveyed to financial decisions, and mergers and acquisitions. 

MGST 611: Managerial Economics 
Introduction to economic models for business decision making. Models from microeconomics are applied to provide insight in understanding costs, pricing, industry structure, and competitive interaction. Information economics is used to illustrate principal-agent problems that commonly arise in a business context. Macroeconomic models of supply and demand are applied to illustrate how government policy affects inflation and exchange rates.

SGMA 603: Global Environment of Business (Block Week Format) 
Economic, political, social and legal factors affecting management decisions. Topics may include Canada in the world economy, business and government relations, business ethics and legal environment for business. Develops knowledge and ability to analyze and deal with complexities in the business environment. 

SGMA 601: Manager as Strategist
The role of the CEO and other senior executives in formulating and implementing corporate strategies, providing an overview of key strategic issues and topics. Covers such areas as industry analysis, executive leadership, corporate strategy, corporate diversification, strategic change, global strategy, mergers and acquisitions, and strategic implications of new technologies.

BTMA 601: Business Technology Management 
The fundamentals of how to use information technology (IT) innovatively to create competitive firms, to manage global interdependencies and to provide and support quality products and services efficiently and effectively. Topics covered include trends in IT and how they may affect organizations, how organizations and the value chain can be re-designed using IT to encourage and facilitate better performance, how the Internet and electronic commerce impact organizations and markets, how IT-based platforms drive the network economy. 

MGST 623 :Corporate Governance 
Increasingly, investors and lenders are examining a firm's corporate governance and control systems before committing capital to that firm. Thus, a key objective of this course is to help students understand the importance of corporate governance systems in gaining access to both debt and equity capital markets. Additional topics that will be discussed include: developing effective audit and risk management committees, developing effective compensation systems, establishing and implementing effective board and individual director assessment systems, and the legal issues associated with corporate governance. 

Recent experiences in Canada, the US, and around the world have highlighted the effect that poor corporate governance can have on firm performance and survival. The purpose of this course is to help students develop an increased understanding of the links between corporate governance theory and practice. Using a series of cases and real world examples the course will introduce students to the basics of agency theory and review how corporate governance systems have evolved as a method of mitigating agency problems within an organization. Examples will be drawn to illustrate the distinction between corporate governance systems in public firms and private firms. 

Elective 
Students will choose from one of two electives offered (see in Electives and Specialization below)

OBHR 621: Advanced Leadership (Block Week Format)
Haskayne School of Business houses CCAL, the Canadian Centre for Advanced Leadership in Business. Taking advantage of this, we will take an evidence-based approach to leadership with an emphasis on application. The goal is to help you to develop skills and foster understanding that helps you to become a better leader and to focus your own leadership style. This is not going to be the same path for everyone, but we will offer a variety of tools, experiences and ideas to help you to become more effective. 

MGST 615: Major Project 
This Capstone course provides the opportunity for students to apply what they have learned throughout the Program to a strategic issue within their organization. Students will demonstrate their ability to design and implement integrated, inter-disciplinary solutions to real-world business problems and to effectively lead organizational change. 

MGST 643: International Study Tour (10days)
Examines effects of globalization on International and Canadian business. The course normally encompasses visits to two international destinations. The class participates in the selection of destinations and researches relevant industries. 

Electives 
Students will choose from one of two electives offered (see in Electives and Specialization below)

In the second year of the program, you will have the opportunity to choose between electives. Over the last few years, we have seen increasing demand from students wishing to enhance their quantitative skills and knowledge. Therefore you can now choose to select all of the finance electives available to qualify for a finance specialization. 

Choice of electives

• Business Negotiations 
• Derivatives and Financial Risk Management 
• Digital Marketing 
• Mergers and Acquisitions 
• Problems in Financial Management
• Strategic Management II 
• Strategies for Sustainable Development 

Recently offered electives include: 

Finance Stream

• FNCE 765: Mergers & Acquisitions
• FNCE 745: Derivatives & Financial Risk Management
• FNCE 751: Problems in Financial Management 

Other

• OBHR 793: Business Negotiations
• BSEN 793: Business Law
• BSEN 751: Strategies for Sustainable Development