BUCO 260: Business Communication Across Cultures (2 units) Develop the key intercultural communication competencies necessary to successfully interact and compete in an increasingly global marketplace. You will be introduced to intercultural communication theory and learn to apply it in international business. Students will learn about corporate culture in different countries, work on case studies involving intercultural business situations, and participate in simulated ELC activities and class exercises. The class is particularly beneficial to students who have participated in or plan to participate in GLP, LINC, ExCel, study abroad and international summer internships. Sample student projects can be found on this link and this one.
BUCO 425: Ethics and Professional Communication (4 units) Study the intersections between business and professional leadership, language, and ethics. Analyze the sometimes uneasy relationship between ethics and capitalism and present results to public audiences through publications, professional conferences, ethics case competitions. Fulfills four semester units of newly required ethics study for CPA licensure.
BUCO 333: Communication in the Working World: Managing Diversity and Conflict (4 units) Learn about communication strategies to manage workplace diversity and conflict, along with the historical, social, legal precedents and institutional barriers to diversity. Fulfills USC Diversity requirement.
BAEP 480:– Entrepreneurial Family Business (4 units) Family Business dominates the United States business world. According to the University of South Maine’s Institute of Family Owned Business, family business accounts for 50% of USA’s GDP and generate 60% of the country’s employment and 78% of all new job creation. This course creates an opportunity for students to look into the dynamics that make up how family businesses act and react in the business climate. We will explore generational, sibling and extended family issues and how they play out in the workplace. The course will look at succession; new opportunities and how new members create value to the enterprise.
BUCO 450: Communication for Organizations: Exploring Creativity (2 units) Cultivate individual creative thinking and problem solving skills; enhance managerial communication skills necessary to foster workplace creativity.
IOM 499: Special Topics – Managing a Small Business on the Internet (2 units)This course summarizes the foundational knowledge and hands-on skills needed to effectively use the internet for managing small businesses and improving business growth. Classes include a mixture of lectures, demonstrations, and discussions. Students will apply the internet skills they learn in class in a project that uses commercial tools to customize a pre-configured system for internet-based small businesses. YouTube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwboy9LE8LE&list=PL77DF6605AAC271AB&index=1
FBE 453ab Practicum in Investment Management also known as the USC MARSHALL Undergraduate Student Investment Fund (USIF) Program. Be one of 16 students who manages a portion of the University’s Equity endowment. You will experience an extraordinary learning opportunity from real money management and dialogues with successful investment professionals. If you are interested in careers in equity research or money management or financial consultancies, you should consider applying for this year-long course. You will gain real life experience for a future career in equity research and/or investment management. Specifically, you will learn applied valuation and financial analysis, contemporary portfolio theory and practice, as well as behavioral finance. You will get to learn the analytical framework for the valuation of stocks and bonds, risk management, portfolio optimization, and performance attribution. You will be a real money manager and produce industry reports, company research reports, and stock pitches. The Annual Report will reflect your record of achievement. The FBE453ab class is taught by Professor Suh-Pyng Ku. The deadline for SIF 2013 applications was January 31, 2012. Download the application here. Read more about this course at About FBE453ab_aka_USIF.
BUAD 201x: Introduction to Business for Non-Majors (4 units). Designed for non-business majors who want to have an understanding of common business principles. The course covers an introduction to the principles and practices of business, a sequence of exercises developing these basic skills, and the influence of the economy on business and individual decisions. BUAD 201x can serve as an introductory course to the business minor or as a stand-alone course for students interested in gaining a basic understanding of business without committing to a minor or major.
Marketing Research (MKT 470)- Professor Kyu’s hand-on, experiential class uses tools like Qualtrics and SPSS to help students develop critical marketing skills needed to identify consumer needs, develop promotion strategies, and test new business/product ideas. Students will learn how to use research tools that include in-depth interviews and surveys, and will also learn how information derived from these tools can help managers make better marketplace decisions. The class is extremely valuable for students who desire a career in marketing or strategy. Information about the class, copies of the syllabus, and student testimonials can be found on the class website.
Business and Environmental Sustainability (MOR 499) – Few issues are more urgent for contemporary management than business’s impact on the natural environment. In addition to longstanding concerns about the exhaustion of global resources, degradation of the environment, loss of biodiversity, and the effects on human biology, recent evidence suggests that climate change is a growing and urgent problem that must be addressed in the near term to avoid long-term disastrous impacts for human life on this planet. This class uses discussions, cases and guests speakers to ask: (1) What is sustainability? Why should we care? How sustainable is our current path of economic development? How urgent is the challenge? (2) What are the forces driving change in business conduct? How is business affected by finite resources? social movements? government regulation? institutional factors? (3) Under the pressure of these forces, what new strategies and practices can firms adopt — in operations, technologies, product design, marketing, and non-market activities? (4) Will these changes in business conduct suffice? What will it take for us to meet the challenge of sustainability? How do we navigate the competing perspectives on the political-economy of sustainability? Learn more here.
Taking the Leap: The Entrepreneurial Mindset (BAEP 470)- This 2-unit course it’s designed for anyone who aspires to lead an organization, gain insight into what it takes to be an entrepreneur, or better understand his/her personal leadership philosophy. The course is built upon first-person, in-class conversations with leading entrepreneurs, innovators, and world changers. The discussions are candid, powerful, and inspiring. In other entrepreneurship courses, our curriculum focuses on the “skill set” to start and grow a business, which is vitally important. This course is centered on the “mindset” of elite entrepreneurs, innovators, and leaders. What qualities and attributes do they possess? How do they view and manage risk? How do they filter and evaluate opportunities? What are their leadership philosophies? What is the role of ethics, service and giving back? Below are links to give students a better sense of the content and experience of the course. Previous celebrity guests have included Quincy Jones, Paul Orfalea (Kinko’s), Mark Burnett (TV producer), Tom Freston (MTV/Viacom), and a host of other business leaders. The Leap is led by David Belasco, who has been on our Advisory Council and taught in Marshall’s MBA program for several years. Professor Belasco is the recipient of Golden Apple Teaching Awards, a USC-Mellon Mentoring Award, the Dean’s Community Award, and the Greif Center Lead Blocker Award. Students rated the course at 4.90 and Professor Belasco at 4.98 (each on a 5-point scale). Learn more at the class website. See our class highlights on Vimeo. Follow us on Facebook.
Introduction to Behavioral Finance (BUAD 499)- The recent financial crisis offers many painful examples of the disconnect between standard financial and economic models and reality. Over the past decades, a number of scholars –many of them psychologists- have worked on a new alternative approach to the analysis of financial decisions. This body of research is collectively known as Behavioral Finance. This course is an introduction to this fast growing area of knowledge. The class will use a critical lens to review many of the models and assumptions that are part of the common wisdom in finance and will discuss alternative explanations to some of the facts. The class will also help develop the critical thinking skills that recruiters in the finance industry consider a must, especially in these difficult times. Behavioral Finance is not a standard offering in business programs, and only some of the top business schools in the world offer this type of course. This course will provide Marshall students interested in finance with a comparative advantage over business undergraduates from most institutions. Download the Syllabus here.