Postgraduate Courses

This course focuses on the construction and interpretation of corporate financial reports, which are used by external parties (including investors, creditors, and regulators). Actual financial statements from real companies are discussed so that students become accustomed to the many variations that these reports take. Students gain a solid understanding of financial statements and the ability to use them for decision-making. Real-company examples for both Russian and Chinese companies are used as illustrations.

The aim of the course is to provide students with the framework, concepts, and tools for analyzing financial and strategic decisions made by firms and managers. The course will enhance the students' ability to analyze complex financial problems faced by executives and analysts, and help them quantify the financial consequences of strategic decisions.

Introduction to management of business processes that produce goods or services: topics include operations strategy, process analysis, queuing systems, inventory management, quality management, process improvement and other important issues.

Warren Buffet once said: "When an industry with a reputation for difficult economics meets a manager with a reputation for excellence, it is usually the industry that keeps its reputation intact." Many managers fail to appreciate the numerous ways in which competition can destroy profitability. This course focuses on understanding individual economic behavior, competition, and market characteristics that are relevant to business and management.

This course focuses on the customer as an individual, with a particular emphasis on how consumers react to marketing information provided about a product. The topics discussed comprise an examination of basic psychological processes in a logical sequence: i.e., exposure, attention, perception, memory, persuasion, and decision-making. In addition, the course also furthers an understanding of consumer behavior by examining its social and cultural context, with special reference to the nature and importance of cultural differences in consumer behavior around the world.

Strategic Management is about organizations creating their future. The strategic decisions will determine whether a company thrives or declines and fades. Organizations that have a well-thought through strategy enjoy sustained success, make a contribution to the world and are fun to work for. The course examines the core strategic concepts and how to apply them in strategic decision-making.

Corporate governance examines how corporations induce their managers to maximize shareholder value through incentives and monitoring institutions. Incentive plans, such as compensation packages, serve to align managerial and shareholder interests, Monitoring institutions, such as the board of directors and auditors, serve to oversee management and increase transparency, accountability, and credibility. In addition to these internal governance mechanisms, corporations are also disciplined by external factors such as product-market competition, laws and regulation, and the market for corporate control. This course analyzes how good corporate governance can mitigate incentive and information problems, nurture great leaders, and foster great companies.

In this class students will learn how to negotiate by actually negotiating in a wide variety of different situations, ranging from simple buyer-seller bargains to complex, multiple-issue strategic relationships. Generally, every class will involve several experiential negotiations and class discussion. They will review a wide variety of experiences in the specific negotiation, develop hypotheses regarding the effectiveness of certain behaviors, tactics and strategies, and suggest appropriate analyses that might play a useful role in preparing oneself for future negotiations.

Study of selected business issues under the supervision of a faculty member. The course can only be taken once to satisfy the program requirements of HKUST-SKOLKOVO Executive MBA Program for Eurasia. (Special permission from the Academic Director is required for students to take this course.)