Center Course Offerings
MBA Courses / Evening-Weekend MBA Courses
MBA Roadmap 2008 (PDF Format)
FALL 2009 (Tentative)
Metrics of Sustainability (2 units)
Social Investing: Recent Findings in Mgmt & Finance (1 unit)
SPRING 2010(Tentative)
Strategic
CSR & Projects (3 units)
Strategic Corporate Responsibility (1 unit)
Governance of Global Production (MBA 292T, ESPM 260)
Instructor: Dara O'Rourke
Offered: Fall 2009 (3 Units) - Postponed until Fall 2010
This graduate seminar will explore critical policy and theoretical questions regarding the governance of global production. The seminar engages current trends in the restructuring of industrial production, distributions of environmental, labor, and social impacts from this production, and new strategies for democratic governance.
The course presents existing theories of regulation and governance, assesses market and state "failures," and critically analyzes emerging responses to the limits of traditional regulation. Using cases from the wood products, electronics, garments, shoes, coffee, food, chemicals, and oil industries, the seminar explores the potentials and limitations of new governance strategies, including: corporate voluntary self-regulation, codes of conduct, multi-stakeholder monitoring systems, certification and labeling schemes, fair trade programs, transparency and reporting initiatives, legal strategies, and international accords and agreements.
The course seeks to evaluate why these new institutions and policies have emerged, how they function, and when and under what conditions they can be effective in mitigating environmental, labor, or social impacts of production.
Metrics of Sustainability (MBA/EWMBA 292T)
Instructor: Tony Kingsbury
Offered: Fall 2009 (2 Units)
Effective management in business now takes into account a wide range of criteria relating to the financial, environmental, and social implications of business operations. Research indicates that a strategic commitment to Sustainability has clear implications for the corporate bottom line. Companies continue to struggle with the fundamental challenge of embedding sustainability into their day-to-day business operations and management. One key reason they struggle with embedding sustainability is a lack of metrics. Without measurement how do you know if you are improving? Without common metrics, how can you compare your operations to those of another?
This course exposes students to the complex field of corporate and product specific sustainability measures. We will explore metrics in all three legs of the sustainability stool (financial, environmental and social). We will show how important it is to dig deep into a companies own operations and its value chain to truly understand how sustainable its operations and products are.
In the “classroom” component of this course, students will learn the theories, frameworks, and cases for measuring sustainability. We will investigate "good practices" of companies who have implemented sustainability measures and those who are struggling. Students will develop their own repertoire of tools and implementation strategies that can be utilized across industries and sectors to set up sustainability metrics that yield financial, social and environmental profit. Students will gain both a broad understanding of the issues within external and internal corporate responsibility, and deep vertical knowledge on industries of their selection.
The second portion of this class includes live consulting projects with real companies, in which students will help their clients answer sustainable metric challenges posed by the participating companies. Projects might include, but are not limited to, the following: carbon accounting; measuring socially responsible investing; measuring the sustainability of suppliers; measuring and reporting; public/private partnerships. It is an opportunity for the students to put their newly learned theory into practice with real-world, complex, multidisciplinary sustainability problems. It is expected that the company will be implementing the students' recommendations, which will be backed with solid data.
Social Investing: Recent Findings in Management & Finance (MBA/EWMBA 292T)
Instructor: Lloyd Kurtz
Offered: Fall 2009 (1 Unit)
***Please note the non-standard format for this course, which meets all day on two Sundays: September 13 and 20.***
Once considered a sideshow in the investment world, social investing has begun to attract significant attention from academics. Some of the issues raised by social investors bring fresh light to controversies in investment and management theory. Moreover, concerns over globalization and climate change have challenged the widely-held view that social and environmental concerns must be subordinated to financial ones in capital allocation decisions. This course will review eight strong recent studies of issues in social investing from different academic fields including management, finance, and economics.
Strategic Corporate Responsibility (CSR) & Projects (MBA 292C)
Instructor: Kellie McElhaney
Offered: Spring 2010 (3 Units)
Click here to listen to Kellie McElhaney's audio clip overview of this course.
This is a corporate strategy course. You will learn how to use corporate responsibility as a business strategy, linked to a firm's core business objectives and a firm's core competencies, leading to financial and social / environmental return.
Students will be exposed to the theories, frameworks, and cases of corporate responsibility (CSR). We investigate "good practices" of companies who have implemented socially responsible strategies while maintaining or maximizing financial returns. Students will develop their own repertoire of tools and implementation strategies that can be utilized across industries and sectors to set up CSR strategies that yield both financial and social profit. Students will gain both a broad understanding of the issues within external and internal corporate responsibility, and deep vertical knowledge on industries of their selection.
Students will bid on consulting projects supplied by the instructor, and will work in teams on the consulting project to which they are assigned. After reviewing and analyzing any existing CSR efforts, students will develop a new CSR strategy focusaligned with business objectives and core competencies. Projects might include, but are not limited to, the following: social entrepreneurship; socially responsible investing; branding; communication strategies; stakeholder engagement; transparent annual reporting; public/private partnerships; strategic philanthropy; consumer segmentation and awareness. It is an opportunity for learners to put their newly learned theory into practice with real-world, complex, multidisciplinary CSR problems. It is expected that the company will be implementing the students' recommendations, which will be backed with solid data.
Students will emerge ready to develop and implement strategic CSR within their own companies and industries through any job function.
Strategic Corporate Responsibility (CSR) (MBA/EWMBA 292T)
Instructor: Kellie McElhaney
Offered: Spring 2010 (1 Unit)
It is increasingly recognized that the managerial decision-making process in business needs to take into account a wide range of criteria relating to the financial, environmental, and social implications of business operations. There is a growing body of research indicating that a visible commitment to corporate responsibility (CSR) has clear implications for the corporate bottom line. Still, companies face the fundamental challenge of embedding CSR into the way that they operate day to day.
This course will introduce students to the burgeoning, yet complex, field of corporate responsibility. A particular focus will be on strategic CSR, which is defined as corporate strategy that is integrated with core business objectives and core competencies to create positive social change and business value. Students will leave this class armed with a tool set of best strategic practices from current companies, and through in-depth analyses, you will learn how to analyze, develop, and make recommendations for strategic CSR and its implementation. You will emerge ready to implement this strategic CSR within your own companies and industries.
