Electives

Team-taught by faculty members with diverse areas of expertise, including Dean Glenn Hubbard, the Future of Financial Services takes a cross-disciplinary approach to investigating the underpinnings and consequences of the financial crisis, and looks forward, challenging students to discover new opportunities for products and businesses by building on an analysis of the crisis and the changing landscape of the industry.

Global Immersion classes bridge classroom lessons and business practices in another country. Classes meet for half a term in New York, then culminate in a one-week visit to a country of focus. During the immersion week, students will meet with local business executives and government officials while working on team projects. Recent Global Immersion countries have included China, India, Brazil, Costa Rica, and South Africa.

The process of innovation is not always pretty and rarely successful. Innovate or Die focuses on the accomplishments and challenges of selected entrepreneurs as they struggled to create and implement disruptive business models while introducing new products and services. Each class focuses on a different industry, pulling examples from the worlds of information technology, automobiles, finance, retailing, government, media, and the arts.

In Launching New Ventures, taught by Professors Cliff Schorer and Brendan Burns of the Lang Entrepreneurship Center, students work individually or in teams to develop a comprehensive and effective presentation of a real business concept. Faculty members, industry mentors, and others help students distill business opportunities into a written and oral presentation ready to seek funding and commence operations.

Designed to develop the approach to investments and security analysis pioneered by Columbia faculty members Benjamin Graham and David Dodd, Legends in Value Investing, taught by Professor Bruce Greenwald, director of the Heilbrunn Center for Graham and Dodd Investing, details the comprehensive statistical evidence in favor of such a method and the types of investments that are likely to be fruitful targets of a value approach. Lecturers and visiting speakers — successful practicing value investors — have included Warren Buffett MS ’51, Robert Bruce ’70, Mario Gabelli ’67, and Charles “Chuck” Royce ’63.

Taught by Professor Bernd Schmitt, faculty director of the Center on Global Brand Leadership, Managing Brands, Identity, and Experiences explores how companies need to understand the financial value of their corporate brand and its products, manage brands strategically, and deliver implementations to customers that are relevant, differentiated, and powerful in order to build loyalty and emotional bonds. The course involves field trips to retailing locations in Manhattan that are using experiential marketing to strengthen their brand awareness, such as the Apple Store, Abercrombie & Fitch, and the Samsung Experience.

Among students’ many elective options are Master Classes. Each Master Class focuses on a specific industry (e.g., media, real estate, consulting) and draws significant input from the professional community via group projects, guest speakers, adjunct faculty members, and alumni participation. With substantial project work and practitioner involvement, Master Classes provide students with unique exposure to real-time business challenges.

Taught by Professor Raymond Horton, founder of the Social Enterprise Program, Modern Political Economy aims to help students understand, predict, adapt to, and shape the evolving world of political economy from the various vantages they will hold during their careers. Part One examines the foundations of modern political economy laid by Smith, Marx, Keynes, and Schumpeter. Part Two examines development in American political economy during the 20th century. Part Three examines whether events so far in the 21st century signal sea changes in American and international political economy.

Napoleon’s Glance, taught by Professor William Duggan, offers a key skill for strategy, leadership, and decision making in business, your career, and your personal life. Other courses teach the science of management, through analytical tools and techniques: this course teaches the art of management, through strategic intuition — otherwise known as Napoleon’s glance.

How do general managers get things done? Typically, they work through processes, or sequences of tasks and activities that unfold over time. Top Management Process, taught by Professor Ralph Biggadike, explores six top management processes: strategy, resource allocation, decision making, learning, managerial decision making, and change.