Courses

• SMG PL 498: Directed Study in Markets, Public Policy, and Law
  Directed Study
• SMG QM 450: Business Analytics
  Improves students' ability to think logically about and to structure complex managerial problems; and to develop Excel-based spreadsheet models that can be used to significantly improve managerial decision-making. The course is taught almost entirely by example, using problems from the main functional areas of business: Finance, Operations, and Marketing. Students learn about the two main types of modeling approaches: optimization models which can help find the "best" solution, and simulation models which allow explicit consideration of risk trade-offs associated with alternatives. 4 cr.
• SMG SI 422: Strategy and Policy
  Provides students with a powerful set of tools which will prepare them to analyze, formulate, and implement business firm strategy with the aim of attaining sustainable competitive advantage. Adopts the perspective of the general manager, challenging student knowledge in each functional area in the effort to create integrative strategies that serve the needs of shareholders, as well as other stakeholders inside and outside the company. The course includes conceptual readings, which elucidate the fundamental concepts and frameworks of strategic management, as well as case analyses, which enable students to apply their knowledge to real-world situations and managerial decisions. The course culminates with a final project, which requires student teams to perform a complete strategic analysis on a public company, considering its industry environment and dynamics, its strategic positioning and internal resources, and proposing a course of action for the firm to respond to its strategic challenges. 4 cr.
• SMG SI 435: Entertainment Management
  (Offered in Los Angeles) Surveys the application of management concepts and principles to the film, television, video, new media and music industry. This course examines administration and finance, development, production, and distribution, and introduces students to the organizations and people (such as studios, independent production companies, talent managers, and agents) who manage, invest, and eventually profit in this creative industry. Much of the class time is spent in discussion of current entertainment industry trends. Students gain the skills to achieve their own entertainment goals. 4 cr.
• SMG SI 438: Talent Representation and Management
  (Offered in Los Angeles) Using case studies and business models, students examine the manner in which critical players interact and attempt to work together in behalf of clients in an effort to make their "professional dreams" come to fruition. Participants will gain an understanding of the different areas of talent representation, how each one functions in the scope of a talent's career and what the responsibilities are for each position in each area of representation. Participants will also gain a clear view of what the business of Entertainment Representation has to offer as a chosen career. 4 cr.
• SMG SI 443: Art of the Start
  Focuses on sales strategy and execution, critical factors in building a successful business. The entrepreneur, having successfully created a novel offering, must create and keep a customer. This course provides students with effective sales skills to create traction with customers and maximize revenue growth. In addition, students learn new frameworks to evaluate the various market channels, trade-offs in strategic partnerships, and approaches to managing a field sales force. The course also addresses identifying early adopters, pricing strategies, and the selling process. Students engage in a field project assisting an entrepreneur with the go-to-market strategy. 4 cr.
• SMG SI 444: Entrepreneurship
  Addresses the specifics of planning a business startup or expanding and altering an existing small business, including the feasibility of ideas, market definition, management, and operations and financing requirements. This is a hands-on, experiential learning course requiring integration of previous coursework into a coherent, realistic business plan. Helps students assess and develop their own particular idea and to consider the appropriateness for them of entrepreneurship as a career choice. 4 cr.
• SMG SI 445: Small Business Management
  Designed to help students understand the intricacies of running a small company. The course addresses the major problem areas in smaller companies, including valuation, negotiation, deal structure, personnel and compensation, and marketing and financing. Exposes students to a wide range of business activities, emphasizing significant differences between large and small enterprises. The course uses a competitive computer simulation to provide students with the opportunity to "run" their own business. 4 cr.
• SMG SI 451: Organizing for Design and Innovation
  This course examines how managers and leaders can create the conditions for innovation at the individual, team and organizational levels and how those conditions differ for startup and mature organizations. Managing innovation includes the generation of ideas; the integration of those ideas into new product concepts; and the commercialization of those ideas. While core strategy courses address the questions of what innovations to pursue and whether and when those innovations will bring value, this course addresses the question of how managers can create organizations to deliver sustainable innovations of value. 4 credits. (Spring 2011 pilot course)
• SMG SI 455: Leadership and Management of Nonprofit Organizations
  Introduces students to the structure, scope, and scale of the nonprofit sector in the U.S. and the inter-relationship of the nonprofit, business, and government sectors. Students investigate the major nonprofit sub-sectors such as health, education, arts, environment, religious institutions, international nongovernmental organizations, social services, and philanthropic organizations (such as foundations). Following this overview, the course narrows its focus to the specific application of management topics in the sector including effective board governance, executive leadership, human resources management (including the management of volunteers), operations, resource development (fundraising), marketing, and nonprofit financial management. Class format combines lectures, case studies, student projects, guest speakers from the field, and discussion. 4 cr.
• SMG SI 469: Real Estate Development
  Real estate development is a process rather than a product. Too often, assumptions about occupancy, market absorption, rental income growth, valuation and competition are based on guesswork and interest in specific product types. The course reviews the underlying demographic market data that drives demand; utilizing data such as population and job growth, market and marketability analysis. The focus then shifts to site selection and feasibility analysis, the available methods of gaining site control and the process of assembling the professional team. Later, the course reviews the regulatory control process, along with budgeting and contract award and review of the construction control processes. The course is introductory in nature and assumes students have little or no knowledge about the development process. 4 cr.
• SMG SI 471: International Entrepreneurship
  Designed for students who may at some point be interested in pursuing managerial careers in the international entrepreneurial sector, and covers the development of skills to identify, evaluate, start, and manage ventures that are international in scope. Over the course of the semester, the class "travels" to more than fifteen countries on five continents, and analyze operations at each stage of the entrepreneurial process. The course covers market entry, forming alliances, negotiations, managing growth, and cross-border financing. Support from local governments, and the cultural, ethical, legal, and human resource issues facing the entrepreneur is also covered. 4 cr.
• SMG SI 480: The Business of Technology Innovation
  Open only to seniors and juniors in the College of Engineering. SMG students cannot take this course for degree credit. Provides an introduction to entrepreneurship and business for the engineer. Topics include finding business ideas; recognizing good from bad; understanding the importance of business model; turning technology into a business, including what to sell and how to sell it; the role of engineering within a business; business financial statements; and startups and venture capital, including starting a company or joining a startup. 4 cr.
• SMG SI 481: Creative Enterprises: Entrepreneurship for Science, Society, and the Creative Arts
  Pre-req: Junior standing. SMG students cannot take this course for degree credit. Students will have the opportunity to learn how to turn their creative ideas into a sustainable enterprises. For the final project, students will work in teams to create and prototype a viable game concept (board game, sport, video etc.). They will write a concept summary and deliver a pitch presentation. In the project they will put into practice the skills they have learned throughout the semester: opportunity creation and assessment; market segment identification and the process to build a fan base; project management; risk assessment and mitigation; key financial and intellectual property principles; and managing ones creative career.
• SMG SI 498: Directed Study in Strategy and Innovation
  Directed Study
• SMG SM 121: Management as a System
  Required of all SMG freshmen. Introduces students to management through a cross-disciplinary curriculum, emphasizing the interdependencies within organizational systems. Includes weekly lectures that provide background information and theory and twice-weekly discussion sections that offer a close examination of assigned material in small classroom environments, inviting students to participate actively in the learning process. Required computer and professional skills laboratories provide students with essential computer, communication, and analytical skills.
• SMG SM 122: Management as a System
  Required of all SMG freshmen. Continuation of SMG SM121. Continues to introduce students to management through a cross-disciplinary curriculum, emphasizing the interdependencies within organizational systems. Includes weekly lectures that provide background information and theory and twice-weekly discussion sections that offer a close examination of assigned material in small classroom environments, inviting students to participate actively in the learning process. Required computer and professional skills laboratories provide students with essential computer, communication, and analytical skills.
• SMG SM 221: Probabilistic and Statistical Decision Making for Management
  Sophomore requirement. Exposes students to the fundamentals of probability, decision analysis, and statistics, and their application to business. Topics include probability, decision analysis, distributions, sampling, estimation, hypothesis testing, and chi-square. Please note: Students may not receive credit for both SMG SM 221 and CAS EC 305.
• SMG SM 222: Modeling Business Decisions and Market Outcomes
  Sophomore requirement. Examines the use of economic and statistical tools for making business decisions. Topics include optimization (including linear programing), multiple regression, demand modeling, cost modeling, industry analysis (including models of perfect competition, monopoly, and oligopoly), and game theory. The course emphasizes modeling with spreadsheets. (There is also an Honors Program section for this course offered each Spring, numbered SMG SM 224).
• SMG SM 299: Management as a System (Intensive)
  Required of all students who did not enter as September freshmen and complete SMG SM 121/122. Prepares transfer students, from both inside and outside the Boston University community, for downstream coursework with the same level of skills and experience as those who matriculated at SMG from the beginning. Focuses on managerial functions and the relationships between those functions. The integration of perspectives is necessary to ensure that the individual student understands the complexity, challenge, and excitement of modern management in the global organization. Emphasis is placed on analytical skills, written analysis, oral presentation, and teamwork.

Back to full list of School of Management