EMBA Course Descriptions

This course provides an introduction to the analysis and utilization of corporate financial data. It covers fundamental techniques for evaluating those data, focusing on their relevance to managerial decision making and external stakeholders (e.g., investors).

The field of economics includes concepts, principles and techniques that are essential for understanding market dynamics at the levels of firm, industry, and macroeconomy. This class utilizes economic models and techniques to establish a decision-making framework applicable to various business disciplines and dynamics.

As computers continue to enhance their data analysis capabilities and the volume of available data grows exponentially, data analysis plays an increasingly vital role in business decision making. This course introduces essential concepts and methods relevant to data analysis in a business context. It emphasizes practical applications to real-world problems, and covers key topics such as: sampling, descriptive statistics, probability distributions, and regression analysis. Students are strongly encouraged to bring their own work data, as previous projects have generated significant value for students' current employers. Class discussions will include examples of previous successful projects.

This course empowers general managers to comprehend and effectively utilize a firm's management accounting system. It equips them to make informed decisions regarding products, services, customers, process improvements and strategic alignment.

This course focuses on valuation in a corporate context, covering key concepts and skills that include: financial market structure and efficiency, time value of money, net present value, internal rate of return, capital budgeting, risk and return, capital asset pricing model, cost of capital, capital structure, payout policy, and real options analysis.

With an emphasis on the smooth flow of products, customers and information, this course prepares students to effectively manage and improve organizational processes. Students will become familiar with operations strategies both within an organization and across the supply chain. Key topics include: bottlenecks, inventory, and quality management.

This courses introduces key marketing concepts and perspectives within a business context. It focuses on marketing issues, strategies and concepts such as: value proposition, customer and market analysis, segmentation and targeting, product strategy, branding, pricing strategy, marketing channels, marketing communication, and selling. The course incorporates lectures and extensive analysis of case studies in marketing management.

In an era of expanding global industries, managers face the growing challenge over overseeing organizations from a global standpoint. This course equips students with the skills, knowledge and awareness required to establish and sustain a competitive advantage in a global environment. Key topics include: motivations of going global, choices among various entry strategies, political risk in global businesses, and coordination and control of globally-distributed operations. Case discussions are integrated to facilitate learning.

Personal leadership foundations and principles of strategy formulation, a Houston residency program.

Functional skills developed in core curriculum: strategic decision making, providing superior value to stakeholders, critical reasoning, quantitative reasoning, self-analysis, and implementation.

Enterprise-level strategy formulation and execution, and leading the organization in change.

EMBA 994 is a global project-based course aimed at providing students an experiential learning opportunity to understand how to manage in a global environment. Students work with a foreign firm located in Latin America and/or Europe both remotely and then through a week-long on-site engagement. Students develop solutions to the client's strategy-related problems. In addition, students interact with a range of entrepreneurs, company executives and policy makers to develop a broader understanding of the foreign market.

This seminar focuses on three areas of executive leadership development: 1) sharpening strategic communication skills; 2) fostering high performing teams; and 3) enhancing transformational change and inclusive leadership skills. 

Executive Seminar II provides a channel that facilitates cross-functional learning as you progress through the foundational courses that comprise the second semester of the First Year Core Curriculum: Marketing, Finance, and Operations Management. This seminar will include a selection of expert/executive speakers focused on business topical areas and your professional growth and development as an executive. You also will focus on executive skill-building in the areas of Communication, Negotiation, and Team-building. Faculty will use a variety of teaching methods within and across each session, including traditional lectures, coaching sessions, and/or experiential exercise.

Executive Seminar III integrates the Ethics / Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) module of your EMBA curriculum, together with Communication sessions designed to empower you to communicate about your values and to enhance your interpersonal communication skills. This seminar also incorporates inter-cultural communication skills and explores psychological forces and behaviors leaders can harness to encourage ethical behavior in global business.

Using business case studies and an academic framework built on economic theories, Executive Seminar IV will focus on the foundations of corporate governance from the current debate on objectives of corporations that is captivating corporate America to designing and executing good governance practices. We will use case studies to examine topics such as the roles and responsibilities of corporate boards, how corporate governance should be designed to support growth and transformation from being a private company to IPO, the role of culture and financial incentives on ethics and corporate performance, the pros and cons of dual class structures, and the effects of shareholder activism.

This course builds on earlier courses on cost management and corporate strategy and focuses on the management control systems that can be used for the effective implementation of strategy. Included topics are the balanced scorecard, stretch budgets, performance evaluation and incentives, organizational and operational controls, and the development of metrics to motivate and evaluate performance.

A study of how public policy influences the private competitive environment of the firm. The course examines the major political institutions and actors — Congress, the president, interest groups, the media and administrative agencies — that shape U.S. public policy. Students analyze business political strategies and formulate several of their own.

Throughout contemporary society and corporate America, we frequently hear people touting the value of “mindfulness.” What exactly is this concept – and how can it foster high performance in the workplace and improve the quality of workers’ lives? This course addresses these questions through cases and experiential learning activities.

Overview of the venture capital industry; the organization and operation of venture capital funds; investment methodology; monitoring and portfolio liquidation; leveraged investing; and specialized investments.

This course provides an insider's perspective on the workings and challenges of early to mid-stage biotech (pharmaceutical) and medtech (medical device) startups. Live case studies highlight issues unique to this space, including pre-clinical and clinical development, licensing and business development, the FDA, and intellectual property and patent strategies. Intended for students considering a career in an entrepreneurial life sciences company. Previous or contemporaneous coursework in entrepreneurship or healthcare is preferred.

Students will identify, screen and evaluate start-ups for investment by the Rice venture capital fund. Through this highly experiential course, students will learn tools for rigorously evaluating startup ventures for investment, valuing early-stage companies and structuring investments. Students will present their investment recommendations to an advisory committee.

This course is about learning to think like a game theorist and developing a systematic way to evaluate strategic problems. Emphasis is on real-world applications and in-class business exercises.

The sequence of offerings that provides an introduction to the business of healthcare in the U.S. Topics include health care systems, health service organizations, and issues relating to the aging problem and the technology explosion in healthcare. Required elective for MD/MBA's dual degree students. Repeatable for Credit.

The Brand Strategy course is designed to build on your first-year MBA marketing course and will explore the elements of brand strategy to build capabilities on brand management and how brands drive business strategy and long-term value: what it is, what it is not, how to manage, execute, measure and value.

A manager’s primary purpose is to use power to influence subordinates and create an effective organization. This course will teach students how to build power, how to influence people, and the proper use of power in the modern organization through lectures, discussions, and experiential activities.

With a seismic shift in commercial real estate due to technology-driven changes to distribution networks and the digitization of the economy, developers face challenging and evolving opportunities. How do you adapt and thrive when customer desires change at lightning speed and everyone competes against Amazon? Through simulations and a real-time case study, students learn to capture the rewards of customer-centric design using psychographics and quantitative methodologies.

Companies with strong reputations gain competitive advantage. However, reputation is not a tangible attribute of a firm, but rather an intangible asset held in the minds of the firm's constituents. The goal of this course is to provide students with analytical tools to assess how an organization can build, damage, and repair its reputation.