COURSE NUMBER: EWMBA 296.2

This course is cross-listed with the EMBA Program

COURSE TITLE: FORAD Simulation

UNITS OF CREDIT: 1 unit

INSTRUCTOR: Veselina Dinova

MEETING DAY(S)/TIME: 9/6, 9/20, 10/11, 11/1 (6-9:45PM)

Please note the unorthodox nature of this course, which meets on 4 Wednesdays. To earn a passing grade, you must attend ALL class sessions in their entirety.

PREREQUISITE(S): All Core

CLASS FORMAT: Lectures and in-class team exercises - the FORAD simulation is a 100% team activity and you will be spending part of the class time working with your team on your decisions and analyzing your company and its competitors’ performance.

REQUIRED READINGS: the FORAD simulation manual, posted on bCourses.

VIDEO OVERVIEW

BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE:
The course grade depends on your team’s performance at the simulation: company’s final share price, quality of the written report and how confident and convincing your team is when defending your management strategy and decisions.
Details:

Team’s rank the final period of the simulation (based on the final share price as % of the winning team share price) – 25% of the final grade
FORAD written report (outline on bCourses) – 35% of the final grade
Final presentations and defenses, feedback from the judges – 20% of the final grade
Final presentations and defenses, feedback from your peers – 20% of the final grade

ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES:
The base for this course is a computer-based finance simulation game, FORAD, designed to help you understand what it takes to manage the operational and financial challenges of a multinational corporation in the competitive and unpredictable market environment modeled in the simulation.

The FORAD company is a US-based publicly-traded company with operational subsidiaries in Germany and Japan. The management of the company involves decisions in the areas of forecasting, operations and budgeting, choice of short-term and long-term financing options, foreign exchange and commodity price risk management, international taxation strategies, and shareholders’ relationship.

The FORAD company’s performance is measured by the company’s share price which depends on the earnings per share achieved and a combination of performance measures including credit rating, success in risk management, effective tax rate, quality of earnings, etc. It is a competition and the objective of each team is to do better than the rest of the industry (the rest of the teams).

At the end of the competition you will be asked to prepare your own annual report and explain and defend your decisions in front of your Board of Directors (a panel of judges comprised of faculty and alumni). The defenses will take place during the last class of the course.

During class time we will cover a number of theoretical conceptual topics, highlight and discuss the individual results from the simulation, and talk about potential challenges and opportunities for improvement. You will also spend part of the class time working with your team on your company’s decisions.

CAREER FIELD:
This course is an excellent capstone course. The simulation allows you to connect the learning from a number of business school classes – finance, accounting, operations, strategy and economics - into one comprehensive challenge. Students with various career objectives will find the course helpful.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:
Veselina Dinova has a number of years of post-MBA professional experience in corporate treasury. She has an MBA degree from Thunderbird in Glendale, Arizona and is a CFA charter-holder. Veselina has taught a number of Finance and Accounting courses at Haas.