COURSE NUMBER: MBA223.1
This course is cross-listed with the EWMBA Program.
COURSE TITLE: Corporate Financial Reporting
UNITS OF CREDIT: 3 units
INSTRUCTOR: Alastair Lawrence
E-MAIL ADDRESS: lawrence@haas.berkeley.edu
CLASS WEB PAGE LOCATION: http://bspace.berkeley.edu
MEETING DAY(S)/TIME: Monday, 6:00 – 9:30 PM
PREREQUISITE(S): MBA202
CLASS FORMAT: Weekly
real-time cases of publicly-listed companies with related lecture.
REQUIRED READINGS: Current Form 10-Ks, Form 10-Qs, Form
S-1s, and Form UPLOADs of publicly-listed companies used for real-time cases,
and assigned professional readings. All
students will receive FACTSET accounts and one week of class time will be
dedicated to using and learning FACTSET. No textbook is required.
BASIS
FOR FINAL GRADE: Class participation, presentations, term project, and
open-book final exam.
ABSTRACT OF COURSE’S CONTENT AND
OBJECTIVES:
Are you
proficient in going through and extracting relevant information from Form
10-Ks, 10-Qs, or S-1s, or are you like most people in business who get lost in
these documents? Moreover, do you understand how companies use the flexibility
in accounting rules to meet earnings and revenue targets, and are you able to
gleam important information from the endless pages of financial statement
footnotes? If not, you should seriously consider taking Corporate Financial
Reporting before you leave Haas.
In this
course, we will use weekly real-time cases (written by the professor and the
GSI) and an appreciation of relevant advanced accounting standards to develop
your skills of how to effectively wade through the more complicated sections of
10-Ks, 10-Qs, S-1s and SEC comment letters (Form UPLOADs). You will learn the
subjectivity inherent in applying accounting standards, and appreciate why a
very strong understanding of accounting is essential when assessing financial
performance. While not required or expected, as our real-time analyses often
have valuation implications, an added plus of the real-time case format is that
students often choose to trade on our discussions and analyses.
The course
will benefit those who will be analyzing or preparing financial statements as
they pursue careers in investment banking, investment management, business
development, venture capital, as well as those in general management/consulting
and those just looking to gain financial expertise for personal investments. It
should be highlighted that there is little to no overlap with Financial
Information Analysis (FIA), and that this course develops skills that support
informed valuation. The skills developed in this class will also overlap with
some of those required by the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) program.
BIOGRAPHICAL
SKETCH: Prior to academics, Alastair worked for BDO and Ernst and Young LLP
specializing in financial reporting for the high-tech and financial industries.
His current research focuses on various corporate financial reporting issues
and how investors and the markets use and price financial reporting
information. Alastair encourages those who have questions about the course to
stop by his office (F492) as he would be happy to answer those questions