COURSE NUMBER: MBA223.2

This is a first-year gateway course and is not available for second-year bidding. Second-years must wait until the add/drop process begins in January to add this class.

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:  Tuesdays/Thursdays 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM

PREREQUISITE(S): MBA202

CLASS FORMAT: Interactive class discussions, presentations, and lectures.

REQUIRED READINGS: Current financial statements from publicly-listed companies, textbook, and assigned readings.

BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE: Class participation, presentations, term project, and final exam.

ABSTRACT OF COURSE’S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES:

Prior to going public this year, Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) reported a net income of exactly $1,000,000,000.00 for the 2011 fiscal year. Was the $1,000,000,000.00 a coincidence and if not, how did Facebook Inc. manage to report this net income number?

In this course, we will answer such questions and will go through at least 25 financial statements of publicly-listed companies to learn the subjectivity inherent in applying accounting standards, and hence, appreciate that companies’ financial performance cannot always be taken at face value. This course is an extremely practical course aimed at expanding participants’ abilities to analyze and interpret financial statements from the perspectives of external users.

The skills developed in this course will be readily applicable to all facets of business and essential for those who want to be astute users of financial information. We will not get bogged down with debits and credits but rather focus on the flexibility permitted by accounting standards and how such flexibility can affect the reported financial statements. While the skills developed are valuable for every MBA student, they are particularly relevant for the careers in consulting, finance, investing, private equity, and upper management. Moreover, the skills developed will also be applicable to the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) program.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: Alastair joined Haas last year after obtaining his PhD from the University of Toronto. Prior to academics, he worked for Ernst and Young LLP specializing in financial reporting for the high-tech and financial industries.  Alastair had a great time teaching Corporate Financial Reporting in 2012 and looks forward to another very interactive class in 2013.  Alastair encourages those who have questions about the course to stop by his office (F492) as he would be happy to answer those questions.