THIS CLASS IS FOR NON-HAAS STUDENTS ONLY

 

COURSE NUMBER:  MBA296.1

COURSE TITLE:  Fundamentals of Business

UNITS OF CREDIT:  3

INSTRUCTOR:  David Robinson, Vic Stanton, Nancy Euske

E-MAIL ADDRESS: robinson@haas.berkeley.edu, vstanton@haas.berkeley.edu,  euske@haas.berkeley.edu

CLASS WEB PAGE LOCATION (HTTP URL):
http://www.haas.berkeley.edu/~robinson/BA296/
 
MEETING DAY(S)/TIME:    Wednesday 6 - 9:30 p.m.
PREREQUISITE(S):
Must be enrolled in graduate studies at UC Berkeley (any year); no formal prereq's but some understanding of basic economics is helpful.

CLASS FORMAT:
Lecture, 3 hours, one evening per week. The course is arranged in three, five-week modules: 
        1. Organizational behavior and human resources, Nancy Euske
        2. Accounting and finance, Victor Stanton
        3. Marketing and strategy, David Robinson
 
REQUIRED READINGS:
There will be a custom-printed text-book and one or more readers (see website).
 
BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE:
For each of three modules, a "short answer" mid-term exam and a paper.  No projects or Class Participation grade. Some brief "homework" exercises:
                            Exams    3 at 20 percent        60
                            Papers    3 at 10 percent        30
                            Exercises                             10
 
                            Total                                    100 points
 
ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES:
This is a broad introduction to business for non-business graduate students. The course is taught in three, five-week modules, each of which ends in an exam. There is a short paper due in each module. While some students may go on to further elective study in business, the course is designed to be freestanding. There are no prerequisites, but some familiarity with basic economic thinking is helpful.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:
1.  Introduce students to the functional areas of business and the vocabulary used by managers.
2.  Demonstrate the schemes of planning and analysis that managers use in running businesses
3.  Introduce students to sources of information for business statistics
4.  Show how managers take decisions under conditions of uncertainty
5.  Provide an introduction to the case method used in business education.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:
 
Nancy Euske, Victor Stanton and David Robinson are lecturers at the Haas School of Business in their respective fields. Please see the course website for additional background.