COURSE NUMBER: MBA 224A-1

 

COURSE TITLE:  Managerial Accounting

 

UNITS OF CREDIT:  2 units

 

INSTRUCTOR: Stephen W Etter

 

E-MAIL ADDRESS:  setter@haas.berkeley.edu

 

PREREQUISITE(S): MBA core curriculum

 

CLASS FORMAT:  Majority of Class devoted to Cases with Small amount of Practical Lectures

 

REQUIRED READINGS:  Cases, Harvard Notes and selected chapters from Textbook

 

BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE:

Class Participation: 20%

Group Cases: 60%

Individual Work: 10%

Final Case (open notes/open book): 10%

 

CAREER FIELD: This course will be particularly useful for those planning on working as Entrepreneurs, Consultants, Venture Capital, Private Equity, Marketing, Sales, R&D and C-Suite management.

 

ABSTRACT OF COURSE CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES: 

THIS COURSE HAS DECEPTIVE TITLE!  This class is not intended to prepare you to be Cost Accountants. The focus of this course is on decision-making and analysis. 

 

●      Product and Service Pricing Challenges

●      Resource Allocation to Customers or Products

●      Customer Acquisition Strategies

●      Customer and Product Profitability

●      Budget/Planning and Performance Measurement

 

The tools utilized include operational analysis, financial accounting, and internal/management reports (thus the name of the course Managerial Accounting).  Many decisions facing managers everyday utilize internal accounting reports.  This class will not teach you how to be a cost accountant, but make sure you have a command of the necessary tools (vocabulary and associated definitions provided by cost accountants). Your ability to understand the origin and nature of these input variables will allow you to ask the proper questions and insure you are utilizing the Right data for your strategic decisions.

 

 

 

The first part of the course develops a set of tools for measuring profitability of products, customers, and business units. In the second part, we will explore how these tools can be applied to business planning and decision making. Complexity of businesses and the markets they operate in requires managers to make critical business decisions with imperfect information at a rapid pace. In the last part of this course, we will study how to design performance evaluation systems that provide managers with efficient incentives.

 

In my career, the set of skills developed in this course have been the most important tools used.  Many of our portfolio challenges arose from the inability to utilize the proper data to make key strategic decisions.

 

 

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:

Stephen is one of the Founding Partners of Greyrock Capital Group. Greyrock manages over $700 million in four Funds investing in subordinated debt and equity to finance buyouts, recapitalizations and the internal growth needs of middle market companies.  Greyrock invested in over 100 companies in a wide range of industries including manufacturing, consumer wholesale, building materials, industrial equipment and service businesses.  He sat on the board of directors for Allen Technologies, Allstar Magnetics, Bentec Medical, Blast Deflectors, DecisionQuest, Mozzarella Fresca, MWA Intelligence, Ogle Beauty Schools, Paleteria La Michoacan, Paragon Products, Pinnicle Tile, Rennhack Marketing Systems, Solair and Tricoci University. Prior to founding Greyrock with his partners, Mr. Etter held positions at Bank of America, GE Capital and Citicorp where he focused on senior and junior capital investment.  From 1983 to 1987 he worked for Price Waterhouse, during which time he obtained his CPA.

 

Mr. Etter received his undergraduate degree and MBA from the Haas School of Business where he has been a Lecturer of Corporate Finance for the past 25 years, 50 consecutive semesters. He actively works with student athletes studying business or with career aspirations to work in the business world.  He also teaches a class designed for student-athletes to prepare them for their careers in professional sports (NFL, MLB, NBA & swimming). His work with student-athletes was featured in the New York Times and Bloomberg. He has been awarded the Chet Distinguished Teaching Award twice, given the Undergraduate Commencement Address twice and received the Raymond E. Miles Service Award. He currently serves on the Audit Committee for the University of California at Berkeley Foundation and is in his twentieth year serving as a Director of the San Francisco Giants Community Fund.