Course Listings

QUBM 501 Quantitative Business Methods
The purpose of this course is to provide students with all elementary quantitative tools needed during the completion of the MBA program. The world of economics and business is becoming ever more quantitatively oriented. Quantitative reporting and analyses provide precision and rigor to the discussion at hand. This course attempts to highlight those methods most frequently employed by businesses. Quantitative analysis introduces students to a collection of quantitative tools designed to enhance managerial decision-making. Topics covered include: Descriptive Statistics, Sampling and Probability Distribution, Hypothesis Testing and Linear Regression, Introduction to Mathematical Modeling, Data Reporting, Optimization, Decision Making, Estimation and Forecasting, Linear Programming.

MNGM 502 Global Management and Leadership
The course focuses on the challenges of contemporary management both domestically and internationally. Issues such as workplace diversity, the environment of management, planning, organizing, leading and controlling are covered throughout the course. Contemporary management theories are examined and tested in a hypothetical environment. The purpose of this course is to develop the applicable organizational skills and center on the particular traits needed to develop a global perspective and to bring together the necessary multicultural business alliances in order to lead an organization in the new century. Students will also explore various leadership theories and models, leadership across cultures, visionary leadership, leadership ethics and attributes, organizational change/development, and, the role of the leader in establishing organizational culture and facilitating change.

MRKT 503 Marketing and Sales Management
The fundamental premise underlying market-driven strategy is that the market and customers that form the market are the starting point in strategy formulation. The goal of this course is to introduce the students with how to develop a shared vision throughout the organization about the market and how it is likely to change in the future; to identify opportunities for delivering superior value to customers; to position the organization and its brands in the market place to obtain the best match between distinctive capabilities and value opportunities; to recognize the potential benefits of partnering with customers, suppliers, distribution channel members, internal functions, and even competitors; and to shape the design of the organization to implement and manage marketing strategy. This course also underlines the critical importance of sales. The ability to sell is the single most critical success factor of any enterprise, whether new or ongoing. This course approaches sales from the very practical and tactical point of view and then moves into the more complex subjects of how to build and manage a sales force, resolve disputes and deal with channel conflicts.

MNGM 504 Managing Creative Minds
This course aims to provide MBA students with a thorough grounding in the theory and practice of the management of people in organizations, at both strategic and operational levels. Also it aims to develop an awareness of the major practical and theoretical dilemmas concerning business interactions among individuals, groups and organizations, to place managerial practices into an historical and international perspective, highlighting both traditional and emerging issues and their importance to develop a sustainable competitive advantage. This course acknowledges the particularities of managing creative minds and managing diversity. Through cases studies this course examines the issues and challenges inherent in related issues, including issues regarding recruitment, placement and retention, growth and compensation and international human resource management. The course also focuses the issues such as organizational design, strategies and performance.

MNGM 505 Supply Chain Management
Supply Chain Management focuses the aspects of globalization and low-cost country sourcing, product design collaboration, demand planning and forecasting, inventory deployment, distribution system design, channel management, procurement, and logistics. The course explores order fulfillment strategies and the impact of the Internet on distribution and back-end supply chain processes and virtual chains. It involves the application of frameworks and mathematical modeling tools to supply chain management problems including the uncertainly matrix and its role in supply chain strategy development. The second part of the course focuses an understanding of the strategic importance of operations and how operations can provide a competitive advantage in the marketplace. The link between operations and other business functions such as marketing finance, accounting, and human resources will be emphasized.Prerequisite: QUBM 501

MNGM 506 Economics
This course is an integrated, graduate-level introduction to the analysis of individual firms and markets, as well as aggregate economic variables. This course aims to introduce and develop the profound knowledge of topics such as: the economic problem, demand and supply theory, production and cost analysis, theory of the firm, industrial organization, macroeconomic foundations economic phenomena, inflation, unemployment, fiscal and monetary policy, international trade and finance, economic growth. This course emphasizes building a framework for viewing and interpreting the economic world around them.

DMIT 507 Data Management and Information Systems
An advanced understanding of data management issues is critical in today's business world where firms gain strategic advantage by using sophisticated data management tools including but not limited to customer relationship management, business performance management and real-time decision making. Businesses, irrespective of their size, struggle to organize and manage this massive data, which provides information to gain strategic advantages in emerging dynamic markets. The objective of this course is to develop the data organization and management skills by introducing the fundamentals of database design and Management Information Systems with selected advanced topics, such as data warehousing, security and business Intelligence.

FINM 508 Financial Management
The continuity and growth of all organizations depend on soundness of its financial well-being and strengths. The concepts for these well being and strengths are incorporated into this course that aims to Students gain tools and frameworks to analyze business decisions based on principles of modern financial theory. The course focus on valuation of the firm, financing, and dividend policy, asset management and financial strategies as well as to provide the synthesis of financial policy into a grand strategy, which integrates organizational purpose and goals. This course also covers the financial accounting issues such as preparation of worksheets, adjusting and closing entries and financial statements. It includes the formation and use of current assets, working capital, and credit policy. Financial Management includes the understanding of long term financing instruments and the capital structure. Prerequisite: QUBM 501

BULW 509 Business Law
This course introduces students to the legal issues and principles that frequently arise and impact the business environment domestically as well as internationally. Through case study and the application of legal reasoning, the student will become familiar with disputes involving contracts, negligence, cyber crime, intellectual property, e-commerce, securities, property and insurance. In addition, students will be introduced to the formation of various business entities such as corporations, partnerships and limited liability companies. Ethics and social responsibility as well as a host of preventive measures against liability forming conduct will also be explored. The purpose of this course is to prepare the entrepreneur or manager to include legal issues among the considerations in making business decisions. This frequently translates into finding legal assistance and making the best use of it.

MNGM 510 Business Ethics
This course focuses on ethical behavior in organizations. The philosophy, issues and topics apply to all types of organization including corporations, small business, government, and non-profit. Values and ethics, as they relate to individuals and organizations, are defined from several different perspectives. This course aims to increase the awareness of ethical issues in organizations, moral philosophies that apply to organizational ethics, ethical decision making frameworks, organizational culture and values that influence business ethics and the development of ethics programs and policies, global ethics, and value-based leadership.Students will examine their own values in relation to ethical behavior, and their responsibility to themselves and the organization in regard to different ethical situations. This course also examines ethics in relation to social responsibility, the importance of ethical decision-making and the issues in the context of structure, relationships and long-standing practices and methods in the global textile and apparel business, associated with corporate governance and the process of setting up an ethics audit including methods of measuring, verifying results, and reporting the findings.

MRKT 511 New Product Development
This course focuses on the new product development process in fashion corporations, from idea generation, screening, concept development, physical development, testing, and commercialization of new products through launch. Cross functional relationships among departments/managers responsible for design, production, marketing and sales are examined. Particular emphasis is placed on Computer-integrated Manufacturing (CIM) particularly used for fast-changing areas such as textiles and fashion design. Because CIM simultaneously provides high product variety with low costs, conventional assumptions about competitive strategy and organization design need reevaluation. Special emphasis is placed on how product managers, designers and merchandisers are involved in the development of a line or collection of fashion products. Prerequisite: MRKT 503

MNGM 512 Competition and Strategy in Fashion
This course analyzes the strategies and tactics used by fashion firms in competitive environments, using frameworks developed from recent research in game theory and industrial organization. This course also examines the formulation and implementation of organization goals and objectives with regard to the firm's financial position, marketing capabilities and human resources As part of this analysis, the course examines the how the legal system affects competition and is used as a competitive tool. The course is targeted toward students who will be either designing or evaluating strategies in the fashion industry. Topics include: creating barriers to entry, softening price competition, entry and exit strategies, strategic commitment, price discrimination, and network effects. Prerequisite: All 500 Core Courses

ENPS 601 Entrepreneurship in Fashion
It has been widely argued that the Entrepreneur is the driving element in any economy. Entrepreneurs not only introduce innovation; they create jobs, wealth and economic growth by expanding or creating new markets. The course will focus on the entrepreneurial process from inception through expansion to exit. Topics covered include identifying and evaluating opportunities, entry strategies, marketing, financing and strategies for growth, traps and identification of areas of danger and failure. This course explores the issues fashion entrepreneurs with a focus on success factors and obstacles they traditionally have faced. Examples will be drawn from innovators who have formed new ventures and will often explore the reasons they left positions with other firms to assume the challenges of business ownership. Students will hear guest entrepreneurs discuss their businesses from conception to the actual start, how they have financed and managed the venture and any special issues they have faced. A primary goal of the course is to prepare students to develop a business plan. Prerequisite: All 500 Core Courses

ENPS 602 Launching New Ventures
This course focuses on the evaluation, development and potential launch of a new business. For each business, five key issues are addressed: in-depth market analysis, product or service design, development of a sales and marketing campaign, assessment of human resource requirements and building a realistic financial forecast. This course will result in distilling business opportunities into a written and oral presentation ready to seek funding and commence operations. Students are responsible for finding appropriate projects, which can be based upon students' own ideas or other start-ups. This course also through self-assessment, provides insights into the individual's managerial skill sets and deficits while focusing on the project management skills needed to initiate a new venture and for each subsequent stage. Students research current and past successful and unsuccessful fashion entrepreneurs in terms of the economic, legal, social and competitive environments that existed during the launch and growth stages of their businesses and how those who succeeded capitalized on the opportunities that existed. A strategic and theoretical framework for evaluating new businesses is used as students initiate ideas that will carry forward into future courses and ultimately lay a foundation for a capstone, ready-to-launch business plan. Prerequisite: All 500 Core Courses

ENPS 603 Entrepreneurial Finance
Entrepreneurial Finance focuses on developing an understanding the finance-related issues associated with an entrepreneurial setting such as; how much cash does my new venture require? Where can I get it? How much is my company worth? What are the key financial skills that any entrepreneur needs to have? The goal of this course is to educate future entrepreneurs in the tools and skills required to successfully manage the financial challenges of a venture. Applicable problems and cases cover aspects of entrepreneurial finance of importance to general and financial managers such as capital budgeting, funding sources and credit policy. This course focuses the following issues; how to raise capital for a new venture (sources of capital available, pros and cons, negotiations with capital providers, exit strategies), how to maximize the value in a growing venture (valuation, structuring investments in entrepreneurial setting, investment staging, minority and veto rights), how to forecast and manage financial performance and cash-flow (financial modeling, working capital, fixed versus variable costs, cash flow versus accounting), how to negotiate the practical financial challenges of a growing enterprise (cash shortfalls, bankruptcy and restructuring, cash management in a fast-growing enterprise and what is the financial role of the entrepreneurial managers in a new enterprise (leadership, vision, negotiating with capital providers and venture capitalist). Prerequisite: All 500 Core Courses

ENPS 604 Investing in New Ventures
Many of America's most successful entrepreneurial companies have been substantially influenced by professionally managed venture capital and other kind of investors. This relationship is examined from the venture capitalists' and investor's perspective. From the point of view of the venture capitalist, the course considers how potential entrepreneurial investments are evaluated, valued, structured, and enhanced; how different venture capital strategies are deployed; and how venture capitalists raise and manage their own funds. Prerequisite: All 500 Core Courses

ENPS 605 Intrapreneurship
The course explores the nature of creativity in organizations and the role of managers in implementing a corporate mandate for innovative and entrepreneurial thinking among employees. Companies recognized for retaining talent and increasing job satisfaction through encouraging initiative from below are highlighted and used as examples of entrepreneurial ventures within a corporate environment. The role of managers and team members in nurturing and sustaining a creative enterprise is discussed and speakers from companies that have embarked on new strategic directions by actually forming additional business units serve as guest lecturers. Prerequisite: All 500 Core Courses

ENPS 606 Managing Growing Enterprises
This course is for students who, in the near term, aspire to the management and full or partial ownership of a new or newly-acquired business. This course has a strong implementation focus, and deals in some depth with certain selected, generic entrepreneurial issues, viewed from the perspective of the owner/manager. Throughout the course, emphasis is placed on the application of analytical tools to administrative practice. Alternative growth strategies for firms in the second stage of their life cycle are explored including new market development, modifications to product lines/services, organizational growth, financial resource allocation/additional financing, outsourcing, M&A and going public. Prerequisite: All 500 Core Courses

ENPS 607 Turnaround Management
The course will cover the full range of management issues that invariably arise in turning around a troubled business. Turnarounds require an integrated view of accounting, corporate finance, cash flow and balance sheet projections, debt restructuring and liquidation analysis, and credit relationships, studied in the prior semesters to restructure companies facing serious threats to survival. Students examine these concepts from the general manager's perspective through group-oriented projects. Prerequisite: All 500 Core Courses

ENPS 608 Capstone Project - Greenhouse
Students specialized in Entrepreneurship will end their program with the Greenhouse - Capstone project. Students will apply their classroom knowledge through hands-on participation in entrepreneurial management, which will result with a fully developed business plan. Students will consult with faculty members, venture capitalists and successful entrepreneurs in order to build business plans, financial models and structure deals in entrepreneurial finance. The business ideas students work on may come from the students themselves, from faculty members or from any other kind of external organization interested in developing business plan. The project will be approved by the faculty member. Students committed to launching their own ventures may participate in an entrepreneurial incubator, which will engage and help qualifying student ventures to provide seed funds. Prerequisite: ENPS 601

FSMG 609 Fashion Merchandising
This course is designed to prepare the student for advanced-level management in one of the world's largest employers, the fashion industry. The globalization of the industry necessitates that companies change the way they do business to keep abreast and ahead of competitive forces. The course will explore the global business of fashion, its interaction with allied industries, target consumers and the merchandising of product from style development through line presentation. Students will gain experience with ideation, research, concept development, sales data, forecasting, budgeting, sourcing, purchasing, negotiating, pre-production, quality control, and the in-store visual merchandising of goods. Computer based technologies in the fashion industry are analyzed. Focus is placed on the evolution and components of fashion with the ultimate goal of development of the final product. Prerequisite: All 500 Core Courses

FSMG 610 Retail Management
Retail Management course emphasizes a general understanding of the retail industry and appreciate the complexities of operating a retail business. This course aims to understand the challenges retailers face balancing profits and pleasing customers. The retailer is where the customer and product meet, the purchase decision is made and hopefully where the desired profit is earned. Retailing represents a significant portion of the United States and World economies. In the past 20 years, retailing has undergone a significant change. With customers spending patterns constantly changing, retailers need to understand what the consumer's needs and wants are and how to influence them. This course will provide students with a solid understanding of the different types of retailers from Department Stores to Brand Stores to Category Killers and Supermarkets. The course focus will also include the multi faceted activities of retailing including overviews of assortment planning, pricing of product, customer relationship management and customer buying behavior. The course will explain what factors are involved with the "rights" of retailing: product, quantities, place, time, price and service. In addition, the students will discuss current issues facing retailers such as industry consolidation, vendor relations and information technology. Prerequisite: All 500 Core Courses

FSMK 611 Brand Management
This course emphasizes understanding of psychological principles at the customer level that will improve managerial decision-making with respect to brands utilizing concepts relevant for any type of organization (public, private, large or small), particularly fashion organization. Overall, the course is designed to improve students' marketing skills and understanding of specific marketing topics, as well as how various aspects of marketing fit together, all from a brand equity perspective. This course aims to Increase understanding of the important issues in planning and evaluating brand strategies and to provide the appropriate theories, models, and other tools to make better branding decisions. Prerequisite: All 500 Core Courses

FSMG 612 Project Management in Fashion
This course explores the methodologies, technologies, and techniques for managing projects in the fashion industry environment. In recent years, there has been a rapidly increasing emphasis on project management concepts, software, training, and expertise as more managers recognize that project management is synonymous with change management. Introducing new products, processes, or programs in a timely and cost effective manner requires professional project management (PM). This course examines the management of fashion projects and the tools that are available to assist managers with such projects. Some of the specific topics will include life cycle models project teams, project selection, organizational issues, scheduling and budgeting, project risk, and monitoring and control. Prerequisite: All 500 Core Courses

FSMK 613 Consumer Behavior in Fashion
The goal of this course is to instill a deep understanding of consumer behavior and the interrelatedness and complexity of external influences and individual factors on purchase process and decisions. The discussion of how possessions impact an individual's self concept and society as a whole will be woven into our discussions. Throughout the course students will assess how the components of consumer behavior impact marketing decisions and how to best use this knowledge to develop effective marketing programs. Students will learn psychographic and behavioral information pertaining to consumer behavior and how it relates to the marketing of fashion. Discussions concentrate on consumer research, segmentation, reference groups, and consumerism as influences. Prerequisite: All 500 Core Courses

FSMK 614 IMC in Fashion
This course aims to provide students with the marketing communication tools, techniques and media, giving a special emphasis to integrated marketing communications (IMC) and its recent evolution particularly in the fashion industry. Students will be also provided with the tools to make successful marketing communications decisions and to understand the salient issues in planning and executing marketing communications campaigns. This course combines academic theories with practical applications and will enable students to deal with the advertising and marketing communications function. Working in teams on the fashion projects students will apply the campaign planning process, build and evaluate the performance of the marketing communications plan and allocate media budgets. Prerequisite: All 500 Core Courses

FSMK 615 Luxury Marketing
This class provides the tools to address the idiosyncrasies of the luxury fashion industry by studying issues relevant to this field in the various aspects of the business, from production and management to distribution and promotion. The phenomenon of 'luxury products' reflects the public opinion as the ultimate sign of personal success. The industry is now regarded as a distinct product field that requires specific skills. All luxury companies (including fashion and accessories) are trying to answer the luxury consumer's search for experiences. For example, Armani opened a food restaurant chain 'NOBU', Bulgari a luxury hotel in Milan, Italy etc. The students' project focuses on the development of a line of luxury products for a fashion company of their choice. Prerequisite: All 500 Core Courses

FSMG 616 Retail Planning and Control or Pricing Strategy
This course has two aims; to enable students to create a plan that encompasses sales, inventory and classification assortments and to execute a profit maximizing strategy once the product has reached the retail channel of distribution. In retailing today, buying has become numerically driven based on what a retailer can sell profitably. This course will teach the students how to plan future sales and inventory levels on a store, department and class basis. In addition, the course will cover how to price the merchandise, from a markup and markdown standpoint in order to maximize profits. The students will measure the right price, what the customer is willing to pay for product and learn how to shape profit based on the value a retailer creates. The students will also use 'Out date and Weeks of Supply' strategies to determine product life. The course will include "what if" scenarios: now that the product is in the stores, how would you increase sales and turnover and maximize gross margin. Prerequisite: All 500 Core Courses

FSMG 617 Capstone project
This course will allow students to integrate knowledge gained from prior coursework. The class will revolve around real world case study situations incorporating retailing and fashion merchandising along with financial, marketing and strategic plans. The students will be able to assimilate information to determine why some fashion industry companies are merchandising and marketing profitably while others are losing market share or may no longer be in business. The class will also include discussions with key industry executives on the state of retailing today and career opportunities. The final project in this course will be a merchandising and/or retailing plan that will be subject to peer and industry review. Prerequisite: FSMG 609 or 610

INTR 618 Internship
Eleven weeks long internship will complement the theoretical knowledge gained in the classroom and obtain the perspective of a work environment. During the internship the students will be exposed to a broadening full time work experience in the fashion industry, in the area relevant to their career goals. The internship program will foster an experiential learning process that will promote career preparation and also provide opportunities for students to develop skills necessary to work in their chosen profession. The objective of the internship is to give the students an opportunity to evaluate, appraise and relate actual job experience to course work learned in the classroom. To gain maximum benefit, the work experience must have a supervisor or mentor available to provide coaching and students' assessment.