Alexander Manga, Ph.D., MBA
Associate Professor
MBA Director
(231) 591-2972
[email protected]
Lead the Way Forward
We've built our MBA program around the skills and knowledge that will get you noticed by employers and that you will rely on every day as a business leader. Explore the requirements below and contact our MBA Director to learn more.
Core Classes
At the core of our MBA program are eleven powerful courses that have been designed for trailblazers and entrepreneurs, innovators and corporate change makers. Here you will find the tools to take your industry by storm, accelerate your career, and define the future of business.
Accounting for Managers introduces accounting framework used in financial reporting (financial accounting) with emphasis on the interpretation of financial statements including how managers analyze financial data and economic events to assess and manage value creation activities (managerial accounting). Topics include an overview of the financial and Accounting for Managers environments; valuation of financial statement accounts; short and long-term budget preparation and analysis; standard costing and variance analysis; business combinations (mergers and acquisitions); and discussion of GAAP versus IFRS.
ACCT 614
This course is designed to develop analytical skills with fundamental finance concepts for the financial management and decision making in various situations that a firm generally faces. All topics to be covered are addressed along a spectrum of risk and return, which are two most critical dimensions in any financial decision making. The main focus is on how financial decision making impacts the value and risk of the firm. The topics include interpreting financial statements information, financial forecasting, handling projected growth, financial markets, financing decisions, discounted cash flow approach, and investment assessments. In most cases, the course places you in the position of a financial manager in a firm.
FINC 616
Managers & the Legal Environment introduces students to contemporary legal and ethical issues and concepts and provides a broad understanding of how law and ethics affects daily management decisions and business strategies. It further examines how law can be applied to guide and enhance the decision making process of managers in the complex and changing global economy so managers can create value and effectively manage risk.
BLAW 626
This course emphasizes a practical approach to understanding the essentials of successful leadership as well as one of its top tasks, that of successfully implementing organization-wide change. After exposure to various leadership frameworks, students will apply these approaches to current national and/or international business situations. Students will also create a personal leadership development plan. An organizational change process will be highlighted that focuses on understanding the need for change, anticipating and overcoming resistance, and developing a process that enhances opportunities for successful implementation. Based on the suggested process, students will evaluate past organizational changes they have experienced as well as develop a comprehensive change program for a perceived needed change at a past or current employer.
MGMT 636
This course is designed as an empirical approach to the emerging field of analytics, an inductive approach to gaining insights on big data, thus informing decision-making. It covers various fundamental techniques rooted in management and decision sciences to solve problems and make decisions in various functional areas, such as: management, marketing, and processing. In this course, students will learn various analytical tools and demonstrate their ability to understand, present and discuss the results, thus building a strong foundation in supporting decision-making in a variety of scenarios. Major topics include the applications of hypotheses testing; regression; decision trees; association rules; data visualization and manipulation; and what-if analysis.
STQM 645
This course examines historical and contemporary issues as well as new and emerging developments influencing the decision making process and leadership styles and choices of international managers. Considerable discussion will focus on the attributes of strategy, culture and behavior and the impact they have in the global management process.
INTB 656
Students explore Information Systems Strategy from multiple perspectives including effectiveness of the use of information systems and data, as well as digital security exposures and safeguards from a personal, organizational, and global perspective. Aligning information systems resources with organizational goals in an efficient and secure environment throughout an organization while potentially relying on third parties will be examined.
MISI 615
Strategic Marketing Decisions introduces students to essential marketing terms, concepts and ethics. Concepts included are marketing mix (product, pricing, distribution, integrated marketing communications: advertisements, public relations, sales and electronic communication), segmentation, target marketing, and consumer behavior. The combination of real-world experience and theoretical concepts meet together as students conduct external and internal organization analyses and develop and justify a comprehensive marketing and implementation plan that addresses the problem(s) or opportunity(ies) identified in marketing cases.
MKTG 716
This course uses tools and concepts from microeconomic theory, industrial organization, and organizational economics and applies them to managerial decision making activities for businesses. Topics include determinants of demand, competitive markets, demand estimation, forecasting, cost / benefit analysis, risk & uncertainty.
ECON 726
This experiential learning focused course concentrates on how to evaluate, design, and improve business process initiatives using Systems Planning and Thinking (seeing the whole business as a value stream) and Lean Principles (kaizen, POCA, SS, pull, leveling process stability, standardized work, root-cause problem resolution and A3 Reporting). This assists in the continuous learning/improvement culture that enhances organizational growth, innovation, profitability and process excellence.
MGMT 736
This course will present a disciplined process of establishing and maintaining a purposeful business direction, aimed at achieving sustainable competitive advantage. The process entails; efficiently identifying opportunities via industry and technology scanning, isolating critical opportunities from the noise, memorializing Mission & Strategies (exemplified via the boilerplate Balanced Score Card model), integrating enterprise-level and functional-level (i.e. marketing, operations, and finance) strategies, making resource commitments, effectively executing strategies, monitoring results and making course corrections, celebrating successes and dissecting failures for embodied learnings. The concept of fact-based strategic decision-making will be introduced. And finally, specialized approaches involving globalization and entrepreneurial strategies will be presented.
MGMT 746
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