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Strategy, Environment, and Organizations Concentration MBA Courses

BSEO 2033—Managing the Natural Environment—1.5 credits
This course focuses on the management of strategic and compliance issues related to the natural environment of the business firm. Along with investing how companies respond to environmental regulations, students examine how environmentalism alters such essential firm activities as product design, marketing strategies, and stakeholder relationships. This course will employ numerous case examples, lectures, and visits by corporate environmental consultants and environmental affairs officers from the Pittsburgh business community.
Prerequisites: none.
BSEO 2315—Business Law—3 credits
The primary objectives of this course are (1) to identify the many types of business actions which require decision makers to analyze ethical issues; and (2) to teach students when, why, and how ethical issues should be made a part of the decision-making process.
Prerequisites: Permission of instructor.
BSEO 2401—Business Ethics and Social Performance—1.5 credits
This course examines concepts, issues, and tools related to the management of ethics and social responsibility in business. Students learn how to recognize and respond to ethical problems, to understand their personal responsibilities as business managers, to evaluate various ethical frameworks, to apply a process of moral decision making to ethical problems, to grasp relationships between ethical behavior and organizational structure and processes, and to manage the ethical and social problems and opportunities arising from organizational, institutional, societal, and global dimensions of the business environment.
Prerequisites: none.
BSEO 2406—Managing Strategic Performance—3 credits
This course is concerned with the implementation of corporate and business-level strategies in a global environment. The class uses skills and information from the disciplines and functional areas to design and implement strategies, administrative systems and responses to competitive moves, unplanned events, and performance indicators are given particular attention. Students should be able to evaluate organizational problems, suggest feasible processes that provide strategic advantage for organizations, and defend the implementation of those processes with appropriate analysis.
Prerequisites: BIND 2401 (should take in 2nd year of program).
BSEO 2407—Strategic Management—3 credits
(This course replaces the previous BIND 2401-CGE/BSEO 2406—MSP sequence) This course gives participants a set of perspectives, concepts, skills, and tools relating to the ways in which organizations define, increase, exploit, and sustain competitive advantage. It focuses on two broad areas, both critical to global competitive advantage: (1) the analytical tools and concepts managers use to formulate strategies; and (2) the implementation of corporate and business strategies. At the end of the course, students should be able to do a strategic assessment of the organization and its environment, and to identify and evaluate the strategic choices ahead, as well as to suggest feasible implementation processes for the appropriate strategy.
Prerequisites: BACC 2401 (Accounting), BMKT 2411 (Marketing), BECN 2401 (Economics), BOAH 2401 (Organizational Behavior), BFIN 2006 (Financial Management).
BSEO 2511—Management of Strategic Alliances 1—1.5 credits
Strategic alliances and cooperative relationships between two or more firms is rapidly becoming a common feature of a firm's competitive environment. The purpose of this course, therefore, is to examine the nature of both domestic and international alliances, the reasons behind their formation, and the issues related to their management. The topics covered in the course include conceptual frameworks, the nature of the contract, management and performance of the alliance, transfer of technology and information, and organizational learning. Although a variety of strategic alliances will be discussed, particular emphasis is placed on joint ventures.
Prerequisites: none.
BSEO 2525—Competitive Intelligence—1.5 credits
Competitive intelligence is a process, a product, and, most importantly, a philosophy. An effective competitive intelligence program (CIP) is one of the foundations on which strategies and tactics are built, assessed, and modified. A CIP can be defined as a formalized, yet continuously evolving process by which a management team assesses the evolution of its industry and the capabilities and behavior of its current and potential competitors to assist in maintaining or developing a competitive advantage. This course focuses on how to design a CIP and produce actionable intelligence based on my Intelligence Driven Strategy framework. The methods of intelligence collection, analysis, dissemination, and counterintelligence are framed within a global context. The course is particularly relevant for students interested in the areas of strategic planning, marketing, MIS, international business, and finance, although everyone is welcome.
Prerequisites: none.
BSEO 2528—Legal Environment of Business 1—1.5 credits
This course is designed to provide students with the pervasive dimensions of commercial law in society. Through the pragmatic vehicles of the Uniform Commercial Code and the Antitrust Laws, the course will examine the operations and interactions of the judicial, legislative, administrative, and executive processes as reactions to commercial society and as causative factors in commercial society. Heavy emphasis will be placed on preventive law through business planning in the context of commercial law.
Prerequisites: none.
BSEO 2529—Legal Environment of Business 2—1.5 credits
Continuation of BSEO 2528.
Prerequisites: BSEO 2528.
BSEO 2531—Entrepreneurship and New Venture Initiation—3 credits
This course describes the entrepreneurial process, from developing a framework for analyzing prospective new ventures to examining typical problems encountered in the early life of new ventures, as well as exploring some potential areas for future entrepreneurial activity.
Prerequisite: none.
BSEO 2532—Entrepreneurship and Venture Management—1.5 credits
Course emphasis is on the practical issues of implementing achieving an entrepreneur's start-up business plan. To that end, the course focuses on identifying what works and what does not—regardless of an entrepreneur's product, market, or nation—in making successful a new venture. The course consists of seven sessions, covering these topics:
  • Building a team
  • Sourcing the product
  • Getting control
  • Selling the product
  • Partnering
  • Planning for an exit
  • You as the CEO
Prerequisites: This is a companion course to BSEO 2531: Entrepreneurship and New Venture Initiation, completion of which is desired but not required.
BSEO 2535—Essentials of Entrepreneurial Management—3 credits
Course emphasis is on identifying and exploring the practical issues facing an entrepreneurial CEO guiding his or her company from startup through growth and on to ultimate exit. To these ends, the course focuses on identifying management practice proven to work and those that do not—regardless of the startup company's product, market, or geography.
Prerequisite: BSEO 2531.
BSEO 2538—Strategic Leadership—3 credits
Leadership is under immense pressure today. Organizations have become more complex than ever in confronting the realities of our interconnected world. Strategic endeavor engages us not only to think critically, but also to acquire essential elements to succeed together as organizations offering our products and services. This course highlights the ABC's behind strategic leadership in these changing and challenging times.
Through case studies, guest and student presentations, lectures, and related film documentaries, executive leadership and their range of partners - colleagues, followers, and officials from the public and private sectors - can all participate to foster the necessary attributes for organizational success within the common interests of today's global society, both nationally and internationally.
BSEO 2543—Acquisition and Divestment—1.5 credits
Given the frequency and magnitude of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity, most Pitt MBAs can expect their careers to be impacted by M&A transactions sooner or later—whether as analysts in the pre-merger phase, as managers or consultants in charge of implementing the merger, or simply as professionals whose career trajectories are inevitably shaped by the event. In order to help you prepare for these roles, Managing Post Merger Integration will address the strategic and organizational challenges of integrating companies so as to realize the promise of value creation. Building on the premise that the real work of M&A begins after the deal is signed, this course will utilize current research findings, case studies, and practitioner experiences to equip you with a working knowledge of effective post-merger integration. At a time when most companies realize that M&As have a poor track record of success precisely due to poor post-merger integration, the educational experience in this course will provide you with a valuable skill set.
Please note: This course will not duplicate discussion of the financial aspects of structuring M&A transactions that are very well covered by elective courses in finance and accounting. Instead, we will address topics such as planning the integration effort, putting an implementation team together, integration approaches that work pitfalls to watch out for, integrating functional strategies (e.g., IT, marketing) dealing with political and stakeholder issues, etc. The course should be of special interest to students interested in management consulting careers, or who expect to have significant general management responsibilities in their jobs, or who want to be knowledgeable about M&A events that are likely to affect their careers sooner or later.
Prerequisites: BIND 2401.
BSEO 2549—The Effective Global Manager—1.5 credits
BSEO 2549 examines the management practices of effective global managers. In many ways, global managers and domestic managers approach their jobs similarly. But there are differences as well, differences that must be recognized and handled if the manager is to be effective outside his/her home country. Such differences include:
  1. Anticipating unfamiliar competitors;
  2. Dealing with distance;
  3. Responding to strange markets;
  4. Acquiring knowledge faster, and putting that knowledge to work;
  5. Evolving meaningful alliances; and
  6. Calibrating constantly his or her ethical compass.
The course introduces the student to both the similarities and the differences. Delivery of the course includes lectures by experienced global executives, case studies, and a group project in which student teams work directly with a locally-based global executive.
Prerequisites: none.
BSPP 2022
BSPP 2061—Independent Study in Strategic Planning and Policy—variable credits
An independent course of study in strategic planning and policy may be arranged with a faculty member and a student advisor.
Prerequisites: none.
BSPP 2111—Commercializing New Technologies
This course covers theory, conceptual frameworks, and tools used to formulate strategies for commercializing new technologies. The analytical frameworks cover elements of commercialization strategy that are equally critical to start-ups and to corporate technology ventures. In addition, we discuss some of the key challenges that differ for start-ups versus established firms. The primary deliverable in the course is a professional quality project which evaluates the commercialization alternatives for an emerging technology. Your project team will be paired with a local inventor, unless you prefer to evaluate a technology of special interest to your team. Experienced entrepreneurs and expects in financing new technology ventures will also address the class.
Prerequisite: BSEO 2407 (Strategic Management) is preferred but not required.