GMAC: The MBA & Master’s Tour For Women In Business
Wednesday, September 11
7:00 PM
You’ve got your heart set on a well-paying job in a high-growth company, but your undergraduate degree isn’t in management. No problem.
Unlike any other business masters program, you’ll undertake a project with real companies every eight weeks — 4 in all. You’ll learn to work in teams with a diverse set of colleagues. After each team experience, you’ll receive individualized feedback, which you’ll apply in the next project. Under the guidance of a faculty leader small student teams together in projects that grow increasingly complex as students build their capabilities.
where student teams run a coffee company during its first year of operation.
using competitive analysis, trend data, and customer research.
that builds the media and content for an end-to-end campaign for a new offer, customer segment or market.
where student teams build the business plan for their own idea and convince an investor panel to back the recommendation.
In this program with so much focus on real clients, you’ll dive into hands-on experience, applying classroom knowledge to real-world scenarios. It’s the ultimate bridge between theory and practice, preparing you for success beyond the classroom.
Each corporate client invests their time to work with students on a bi-weekly basis. The client sets out project objectives, provides initial context, shares feedback on deliverables and assess the final output with the goal of implementing the recommendations in full or in part.
The Questrom Master in Management Studies Program delivers a unique level of integration across courses and between courses and client project. Faculty meet weekly to make the links between the content they cover and the overall student learning objectives for each eight-week module. Spring electives allow students to tailor what they learn to their career goals. The electives also enable project teams build more advanced deliverables for their clients.
Add an introduction that covers the content in the table below that currently spans multiple columns: Tech and Coms Labs through all modules, Management Communications through modules 1 and 2, Consultative Communications through modules 3 and 4
Summer & launch | Module 1 | Module 2 | Module 3 | Module 4 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Focus | Readiness | Business Foundations | Customer-Driven Growth | Growth Acceleration | Commercialize innovation |
Projects | Crisis Management Simulation | Business Launch Team Simulation | Opportunity Assessment Client Project | Digital Marketing Client Project | Innovation Tournament Client Project |
Classroom | – Career Skills – Career Jumpstarts – Global Teams – Data Camps – Business Ethics | – Business Strategy – Financial Reporting – Quantitative Methods – Selling Your Ideas – Tech Labs | – Customers & Markets – Financial Decision Making – Business Impact Modeling – People and Teams – Tech Labs | – Digital Transformation – Agile Project Management – Tech Labs Electives (pick 2): – Leadership and Change – Product Management – Digital Marketing Analytics – Corporate Financial Analysis – Data Management | – Entrepreneurial Innovation – Tech Labs Electives (pick 3): – Data Visualization – Negotiation & Conflict – Customer Data Analysis – AI for Business Challenges – Consultative Selling |
Careers | Resume building | Industry & sector networking | Firm and profession networking | Targeted pursuit and interviewing | Close offers and prepare to start |
Community | MSMS familiarity | Questrom community building | BU alum engagement | Boston business connections | Entering your new company |
During the summer a virtual career and job hunting course will develop the skills you need to present yourself, begin networking and interviewing and be ready to pursue your job hunt when you arrive in Boston. At the same time online Data Camps will build MS Excel skills for beginners and refresh skills for more advanced users.
Immerse in solving a business crisis simulation and undertake your first career networking push on the very first day of the program. Launch is an immersion in hands on learning and career development that will integrate you rapidly into what it means to work in the real world. During launch students also take the first session for each course and engage in a Career Networking Hackathon event.
Deploy the fundamentals of business decision-making in the areas of positioning, product offering, customer service, operations, pricing and marketing to profitably grow a new small business. Measure and assess results through P&L, cash flow, customer satisfaction and market share statements and reports.
COURSE CODE: ms717
COURSE CODE: ms742
“If you can measure it, you can manage it” is an axiom of management. Accounting is the language of business measurement, the means by which business describes what they do, why they do it, and the value that it generates. In this course, you will be introduced to this language via financial statements: corporate reports, balance sheets, earnings and cash flow analyses, along with CVP-based analysis and decision making.
COURSE CODE: ms743
This course introduces students to statistics and probability, the means by which we analyze customers, markets, firms, industries…any and all aspects of the business experience. The goal is to teach students tools and techniques for analyzing data with an appreciation for the theory underpinning such analyses. How do we collect and analyze data in an unbiased manner?
COURSE CODE: ms749
Persuasive written, oral and interpersonal communications are essential skills that are required for success in every business discipline. In this class, students will learn how to communicate clearly and persuasively, and to connect authentically with their audience, in a way that inspires action. Students will learn to take a point of view on current business issues, support it with logic and evidence, and express it effectively in multiple mediums, ranging from written to verbal, and from formal to extemporaneous. Best practices for both in-person and virtual remote interactions will be explored and practiced. Coaching will be offered for client project meetings and presentations.
A growth opportunity investigation that relies on competitive assessment, trend analysis and customer insights to evaluate, size and place a value on potential market entry, acquisition or organic growth opportunities.
COURSE CODE: ms715
how we measure this growth (in terms of volume sold, revenues, or profits), it always starts with an understanding of how to create value for the customer. The most successful organizations understand that identifying, producing, delivering and capturing value is a strategic practice on which an enterprise thrives or dies. With so much on the line, growth cannot be relegated merely to the marketing department; it is a mindset to be embraced across the organization. This course provides students with an opportunity to deepen your understanding of the ever-changing world of marketing. It presents advanced concepts marketers in all companies are dealing with to grow their business.
COURSE CODE: ms716
Finance is concerned with the efficient allocation of capital, maximizing operational cash flows and the management of financial risk. Capital is said to be efficiently allocated when the risk/return profile of the investment is in line with investor preferences with respect to risk, time and expected return. This course includes the basics of investment analysis: time-value of money, portfolio theory, risk-return tradeoffs and capital budgeting. Time-value of money refers to the valuation of differing values of expected cash flows across time and accounts for differing levels of expected risk. Portfolio theory refers to the optimization of the weights of investments such that the portfolio outperforms the average of the investments. This is accomplished through the minimization of unnecessary risk. Capital budgeting refers to the process of capital allocation within the business (by managers) such that the financial performance of the firm is maximized.
COURSE CODE: ms744
This course examines how teams function, how individuals within those teams operate, and how team members can deal with the sometimes tricky dynamics of working with others. The course is largely experiential, and involves individual introspection, one-on-one interactions with others, group exercises, and class discussion. Throughout the course, students will be asked to keep reflection journals, which will be collected halfway through the course and at the end. In addition, there will be an in-class assessment during the sixth session covering the models discussed in class to that point
COURSE CODE: MS775
Develop a comprehensive digital marketing campaign across social, search, paid ads, owned website, owned apps, email, sponsors, partners, and commerce channels targeted at the profile and needs of high potential customers. Bring the plan to life with tangible campaign content and media investments for each step in the prospect’s purchase journey.
COURSE CODE: ms747
In this course, students will learn how to use the concepts, tools and techniques of project management in order to successfully manage projects. System development project failures are generally failures of management, not failures of technology. Good management, along with an understanding of the appropriate use of technology, is therefore essential. Students will learn how to apply the concepts, tools and techniques of project management in today’s dynamic, digital business environment, where projects must be brought to completion under increasingly compressed timeframes and where decisions must be made under conditions of uncertainty.
COURSE CODE: ms751
This course introduces students to issues associated with formulating corporate strategy. It draws on findings from various academic disciplines (e.g., economics, organization theory, sociology, accounting, and management policy) to build a fundamental understanding of how firms choose the businesses in which they operate, considerations for geographic expansion, and how technology interplays with strategy. Readings and cases lead towards understanding the underlying economics affecting a firm’s external and internal environments and the implications of these fundamental factors for affecting the practice of strategy design. The course is designed to challenge students both inside and outside of the classroom, and to inform their consulting project.
COURSE CODE: ms771
COURSE CODE: ms756
The focus of this course is on leadership from a variety of perspectives: organizational leadership in the external environment, as well as leadership at the top, middle, and lower levels inside organizations. We look leadership from a behavioral, emotional intelligence, and situational point of view, developing students’ awareness, mindset, and skills in the process. In addition, we explore the challenges, theories, and skills of change management.
COURSE CODE: ms774
COURSE CODE: fe820
This course provides an in-depth analysis of financial considerations relating to corporate growth. It addresses the setting of financial and corporate goals in terms of maximizing shareholder wealth and relationships among working capital, debt levels, capital costs, dividend policy, growth and the value of the firm. It also considers the requisite financial analysis associated with mergers and acquisitions and bankruptcy.
COURSE CODE: ms776
Build a prototype of a new product or service innovation based on a concept developed by students in the Innovation and Entrepreneurship course. Develop a commercial launch plan that includes a customer acquisition model, operations scale up, investment sequencing, and timeline. Assemble the business plan to attract investors, demonstrate a return on investment. Pitch the plan to a panel of actual investors.
COURSE CODE: ms757
This course introduces students to the innovation processes, such as design thinking, and various types and models of innovation. Students will learn current approaches to developing value for innovators, companies, societies, and economies through entrepreneurship. The course will explore various contexts for innovation and entrepreneurship, including new ventures, mature companies, and foreign market entry.
COURSE CODE: ms753
This course explores the skills strategies and tactics of both collaborative and competitive negotiations. In addition, we look at team negotiations, multi-party negotiations, agency, stakeholder analysis, preparation, and conflict resolution. The course is largely experiential, and involves individual introspection, one-on-one interactions with others, group exercises, and class discussion
COURSE CODE: ms770
COURSE CODE: ms773
COURSE CODE: mk820
This course covers the consultative selling approaches and skills required to lead complex sales programs. Selling complex products and services typically requires a long sales cycle, a sales/solution team collaboration, a high degree of interaction with the client team, and the development of custom solutions specific to each client. This course covers all aspects of consultative selling, and specific topics include strategies to help clients identify opportunities, qualify deals, recognize unrealized value, create solutions, develop marketing programs, build teams, deliver projects, negotiate contracts, and manage relationships. Students will interactively work to develop the personal skills and behaviors essential to success, and will learn strategies and behaviors to become a trusted advisor and valuable partner to clients.
Weekly technology and communication labs unlock rapidly evolving generative AI, business automation, analytical and content development technologies.
Students explore and learn the basics of applications they are most likely to encounter in the workplace. Applications range from data and analysis tools, data visualization programs, digital marketing automation platforms, content creation and prototyping applications. The impact of AI is examined and experimented with throughout the course.
Students undertake intensive 3 – 4 hour skill building session to accelerate advance knowledge or build foundational basics in data analysis using Excel. Students can elect to undertake additional sessions in coding and data visualization.
Questrom’s Master in Management Studies program is designated by US Department of Homeland Security as a STEM-eligible degree program. International students in F-1 student status may be able to apply for a 24-month extension of their 12-month Optional Practical Training (OPT) employment authorization. More information about STEM OPT eligibility is available from the BU International Students and Scholars Office (ISSO).
The program covered so much important content in each module of the program. It was organized in a way that allowed us to build on topics from previous classes and client projects and move forward at an accelerated pace.
Ready to apply? Follow the link to learn more about the application process. Once you’ve submitted your materials, we’ll start the review process. We’re happy to answer your questions along the way.
*This date is only for domestic students or international students with a current, active F-1 visa.