This course applies microeconomic analysis to decision methods of businesses or other management units, the science of directing scarce resources to manage costs effectively. Understanding consists of three branches: competitive markets, market power, and imperfect markets.

This course concerns a branch of economics with resource allocation as well as management, acquisition and investment; the systematic recording, reporting, and analysis of financial transactions of a business.

This course deals with the entire physical and strategic dimensions of conversion of material and parts inputs into final products. The span extends from plant layout and material flow to inventory holding, production lot size determination, and quality control. Issues of product packing and packaging are explored. The function has quantitative and strategic dimensions and these are included in the coverage.

This course examines the range of individual and group behavior in an organization. Topics: personality and attitudes, perception, motivation in the work setting, group and team behavior, leadership, interpersonal communication, and organizational design and culture.

This course addresses all business areas and human organization activity needed to get people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives. Management Theory comprises planning, organizing, staffing, leading or directing, and controlling an organization.

This course examines the concepts, strategies, and applications involved with marketing. The course addresses the problem of designing and implementing the most effective mix of marketing variables to carry out the firm's objectives in its target markets. Marketing Management aims to develop the participant's skills in applying analytical methods, decision tools and marketing concepts.

This course focuses on finding and developing unique opportunities to create value by enabling a provocative and creative dialogue among people who can affect a company's direction; a way of understanding the fundamental drivers of a business and rigorously challenging conventional thinking. Good strategic thinking uncovers potential opportunities for creating value and challenges assumptions about a company's value proposition, so that when the plan is created, it targets these opportunities.

This course covers financial statement analysis, corporate governance, business performance measurement, and budgetary control. It involves diagnostic analysis for assessing liquidity, solvency, profitability, operating efficiency and capital market performance of a business entity across time and space. This leads to the systems and mechanisms of corporate governance as evidenced by the role of boards, institutional investors, transparency, and performance measurement.

This course consists of transactions that are devised and carried out across national borders to satisfy the objectives of individuals, companies, and organizations. Primary types of international business are import-export trade and foreign direct investment (FDI). The latter is carried out in varied forms, including wholly owned subsidiaries and joint ventures. Additional types of international business are licensing, franchising, and management contracts.

This course will be examined from three perspectives: (1) customer-business, (2) business-business, and (3) intra-organization. The Internet, intranets, and extranets, electronic data interchange (EDI), security electronic payment systems, tax issues and global policy will be investigated.

Industry Focus

VU's Industry Focus prepares participants for management positions with a high degree of responsibility in leading international companies. Participants can choose either a regional focus (e.g. Switzerland, China, South Africa) or an industry focus (creative industry, watch industry, financial industry, pharmaceutical industry). The participant will gain a deep understanding of the structure and the challenges of these industries in today's international marketplace. VU's lecturers are well connected to local, regional, and global business networks.

GIIA 590 Industry Analysis (project work)

The Industry Analysis is a complete strategic analysis of a real, well-defined business problem or opportunity. In essence, two questions need to be answered :

• Is the company's strategy consistent with its internal strengths and weaknesses and its challenges and opportunities in its external environment?
• What changes should be made in the current strategy, and investments in resources and capabilities, to improve or sustain overall performance?

Participants will have to analyze every aspect of a company and its environment and integrate their findings into a comprehensive understanding of the company's current situation. Participants will gather information from various sources, analyze the data, develop and evaluate alternative solutions then formulate conclusions and recommendations. A high-quality analysis will have several well-supported and internally consistent recommendations that present an integrated strategic option that can be implemented by the company: recommendations need to include what can realistically be done to improve the company's performance.

Project work can be undertaken individually or by a team of 3 to 5 participants. Team project work analyzes larger projects than individual project work. The final length of the analysis is 20 pages maximum. This amount of pages does not include title, references, appendices, etc. Normally, a project lasts for about 12 weeks.

GIIS 591 Industry Strategies (thesis)

It is compulsory to create a thesis to finish the program. The thesis shows the participant's comprehension of the material studied. The participant can choose a mixture of a research-based paper, a business report, a case study or a business plan. Qualitative and quantitative research needs to be conducted. The thesis must give data and ascertain validity together with examining the importance of events.

The thesis has to be undertaken individually. The minimum length of the thesis is 25,000 words. This amount of words does not include title, references, appendices, etc. Normally, writing a thesis lasts for about 22 to 28 weeks.