About This Course:

Every business has a story. Accounting tells the financial story of a business. How much profit does the company make? Can the company afford to grow or pay its employees more? What are its assets and liabilities? Is the company in good credit or an investment risk? These types of questions can be answered through the use and understanding of the stories that financial statements tell.

In this course, you will explore standard business activities and follow them through to the financial statement phase to determine how those activities then contribute to the company’s profits. After taking this class, you should be able to:

  • Record and present financial information by applying the appropriate framework and guidelines of accounting for business transactions including:
    • Creating various financial statements based on various forms of financial data.
    • Analyzing financial data to inform decision-making using a given framework.
    • Explaining financial information to stakeholders to support business practices.
  • Determine asset accounts and their disclosure in the financial statements by:
    • Applying valuation methods to value account inventory
    • Determining account values
    • Developing financial statements
  • Determine liability and equity accounts and their disclosure in the financial statements by:
    • Identifying types of liabilities
    • Distinguishing between current and long-term liabilities
    • Evaluating financial impacts of long-term debt
    • Explaining the difference between retained earnings and owners’ equity
What You’ll Learn:
  • Record financial transactions according to industry standards
  • Prepare financial statements aligned with industry practices
  • Analyze the results of transactions and statements
  • Report financial information to appropriate stakeholders

Meet Your Instructors:

pearson advance :: Zuzana Buzzell

Zuzana Buzzell

Dr. Zuzana Buzzell oversees multiple programs within the graduate and undergraduate business portfolio at Southern New Hampshire University including accounting, economics and project management. She has 15 years of experience developing, training and teaching multiple successful accounting, finance and economics programs in traditional, hybrid and online settings for academic institutions, government agencies and the private sector. She also held various leadership positions in one of the largest financial service companies in the U.S. Dr. Buzzell earned her PhD in International Business with concentration in Finance in 2013, her master’s in finance in 2004 and an MBA in 2001.
pearson advance :: Mona Stephens

Mona Stephens

Mona Stephens has been teaching accounting courses, both online and campus, for more than 20 years. At Southern New Hampshire University, she is an online accounting faculty lead. She also serves as a subject matter expert for the university in all areas of accounting, based on her experience and knowledge in both educational and corporate accounting environments. Of Stephens’ 25 years of professional accounting experience, 18 of those were as the finance and accounting administrator for a regional government office. She is also Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and has MS degrees in both accounting and data analytics.

About This Course:

The Business and Professional Communications for Success program will provide learners with the essential knowledge to create eye-catching, appropriate business presentations, and apply proper techniques in their business communications, all while working in diverse environments. This program also examines the various types of business presentations in the work environment and allows learners to apply their knowledge to create a stunning presentation.

Professional Business Presentations, will dive into the world of presenting information both in written and verbal form using presentation templates or creating from scratch. This course discusses how to effectively create high-quality presentations with proper formatting, design elements (color scheme, layout, etc.), and organization. The learner will identify the appropriate presentation format and software for their audience. Learners will have the opportunity to utilize the skills gained to create an engaging PowerPoint presentation. Learners will also use their skills to create a professional handout with infographics and record a video presentation, graded by staff, as part of their final project in the course.

What You’ll Learn:

By the end of this course learners will be able to:

 Evaluate the organizational steps of a presentation

 Examine various supporting materials for presentations

 Evaluate and discuss various presentation software

 Examine design principles for presentations

 Discuss storytelling for presentations

 Develop a presentation

  • Present via video a polished presentation

Meet Your Instructor:

Debora Sepich - Pearson Advance

Debora Sepich

EdD MBA at Doane University
Debora Sepich is an entrepreneur turned educator who has spent the last 15 years blurring the lines between the world of work and the halls of education. Debora is the Director of Graduate Business and Technology Programs at Doane University. Prior to working at Doane University, she founded Dolphin Software, an environmental health and safety software company focused on supporting pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and other highly regulated industries focus on protecting people, the planet while also making sustainable profits. Debora is delighted to be marrying her years of applied business experience with online education.

About This Course:

The Business and Professional Communications for Success program will provide learners with the essential knowledge to create appropriate business messages and apply proper business writing techniques in their written business communications, all while working in diverse environments. This program also examines the various types of business presentations in the work environment and allows learners to apply their knowledge to create and present their work.

Business Writing Techniques will expand on the different communication styles of business writers. We will discuss business writers’ best practices by providing real-world scenarios and applications such as proofreading and rewriting. Learners will examine how to use the 6 C’s to enhance their business messages. Learners will also discuss the proper etiquette of business writing and examine the use of emoji in business communications.

What You’ll Learn:

By the end of this course learners will be able to:

 Identify Parts of a business letter

 Examine the 6 C’s for business messages

 Evaluate Direct Vs. Indirect messages

 Examine the use of emojis in the business setting

Meet Your Instructor:

Debora Sepich - Pearson Advance

Debora Sepich

EdD MBA at Doane University
Debora Sepich is an entrepreneur turned educator who has spent the last 15 years blurring the lines between the world of work and the halls of education. Debora is the Director of Graduate Business and Technology Programs at Doane University. Prior to working at Doane University, she founded Dolphin Software, an environmental health and safety software company focused on supporting pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and other highly regulated industries focus on protecting people, the planet while also making sustainable profits. Debora is delighted to be marrying her years of applied business experience with online education.

About This Course:

The Business and Professional Communications for Success program will provide learners with the essential knowledge of effective business communications to aid in their company’s success. Learners will create appropriate business messages through business letters and messaging and apply proper business communications techniques and business writing techniques. Learners will examine the basics of business communication while working in diverse business environments with diverse team members. This program also examines the various types of business presentations in the work environment. It allows learners to apply their knowledge to create and present their work for internal and external communication.

Learners will engage with the fundamentals of business communication. Learners will discover different communication styles and how to address them in a business setting. Learners will also assess their listening styles and emotional intelligence and how both can affect their communication skills.

What You’ll Learn:

  • By the end of this course learners will be able to:
  • Define communication
  • Examine the communication principles
  • Identify the Communication Model
  • Identify ways to effectively listen
  • Identify their communication style
  • Examine Emotional Intelligence and its use in communication

Meet Your Instructor:

Debora Sepich - Pearson Advance

Debora Sepich

EdD MBA at Doane University
Debora Sepich is an entrepreneur turned educator who has spent the last 15 years blurring the lines between the world of work and the halls of education. Debora is the Director of Graduate Business and Technology Programs at Doane University. Prior to working at Doane University, she founded Dolphin Software, an environmental health and safety software company focused on supporting pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and other highly regulated industries focus on protecting people, the planet while also making sustainable profits. Debora is delighted to be marrying her years of applied business experience with online education.

About this course

Want to study for an MBA but unsure of the basic data analysis still required? This online course prepares you for studying in an MBA program and in business generally.

Data analysis appears throughout any rigorous MBA program and in today’s business environment understanding the fundamentals of collecting, presenting, describing and making inferences from data sets is essential for success.

The goal of this course is to teach you fundamental data analysis skills so you are prepared for your MBA study and able to focus your efforts on core MBA curriculum, rather than continually playing catch-up with the underlying statistical knowledge needed.

We also hope that learning these data analysis skills will equip you with the ability to understand, to a greater degree, the data you encounter in your working lives and in the world around you – an essential life-skill in today’s data driven environment

This course assumes no prior knowledge of data analysis. Concepts are explained as clearly as possible and regular activities give you the opportunity to practice your skills and improve your confidence.

What you’ll learn

  • Presenting and summarising your data
  • Decision making under uncertainty
  • Data-based decision making
  • Modelling for decision making

Syllabus

Topic 1 – Presenting and summarising your data
Topic 2 – Decision making under uncertainty
Topic 3 – Data-based decision making
Topic 4 – Modelling for decision making

Meet your instructors

David Lefevre

David is the Director of the EdTech Lab at Imperial College Business School. He is also the course leader on the Business School’s Pre-study module in Maths. David holds an MSc in Computing Science and a PhD in the field of instructional systems from Imperial College London and, perhaps most importantly, a BSc in Mathematics from the University of East Anglia (UEA). David and his EdTech Lab team launched the Global Online MBA program in 2015 and have received awards along the way including a Gold award at the IMS Learning Impact awards in 2010 and an Effective Practice Award at the Sloan-C Blended Learning Conference in 2011.

Catarina Sismeiro

Dr. Catarina Sismeiro is an Associate Professor at Imperial College Business School where she teaches on the Full-Time and Executive MBA programs. Catarina’s research has been published in The Journal of Marketing Research, Management Science, and The International Journal of Research in Marketing and has won several awards. Previously she was an Assistant Professor at Marshall Business School, University of Southern California. She holds a PhD in Management from the Anderson School, UCLA, and a Licenciatura in Management from Faculdade de Economia do Porto (Portugal).

About MIT horizon

MIT Horizon is an expansive content library built to help you explore emerging technologies. Through easy-to-understand lessons, you’ll be guided through the complexities of the latest technologies and simplified expert-level concepts. Designed for both technical and non-technical learners, you can examine bite-size content that can lead to maximum career outcomes.

For a limited time, gain access to the complete MIT Horizon library.

Register today for exclusive entry.

About this course

Want to know how to avoid bad decisions with data?

Making good decisions with data can give you a distinct competitive advantage in business. This statistics and data analysis course will help you understand the fundamental concepts of sound statistical thinking that can be applied in surprisingly wide contexts, sometimes even before there is any data! Key concepts like understanding variation, perceiving relative risk of alternative decisions, and pinpointing sources of variation will be highlighted.

These big picture ideas have motivated the development of quantitative models, but in most traditional statistics courses, these concepts get lost behind a wall of little techniques and computations. In this course we keep the focus on the ideas that really matter, and we illustrate them with lively, practical, accessible examples.

We will explore questions like: How are traditional statistical methods still relevant in modern analytics applications? How can we avoid common fallacies and misconceptions when approaching quantitative problems? How do we apply statistical methods in predictive applications? How do we gain a better understanding of customer engagement through analytics?

This course will be is relevant for anyone eager to have a framework for good decision-making. It will be good preparation for students with a bachelor’s degree contemplating graduate study in a business field.

Opportunities in analytics are abundant at the moment. Specific techniques or software packages may be helpful in landing first jobs, but those techniques and packages may soon be replaced by something newer and trendier. Understanding the ways in which quantitative models really work, however, is a management level skill that is unlikely to go out of style.

What you’ll learn

  • Variability in the real world and implications for decision making
  • Data types and data quality with appropriate visualizations
  • Apply data analysis to managerial decisions, especially in start-ups
  • Making effective decisions from no data to big data (what should we collect and then what do we do with all this data?)

Meet your instructors

Rick Cleary

Professor Rick Cleary is a statistician and mathematician with research and consulting interests in a variety of fields including sports, biomechanics, and statistical approaches to fraud detection and audit risk. Prior to coming to Babson College in 2013, Professor Cleary taught at St. Michael’s College in Vermont, Cornell University, Bentley University, and Harvard University. He has held many leadership positions in the Mathematical Association of America, including six years on the Executive Committee as Associate Treasurer and a term as chair of the Joint Data Committee. He is currently on the Nominations Committee and the Polya lecturer selection committee. Professor Cleary enjoys working with mathematics teachers at all levels to improve statistics education and he gives frequent talks and workshops on ways to encourage statistical thinking.

Nathan Karst

Dr. Nathan Karst received his B.S. in electrical and computer engineering from Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering in 2007 and his doctorate in applied mathematics from Cornell. He is an avid teacher and researcher, having won the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in 2014 and the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship in 2015. Most recently, his research has focused on the role of nonlinear dynamics in microvascular networks and event-scale streamflow recession variability.

Davit Khachatryan

Dr. Davit Khachatryan is an Assistant Professor of Statistics and Analytics at Babson College. He is an applied statistician with research interests in analyzing intellectual property data to study the formation and diffusion of knowledge in emerging industries. Davit’s current and former research has produced publications in academic, peer-reviewed journals such as Journal of the Royal Statistical Society (Series C), The American Statistician, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management (forthcoming), and Quality and Reliability Engineering International. Prior to joining Babson College, Davit was a Senior Associate at the National Economics and Statistics practice of Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC). In the latter role he consulted in the area of predictive modeling and advanced data analytics, helping clients from financial, healthcare, and government sectors with building automatic predictive models and enhancing business intelligence solutions. Davit has earned his B.S. in Applied Mathematics and Informatics from Yerevan State University, M.S. in Statistics and Ph.D. in Management Science from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

George Recck

Mr. Recck has taught at Babson College since 1984. He currently serves as the Chair of the Business Analytics/Statistics Education special interest group for the American Statistical Association (ASA). Mr. Recck is also the founder of Total Information, Inc., an consulting firm specializing in providing information service to small businesses.

Babak Zafari

†Dr. Zafari is an Assistant Professor of Analytics and Statistics in the Math & Science Division. His area of interests are Predictive Modeling and Data Mining Methods for Business Applications, Bayesian Statistics, Healthcare Fraud Analytics and Online Auctions. Prior to joining Babson College, he was a Visiting Assistant Professor at The George Washington University School of Business teaching courses in Data Analysis and Decisions, Business Analytics and Data Mining. He was also a senior statistician consultant at Integrity Management Services where he was responsible for developing statistical models for fraud detection in Medicare and Medicaid programs. He received his B.S. in Applied Mathematics from Sharif University of Technology, M.S. in Operations Research/Computer Science from Bowling Green State University and Ph.D. in Decision Sciences from The George Washington University School of Business.

About MIT horizon

MIT Horizon is an expansive content library built to help you explore emerging technologies. Through easy-to-understand lessons, you’ll be guided through the complexities of the latest technologies and simplified expert-level concepts. Designed for both technical and non-technical learners, you can examine bite-size content that can lead to maximum career outcomes.

For a limited time, gain access to the complete MIT Horizon library.

Register today for exclusive entry.

Course Overview:

Virtually all managerial and leadership positions in the digital economy increasingly rely on data-driven decision making. Recent studies have shown companies who adopt “Data-Driven Decision Management” achieve significant productivity gains over other firms.

Having a solid grasp of the end-to-end process of making effective decisions with data will give you an edge, both in performing such analyses yourself, as well as in effectively managing teams of business analysts and data scientists.

In this course, part of both the Digital Leadership and Digital Product Management MicroMasters programs, you will learn the tools and techniques to become a data-driven or “evidence-based” manager.

You will learn the process of reframing a business question as a data question, reasoning about what data might be of assistance and how to obtain it, integrating and cleaning the data, performing the analysis, deriving and communicating insights from the analysis, and building the managerial culture to operate in this way and create competitive advantages from enterprise data.

This course is unique in the sense that it aims squarely at the needs of a manager in an analytically focused enterprise by providing both a hands-on introduction to the concepts, methods and processes of business analytics as well as an introduction to the use of analytics as the basis for creating a competitive advantage.

 

Software Requirements

Completion of this course requires the use of Microsoft Power BI Desktop. Unfortunately, there is currently no version of Power BI Desktop for macOS or Linux operating systems. We encourage learners to secure access to a Windows environment, but if that is not possible, macOS and Linux users can run Power BI Desktop in a virtual Windows environment. The course provides steps for installing such an environment.

What You’ll Learn

  • Key analytic technologies and techniques, e.g. predictive modeling and machine learning, and how these can play a role in managerial decision making
  • How to effectively manage the analytical processes and use the results of these processes as the basis for making informed, evidence-based decisions
  • How companies can use analytics as the basis for creating value

Prerequisites

Elementary college course in statistics.

Meet your instructors

John W. Byers - Pearson Advance

John W. Byers

Professor of Computer Science at Boston University
John is Professor of Computer Science at Boston University and Founding Chief Scientist of Cogo Labs, founded in 2005. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from UC Berkeley in 1997 and his B.A. from Cornell University in 1991.
Chris Dellarocas - Pearson Advance

Chris Dellarocas

Richard C. Shipley Professor of Information Systems at Boston University
Chris is Richard C. Shipley Professor of Information Systems at the Questrom School of Business and Associate Provost for Digital Learning & Innovation at Boston University. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from MIT in 1996 and his Diploma in Electrical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece in 1989.

Andrei Lapets

Director of Research Development and Research Scientist, Hariri Institute for Computing at Boston University
Andrei is a Research Scientist and Director of Research Development within the Hariri Institute for Computing, Director of the Software & Application Innovation Lab, and Adjunct Assistant Professor within the Department of Computer Science, all at Boston University. He earned his A.B. and S.M. degrees from Harvard University and his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Boston University.

About this course

An effective process for conceiving, developing and launching new products or services is critical to becoming competitive in most industries. This course includes key concepts like new product development strategy, types of product development strategies and steps.

This course involves

(a) Organizational integration of the work of functional specialists, industrial designers, and other key participants within the firm.

(b) Reducing the time-to-market while meeting cost and quality targets.

(c) Managing cross-functional projects and inherent technological risks while keeping a focus on changing customer requirements.

These challenges are examined in relation to the business level strategy of the firm, its competitive challenges, the technology life cycle and the product life cycle. We will also focus on the potential for firms to build markets and create demand for new products.

What you’ll learn

  • Understand the entire product development process from the product idea to eventual launch with an appropriate business model.
  • Learn how emerging market firms gain competitive advantage through design and development of locally relevant products.

View the course Welcome video from instructor Ganesh N Prabhu.

 

 

Meet your instructor

Ganesh N Prabhu - Pearson Advance

Ganesh N Prabhu

Ganesh N Prabhu is a Professor of Strategy at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, where he teaches Strategy, Qualitative Research and New Product Development. He also conducts executive programmes on New Product Development, Business Strategy, Business Acumen, Strategy Consulting and Design Thinking for senior managers. He was an invited member on the inaugural India Design Council and is a top writer on Quora. Ganesh is a Fellow (PhD) from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad and holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from the Institute of Rural Management Anand. His research focuses on entrepreneurship and has been published in the Academy of Management Review and Research Policy.

Who can take this course?

Unfortunately, learners from one or more of the following countries or regions will not be able to register for this course: Iran, Cuba and the Crimea region of Ukraine. While edX has sought licenses from the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to offer our courses to learners in these countries and regions, the licenses we have received are not broad enough to allow us to offer this course in all locations. edX truly regrets that U.S. sanctions prevent us from offering all of our courses to everyone, no matter where they live.

About This Course:

In order for a manager to effectively perform their role they must have an understanding of accounting information, as accounting systems generate information that is used by both internal and external stakeholders

Having a good understanding of accounting allows managers to communicate with the finance department, bankers, suppliers and even tax authorities.

In this finance course, you will learn how to read and understand financial statements. You will learn all relevant and important terms as they relate to the three financial statements – balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement. Subsequently, you will develop the capability to analyze business performance through financial statements. You will see how the performance of any organization is impacted by four fundamental drivers of profitability – asset management, cost management, leverage management and tax management.

In the second part of the course, you will learn how to manage costs. We will cover product costing, budgeting , budgetary control and cost analysis for decision making.

Successfully completing this course will transform you into a manager who is confident while discussing and handling accounting and financial matters in the workplace, and help you as you move forward in your managerial career and take on senior roles.

What You’ll Learn:

  • Read and understand financial statements
  • Financial statement analysis
  • How to use accounting information to plan and control your business and make decisions

Syllabus:

Skip Syllabus

Week 1: Mechanics of Financial Accounting
Introduction to financial accounting; Generally Accepted Accounting Principles; fundamental accounting equation; recording of financial transactions and preparation of accounting statements through accounting equation.Week 2: Reading Financial Statements
Reading and understanding balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement; Familiarizing all accounting terms that normally appear in financial statements.Week 3: Financial Statement Analysis
Ratio analysis; Understanding relationship between four profitability drivers; Assessing financial health through credit scoring model.Week 4: Product Costing
Preparation of Cost Sheet in manufacturing and service industry; Job and process costing; Activity-based costing.Week 5: Cost Analysis for Decision Making
Behaviour of costs; Break-even analysis; Relevant costing approach for different decision making scenarios.Week 6: Budgeting and variance analysis
Preparation of operational and financial budgets; Comparing actual performance against budgets; Price and quantity variance; Controllable and non-controllable variance; Revenue and contribution variances.

Meet Your Instructor:

MS Narasimhan

Professor MS Narasimhan teaches courses on Management Accounting, Financial Accounting, Corporate Finance and Investments. His areas of interest include Management Accounting, Corporate Finance and Capital Markets. He is a member of the Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India. He has also completed a study on Corporate Disclosure Practices in India, sponsored under the FIRE project. He has published several articles and research studies in national and international journals and financial newspapers.

Who can take this course?

Unfortunately, learners from one or more of the following countries or regions will not be able to register for this course: Iran, Cuba and the Crimea region of Ukraine. While edX has sought licenses from the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to offer our courses to learners in these countries and regions, the licenses we have received are not broad enough to allow us to offer this course in all locations. edX truly regrets that U.S. sanctions prevent us from offering all of our courses to everyone, no matter where they live.

About This Course:

In this business and management course, you will develop a strong understanding of how firms compete by learning about important analytical approaches that underlie business strategy.

This course will show you how a business views itself in its “totality” and in the context of its environment. The course will be taught from the perspective of a manager or chief executive officer (CEO).

This course aims to equip you with a good understanding of:

  • What managing a firm strategically implies?
    • How one analyzes the industry in which a firm competes?
    • How does a firm create competitive advantage?
    • How does a firm sustain its competitive advantage?

What You’ll Learn:

  • Industry and competitive analysis
  • Resource and competency analysis
  • Analysing strategy across corporate and business levels

Syllabus:

Week 1: Introduction to Strategic Management
Week 2: Analyzing the External Environment
Week 3: Analyzing the Internal Environment
Week 4: Competitive Positioning
Week 5: Managing the Multi-business Firm

Meet Your Instructors:

P D Jose

P D Jose is an professor at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, where he teaches core courses on Business and Corporate Strategy and several electives on sustainability. He is a Fellow of the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. He also has a Post Graduate Diploma in Forestry Management from the Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal and Bachelors in Physics from the Institute of Science, Bombay. He has taught classes on strategy and/or sustainability at a number of schools including Cardiff University Business School (UK); the School of Economics and Business at the University of Goteborg, Sweden; Indian Institute of Management at Kozhikode and Ahmedabad. He has also consulted with several government agencies, non-governmental, private sector and international organizations.

Rejie George Pallathita

Rejie is an Associate Professor in the Corporate Strategy and Policy area at IIM Bangalore. He is a Ph.D. from Tilburg University in The Netherlands. Professor Pallathitta’s interests are in the areas of Corporate Governance, Strategic Management and International Business. He has published papers in the Strategic Management Journal and the Journal of Business Research and has presented his research work at several international conferences.

Sai Yayavaram

Sai Yayavaram is an Associate Professor at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, where he teaches Competition & Strategy and Strategy Content. He also conducts executive education programmes on strategic management and management of innovation for senior managers. He is a Ph.D. in Strategic Management from McCombs School of Business, The University of Texas at Austin and holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. His research focuses on technology management, complexity and strategic rents and has been published in Administrative Science Quarterly, Strategic Management Journal, and Organization Science.

Who can take this course?

Unfortunately, learners from one or more of the following countries or regions will not be able to register for this course: Iran, Cuba and the Crimea region of Ukraine. While edX has sought licenses from the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to offer our courses to learners in these countries and regions, the licenses we have received are not broad enough to allow us to offer this course in all locations. edX truly regrets that U.S. sanctions prevent us from offering all of our courses to everyone, no matter where they live.