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:

While big data infiltrates all walks of life, most firms have not changed sufficiently to meet the challenges that come with it. In this course, you will learn how to develop a big data strategy, transform your business model and your organization.

This course will enable professionals to take their organization and their own career to the next level, regardless of their background and position.

Professionals will learn how to be in charge of big data instead of being subject to it. In particular, they will become familiar with tools to:

  • assess their current situation regarding potential big data-induced changes of a disruptive nature,
  • identify their options for successfully integrating big data in their strategy, business model and organization, or if not possible, how to exit quickly with as little loss as possible, and
  • strengthen their own position and that of their organization in our digitalized knowledge economy

The course will build on the concepts of product life cycles, the business model canvas, organizational theory and digitalized management jobs (such as Chief Digital Officer or Chief Informatics Officer) to help you find the best way to deal with and benefit from big data induced changes.

During the course, your most pressing questions will be answered in our feedback videos with the lecturer. In the assignments of the course, you will choose a sector and a stakeholder. For this, you will develop your own strategy and business model. This will help you identify the appropriate organizational structure and potential contributions and positions for yourself.
 

What You’ll Learn:

  • Identify the stakeholders and characteristics of your sector in the era of big data
  • Identify potential big data induced changes in strategy, business model, organization and job descriptions
  • Substantially change existing strategy, business model, organization or adopt new ones as required
  • Find and develop strategically important tasks for yourself in your organization

 

Syllabus:

Week 1:

1. Challenges and Opportunities of big data

1.1 Big data in the digitalized knowledge economy

1.2 Are firms ready for big data?

1.3 The machine learning revolution

Week 2:

2. Stakeholders and Sectors

2.1 Stakeholders: Private or public goals

2.2 Sectors: Disruptive or incremental changes induced by big data

2.3 Assignment Part A

Week 3:

3. Big data upending strategy and innovation

3.1 Conventional wisdom on strategy and innovation

3.2 Wisdom considering the disruptive power of big data

3.3 Assignment Part B

Week 4:

4. Transforming building blocks of the business model canvas

4.1 What does big data mean for the different building blocks of the business model canvas?

4.2 Examples

4.3 Assignment Part C

Week 5:

5. Transforming the organization: CIO, CDO or CEO in the lead?

5.1 What does big data mean for the organization of your company?

5.2 Who leads the way?

5.3 Examples

5.4 Assignment Part D

Week 6:

6. Wrapping up

6.1 Ready for big data

6.2 Feedback

Meet Your Instructors:

Marijn Janssen

Marijn Janssen is full professor in ICT & governance and chair of the Information and Communication Technology section of the Technology, Policy and Management Faculty of TU Delft. His research interests are in the field of orchestration, governance, shared services, intermediaries, open data and infrastructures within constellations of public and private organizations. Marijn was recently designated as the top researcher in the area of eGovernance, and has been recognized as such several times in the last decade.
Claudia Werker

Claudia Werker

Claudia Werker is an associate professor in Economics of Technology and Innovation at the Department Technology, Policy and Management at Delft University of Technology. She is also visiting professor at the Research Area Technology, Innovation, Marketing and Entrepreneurship (TIME) at RWTH Aachen University. She has been teaching Bachelor, Master and PhD students in the field of Economics of Innovation and Technology. Claudia Werker received her PhD-degree in Economics (Dr. rer. pol.) from Freiberg University of Technology, Germany (summa cum laude). Starting with her PhD thesis she has been studying the creation and dissemination of innovation and knowledge in innovation systems. Currently, her recent research focuses on management of technology and innovation, the economic effects of big data and design for values.

Scott Cunningham

Scott Cunningham joined the faculty in 2004. Prior to joining TU Delft, he worked in the computer and software industry, creating analytical models for commercial clients. His work on national innovation indicators helps inform policy for the governments of the U.S., the U.K. and Malaysia. Scott Cunningham is interested in operations research and decision sciences approaches for policy making. In particular, he is interested in probabilistic models of social exchange. Other interests include building multi-actor systems theory through the economic sociology and innovation policy literatures. A recent publication is Tech Mining (with Alan Porter), a book on assessing new technology developments.

About this course

In this course, you will gain an understanding of time-honored financial concepts and rules, and how these can be applied to value firms, bonds, and stocks.

We will cover the time value of money, cost of capital and capital budgeting. You will be using Excel for many process including valuing bonds and stocks, computing NPV and finding IRR.

An introductory finance course that is required for all first-year MBA students at Columbia Business School, the course is taught by a world-class instructor, actively training the next generation of market leaders on Wall Street.

Participants from all backgrounds will be prepared to participate on the ever-evolving financial playing field.

What you’ll learn

  • How to value any asset
  • Decide which projects to take out of the many a corporation might be considering
  • Compute the return on any project
  • Compute the value that a project adds
  • Value a bond and compute its yield
  • Value a stock using a simple model (i.e., determine the fair price of a stock)

Syllabus

Week 1: The Time Value of Money & Present Value
Week 2: Net Present Value & The Internal Rate of Return Rule
Week 3: Capital Budgeting
Week 4: Valuation of Bonds and Stocks

Meet your instructor

Daniel Wolfenzon

Daniel Wolfenzon is the Stefan H. Robock Professor of Finance and Economics at Columbia Business School. He received a Masters and a PhD in economics from Harvard University and holds a BS in economics and a BS in mechanical engineering from MIT. He is also a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Areas of Research: His research interests are in corporate finance and organizational economics. He has studied control sharing in small firms, the effects of investor protection on ownership concentration, and the structure of business groups around the world. His most recent research focuses on family firms. He has examined the consequences of family succession on firm performance and also the importance of managerial talent in family controlled firms.

What you’ll learn

  • The major areas in FinTech, includingMoney and Payment,Digital Finance and Alternative Finance
  • Major technological trends, including cryptocurrencies, Blockchain, AI and Big Data
  • FinTech Regulation and RegTech
  • The fundamental role of Data and Security in data-driven finance
  • Business and regulatory implications of technology for the financial industry
  • How regulations and RegTech are applied
  • Ways to analyse and evaluate what is driving technology innovation in Finance
  • How new technology impacts economies, markets, companies, and individuals

Meet your instructors

Douglas Arner

Douglas W. Arner is the Kerry Holdings Professor in Law at the University of Hong Kong and Project Coordinator of a major five-year project funded by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council Theme-based Research Scheme on “Enhancing Hong Kong’s Future as a Leading International Financial Centre”. In addition, he is Director of the HKU LLM in Compliance and Regulation, and a Senior Visiting Fellow of Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne. Douglas is a member of the Hong Kong Financial Services Development Council and an Executive Committee Member of the Asia Pacific Structured Finance Association. Douglas has served as a consultant with, among others, the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, APEC, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Islamic Financial Services Board and Development Bank of Southern Africa. He has lectured, co-organised conferences and seminars and been involved with financial sector reform projects in over 20 economies in Africa, Asia and Europe. He has been a visiting professor or fellow at Duke University, the Hong Kong Institute for Monetary Research, the Interdisciplinary Centre – Herzliya, McGill University, Melbourne University, National University of Singapore, University of New South Wales, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, and Zurich University, among others. Douglas served as Head of the Department of Law of the University of Hong Kong from 2011 to 2014 and from 2006 to 2011 he was the Director of the Faculty’s Asian Institute of International Financial Law, which he co-founded in 1999 along with the LLM in Corporate and Financial Law (of which he serves as Director). He was Co-Director of the Duke University-HKU Asia-America Institute in Transnational Law from 2005 to 2016 and a member of the International Advisory Board of the Australian Centre for International Finance and Regulation from 2010-2016. In 2007, he received HKU’s Outstanding Young Researcher Award and served as Convenor of HKU’s Law, Policy and Development Strategic Research Theme from 2008-2012. Before joining HKU in 2000, he was the Sir John Lubbock Support Fund Fellow at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary College, University of London.

Janos Barberis

Janos Barberis has an established track record in the FinTech industry (32nd Most Powerfull Dealmaker, Institutional Investor) and Academia (13th legal scholar in world, SSRN) and is driven to deliver actionable foresight. His area of focus on FinTech Regulation and RegTech Developments and emerging trends. Academically, he developed the world's leading research which is directly used by regulators for policy design. Professionally, he has founded SuperCharger, Asia's leading FinTech accelerator sponsored by Tier 1 clients and strong of an alumni network of 26 companies, which have raised in excess of US$370million. Finally, he co-edited, The FinTech Book, a global bestseller, covering 60 experts with over 20,000 copies distributed in 106 countries and 6 languages and is due to release three more titles in Q1 of 2018, including the world's first book on RegTech. In last 3 years, he has completed over 100 keynotes (i.e. SIBOS), private client workshops (i.e Natixis), professional training (i.e. CFA), regulators consultations (i.e. ADB) and online lectures (i.e. HKU). His work is regularly cited by the media (i.e. Forbes), industry (i.e. E&Y) or governments (i.e. FSB). He holds several board appointments (i.e. WEF, SFC) has published over a dozen academic article and is published in 5 books.

Huy Nguyen Trieu

Huy Nguyen Trieu is co-founder of the Centre for Finance, Technology and Entrepreneurship. He is also the CEO of The Disruptive Group – a business builder and advisory firm in innovation and finance. Prior to The Disruptive Group, Huy was a Managing Director at Citi, and previously at RBS and SG. Before banking, he was the CEO of Ukibi, a VC-funded startup in the US. He is a frequent keynote speaker in Europe and Asia, likes to teach and share with students and entrepreneurs, and is regularly quoted in articles on innovation and finance. He writes the blog Disruptive Finance, is a Fintech Fellow at the Centre for Global Finance and Technology at Imperial College, an Entrepreneurship Expert at Oxford Said Entrepreneurship Centre. He is also a member of ESMA’s Consultative Working Group for financial innovation and a founding member of the Asian SuperCharger, one of the largest Fintech accelerators in Asia.

Ross Buckley

Ross Buckley is King & Wood Mallesons Professor of International Finance Law, and a Scientia Professor, at UNSW Sydney, and Series Co-Editor of the Global Trade Law Series and International Banking and Finance Law Series, of Wolters Kluwer of The Hague. His research focus is FinTech, RegTech and blockchain and the enabling regulation of digital financial services in developing countries. He consults regularly to the Asian Development Bank, and has consulted to government departments in Australia, Indonesia, Vietnam and the U.S. He has been twice a Fulbright Scholar, and frequently a half-bright scholar.

About this course

This course is part of the Healthcare Administration MicroMasters program which consists of 7 courses and a capstone exam. After completing the program, you can also apply to Doane University to complete your MBA online for approximately $10,500 (learn more about the program here).

In order to be a leader/administrator in the healthcare industry, you must have a basic understanding of healthcare finance, risk, legal and regulatory issues in order to navigate and change the system. Managing risk is one of the primary responsibilities of a leader. This requires a basic understanding of the financial health and regulatory constraints one operates within to anticipate and address changing dynamics.

This course will focus on healthcare economics and finance to help you articulate new approaches to managing costs and improving access, quality and safety. You will learn how to assess the fiscal status of a healthcare organization. Strategic planning, marketing, quality assurance and risk management initiatives for healthcare organizations will also be explored.

What you’ll learn

  • How to evaluate the relevance of economics in all aspects of healthcare.
  • How to analyze economic concepts and models as they apply to healthcare.
  • How to identify the diverse aspects of healthcare financing.
  • How to assess economic problems in order to develop and implement economic policy.
  • How to evaluate the economic advantages and policy options of healthcare market reform.

Prerequisites

  • Bachelor’s degree or
  • Minimum 5 years work experience in a healthcare related field
  • Basic understanding of economics and finance

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.

Meet Your Instructor

Jody Woodworth - Pearson Advance

Jody Woodworth

PhD at Doane University Dr. Jody Woodworth attended the University of Nebraska Medical Center and graduated with an Associate and later a Bachelor’s degree in Nuclear Medicine Technology. She worked for nine years as a Lead Nuclear Cardiac Technologist. She continued her education with a new career focus and earned a Master’s Degree in Economics from the University of Nebraska at Omaha and worked as a Project Analysts applying her knowledge in economics and management. She graduated with her Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln in 2009 in Higher Education Administration. For the past 18 years she works in higher education as a professor and administrator.

About this course

This economics and finance course is an introductory survey of risk management concepts and techniques. Learners will review the role of risk regulation in financial markets, and learn how to identify and describe the various types of financial risk and their sources.

Upon completion of this course, participants will receive a certificate bearing the New York Institute of Finance (NYIF) name. A NYIF certificate is a valuable addition to your credentials, proving that you have acquired the work-ready skills that employer’s value.

For those who wish to go further, students can enroll in the other four modules to earn the complete Risk Management Professional Certificate, backed by the New York Institute of Finance’s 93-year history. As a final option, students may also opt to sit for the NYIF Certificate of Mastery Exam, resulting in the Risk Management Certificate of Mastery upon successful completion.

What you’ll learn

  • Differentiate between financial risks and business risks.
  • Identify and describe the various types of financial risk and their sources.
  • Identity the real-world violations of the ‘standard model’ assumptions that make risk management value enhancing to the firm.
  • Differentiate between risk measurement and risk management.
  • Describe systemic risk as a negative externality.
  • Describe the US regulatory structure.

 

Prerequisites

  • Basic MS Excel skills
  • Basic probability and statistics

Meet Your Instructors

Anton Theunissen

Anton has twelve years of financial services experience and more than 10 years of academic experience, teaching finance, economics and mathematics to graduate and undergraduate students. His research interests include the effects of securitization and rational default behavior on mortgage credit extension.

About this course

This course begins with an understanding of the various ways a project can originate and then dives deep into the concept of feasibility studies. You’ll review a few financing models and then look at the participants in a project finance deal and understand their motivations.

You’ll learn about lenders, who are one of the most important participants in any deal, and get familiarized with their areas of concerns.

This course is part of the New York Institute of Finance’s popular Project Finance and the Public Private Partnership Professional Certificate program.

What you’ll learn

  • Recognize how certain business needs and objectives can be efficiently satisfied with a particular type of project structure.
  • Identify the role of various project participants in constructing financial models.
  • List key design features and required projections of robust and credible financial models.
  • Recognize the concerns of different types of lenders during each project phase.
  • Identify the different hedging products available for managing common project risks in developed and emerging markets.
  • Lesson 1: The Beginning of Project Finance
  • Lesson 2: Feasibility Study
  • Lesson 3: Financing Models
  • Lesson 4: Participants and Motivations
  • Lesson 5: Lenders
  • Lesson 6: Hedging of Risks

Meet Your Instructor

Jeff Hooke - Pearson Advance

Jeff Hooke

Jeff is a New York Institute of Finance faculty member with over 30 years of corporate valuation, investment banking and private equity experience. He has been an instructor at the New York Institute of Finance since 2005 where he has designed and delivered courses in M&A and related finance topics. Jeff holds a MBA from Wharton School and a B.S. from University of Science. He was a former private investment executive at Emerging Markets Partnership and a former investment banker at two major Wall Street firms, Lehman Brothers and Schroder Wertheim. Presently, Jeff is the managing director at FOCUS and the author of four books on valuation, investment and finance.
 

About this course

The Alaska Oil Pipeline is one example of a massive public private partnership. Learn how project finance principles and concepts are used in this deal and others, as well as how the legal and operating environment and customer segments impact these partnerships.

In addition to the Alaska Oil Pipeline, we’ll review other major PPPs including Eurotunnel, San Roque Hydroelectric Dam, Euro Disneyland, Albania Cell Phone, and Emirates Aluminum. You’ll also learn about the lender checklist and go over a case study in the United States before wrapping up this course.

This course is part of the New York Institute of Finance’s popular Project Finance and the Public Private Partnerships Professional Certificate program.

 

What you’ll learn

  • Recognize the different ways to classify projects by deal structure and customer type.
  • Recognize the distinct legal and operating environments that determine project structures in different countries.
  • Identify the key operational and contractual risks that affect a project’s financial feasibility.
  • Recognize the safeguards that go into a Lender’s checklist for the financing of a project.

Prerequisites

Knowledge of corporate finance and basic credit analysis.

 

Meet Your Instructors

Jeff Hooke - Pearson Advance

Jeff Hooke

Jeff is a New York Institute of Finance faculty member with over 30 years of corporate valuation, investment banking and private equity experience. He has been an instructor at the New York Institute of Finance since 2005 where he has designed and delivered courses in M&A and related finance topics. Jeff holds a MBA from Wharton School and a B.S. from University of Science. He was a former private investment executive at Emerging Markets Partnership and a former investment banker at two major Wall Street firms, Lehman Brothers and Schroder Wertheim. Presently, Jeff is the managing director at FOCUS and the author of four books on valuation, investment and finance.
 

Program overview

Business knowledge is in high demand in every area of work. From high-tech start-ups to non-profits, organizations are looking to leverage best practices from the business world to achieve their objectives. That’s why the MBA is widely recognized as a career accelerator, regardless of the industry you’re in.

With the MicroMasters program in MBA Core Curriculum, you will develop business insights and learn to lead others to achieve strategic goals. You’ll learn the different functional areas of a firm, how each area defines success, and how the functions work together to create success in the marketplace. You will be able to build and lead successful teams, influence others, and deliver high-quality outcomes on time and within budget.

The MicroMasters program in MBA Core Curriculum has also been designed to grow your professional and social networks. We will help you find people like yourself, both in your region and around the world, who are looking to advance their careers. In addition to facilitated discussions in your classes, you will be encouraged to interact with colleagues in real time by forming small study groups, holding virtual coffee hours, and discussing current articles and trends in business.

Are you ready? Turbocharge your career with the MicroMasters program in MBA Core Curriculum from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.

What you will learn

  • Devise the right marketing strategy for your idea or firm
  • Use the vast information available in the world today to gain insight, create a competitive edge, and avoid being tomorrow’s data breach headline
  • Evaluate corporate investment opportunities to drive shareholder value
  • Use the language of business to communicate financial information to investors, shareholders, creditors, and regulators
  • Interact with those in the “C” suite, speaking their language and making your case for your ideas
  • Lead a team of people and use your influence to achieve strategic goals
  • Create the right strategy for your firm to gain a competitive advantage over others in your market space, domestically and globally

Program Class List

1
Marketing Management

Course Details
Learn key marketing strategies and tactics to help your company develop products that match customers' needs, create awareness and demand for those products, and drive sales.

2
Leadership and Influence

Course Details
Learn how to capitalize on opportunities, and manage the challenges of the global marketplace, and leverage this dynamic environment for long-term value.

3
Financial Accounting

Course Details
Financial accounting is the language of business. Learn to effectively interpret financial information to make sound decisions and confidently communicate to other leaders in your firm and with potential investors, shareholders, and creditors.

4
Data Analysis for Decision Making

Course Details
Use data analysis to gather critical business insights,identifymarket trends before your competitors, and gain advantages for your business.

5
Global Business Strategy

Course Details
Learn how to capitalize on opportunities, and manage the challenges of the global marketplace, and leverage this dynamic environment for long-term value.

6
Digital Transformation in Business

Course Details
Learn about the explosion of technologies that are transforming business and how to strategically leverage technologies to maximize the value--and minimize the risk--to your firm.

7
Corporate Finance

Course Details
Develop the ability to identify and resource high-value strategic initiatives and ensure a high rate of return for your firm's investments.

Meet Your Instructors

Ritu Agarwal

Professor of Information Systems, Distinguished University Professor, Robert H. Smith Dean's Chair of Information Systems, Senior Associate Dean for Research & Strategic Initiatives, Co-Director of Center for Health Information & Decision Systems at University of Maryland Ritu Agarwal is Senior Associate Dean for Research, Distinguished University Professor and the Robert H. Smith Dean’s Chair of Information Systems at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, College Park. She is also the founder and Co-Director of the Center for Health Information and Decision Systems at the Smith School.

Kathryn Bartol

Professor of Management & Organization, Management and Organization Department Chair, Co-Director of Center for Innovation, Leadership, and Change at University of Maryland
Dr. Kathryn M. Bartol is the Robert H. Smith Professor of Leadership and Innovation and Chair of the Management and Organization Department at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, College Park. She is the co-director of the Center for Leadership, Innovation and Change (CLIC). She holds an Executive Coach Certification from the Columbia University Coaching Certification Program.
Progyan Basu

Progyan Basu

Clinical Professor of Accounting Information Assurance at University of Maryland Professor Basu has over 25 years of teaching a variety of Accounting courses and seminars in the US and abroad at different levels. At Smith School of Business, he teaches Financial and Managerial Accounting at the undergraduate, MBA, and EMBA levels. He has received several awards and distinctions for teaching excellence, including the Krowe Teaching Excellence Award, Distinguished Teaching Award, and Undergraduate Studies Faculty Fellowship. He serves as a Faculty Director for the PTMBA and EMBA program, as well as a Faculty Champion for the Undergraduate Accounting Teaching Scholars program

Margrét Bjarnadóttir

Professor of Decision, Operations & Information Technologies at University of Maryland Dr. Margrét Vilborg Bjarnadóttir is an Assistant Professor of Management Science and Statistics in the DO&IT group. Dr. Margrét Bjarnadóttir graduated from MIT's Operations Research Center in 2008, defending her thesis titled “Data Driven Approach to Health Care, Application Using Claims Data”. Dr. Bjarnadóttir specializes in operations research methods using large scale data; her research centers around data driven decision making, combining optimization modeling with data analytics.
ChenGilad headshot

Gilad Chen

Organizational Behavior Department Chair at University of Maryland
Dr. Gilad Chen is the Robert H. Smith Chair in Organization Behavior, at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. He received his bachelor degree in Psychology from the Pennsylvania State University in 1996, and his doctoral degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from George Mason University in 2001. Prior to joining the Smith School, Dr. Chen was on the faculty at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Texas A&M University, and a visiting scholar at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Technion, and Tel-Aviv University.

Nicole Coomber

Associate Clinical Professor in Management & Organization at University of Maryland
Nicole Coomber is an Associate Clinical Professor in Management & Organization. In addition to teaching management, leadership, and consulting, she is dedicated to helping women manage their complex lives more effectively. Nicole believes the time management, negotiation and communication strategies she teaches in her MBA classrooms at the University of Maryland Smith School of Business can help women navigate both their careers and families.

Michael Faulkender

Professor of Finance, Associate Dean of Masters’ Programs at University of Maryland Dr. Michael Faulkender is the Associate Dean of Masters Programs and a Professor of Finance at the Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. As Associate Dean, he oversees the Full-time, Part-time, Online, and Executive MBA programs as well as the eight Specialty Masters Programs offered by the Smith School.

Trevor Foulk

Assistant Professor of Management & Organization at University of Maryland
Dr. Trevor Foulk is an Assistant Professor of Management & Organization at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. He received his Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from the Warrington College of Business at the University of Florida, and his Bachelors of Business Administration from the University of Massachusetts. Dr. Foulk’s research interests include deviant workplace behaviors, workplace power dynamics, social perception, and interpersonal influence behaviors.

Judy Frels

Clinical Professor of Marketing, Assistant Dean of Online Programs at University of Maryland Judy Frels is a Clinical Professor of Marketing and teaches Marketing Strategy and leads Action Learning Projects at the EMBA and MBA levels at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. At Smith, she is the Assistant Dean of Online Programs.
David Godes - Pearson Advance

David Godes

Dean's Professor of Marketing, Marketing Department Chair at University of Maryland David Godes is a Professor of Marketing and is the Chair of the Marketing Department. He holds a Ph.D. and S.M. in Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B.S. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania. He joined the Smith School faculty in 2009 after teaching for ten years at Harvard Business School. His teaching experiences include undergraduate, graduate and executive courses ranging from Introduction to Marketing to Business-to-Business Marketing and Sales Management.

Anandasivam Gopal

Professor of Information Systems, Van Munching Faculty Fellow at University of Maryland
Anand Gopal is a Professor and Van Munching Faculty Fellow at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland. His research interests are broadly in technology platforms, contracts and entrepreneurship. He has specific projects in technology-based entrepreneurship, secondary markets for tech products, mobile platforms and healthcare.
Anil Gupta

Anil Gupta

Michael D. Dingman Chair in Strategy and Entrepreneurship at University of Maryland Dr. Anil K. Gupta is the Michael Dingman Chair in Strategy at the Smith School of Business, The University of Maryland, USA. He also holds a Distinguished Visiting Professorship at Tsinghua University, China as well as the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay and has earlier served as a Chaired Professor in Strategy at INSEAD and as a visiting professor at Stanford. He earned his doctorate from Harvard University. Dr. Gupta is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading experts on strategy and globalization.
Rebecca Hann

Rebecca Hann

Associate Professor of Accounting, KPMG Term Professor at University of Maryland Rebecca Hann received her Masters and PhD degrees from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Her research examines issues surrounding financial reporting and disclosure, corporate diversification, and more recently, the role of accounting information in the macroeconomy and the real effects of financial markets. Her research has been published in leading accounting and finance journals, including The Accounting Review, the Journal of Accounting and Economics, the Journal of Accounting Research, the Journal of Finance, and the Review of Accounting Studies
P.K. Kannan

P.K. Kannan

Professor of Marketing, Dean’s Chair in Marketing Science at University of Maryland P. K. Kannan is the Dean’s Chair in Marketing Science at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. His main research focus is on marketing modeling, applying statistical and econometric methods to marketing data. His current research stream focuses on attribution modeling, media mix modeling, new product/service development and customer relationship management (CRM).

Michael Kimbrough

Associate Professor of Accounting, LeRoy J. Herbert Fellow at University of Maryland Michael D. Kimbrough joined the Robert H. Smith School at University of Maryland in 2010 after spending eight years at Harvard Business School as a faculty member in the Accounting and Management Unit. Professor Kimbrough earned his B.A. in Economics from Washington University in St. Louis and his Ph.D. in Accounting from Indiana University in Bloomington.

Henry Lucas

Professor of Information Systems Robert H. Smith Chair of Information Systems at University of Maryland Professor Henry Lucas’ research interests include information technology-enabled transformations of organizations as well as disruptive technologies. He has conducted research on the impact of information technology on organizations, IT in organization design, electronic commerce, and the value of information technology.
Wendy Moe

Wendy Moe

Professor of Marketing | Director of MS in Marketing Analytics at University of Maryland Wendy Moe is Professor of Marketing and Director of the Masters of Science in Marketing Analytics at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. She is an expert in online and social media marketing with a focus on analytics. Professor Moe is a highly published academic with her research appearing in numerous leading business journals. She is also the author of Social Media Intelligence (Cambridge: 2014). Professor Moe has been recognized by the American Marketing Association and the Marketing Science Institute as a leading scholar in her field with the Howard Award, the Young Scholar Award, the Erin Anderson Award and the Buzzell Award.
Neta Moye headshot

Neta Moye

Clinical Professor of Management at University of Maryland
Dr. Moye has over 25 years of experience in the field of human resources with particular expertise in helping individuals develop leader skills. She has spent the last 10 years focused on the practice of leadership development across academic, industry, and government settings. She has experience both designing and delivering leadership development solutions across the full range of development activities including formal classroom curricula, experiential development activities, executive coaching, and leader assessments and debriefs.
Myeong-Gu Seo headshot

Myeong-Gu Seo

Associate Professor of Management and Organization at University of Maryland
Myeong-Gu Seo is Associate Professor of Management and Organization at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business. His primary areas of research regard issues relating to work-related emotions, organizational- and institutional-change. Seo received the 2001 Best Doctoral Student Paper from the Academy of Management's Organizational Development and Change Division.
Nick Seybert

Nick Seybert

Associate Professor of Accounting at University of Maryland Nick Seybert received his M.S. and Ph.D. from the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University. He conducts experimental and archival research in financial accounting with a focus on manager personality traits as well as on investors’ and managers’ decision-making biases.

Subra Tangirala

Associate Professor of Management & Organization at University of Maryland
Subra Tangirala is an Associate Professor of Management & Organization. He teaches the leadership course in the MBA program. His research focuses on interpersonal communication in organizations. Specifically, he explores reasons why employees often remain silent despite having information, concerns, or suggestions to share, and what organizations can do to facilitate candid exchange of ideas at the workplace.

Susan White

Clinical Professor of Finance at University of Maryland Susan White is a Clinical Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, teaching corporate finance for undergraduates and MBAs. She received my undergraduate degree from Brown University, MBA from Binghamton University and PhD in finance from the University of Texas, Austin.

About this course

Firms such as Apple, Alibaba, Facebook, SalesForce, Uber and Yelp operate platform ecosystems that match buyers and sellers, gain value and market share from network effects, and harness their users to innovate.

This course teaches you how to convert products to platforms and how to innovate in a platform environment. You will learn how to negotiate platform startup, convert existing products to platforms, and make vital decisions on issues of openness, cannibalization, and competition.

Learners in this course will solve real-life problems using concepts from two sided networks, information asymmetry, pricing, intellectual property, and game theory.

The instructor for this course literally wrote the book on the topic: “Platform Revolution: How Networked Markets Are Transforming the Economy—and How to Make Them Work for You.”

This course is part of both the Digital Leadership and Product Management MicroMasters® programs.

What you’ll learn

  • How to successfully launch and design a business platform
  • Why platform firms beat product firms and how the structure of platform firms is fundamentally different
  • Why traditional platform pricing models fail and how to choose a successful pricing model
  • How to compete in winner-take-all network markets.

Prerequisites

  • Secondary school (high school) algebra; basic mathematics concepts
  • A willingness to explore economics

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.

Meet Your Instructors

Marshall Van Alstyne

Professor and Chair of Information Systems at Boston University
Marshall Van Alstyne (@InfoEcon) is coauthor of Platform Revolution, an international bestseller. He is one of the world's foremost experts on information business models and is Everett Lord Distinguished Scholar at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business. He is a frequent speaker, board level advisor, and consultant to both startups and global firms.

More than 10,000 professionals have completed this course

“At Fidelity Investments, Digital Innovation is a core proficiency needed to continue to exceed our customers’ expectations…and we are excited that Boston University is launching Digital Innovation MicroMasters® programs, focused on leadership and product management themes, to help develop these types of skills.”

Richard Blunk, EVP, Digital Channels, Fidelity Investments

“Tech Mahindra is guaranteeing interviews at its India locations for edX learners who successfully complete this MicroMasters® program and meet other hiring criteria. Today’s disruptive business landscape demands for our talents to be future ready…

CP Gumanii, CEO, Tech Mahindra

“At Fidelity Investments, Digital Innovation is a core proficiency needed to continue to exceed our customers’ expectations…and we are excited that Boston University is launching Digital Innovation MicroMasters® programs, focused on leadership and product management themes, to help develop these types of skills.”

Richard Blunk, EVP, Digital Channels, Fidelity Investments

“Tech Mahindra is guaranteeing interviews at its India locations for edX learners who successfully complete this MicroMasters® program and meet other hiring criteria. Today’s disruptive business landscape demands for our talents to be future ready…

CP Gumanii, CEO, Tech Mahindra