EMBA FIRST ACADEMIC YEAR

Executive MBA
Program
Content
EMBA
FIRST ACADEMIC YEAR
www.iese.edu

EXECUTIVE MBA
PROGRAM CONTENT
FIRST ACADEMIC YEAR
FIRST TERM
SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER
• PRELIMINARY SUBJECT: FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING
• FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING
• ANALYSIS OF BUSINESS SITUATIONS
• FUNDAMENTALS OF SALES MANAGEMENT
• DECISION ANALYSIS
THIRD TERM
APRIL-JULY
• MANAGING PEOPLE: HUMAN RESOURCES
• CORPORATE FINANCE
• ECONOMIC CONTEXT
• ENTREPRENEURSHIP
• COMPETITIVE STRATEGY
• MANAGING PEOPLE IN ORGANIZATIONS
SECOND TERM
JANUARY-MARCH
• FINANCIAL ANALYSIS
• ECONOMIC DECISION ANALYSIS
• OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
• IMPLEMENTING SALES
• ETHICS

CONTENT FIRST ACADEMIC YEAR
FIRST TERM SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER
Preliminary subject:
Financial Accounting
Objective of the subject: to introduce the fundamentals of
accounting.
• Students learn the fundamentals and mechanics of
financial accountings in a simple, intuitive way.
• It is aimed at participants who have had no exposure to
financial accounting in their studies and/or professional
activities.
• This voluntary subject is taught before the official start of
the first year of the Executive MBA.
Financial Accounting
Objective of the subject: to analyze and interpret the
financial information contained in financial statements.
• Students learn about the content and purpose of three
financial statements: the balance sheet, the income
statement and the cash flow statement.
• They learn to draw up financial statements so they can
understand and interpret them correctly.
• They find out how to obtain information from financial
statements and become familiar with the usefulness
and limitations of this information for diagnosing and
solving business problems.
Analysis of Business Situations
Objective of the subject: to develop the skills to reflect on
complex, real-world business problems.
• Students analyze the different phases in the process
of making and implementing decisions: identifying the
problem, establishing quantitative and qualitative criteria,
proposing different solutions and making the decision.
• The aim is to change the way students think about
problems that require action.
• The subject allows them to polish their analytical,
synthesis and creative skills.
IESE – UNIVERSITY OF NAVARRA • 5

CONTENT FIRST ACADEMIC YEAR
Fundamentals of Sales Management
Decision Analysis
Objective of the subject: to perform in-depth analysis of
the fundamentals of marketing and sales strategy.
• Students learn about product planning, market
selection, distribution, setting prices and promotion
to address management problems from a sales
perspective.
• They analyze the organization's sales tasks, including
the functional responsibilities of sales managers and
the other members of the management team.
Objective of the subject: to learn to make decisions in
situations of uncertainty and risk.
• Students learn to structure decision-making problems in
decision trees and to use the net current value concept
to assess the decision's economic consequences when
they are dispersed over time.
• They are introduced to ways of measuring uncertainty
using probability distributions.
• They learn how to handle risk situations.
• They acquire the skills, criteria and values they need
to make prudent decisions.
Managing People in Organizations
Objective of the subject: to analyze the concepts of
motivation, organization size, management styles
and organizational behavior from an anthropological
perspective.
• Students analyze people's behavior in several different
contexts within the organization.
• They perform in-depth analysis of interfunctional
relations, hierarchical communication and sources of
authority.
• They acquire people development and executive
coaching skills.
6 • EXECUTIVE MBA

CONTENT FIRST ACADEMIC YEAR
SECOND TERM JANUARY-MARCH
Financial Analysis
Objective of the subject: to become familiar with
financial diagnosis and forecasts while stressing the
importance of ensuring the company has sufficient
cash flow.
• Students learn the difference for shareholders between
profit and cash flow.
• They learn the difference between operating capital
and working capital.
• They use tools to analyze investments and determine
the value of companies.
Economic Decision Analysis
Objective of the subject: to learn about the different uses of
accounting and other information within the company.
• Students practice calculation methods to determine the
impact of operating decisions on the income statement.
• They learn the different parts of the cost system
structure.
• They design cost systems so they can compare real and
anticipated results.
IESE – UNIVERSITY OF NAVARRA • 7

CONTENT FIRST ACADEMIC YEAR
Operations Management
Implementing Sales
Objective of the subject: to learn to find the best way
to run the company, generate value for customers and
ultimately gain a competitive edge.
• Students acquire a global view of operations in services
and industrial companies.
• They explore the basic variables, concepts and tools to
acquire a full understanding of the world of operations.
• They learn the fundamentals of diagnosing and
improving the different kinds of operations systems.
Objective of the subject: to analyze sales management
situations by considering the distribution of time and
human and financial resources to put a product or service
on the market.
• Students learn the essential parts of a communication
strategy: mission, market, messages, the media, budget
and measuring.
• They perform in-depth analysis of the sales process,
policies and the supervision required to manage the
sales staff.
• They analyze the main options when putting a product
or service on the market.
Ethics
Objective of the subject: to offer an overview of the
responsibilities assumed by managers in the organizations
they control, the teams they lead and their personal lives.
• Students acquire the fundamentals required to ensure
ethics forms part of the manager's job.
• They increase their awareness about ethics and the
moral dimension of business decisions.
• They reflect on the meaning of managerial action and
the role organizations play in society.
8 • EXECUTIVE MBA

CONTENT FIRST ACADEMIC YEAR
THIRD TERM APRIL-JULY
Managing People:
Human Resources
Objective of the subject: to lay the groundwork for
decision making in the critical areas of labor relations and
human resources management.
• Students perform in-depth analysis of labor relations
(union strategy, collective bargaining).
• They analyze the function of human resources, how
it relates to company strategy, and the system of
personnel policies and practices.
• They learn about human resources policies and
practices (recruiting, assessment, development and
compensation).
Economic Context
Objective of the subject: to describe the principles,
concepts and models that help us understand the context
in which companies operate and how economic policies
can modify this context.
• Students review the main microeconomic concepts.
• They review the main macroeconomic concepts (except
for those involving international economics, which are
studied in Economics II in the second academic year).
• They discuss the current economic situation and
prospects for the immediate future.
Corporate Finance
Objective of the subject: to develop the skills required
to work in corporate financial management with special
emphasis on making long-term decisions.
• Students examine companies' relationships with capital
markets, debt markets and the stock market.
• Managing a company's value is defined as the
conceptual framework, and students carry out in-depth
analysis of ways to generate value.
• The coherence of companies' financial policies
with their corporate strategy is established as the
performance criterion.
Entrepreneurship
Objective of the subject: to promote a systemic view of
creating new opportunities in widely different contexts.
• Students explore entrepreneurial behavior, the nature of
opportunities and the entrepreneurial process.
• They are introduced to useful concepts and tools
for designing, assessing and implementing new
opportunities.
• They look at managing teams of entrepreneurs,
searching for capital and setting up a board of directors.
IESE – UNIVERSITY OF NAVARRA • 9

CONTENT FIRST ACADEMIC YEAR
Competitive Strategy
Objective of the subject: to help students think
strategically in different business situations.
• Students are introduced to a coherent conceptual
framework on creating and capturing value.
• They learn about concepts to analyze the company's
competitive environment and its internal reality.
• They learn to formulate a business strategy that will
shape the company's future environment and help in
future company decision making.
10 • EXECUTIVE MBA

IESE – UNIVERSITY OF NAVARRA • 11

CONTENT FIRST ACADEMIC YEAR
www.iese.edu
IESE Business School
iesebs
IESE Business School
iese
Madrid
Camino del Cerro
del Águila, 3
28023 Madrid, Spain
+34 91 211 30 00
12 • EXECUTIVE MBA
Barcelona
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