Courses

  Year One Course Schedule 

During the week, Executive MBA students will learn and develop skills of self-reflection in the immediate group and in a broader social setting. They will explore the dynamics of team building, reveal the team's diversity and unleash its full potential to become a well performing team. This process helps students to succeed while studying in  the EMBA programme, and builds stronger and more productive relationships for the future.

Students will also get insight in creative thinking and innovative entrepreneurship, and will generate and execute ideas in rebranding, create marketing campaigns and brainstorm sales strategies.

This course provides an understanding of the global economic environment in which managers operate. It explores the relationships among key variables that affect business decisions, including interest rates, exchange rates and inflation. Special attention is given to the impact of monetary, fiscal and exchange rate policies on the business environment and on the ways in which the effect of macroeconomic events are transmitted among countries.

The financial accounting course takes the users' perspective, and the objective is to enable the students to understand the contents, measurement and interaction between income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement and to analyze the above financial statements. Students will also learn to evaluate the performance of a company in terms of profitability, financial position and liquidity, will get acquainted with the basic equity valuation techniques and will develop a computer-based financial planning model for a real company.

Market success in the international economy requires a proactive understanding of political, economic and cultural influences in the business environment. This module recognizes the need for companies to create strong cross-functional internal teams that can strategically respond to customer needs, build global brands and effectively confront competitive forces. Students will be challenged in both individual and team settings to go beyond traditional constraints and assumed boundaries, to conceptualize analytically on global issues and propose solutions for their own organizations to effectively develop marketing strategies.

The Managerial Economics course focuses on a number of management tools and concepts which are useful in dealing with different types of business problems. Key issues involve pricing and profitability analysis of products, cost concepts, capital investment decisions, budgeting, balanced scorecards, and the use of optimization models for a variety of situations.

During this course, students will acquire a basic understanding of the main European Union institutions and their roles as well as EU legal acts and legislative procedures. Further on, the course will concentrate on the issues that are of more relevance to the executives in the business sector, namely, four freedoms and the EC Competition Law.

The European Union has important legal, economic and political aspects. Whereas the legal aspects are presented in a separate module, this module presents the economic aspects such as the Single Market and the Economic and Monetary Union as well as the political aspects such as the relationships between the European Parliament, the EU Commission and the Council of Ministers and the relationships between the individual member states. In both cases special emphasis will be put on Latvia in the European Union.

The specific aim of this course is to develop greater cross-cultural awareness and sensitivity when working across borders. The course also will enable students to be more confident and effective in cross-cultural communication with colleagues, partners and clients from other countries, avoiding costly misunderstandings. Finally, the module will challenge attitudes and assumptions about other cultures.

This module deals with various aspects of globalization with a special focus on China. It will include a study trip to Hong Kong. Part of the material related to this module will be covered in other modules such as Global Economics and Cross Cultural Management. There will be an introduction to the Chinese economy, including political, economic and business risks. A particular challenge in dealing with China relates to cross-cultural aspects of doing business and this will also be addressed. The Hong Kong study tour will include lectures by local experts, company visits, meetings with local and expatriate business persons.

The framework for the course is the creation, transfer, and destruction of shareholder value, as practiced by corporate financial managers (inside the company) and their commercial and investment bankers (outside the company) who advise and assist them in raising the funds they need. The theory of corporation finance is established with focused readings suitable for a 4-day course, then populated with concrete examples of practical applications using case studies and Excel financial modeling. Topics covered are working capital policy, capital budgeting, financing with debt and equity, dividend policy, valuation, and investment banking in the context of venture capital, private equity, initial public offering, leveraged buyout, and management buyout. Discussion of the Financial Panic of 2008-09 is used to cover the role of financial markets in an open society.

The purpose of this course is to provide students with a critical understanding of current issues in corporate governance theory, relevant regulation and international codes of conduct. Board members today face increasing pressure to be accountable to their stakeholders while at the same time improving business performance. This intensive course is build around four key themes to equip today’s managers in a globalizing market place by developing an enhanced understanding of current tools for risk management and control: Governance and the role of the board; board accountability for financial reporting and audit; risk management and boards; and the board’s responsibility for control.

  Year Two Course Schedule 

The Strategic Management module will focus on managers’ attempts and means to intentionally shape the future. It aims at developing strategic management skills essential to corporate success in both small and large companies. The module covers the three broad and interrelated areas of strategic analysis, strategic choice and strategy implementation. The focus of strategic management is on managing the entire organization. The course will also cover issues of corporate governance and will help students to better comprehend the ideas discussed during the course by working on different case studies.

The philosophy underlying the design of this course is that all managers are HR managers. The success of the HR function in creating competitive advantage for their company is dependent on line managers understanding and embracing their role as managers of the company’s human capital.  The line manager is the person who ultimately delivers the company’s HR strategy to employees and as a result the success of the HR function together with its strategy, processes and policies depends entirely on the line managers' understanding of its purpose and potential impact.

The course will provide students with an in depth understanding of modern HR thinking, practices and strategy and will review the recommended characteristics of several key HR responsibilities of a line manager.  Students will learn more about their impact on their employees as a manager and the role that the HR function can play in facilitating their success. Students will analyze, critique and propose modifications for their own organisations’ existing HR strategy and practices. Case discussions will illustrate the impact personnel issues can have on an organization's success.

The course will focus on theory, research and practice of both planned and unplanned change, with emphasis on the development of change techniques in terms of procedural and mental frameworks with which to diagnose, implement and evaluate organizational change processes. The course will develop an understanding of the complexity and dynamics of change in organizations. It will also discuss and evaluate different change techniques as well as best practices and pitfalls in leading change. The course also will provide techniques for recognition and response to change opportunities and efforts as well as increase skill in dealing with change through observations, analysis and experimentation.

The objective of the business ethics course is to present the basic notions and argumentation on business core values and codes of conduct, the stakeholder model, ethical decision-making, international business ethics and corporate social responsibility. During the module - which is held in Sweden - the students will have an opportunity to visit several companies and evaluate corporate social responsibility issues in different business environments.

This programme will acquaint the students with methodological issues relevant when conducting any research. The main types of research methods (both qualitative and quantitative) will be presented and the factors for choosing an appropriate method will be discussed. As the result of this module, programme students should be able to apply and justify the choice of the right method when conducting their final project.

Diploma Project

At the end of the programme, the students will be required to produce a major project work; an empirical study that will incorporate their previous work experience and apply the theoretical knowledge acquired during the programme.