Executive Boardroom Business Electives-JGSM (NBAB)

NBAB 5020 - Management Accounting (1-2.25 Credits)  
This course is designed to provide students with the tools and information needed to interpret performance measures generated by the managerial reporting systems used in today's organizations. It also explores the design systems that generate useful measures, as well as how to make better decisions with the information available.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: students enrolled in the Cornell Executive MBA Americas degree program.  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-CEL)
Last Four Terms Offered: Summer 2025, Summer 2024, Summer 2023, Summer 2022  
NBAB 5060 - Financial Statement Analysis (1.5 Credits)  
The purpose of this course is to give students a broad understanding of financial statement analysis and valuation issues. The emphasis is on helping students understand the basic equity research process for use in investment and business decision applications. The course format is a combination of examples, case studies, and lectures. Potential topics include information sources, strategic ratio analysis, accounting quality, non-GAAP metrics, cash flow analysis, forecasting financial statements, and firm valuation using discounted cash flow and residual income techniques. The course deliverables include an equity research project and a final exam.
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Spring 2012, Spring 2011  
NBAB 5300 - New Ventures Management (2.5 Credits)  
This course is designed to embed a greater appreciation for the role of entrepreneurial thinking in the minds of all students, regardless of their entrepreneurial intent. By the end of the course, students should be able to differentiate between an idea and a true business opportunity, assess a business plan, pitch a business opportunity, and realize how to capitalize on new venture opportunities.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: students enrolled in the Cornell Executive MBA Americas degree program.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023  
NBAB 5360 - Investment Banking Essentials (1.5 Credits)  
Investment Banking Essentials is structured to provide Executive MBA students with real world investment banking experience in an academic environment. Students, working individually and in teams, will play the role of investment bankers throughout the week. Assignments will be structured in the form of client pitchbook presentations, which will generally be presented during class. Students will be introduced to the capital raising, leveraged buyout, and merger & acquisition processes. You will be working on real, forward-looking transactions for each assignment. The subject company of the LBO case, for instance, will be a public company with current LBO speculation. As such, pre-readings and assignments will generally be delivered the week prior to class. Pre-readings will generally be kept to under 1 hour, and you will be provided with ample time to complete and submit your assignments.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: students enrolled in the Cornell Executive MBA Americas degree program.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
NBAB 5400 - Transformational Leadership (1.5 Credits)  
Coaching for High Performance is a course that teaches the skills, tools, and mindset of world-class coaches. Coaching is a way of thinking and interacting with people that communicates high expectations, respect and caring. In this program, students learn the concepts and skills of a coaching style of management that gets results, builds commitment, develops the 'next generation', and can be integrated into their existing repertoire of leadership skills.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: students enrolled in the Cornell Executive MBA Americas degree program.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
NBAB 5580 - Corporate Financial Policy (0.5-1.5 Credits)  
This course develops the framework for evaluating the gains, costs, and risks of managing firms' financial assets and liabilities, as well as their interaction with real-side decisions (investment, mergers, R&D, employment, compensation, etc.). It takes the perspective of financial managers at public corporations, individuals that are responsible for financial decision-making, as well as that of market participants ? e.g., investment bankers, analysts, fund managers ? that monitor and evaluate corporate policies.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: students enrolled in the Cornell Executive MBA Americas degree program.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Summer 2025, Fall 2024, Summer 2024, Fall 2023  
NBAB 5600 - FinTech: Innovation and Technology (1.5 Credits)  
The course is designed to present students with an intensive, immersive program covering practical applications of fintech, and its future from an inter-disciplinary perspective. This course will provide a modern view on what will change and how to survive and excel in this disruptive period. This course is a juxtaposition of management with technology, strategy, computer science, trading, banking, insurance, investments, human resources, risk management and the intended and unintended implications of fintech.Topics: 1.Fintech Overview: Opportunities and Risks 2.Digital Platforms, IoT, Computing power, Data 3.Big data, sensors and alternative data sources 4.Artificial intelligence and machine learning 5.How fintech will change jobs & businesses 6.Blockchain, bitcoin and distributed ledger technology 7.Applications to investment management, capital markets, insurance, banking 8.Risk Management and fintech 9.Law & Regulation in fintech
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: students enrolled in the Cornell Executive MBA Americas degree program.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023  
NBAB 5630 - Role of the General Manager (0.5-3 Credits)  
This course provides a general management perspective on how to manage a business. There is an emphasis on the role of leadership in creating, strengthening, and sustaining high performance by developing an entrepreneurial corporate culture.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: students enrolled in the Cornell Executive MBA Americas degree program.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Summer 2025, Fall 2024, Summer 2024, Fall 2023  
NBAB 5650 - Corporate Governance (0.25-1.25 Credits)  
This corporate governance course is intended to provide Executive MBA students with knowledge and understanding of the processes, customs, policies, laws and institutions that affect the way a corporation is directed or controlled.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: students enrolled in the Cornell Executive MBA Americas degree program.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Summer 2025, Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022  
NBAB 5680 - Management Presentations (1.5 Credits)  
People with leadership presence communicate with confidence, credibility and conviction and are perceived by others as leadership material. In this class we will use videos, cases, and live feedback to explore this important factor of leadership. Further, we will cover effective strategies and best practices for business presentations both in terms of content/organization and delivery. The course emphasizes active learning and continuous practice with feedback from peers and the instructor. By the end of the class participants increase their awareness of their own strengths and weaknesses and become noticeably improved communicators.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: students enrolled in the Cornell Executive MBA Americas degree program.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023  
NBAB 5685 - Courageous Communication (1.5 Credits)  
Nelson Mandela said courage is the triumphant over fear. In Courageous communication students will triumph over fear of tough conversations at work and home. Courageous communication will help MBA students, as well as students in other graduate degree programs, to learn and practice effective listening, especially to those with different points of view, in a way that builds trust and community at work. They will learn techniques and tools for confidently handling difficult and courageous conversations in the workplace and will be able to use these techniques and tools to stand up and stand out for themselves and others and contribute to a positive work environment.
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024  
NBAB 5710 - Cornell Management Simulation (1.5 Credits)  
In this business simulation course, student teams are responsible for managing a manufacturing company. Each team is responsible for making yearly decisions in the areas of sales, marketing, operations, and finance. Teams compete against one another to gain market share, generate revenue, and increase profitability.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: students enrolled in the Cornell Executive MBA Americas degree program.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
NBAB 5840 - Global Strategy (1-2.5 Credits)  
To develop an understanding of why corporations engage in the process of internationalization and how a multinational enterprise's foreign subsidiaries are distinct from its domestic operations.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: students enrolled in the Cornell Executive MBA Americas degree program.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
NBAB 5880 - Critical Thinking for Business Leaders (1.5 Credits)  
This course is based on the simple, yet essential proposition that leading well requires thinking well. Succeeding in any business leadership role requires you to think critically, and make quality decisions with and on behalf of organizational stakeholders, even in the face of challenges such as imperfect/incomplete information, changing and unforeseen circumstances, and human nature in all of its complexity and unpredictability.Major content themes focus on constructing a persuasive argument and deconstructing arguments made by others; recognizing and avoiding reasoning flaws and the forces that make us most susceptible to such flaws; approaching business problems systematically and thoroughly; and producing a problem solution that is well-reasoned, likely to be well-received by ultimate decision makers, and able to be implemented with success. You will be introduced to, and then practice using, analytical frameworks that you can apply to any leadership challenge or opportunity - regardless of industry, company or job function --- in order to solve problems and communicate your proposed solutions effectively. These are not only essential leadership skills (although they are certainly that); they are life skills.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: students enrolled in the Cornell Executive MBA Americas degree program.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
NBAB 5950 - Big Data and Analytics (1.5 Credits)  
Big Data and Analytics addresses knowledge discovery and predictive analysis using very large or unstructured data sets such as click-stream and social network data. A framework will be developed for thinking about 'Big Data' along the dimensions of structure, size, speed, and source. This will be followed by a survey of analytic methods appropriate for different types of data, as well as key technologies and data integration approaches that are driving the big data revolution. Traditional and emerging NoSQL database technologies will be contrasted, and the module will examine how Big Data affects interactions with IT departments within organizations. Emphasis will be placed on management overview rather than detailed technical aspects. Participants will practice leading Big Data analysis so that it is guided by the business model, relevant to the business, can be explained effectively, leads to actionable recommendations, and is timely. This module also explores the use of text analytics to mine and analyze unstructured textual data, big and small. We investigate tools and techniques for natural language processing, sentiment analysis, document clustering, and document classification.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: students enrolled in the Cornell Executive MBA Americas degree program.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
NBAB 5970 - Global Business Project (1-4.25 Credits)  
The Global Business Project is a team-based, team-directed project conducted with the guidance of Project Advisor. Projects must focus on a substantive, existent international business challenge or opportunity within an organization. Once the challenge or opportunity is identified and agreed upon, the student teams complete an international field study, conduct the required work and research, and prepare a recommendation for future action. While completing the project, students must travel internationally, typically for a minimum of five business days.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: students enrolled in the Cornell Executive MBA Americas degree program.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Summer 2025, Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Summer 2024  
NBAB 6010 - Management Information Systems (0.5-1.5 Credits)  
Information systems and technology can transform the capabilities of a business. This course analyzes and reviews global information industry trends and their implications for business. It includes information on how to plan, develop, and implement effective information technology strategies to drive competitiveness and profitability.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: students enrolled in the Cornell Executive MBA Americas degree program.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
NBAB 6030 - Strategies for Sustainability (1.5 Credits)  
Corporations are under increasing pressure from shareholders, employees, communities, and activists to account for the environmental and social effects that their activities create. Increasingly, firms are taking strategic approach to addressing these issues, developing programs that fit their capabilities, resources, and cultures. Through a combination of cases, readings, lectures, and videos, class sessions will ensure students develop an understanding of sustainability in the context of business as well as strategic business decision-making in the context of sustainability.
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023  
NBAB 6050 - Leadership and High Performance Teams (1.25 Credits)  
High Performance Teams is a course on the theory and practice of high performance in task-performing groups. The aim of this first course is to provide theory and practical techniques for working in your boardroom teams. The content covered will also be directly applicable to the teams you lead and participate in at work.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: students enrolled in the Cornell Executive MBA Americas degree program.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Summer 2025, Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Summer 2024  
NBAB 6140 - The Social Impact of AI (1.5 Credits)  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2021, Fall 2020  
NBAB 6150 - Coaching for High Performance (1.5 Credits)  
Coaches are leaders who do all they can to help people improve and succeed. It is a way of thinking and interacting with people that communicates high expectations, respect and caring. In this program, individuals learn the concepts and skills of a coaching style of management that builds commitment, drives employee engagement, gets results, and can be integrated into their existing repertoire of leadership skills.A core emphasis of this program is that good coaches have many tools in their coaching toolkit. The best coaches leverage the skills and tools they have to select the most appropriate ones for the situation they are in. Whether they are coaching for performance, coaching for development or coaching to change a difficult situation they need to select the right set of tools and the right blend of skills for the situation. This course will provide them with a framework to help them decide what approach to use and when, and then how to use their skills and tools for maximum effectiveness.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: students enrolled in the Cornell Executive MBA Americas degree program.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
NBAB 6220 - Marketing Strategy (1-2.25 Credits)  
Sustainable competitive advantage is derived from maximizing customer closeness while building positive competitive differentiation. This course covers the key frameworks, best practices, and approaches used effectively by strategic marketers.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: students enrolled in the Cornell Executive MBA Americas degree program.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Summer 2025, Fall 2024, Summer 2024, Summer 2023  
NBAB 6560 - Valuation (1.25 Credits)  
This course presents fundamental concepts and tools to value firms and assets using an economic framework. We will study the key underlying principles of valuation, including multiples analysis, fundamental cash flow analysis, and real option approaches, and apply the different approaches to value firms in the real world. Through a mixture of exercises, cases, a valuation project, and other real-world examples, we will emphasize both conceptual understanding and practical implementation issues.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: students enrolled in the Cornell Executive MBA Americas degree program.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Summer 2025, Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Summer 2023  
NBAB 6600 - Executing Strategy in a Digital World (1.5 Credits)  
Digital Execution is an elective course that ties together many of the concepts of the program and links them to provide you with the fundamental tools needed to effectively deliver strategy in the digital age. Today's organizational leaders are held accountable for realizing the organization's strategy; however, how does a leader achieve this without getting too deep into the day-to-day tactics or getting side-tracked by the next technology wave. Execution is not just tactics - having a clear plan of action is only one part of effective execution. This course highlights the need for organizations to take action on plans by making the best use of physical and digital resources, changing the plan when necessary, and investing in ways technology can help simplify work so results can be replicated over and over again. There is no 'one best way' when it comes to digital execution - organizations find success using different strategies and approaches. For many organizations, it is the execution of strategy that is the major challenge.This elective will challenge students to create a new mindset essential to managing the convoluted relationship between managing the business needs of today while adapting to the demands of tomorrow. The focus on sustainable execution draws attention to the barriers caused by organizations that trade-off long term viability for short-term gain.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: students enrolled in the Cornell Executive MBA Americas degree program.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
NBAB 6660 - Negotiations (1.5 Credits)  
While using case studies and simulations, this course examines how to build positive working relationships and ways to move from confrontation to problem solving. It focuses on improving negotiating skills and developing techniques for building agreement among organizational stakeholders such as customers, suppliers, partners, and employees.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: students enrolled in the Cornell Executive MBA Americas degree program.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Summer 2024, Summer 2023, Summer 2022, Fall 2021  
NBAB 6750 - AI: Business and Societal Transformation (1.5 Credits)  
We are in the midst of a digital tsunami. Digital technologies have progressed exponentially over the last decades and a tipping point has been reached. We are seeing new intelligent programs such as DeepMind and Watson beat the best human experts in complex domains (Go and Jeopardy respectively), a feat that was not thought easily possible before. We are witnessing the emergence of new digital leaders such as Amazon and Alibaba that are dominating multiple business sectors on the strength of their agile digital platforms/services and are threatening to beat traditional leaders (such as Walmart) by significant margins.Further the pace of progress in digital technologies shows no signs of slowing down. All industries are susceptible to the forces of digital transformation and most executives are or will soon be confronted by the dynamics of digital disruption. There will be significant new opportunities as the underlying forces of digital disruption and value creation are understood and leveraged. Succeeding in this rapidly changing world will require both a solid understanding of digital products, services and business models and an inspirational leadership style to be bold, take risks and lead complex change.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: students enrolled in the Cornell Executive MBA Americas degree program.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021