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Tuck School Electives

The following Tuck courses are available to M.E.M. students as free electives. All courses require permission from the instructor and prior approval of the M.E.M. program director.

Included in the M.E.M. tuition are up to 2 Tuck School electives. Students may opt to take more than 2, but this requires additional fees.

Corporate Valuation

Offered: W08

Students will have an opportunity to estimate cash flows and discount rates in order to establish values for projects and firms. In addition to traditional discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis, the course explores alternative valuation methods, such as real option valuation and comparable company analysis. The contribution of corporate financial decisions regarding capital structure, cash distribution policies, and performance evaluation schemes to value creation and destruction are also investigated. The course will use a mixture of lectures, cases, projects, and guest speakers.

Prerequisite: ENGM 180
Instructor: Sundaram
Course syllabus

Supply Chain Management and Information Technology

Offered: F07

This course focuses on managing material and information outside the factory walls, including aspects of product design and configuration, forecasting, inventory planning for both material and finished goods, global sourcing decisions, distribution system design, channel management, logistics, and facility location. We will explore marketing distribution strategies, including order fulfillment for e-retailers and the impact of electronic commerce on both distribution and back-end supply chain processes.

Instructor: Johnson
Course syllabus

Managerial Accounting

Offered: W08, S08

This course uses the concepts of opportunity cost and organizational architecture as a conceptual framework for the study of managerial accounting. Opportunity cost is the conceptual foundation underlying decision-making; organizational architecture is the conceptual foundation underlying the use of accounting as part of the firm's control mechanism. We examine these issues using both a textbook and case discussions. The major topics include cost behavior; accounting costs versus opportunity costs; divisional performance measures; transfer pricing; budgeting; cost allocation; activity-based costing; and cost variance analysis.

Prerequisites: ENGM 180, ENGM 184
Instructor: Sansing
Course syllabus

Private Equity Finance

Offered: F07

The purpose of this course is to examine the financial perspective on decisions in entrepreneurial settings. While focusing on financial decisions, the course is integrative in looking at entrepreneurial financial decisions from the perspectives of the business opportunity, the goals of the participants, and the context, as well as looking at the "deal" and the resources employed. The course also offers a close examination of the investor's role and the expanding institutional environment of private equity financing.

Prerequisite: ENGM 180
Instructor: Blaydon, Wainwright
Course syllabus

Applications of Simulation

Offered: S08

This course extends and deepens the coverage of Monte Carlo simulation in the core Decision Science course. It begins with an overview of simulation in spreadsheet models using Crystal BallSM, covering such issues as choosing probability models, analyzing simulation outputs, and optimization of simulation models. Applications in finance, economics, marketing, and operations are examined in depth. The course then moves on to discrete-event and continuous simulation using Extend+. This tool allows us to model applications in manufacturing and service operations, marketing, and strategy. A course project allows students to apply simulation techniques to a realistic problem of their own choosing.

Prerequisite: ENGS 103
Instructor: Powell
Course syllabus

Database Marketing

Offered: S08

This course introduces the concepts and methods of database marketing in hands-on assignments that show how specific methods pay off in terms of increased profitability. Students use real-world applications and databases as they learn about topics such as the lifetime value of the customer, scoring current customer files based on market potential, direct marketing process, next-product-to-buy, and market-basket analysis.

Prerequisite: ENGM 181
Instructor: Neslin
Course syllabus

Management of Service Operations

Offered: W08 or S08

This course develops a business process view of service delivery and focuses on the analysis and design of processes to achieve organizational goals. The notion of services is broadly construed to include both "pure" services, such as banking and health care, and the service components of manufacturing, such as after-sales support and product design. Course content will include a mix of case discussions and lectures.

Prerequisite: ENGS 103
Instructor: Shumsky
Course syllabus

Managerial Decision Making

Offered: W08

The course Managerial Decision Making differs from most MBA courses in that instead of proceeding normatively (i.e. how people and managers ought to make decisions), it focuses on providing descriptive insights of how people and hence managers actually do process information and make decisions, often inaccurately. That is, it studies the judgment and decision-making heuristics and biases that are profoundly wired in the human mind. In a fast-changing corporate world, managers are constently faced with making risky decisions under tremendous uncertainly. This course, while developing a sharper probabilistic and Bayesian mindset in students, sheds light on why inferior managerial decisions are repeatedly made in various contexts - budgeting, project finance, and marketing etc. and offers prescriptive insights. Though built on a rigorous academic literature, the teaching method of this course is interactive and intuitive. Throughout the course, we will conduct short surveys to help students examine their own judgment and decision making heuristics and biases.

Prerequisites: ENGS 103, ENGM 180
Instructor: Womack
Course syllabus

Marketing Research

Offered: S08

This course is designed to give students an appreciation of the scope of marketing research and the nature of marketing research techniques. The goal of the course is to make students knowledgeable users of marketing research information. The first part of the course considers the acquisition of data. Research design, sampling procedures, and questionnaire design are discussed in the context of both traditional and online market research. The second part of the course introduces students to multivariate data analysis techniques, including cross-tabulations, factor analysis, discriminant analysis, and conjoint analysis. The course uses readings, case studies, and hands-on business projects.

Prerequisites: ENGS 103, ENGM 181
Instructor: Ailawadi
Course syllabus

Pricing Strategy and Tactics

Offered: S08

Following the marketing framework, this course considers strategic as well as the tactical aspects of pricing decisions using qualitative (consumer behavior and psychology) and quantitative (economics and statistics) analyses. Pricing theory is then linked to the practice of pricing; in this regard, we invite guest speakers who are pricing experts in their respective industries. This course examines how pricing policies should be set and compares them with what happens in the real world. It deals with various levels of competition with differentiated and undifferentiated products and concentrates on pricing structure through time, across a product line, and over customer segments.

Prerequisites: ENGS 103, ENGM 180
Instructor: Kopalle
Course syllabus