The MBA in Strategic Management offers concentrations in the following fields:
Accountancy
The MBA in Strategic Management with a concentration in accountancy will help prepare current (and future) accounting professionals for the CPA exam and for promotions within their current career or future careers.
The courses will provide students with additional knowledge on topics covered in the CPA exam as well as the twelve additional accountancy credits needed to take the CPA exam. By taking the MBA in Strategic Management with an Accountancy Concentration, students will have the necessary 150 credits to apply for the CPA exam.
Requirements for the MBA in Strategic Management w/ Accountancy Concentration
In addition to the courses required in the MBA in Strategic Management, the following accounting courses will be inserted in lieu of similar management courses.
1. Accounting Regulations & Professional Responsibility (replaces Ethical & Legal Perspectives in Business from standard MBA track)
- This course will review elements of business law including agency concepts, contracts and contract defenses and the Uniform Commercial Code as it applies to offer and acceptance. It will examine government regulation of business (employment taxes, worker classification laws, Bankruptcy and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Additionally, the course will discuss the ethics and professional responsibilities of accountants
2. Taxes and Business Strategy (replaces Human Resources for Leadership from standard MBA track)
- This course discusses the federal income tax system and laws applicable to both individuals and businesses. It reviews the rules that pertain to the federal income taxation of Regular C Corporations, Partnerships (and limited liability companies LLC), S corporations and not-for-profit organizations. It will analyze tax implications on incomes, gifts and estates. The course will also review how taxes affect business strategy and financing decisions.
3. Financial Statement Analysis & Reporting (replaces Financial Analysis from standard MBA track)
- Financial Statement Analysis builds upon introductory accounting courses. It will prepare the student to interpret and analyze financial statements for tasks involving credit and security analyses, lending and investment decision, and other decisions that must rely on financial data. It will examine financial reporting issues in terms of its effect on assessments of a firm’s profitability and risk. Emphasis will be placed on the interpretability and understandability of financial and business communications which includes understanding the major corporate reporting mechanisms.
4. Advanced Auditing (replaces Entrepreneurial Economics from standard MBA track)
- Advanced Auditing will build an understanding of audit and the required risk assessment including the review of selected topics in financial statement auditing and assurance services. It will focus on collection, analysis and evaluation of audit evidence, auditing procedures and tests, assessment of risks, required disclosures, and reports. The course concentrates on developing professional skepticism and judgment skills as critical thinking skills through review of auditing inventory, management estimates, and fair value measurements.
Healthcare
The MBA in Strategic Management with a concentration in healthcare will help prepare current (and future) healthcare professions for promotions within their current healthcare career or the ability to change careers and become managers in healthcare companies, health care service firms or private healthcare corporations to name a few.
The courses will provide students with the industry and academic knowledge of a business environment within healthcare.
Requirements for the MBA in Strategic Management w/ Healthcare Concentration
In addition to the courses required in the MBA in Strategic Management, the following healthcare courses will be inserted in lieu of similar management courses.
1. Strategic Management in Healthcare with AI component (replaces Strategic Management w/ AI component from standard MBA track)
- Strategic Management in Healthcare prepares healthcare professionals to effectively manage and lead healthcare organizations. Topics covered include organizational performance, strategy, organizational design and program operations.
2. Healthcare Marketing with AI Component (replaced Global Marketing w/ AI component from standard MBA track)
- Healthcare Marketing provides the healthcare professional with the fundamentals of marketing healthcare services. It discusses industry and environmental factors that affect the healthcare sector (growth rate, shifting demographics, globalization, technology and customer demand). It connects marketing principles to innovation, operations and strategy in the healthcare industry.
3. Healthcare Finance (replaces Financial Analysis from standard MBA track)
- Healthcare Finance equips healthcare leaders with the ability to understand the application of financial theories, concepts, and models to health services systems with an emphasis on the role of financial principles and analysis to decision-making. It reviews the art of negotiation that promotes the integration of finance and managed care structures, such as health maintenance organizations (HMOs), preferred provider organizations (PPOs), and independent practice associations (IPAs).
4. Entrepreneurship in HealthCare (replaces Entrepreneurial Economics from standard MBA track)
- This course examines sources of healthcare innovation, the many different types of healthcare customers (patients, doctors, hospitals, insurers, regulators) and who is the “investing” community. The course will also review the challenges of health care entrepreneurship.
Ministry Leadership
The MBA in Strategic Management with a concentration in Ministry Leadership will help prepare current and future leaders in both the church and parachurch (i.e. faith-based nonprofit organizations) to be effective, even entrepreneurial stewards of their ministries they lead. This concentration will also address the growing number of ministry leaders who are bi-vocational; that is, leading ministry while simultaneously working in the for-profit sector. Finally, as demonstrated below, it will meet this critical need with a program offering that is somewhat unique in the market, and likely to be highly preferred over existing options.
Requirements for the MBA in Strategic Management w/ Ministry Leadership Concentration
In addition to the courses required in the MBA in Strategic Management, the following ministry leadership courses will be inserted in lieu of similar management courses.
1. Vocational and Professional Perspectives for Ministry Leaders
- This course, similar in some respects to Ethical and Legal Perspectives in Business, provides ministry leaders tools to define their own vocation for this unique role, the opportunities to be more fully formed and developed within that vocation, and the ethical and professional boundaries within which ministry leaders must operate within an increasingly complex organizational and cultural context.
2. Communication Strategies for Ministry Leaders
- This course provides ministry leaders tools to create and lead effective strategies of external and internal communication in the unique context of a ministry organization, where public communication is often considered a core function of organizational leaders. This course supports a strategic assessment of the place of one’s ministry within one’s community and the means of communicating that mission to stakeholders, both external and internal.
3. Organizational Assessment for Ministry Leaders
- This course provides ministry leaders tools to do comprehensive, multi-directional assessments of one’s own ministry organization or others, as well as the skills to assess or create specific programs within those organizations as a result. It provides students with guidance regarding the kind of leadership most needed in different organizational contexts, and the opportunity to assess their own preferred organizational settings.
4. Change, Conflict, and Governance for Ministry Leaders
- This course provides ministry leaders tools by which to lead strategic change initiatives within an organization and to navigate the creative conflicts that often arise from such. It also addresses the role of governing bodies in ministry organizations, and the considerations that require an ongoing distinction between management and government, management and leadership, and leadership and followership.