Core courses
In their second year, Business majors enroll in core courses that provide the foundation for the Business concentrations. They also take electives from core courses offered in other majors.
Business is a powerful driver of economic growth and stability; to do well in business, you must understand consumers, products, and markets. Market Dynamics and Product Analytics is a Major Core course that provides essential foundations for business majors and is a prerequisite for all junior-level business Concentration courses. The objective of B110 is to challenge students to apply marketing methods used by businesses to create value for shareholders and selected customers and consumers. We examine the consumer behavior of individuals, learn how to run, analyze and interpret experiments, and we review business marketing strategies designed to create and capture value.
This Core course provides a foundation for all Business majors and is a prerequisite for all Business Concentration courses. Students learn about the financial and strategic tools managers use to track, evaluate, and improve their business operations for achieving business objectives. Students learn accounting terminology to read financial statements, explore tools used to develop financial models, and analyze case studies of real-world business situations. Key topics include financial and managerial accounting, present value analysis, options, capital structure, strategy, and corporate social responsibility.
This Core course provides foundations for Business majors and is a prerequisite for all junior-level Concentration courses in this major. We analyze the political, regulatory, and societal contexts in which business gets done from a global perspective. We address how organizations can create strategies that address varying cultural biases, labor market conditions, and financial regulations. Overall the goal is to examine how businesses succeed and fail when trying to expand into new markets and new geographies.
This Core course provides foundations for all Business Majors and is a prerequisite for all junior-level Concentration Courses. Students will explore the inner workings of the business enterprise in context of its environment. The focus is on how to formulate and execute organizational strategies to achieve financial and non-financial objectives. Students learn about multiple levels and factors in organizational designs and how to manage tradeoffs in strategic decision making. The role of agents, functions, structures, processes will be analyzed, as well as design, implementation, control and improvement activities. Human behavior, incentives, emergent effects, stakeholder interests and operational efficiency will be considered.
Concentrations Courses
In their third year, Business majors select a concentration, begin taking courses within it and begin work on their capstone courses. They also take electives chosen from other Minerva courses (other concentration courses in Business, core and concentration courses in other colleges).
All Business majors complete a summer practicum, and, in their fourth year, Business majors enroll in additional electives chosen from Minerva’s course offerings within or outside the major. capstone courses conclude during the fourth year as well.
In this course, we will explore different approaches to need identification, product design and development, and market introduction. We will learn how to understand our customers and their needs and learn how to identify the new market potential of existing products. We will delve into the conception, design, planning, and forecasting phases of new product design. Finally, will explore the process of realizing a product in different business settings, and learn how to introduce new products to various markets. To do this, we build on our knowledge of market research, consumer psychology, and creative problem-solving from previous courses.
In this course, we build on your knowledge of market research, consumer psychology, and creative problem-solving to understand and explore different approaches to growth. Throughout the course, we will delve into new metrics for measuring marketing’s worth, leverage psychological principles for brand building, and analyze the power of partnerships for growth. Throughout the semester you will propose, execute, and evaluate experiments to get first-hand experience in growing a brand. We will place these activities into the larger context of the firm and will explore the strategic role that they play in business development.
Powerful brands can enhance customer relationships, generate profitability, and produce shareholder value. Yet, enterprise growth often begins to slows down as brands get older and approach maturity. During this tipping point in the life cycle, firms must decide how to revitalize their brands and rekindle enterprise growth in order to prevent brand failure. To address these challenges, this course examines signs of brand maturity and explores opportunities for brand revitalization. To begin, we analyze key performance indicators to generate a brand audit and learn how to assess brand equity. Thereafter, we use creative and innovative thinking to explore different paths to enterprise growth and brand revitalization including new market entry, brand extensions, co-branding, brand reinvention, and mergers and acquisitions.