Corporate Finance

Corporate Finance

MBA591

Jones International University®, Ltd.

04/08 tlr

Jones International University

MBA 591: Corporate Finance

Instructor Guide

Dear Instructor,

The course that you are about to teach is focused on corporate finance with a specific emphasis at the graduate level. I hope that you find this course as enjoyable to teach as it has been to develop the material.

I think that you'll find this to be a busy course for the graduate student. In hindsight, I've probably included more material, as opposed to less with a specific expectation that the students will be fully engaged for the entire eight modules.

In structuring the course, I tried to build upon the "fundamentals" of material that the students may have learned in their previous courses at JIU: the economics, accounting, and core finance course, as well as their likely undergraduate experience at other institutions. I provided a cursory review of some of these concepts early in the first-half of the course to ensure that the students are comfortable with concepts and ideas. As the name implies, however, this course takes the fundamentals a step further with a specific concentration upon corporate finance. I have tried to provide relevant techniques and methods where warranted throughout the eight modules; given that this a graduate course, the focus was upon teaching via case studies, as opposed to just problem solving, although, admittedly there are many problems to work-out and solve as well.

Having taught online for some time now, I am also sensitive to ensuring that this instructor guide includes the complete solutions to problems, as well as relevant questions that you, the instructor, can use at the end of each theme during the course of each module. Of course, the text is always available as a good reference, and the Brealey, Meyers, Allen textbook is a good reference, probably the best reference of corporate finance material at the graduate level.

Best wishes for a great course!

Dr. Mike Thirtle

Course Overview

The focus of MBA 591: Corporate Finance is making effective financial decisions in a private- or public-sector organization. We use the term "corporate" to denote organizational decisions and "finance" to denote that we are concerned with how to maximize the use of the organization's resources: financial, human, and capital. In the public sector, the corporate finance function typically resides in the financial management department. In the private sector, the function typically resides under the Chief Financial Officer's (CFO) oversight. This responsibility includes:

* Strategizing acquisitions and mergers

* Determining appropriate borrowing structures

* Conducting cost-benefit analyses

* Growing the business financially

* Seeking out and implementing appropriate investments

* Managing cash flows

The bottom line is creating value for the firm or organization. MBA 591 builds on financial concepts learned in the core finance course and will examine case studies and business scenarios using an "applied" approach. The overall goal of this course is to provide graduate-level students with a more in-depth understanding of corporate finance that will successfully prepare them for roles as financial analysts in a corporate or public-sector organization. The expectation is that students will spend an average of 15 - 18 hours per week working through the course material.

Pedagogical Approach

Corporate finance fundamentals will be taught through a variety of methods, including:

* Online and offline readings and examples

* Computational problems

* Case studies

* Peer-review activities

* Analysis of financial statements

* Spreadsheet assignments

* Discussion Forum

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Because students may have a limited background in finance and accounting (they will have taken one of each during the core curriculum), the initial part of the course will review concepts covered in the core MBA Finance, Accounting, and Economics courses.

Case studies will be the primary vehicle for testing students' understanding of and proficiency in corporate finance concepts. Students will be asked to take on the role of a financial analyst in a corporation to accomplish various tasks in case study scenarios. This method of applied learning is intended to provide an engaging and enjoyable, as well as challenging, learning experience.

Learning Outcomes

This course will cover an array of topics that a CFO and his/her staff would be concerned with on a day-to-day basis. The goal of this course is for students to focus on analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. At the end of this course, the student should be able to accomplish the following terminal course objectives:

* Analyze the role of the financial manager and value creation in a firm and how a focus on ethics and ethical decision-making is important to firm success.

* Explain how a balance sheet, income statement, and statement of cash flows are used in corporate financial analysis and point out how a company uses these tools for making sound corporate financial decisions.

* Recognize the concept of the time value of money and model its use within the corporate environment.

* Compare and contrast the use of time value of money techniques including NPV and IRR.

* Analyze financial problems with the use of discounted cash-flow analysis and illustrate how DCF can be used to make investment decisions.

* Devise an analytical approach