This course analyzes and applies tools and techniques to accounting data in order to derive measurements that aid in corporate valuation. Students will first develop a deeper understanding of accounting data by examining the incentives corporate officers face while making financial reporting choices as well as understanding the conceptual limitations of the financial reporting model.

The goals of this course are to help you think critically about how to build and maintain high quality relationships at work. In organizations, high quality relationships between people enable more effective performance, individual learning, and job commitment. They also pave the way for a more inclusive workplace where individuals feel like they belong and can bring their authentic selves to work.

This course adopts the perspective of a CFO of a publicly held corporation as the strategic partner to the CEO with an emphasis on the role of financial analysis in creating corporate value. It draws heavily from analytical techniques provided in Financial Management and Policies and Valuation in Financial Markets courses and extends the concepts introduced in those courses to examine key policy challenges that confront public corporations.Prerequisites: Restricted to Darden students.

The Derivatives course is designed for students interested in a career in investment banking or corporate finance. The primary purpose of the course is to teach students how to interpret and value the wide variety of derivatives products available. As such, the course examines a broad array of derivative products that range from basic futures contracts to the more specialized products developed for interest-rate markets. The valuation tools considered begin with basic arbitrage relationships and from there students will develop the Black-Scholes model. The course will also introduce the binomial approach and will use it as the primary valuation framework throughout the course. Students will also, through the use of assignments and problem sets, develop an intuitive understanding of why these products are used and the fundamental relationships that underlay all derivative products.

This course will provide a deeper understanding of options, preferred approaches and best practices in managing conflict, and leveraging consensus. As conflict is an inevitable element in all human relations, students will explore how managers and leaders who effectively deal with both daily and systemic conflict enjoy a distinct competitive advantage in a variety of respects. These include: building and maintaining strategic alliances and networks; furthering team creativity and innovation; fostering collaborative organizational cultures and working relationships; containing financial and human costs; and, ultimately, improving business results. While rooted in negotiation and conflict theory, this course will provide pragmatic and practical general management skills and should therefore be of interest to all students, regardless of their specific career or personal goals. Bargaining and Negotiating is a prerequisite for this course. Principal modes of instruction are cases, readings, extended simulations, and in-class exercises.

This course will provide students with an understanding of the theory and practice of investment decision making. The course is divided into three modules: asset allocation, manager selection, and market frictions. The first module examines the decision of how to allocate a portfolio across different asset classes (e.g., stocks, bonds, real estate).

This course is designed to explore what it means to be a person of faith and how that relates to how one should live, particularly in business. Students will look at this core question from the standpoint of three different religious traditions: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. As we look at each faith tradition, we will be asking a series of questions connected to core themes of the course.

The course gives students the opportunity to hear financial market experts discuss the most current financial issues in the headlines. Topics will span issues of concern to Wall Street as well as corporate America. Each class will feature a new speaker who will either introduce a new issue to the class or will bring a different perspective on the issue of a previous speaker.

This course explores a comprehensive set of financial situations that arise in high-growth and high-risk enterprises. It focuses primarily on the investment phase of the private equity cycle and examines the investment strategy, valuation, and structure of ventures in their formative stages prior to becoming public companies. A range of enterprises are examined from early stage (venture capital) to late stage (mezzanine financing and buyouts) to provide perspective on how the maturity of an organization influences the nature and structure of financing and valuation. Issues related to the measurement of returns in private equity funds, valuing enterprises at different stages of development, and structuring deals using various forms of financing are covered as well as the analytical methods to better measure performance and value enterprises. Students will examine how each party's view of the value of the enterprise forms a basis for negotiation upon which the percentage of equity participation and the terms of the contract are determined as well as how the pricing and terms depend not only the deal itself but also upon prevailing market conditions. As private equity firms are either rapidly growing or changing organizations, students will learn that there must be sufficient flexibility and appropriate incentives built into the current round of capital raising and the contract terms to carry the firm through its next stage of development.

The course gives students the opportunity to hear marketing experts discuss the most current marketing issues facing companies today. Each class will feature a speaker who will either introduce a new issue to the class or bring a different perspective on an issue already introduced by a previous speaker. The content of the course will vary according to what topics are in the news as well as the availability of speakers. Prerequisites: Restricted toDarden students.