Probably the biggest challenge of our times is the exponential growth of technology penetration everywhere and so in business, the accelerated digitalization that has already generated disruptive platforms (Uber, Airbnb), marketplaces (OLX), tech giants (Google, Meta, Amazon), services and remote communication tools (OpenAI, Zoom, Teams) and so on.

 Digitization has partially become the purpose, driven by tech enthusiasts, it has become a fashion, irrespective of everybody’s particularities and characteristics, business models and context. However, this is the most revolutionary and modern tool for upgrading the businesses models on the way of their transformation for more efficiency, productivity, speed, accuracy at lower costs, including environmental costs and overall ESG standards.

 Within the fast-changing business environment, the focus might be split between managing the “old style” organizations while looking forward for ways to stay relevant and implement what is needed to keep up the organization with the new trends, or dramatically transform and take a leadership role in the company and the industry overall.

 But Business Transformation means not just technological changes and continuous innovation for keeping-up competitiveness, rather than mental changes and organizational ecosystems changes, transformational management and modern leadership, adaptive, open and agile.

 How does Business Transformation affect all kinds of companies, including multinational and domestic companies facing competition? What can managers and entrepreneurs facing various challenges do to successfully tackle this new challenge, while managing day to day activities? Is leadership important, relevant for the present and in the future? What kind of leadership? What kind of organizational culture and management?

The course presents concepts, methods and principles of operational management that support managers in decision-making in risk and uncertainty.
 Managers will be familiar with the methods of analysis and mapping for work processes and for increasing quality and efficiency as reflected in customer satisfaction by: exploring, understanding and applying core concepts of operational management to the organization’s mission; to evaluate and use the most appropriate strategies to formulate and implement decisions in the field of operational and process management in order to meet the objectives of the organization; to diagnose operational management issues in order to provide added value to the organization’s customers; for a real contribution and collaboration with other members of the organization, including for enhancing the capabilities to compete in the organization’s global market.

It provides students with a general sense of the job of a human resources manager as well as various HRM functions such as selection, compensation, training & development and performance management.

After completing the course, students are expected to have:

• a better understanding of the strategic and functional role of the human resources management department in an organization.
• basic knowledge of the process of personnel selection and pay determination, different training and development tools, the effective implementation of a performance management system, and other human source related issues. They are also expected to be familiar with practical concerns in designing various HRM systems.

Few areas of business attract so much attention like the creation of new companies. And quite often, start-ups are developed within established companies. As part of the new venture, usually the business plan gets most of the attention. What means success in entrepreneurship or intrapreneurship? What are the factors of Entrepreneurial success? And how important is the business plan for the success of the venture?

In order to answer these questions, we developed an experiential course, aiming to assess four elements that are crucial for the successful launching and growth of entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial ventures: opportunities, context, risks and rewards. Towards this end, case study discussions, discussions among class mates moderated by the teacher, dialogues with experienced entrepreneurs, are augmented by the development of a business plan, within teams. Some of the plans developed during this course were the preamble of start-ups with sustainable growth.

The course focuses on the importance of accounting data and reports for entrepreneurial activities. Starting with the basic model of preparing accounting reports it will give all necessary tools which you need as entrepreneur to analyze vital information about your business. The goal of Accounting Intelligence is to provide all needed information about how to analyze a business, how you look to the financial reports and preparing you for the strategic business decisions. Because accounting is “the language of business” you will use the concepts and procedures learned here in virtually every personal and business transaction you will ever conduct.

The course employs case studies, exercises, simulations and open discussions.

The course aims to provide students with the ability to understand the functioning of the national economy as a whole, including the factors that depend on its long-term evolution and short-term fluctuations.

Students will be able to understand how macroeconomic developments as well as economic policy decisions of the administration affect or may affect the activity at microeconomic level, (i.e. in the business environment). Consequently, they will be able to make informed decisions about the business model / business plan in which they operate.

Strategic Management is important for the entrepreneurial ventures, in their attempt to be responsive to change, in a turbulent environment. The course Strategic Management in Entrepreneurial Ventures aims to introduce the students to economic analysis that helps them study competitive environments and firms, internal and external drivers of competitive advantage, as well we the tight link between strategy formulation and implementation. The course is externally and internally focused.

The objective of the course is to help the students understand the basic concepts and techniques used in developing, implementing, executing, and changing business and corporate strategy. Another one is to help students become comfortable with the way these concepts can be used in concrete business situations.

Toward these ends, discussions of real situations, as well as the case analyses will augument lecture.

The objective of the course is to help the participants in the program to apply financial theory to the investment, financing and overall business decisions of the entrepreneurial firm. The course provides the knowledge and tools necessary to managers of entrepreneurial firms to master the financial understanding of a company from financial statements to its business model: performance indicators, efficient resource allocation, and means of financing. The managers will improve their abilities to strategically determine the economics of the companies and value them. The course is conceived as a combination of interactive debates, examples presentations, exercises, group work and real case studies solving.

The course aims to provide the MBA participants with knowledge and skills to investigate the impact that individuals, groups and structures have on behavior within organizations. Organizational Behavior is a combination between science and experiences, built on contributions from a number of disciplines, mainly psychology and social psychology, sociology and anthropology.

The final purpose of the course is to determine the students to apply the gained knowledge toward improving their organization effectiveness.

The specific learning objectives are to cover the fundamental issues faced by all leaders and managers in any organization:

• How to motivate yourself and the others;
• How to work and remain healthy;
• How leaders communicate, negotiate and solve conflicts;
• How managers lead organizations to meet competition.

As leader and/or manager, generally speaking, understanding Organizational Behavior helps you solve people problems at all organizational levels. Keep in mind that, unlike Human Resources Management (selecting employees, creating compensation schemes, managing benefits, implementing training and coordinating labor relations) Organizational Behaviour is not a function, it is a set of organization-wide processes.

Course Goal and Objectives

The goal of the course consists in the development of the skills of present and potential entrepreneurs to design and implement marketing strategies able to result in winning customers and enhancing their loyalty in increasingly competitive markets.

The major objectives of the course are the following:

• to create the knowledge of entrepreneurial strategies related to targeting, positioning and marketing mix;
• to develop the skills of designing effective entrepreneurial marketing plans;
• to enhance the skills to make efficient entrepreneurial marketing decisions focused on customer segments and their specific needs.

Course Scope

The course focuses on the major marketing decisions that present or potential entrepreneurs face in their efforts to capitalize on marketplace opportunities and to develop competitive business models.

Do you need quantitative tools as entrepreneurs? What do you think? Here are several reasons:

• You need quantitative techniques when evaluating the chances of starting a business and assessing the risk.
• You need data about the market you are in or want to enter. The market consists not only of your customers, but of potential customers. The data is publicly available (National Institute of Statistics – INS, chambers of Commerce, professional associations, and so on) or needs to be taken from different sources as internet search or social media, or even bought. Sometimes good market research comes from telephone directories, catalogs, industry association statistical studies or compilations, real estate info and density maps. But you need to know how to transform data in information; you need to know how to check the confidence of sources, understand and summarize the data.
• You need to know how to draw conclusions from a sample of data, not from the whole population, to make forecasts, even if you do not have yet your company data. What data? Market size and growth, market segmentation, etc. and eventually sales.
• You need to have some knowledge about how to use the resources effectively: money, time, people (including yourself), materials, machines.

This course focuses on development of moral thinking and introducing of students in the ethical culture of the university and the demands of achieving the scientific research with integrity, consolidation of autonomy in the moral decision, customizing contents to the business environment.

Topics covered include:

• Ethics in private and professional life;
• Ethics in organizations;
• Ethics in the University;
• Misconduct in research: Plagiarism;
• Business ethics.

The course aims to develop the skills and knowledge required for evaluating the business environment locally and globally from an ethical perspective, identifying moral issues in academia, research, and organizations.

This course aims to form specific applicable skills regarding: globalization methods for markets and internationalization methods for firms, the intervention of government in international economic relations, cultural dimensions of conducting business in individual countries, the effects of regional economic integration, the impact of emerging markets on the global economy, the role of international institutions in trade and finance, global marketing, penetration strategies on the  international market.

ASEBUSS partners with the MBA Program at Washburn University. This experience provides all our students with a unique learning opportunity as students from both universities collaborate on a project in the MBA Capstone course.