NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY
GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
Summer 1 —2015
ACCT 6201: Financial Reporting & Managerial Decision-Making 2
Main Campus -- 430 DG - Monday 5:20 – 7;20 pm
Faculty: Prof. Christina Williams Office Hours: By appt
Brandeis University Class Meetings: Wednesday 5:20 – 7:2
Waltham, MA 02139 Email: c.williams@neu.edu
Text and Case Studies: Fundamentals of Managerial Accounting, 7th edition (McGraw Hill Education CREATE Textbook), 2014, Edmonds, Tsay and Olds McGraw Hill (abbreviated (ETO in your material for the syllabus)
Financial Reporting & Managerial Decision Making II
Custom Created Book --- need to purchase at the Bookstore or it can be an e-book
E-book ISBN- 9781308487410
ISBN- 9781308487144
Blackboard: Registration on Blackboard.com is required for the course. Most preregistered students are already enrolled in the course on Blackboard. You can check your status by looking at the courses listed once you are in your blackboard account. If you were not pre-enrolled, you can enroll in the course by going to http://blackboard.neu.edu and logging in using your myNEU account username and password. I will use Blackboard throughout the course to communicate with students. Make sure your “neu.edu” email address forwards to your preferred email account or you may miss key information or announcements.
Course
Objectives: This course focuses on the development and use of information – especially financial information – for managerial decisions within the firm. It will emphasize analyzing information for its strategic implications, and making decisions that are effective in varied functional areas in an integrative organizational environment. These decisions often have ethical implications, which will be explored through our discussions using case studies. The objective is to learn the concepts and apply them in realistic business situations. Thus, although you will learn varied analytic skills, the emphasis will be less on calculations and more on your ability to use information you develop to discover new ways of looking at a business, to think objectively about business problems, to search for the “whys” of the situation, and to identify the implications of the data for management decisions. We will use technology as relevant for our analyses, and we will push to develop realistic, feasible managerial plans of action.
Cases: Cases (included in the special textbook edition) provide an actual or realistic setting in which to apply the concepts you are learning. Prior to the session, read the assigned case and, guided by the assigned questions, prepare your analysis of the case. Assigned readings and textbook materials provide background information; they are not formulas for “solving” the case. You are strongly encouraged to work in study groups to discuss and prepare cases. In class, we will identify and explore the key issues, compare and contrast the various views and approaches, and consider broader implications of the concepts beyond the bounds of the assignment questions or the specific case.
Class
Preparation: The most important requirements for this course are a thorough preparation and analysis of the assigned problems, cases, and reading material and active participation in the classroom. The course is built almost exclusively around the case method. I will not be collecting assigned problems, but only some of them will be discussed in class. The classes will focus more on the thought process in analyzing business situations, than on the solutions per se. To derive maximum benefit, you must approach the case as a participant in the situation, not an observer. If a case centers on a decision that needs to be made, put yourself in the shoes of the decision maker. Feel the pressure she or he feels with respect to difficult tradeoffs, limited resources, political conflicts, or whatever.
