Executive MBA Program Overview, Curriculum and Courses
A curriculum that belongs in the C-Suite.
The challenges you’ll encounter in the upper levels of business leadership are complex and nuanced—in fact, there’s never just one factor on the line. It’s why Eller Executive MBA program courses are so uniquely structured. Our courses weave multiple aspects of business together rather than teaching them in one-by-one isolation. Our curriculum is a unique hybrid of online courses and monthly in-person classwork. It meets an executive's schedule demands while culminating in an exceptional ability to transform yourself, your role, your company, your industry and maybe even the world.
1
weekend per month of in-person classes with additional coursework offered online
21
months to complete your Eller Executive MBA program
43
units
What You’ll Learn
Get more than a degree. Get the in-depth knowledge, experience and connections to take on new roles and responsibilities. Today’s global economy is evolving faster than ever—but you’ll have the tools to stay a step ahead and deliver exceptional value to any organization you work with.
Among a bright and ambitious community of fellow executives, you’ll master competitive positioning, accurate forecasting and valuation, organizational leadership and the ability to anticipate fluid constraints and opportunities. In today’s world, technology is as much a driver as an ever-shifting variable—and here you’ll learn to prepare for and overcome the biggest challenges in business.
Hands-on learning provides students with the ability to learn in a real-world setting.
The Executive MBA program provides two immersive experiences - the Global Business Experience and the Innovation Experience.
Global Business Experience: In the Eller Executive MBA program students spend time in a business destination, where the domestic and international marketplaces serve as the perfect backdrop for learning about culture and communication, and organizational change. The experience is as unforgettable as it is impactful.
Immersive Experience: There is nothing more motivating than meeting start-up entrepreneurs, and bringing life to innovation through the stories of growing businesses and funding organizations. During the Executive MBA Innovation Experience, students spend time with innovators, entrepreneurs, alumni and funders to learn the skills necessary to start a new business.
From the Student's Point of View
"First, we heard from folks in varying industries and were able to ask a TON of questions about their experiences individually, the evolution as a company, and get real/genuine feedback. You can't get this in a case study. Second, we were able to connect as a cohort. There were many instances where I was able to get to know my colleagues in our class much better. This type of interaction does not typically happen in Phoenix or Tucson. Third, I think the program would be lacking without some sort of experience along these lines. The fact that we had an experience of this nature mid way through the program makes me think that our global immersion will provide a significant impact on the experience as a whole. This immersion brought our material and the entire experience to life. It was incredibly important for me in selecting a program, and it did not disappoint."
Curriculum
You are the company you keep—and our executive MBA students learn from each other as well as from our faculty. The program is designed to encourage a tight-knit community of students, from the initial four-day session to shared meals to collaboration outside the classroom.
Meanwhile, our executive MBA curriculum blends online coursework with monthly in-person class. You’ll build from leadership in organizations to applied business statistics to market-based management to advanced negotiations and many skills and principles in between. The result: a multi-faceted mastery of the many elements that drive business today and separate the most successful leaders from the pack.
View Eller Executive MBA curriculum details:
| Topics: Overview of Quantitative Intensive, Applied Business Statistics and Leadership in Organizations |
| Launch is held in Phoenix at the downtown campus as an introduction to the program and includes curriculum overview, team building and content overview of the first two courses of the program. Optional meetings with campus partners occur at the beginning of the week. |
| BCOM 511: Communication Management |
| This course introduces a strategic approach to professional communication, examines principles of effective writing and speaking, and provides practice for developing a more polished, focused and professional persona. Key components include audience analysis, communicator credibility, message construction, design, delivery and style flexibility. |
| BNAD 562: Applied Business Statistics |
| Conceptual understanding of advanced applied inferential statistics with emphasis on their use as a managerial decision-making tool. |
| ECON 550: Economics for Managers |
| Microeconomic theory and applications for business management decision making. |
| MGMT 501: Leadership in Organizations |
| This course examines and evaluates leadership theories and techniques and explores the concept of corporate social responsibility. |
| ACCT 540: Introduction to Financial Accounting |
| Principles and procedures underlying the financial accounting process and their application in the preparation and analysis of financial statements. |
| MIS 585: Strategic Management of Information Systems |
| The real-world principles, tactics and strategies for managing information technology in for profit and not-for-profit enterprises are explored from an executive perspective. |
| ACCT 545: Introduction to Managerial Accounting |
| This course presents an overview of managerial accounting concepts and focuses on evaluating accounting information for decision making, planning and control of operations and organizations and strategic management. |
| MKTG 510: Market-Based Management |
| Market and customer analysis for product service, price, promotion and distribution decisions; study of marketing management theories and practices to maximize customer value and satisfaction. |
| MIS 515: Information Security in Public and Private Sectors |
| This course exposes students to a broad range of cyber and information security topics focused on awareness of confidentiality, integrity and availability. The course is approved by NSA/Committee on National Security Systems and accepted as a model curriculum course for the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA). |
| MGMT 520: Managing Ethics in Organizations |
| Increasing attention to the impact of business on society has made ethics more important to organizational success than at any time in recent history. With corporate governance processes driving ethics and the emergence of a new breed of "social entrepreneurs," executives need to understand the centrality of this dimension to business. This course explores how law and stakeholder interests impact corporate social responsibility, giving participants a solid understanding of the role of ethics in management, experience managing tradeoffs in ethical decision making and concepts for assessing social return on investment as a component of business performance. |
| MGMT 561: Leading Organizational Change (includes the Innovation Experience trip) |
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This course is designed to introduce you to the frameworks, competencies and skills required to lead change efforts within organizations. |
| ECON 551: Business Strategy |
| Development of business strategies to promote the competitive performance of firms. |
| MGMT 503: Human Resource Management |
| Principles, methods, research relevant to management of an organization's human resources, with emphasis on employment psychology, training, development, compensation. |
| OSCM 560: Operations Management |
| Organizations use their operations to achieve their strategic objectives. While operations can be diverse, they have characteristics in common. This course focuses on those common attributes. The class will focus on managing processes, inventory, supply chain management and the integration of operations with strategic issues. |
| FIN 510E: Survey of Finance as Analyst |
| Survey of Finance as Analyst provides students with a rapidly paced but substantive view of the basic skills, concepts and analytical techniques employed in the Finance discipline, specifically as applied to modern corporations. This course has the perspective of the company "outsider"— that of an analyst, broker, competitor or regulator. The course is a complement to Finance 510B, which takes the perspective of the company "insider." Discussions and techniques will be of benefit to the Financial Manager and non-Financial Manager alike. Specific topics include financial analysis, time value of money, risk, stock and bond issuance, firm valuations and introductions to derivatives. The knowledge and skills developed in the core economics, statistics and accounting classes serve as the building blocks for this course. |
| BNAD 513: Global Context of Business (includes global business experience/international trip) |
| This course will focus exclusively on key economic and competitive factors impacting national and industrial sector performance in an increasingly global and volatile marketplace. We will consider concepts and discuss examples that will assist students in grasping the complexities and dynamism of the global business environment. These concepts will include, but will not be limited to, the impact of foreign exchange markets on global transactions, the critical role played by international trade, effective management in the volatile environments of emerging markets and managing across geographical, cultural and ethical distance. This course seeks to globalize the lens through which students view business. We will consider a variety of perspectives and we will focus on various geographic regions, including the BRIC countries and Europe. |
| FIN 510M: Survey of Finance as Corporate Manager |
| Survey of Finance as Corporate Manager is the compliment to Finance 510A. In this course, we examine the Finance field from the perspective of the "insider:" a corporate finance manager, focusing on the techniques and tools they utilize in their jobs and how those tools and techniques are significant for the managers in other disciplines (operations, marketing, management). We examine the basic tools of finance—time value of money and risk analysis, then show how these tools are applied in corporate decision making, encompassing capital budgeting, real options, working capital management and capital structure analysis. Computational processes and analytic techniques will be the feature of most of the course: additionally, spreadsheet analysis tools will be featured. |
| MGMT 566: Advanced Negotiations |
| This course will explore in-depth the academic topic of negotiations. It is designed to provide the student with a much deeper understanding of the topic. This course is both skills and knowledge based. The student will be exposed to cutting-edge issues in the research of negotiations. |
| MKTG 579: Marketing of Innovations |
| This course provides a market-based view of innovation and entrepreneurial activities. The focus is on how to apply an effective process to identify new product and entrepreneurial opportunities and to develop an appropriate plan to bring the product to market. We will cover topics such as the emergence of innovative ideas, new product development within and beyond organizational boundaries, innovation in an entrepreneurial environment and marketing strategies for innovations. On campus sessions: |
The convocation ceremony is held mid-May in Tucson.