Core Courses

Developing the habits of intellectual synthesis and analytic thinking will serve as a gateway to success. Thinking strategically, students learn how to analyze industry and company challenges, confront dilemmas, develop alternatives, and make strategic choices from the perspectives of general managers, entrepreneurs, strategy managers, and consultants. 

The ability to synthesize data, analyze statstics, and understand the findings in order to make concrete decisions is crucial to achieve success. TAt the Sofaer GMBA, we expect our students to go beyond facts and figures and to apply learning to real scenarios. As such, we have combined Statistics and Market Research into one course in which students apply their understanding of statistical data analysis to market research in professional scenarios. 

Microeconomics is concerned with the behavior of individual consumers and individual firms, acting and interacting in markets and in industry groups. This course covers basic topics in intermediate microeconomics. The main objective is to present a set of concepts and analytical techniques that are vital to microeconomic analysis. 

Over the past few decades, technology has profoundly transformed every aspect of our lives. The pressure to stay ahead by innovating is immense, but the ever-accelerating pace of innovation opens up a plethora of utterly new and unfamiliar ethical quandaries. The real issue is not only how to address the questions of today, but also how to foresee and manage the ethical challenges ingrained in the technologies that no one has thought about yet.

Throughout this course you will clarify your own ethical stance, think through ethical dilemmas, practice articulating recommendations compellingly, discover the diversity of ethical viewpoints, and find out how to avoid the social and cognitive pitfalls that come in the way of ethical leadership.

Course Objectives 1. To develop students’ ability to recognize ethical issues in business; 2. To increase students’ sensitivity to the prevalence and complexity of ethical dimensions in everyday managerial decision-making; 3. To familiarize students with a diverse set of descriptive and prescriptive frameworks that facilitate the analysis and resolution of ethical situations; 4. To provide a safe space to explore students’ ethical convictions; 5. To expose students to a diversity of ethical viewpoints, from authors and fellow students, to recognize their good-faith value, and to hone students’ skills at engaging them with respect and understanding.

Explore concepts involved in the effective management of the behavior of individuals and groups in the organization as well as the behavior of organizations as human systems. Learn how scientifically tested theory can be applied to make sense of an infinite number of managerial situations and problems, and often serve as a basis upon which to generate reasonable and evidence-based solutions.

Key course objectives include: Recognize and understand how heuristic biases may influence managerial decisions; Identify how organizational and group characteristics influence behavior in organizations; Diagnose the problems; Suggest evidence-based action strategives for addressing common organizational problems.  

Develop data driven business thinking through an understanding of the tools and technologies that allow firms to address the business questions and real world challenges in the digital era. This course deals with data driven business solutions and focuses on data mining methods and their applications using real world cases. Students learn data analytics methodologies with Microsoft Azure ML Studio, and will leave the course feeling confident applying predictive analytics to business challenges. 

Information technologies (IT) are fast changing the business of business, and insightful executives of leading companies across the world are increasingly leveraging IT to create value and win competitive advantage. Three major trends are causing executives to rethink the role of IT in their firms. Firstly, two decades of investments in enterprise systems have digitized many key business processes.

Secondly, consumers connecting and collaborating in the online and mobile enabled social graph are leaving a rich data trail that has value for business.

Lastly, the Internet of Everything is now a $14 Trillion industry. The above trends have made the strategic management of IT a complex, but potentially differentiating, core business capability. Thus, as forward-thinking chief executives of tomorrow’s businesses, it is essential that you develop an understanding of these trends and the ability to analyze the strategic and economic aspects of leveraging IT for efficiency, innovation and corporate transformation. The course topics will balance the two opposing forces of efficiency and innovation in the context of a globalized environment for the production and consumption of IT.

The purpose of the financial accounting course is to furnish students with a basic understanding of the financial reporting process (and in particular how financial statements are put together). Although the course principally concentrates on the production of financial statements, the aim is not to turn participants into practicing accountants; the philosophy is rather to provide an appreciation of the production process that is sufficiently detailed to give students the ability to successfully analyze a relatively complex set of financial statements. This ability is essential for courses that deal with the analysis and interpretation of company financial statements in various contexts; additionally, in a number of other core courses and several electives, the ability to extract relevant information from accounting data for the purpose of decision-making is an important skill. 

This course covers the basics of finance. There are two major topics—capital budgeting and the capital asset pricing model. We anticipate that the course will be demanding and rigorous, fatiguing and inspirational. Money is fun and important!

This course discusses the field of Marketing from a managerial standpoint. Over the course of this class the “Marketing Language” will be presented through a survey of basic concepts and basic perceptions of Marketing. These basic concepts and perceptions constitute a foundation for possible expansions and analyses in more advanced courses in the field. Discussion of these concepts will be done with an emphasis on the framework of managerial decision-making, particularly decisions relating to the creation of a "marketing plan."

This course introduces students to the concepts, challenges and tools associated with the creation of a new technology venture. The course explores entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship as well as students’ abilities to review venture opportunities. Business model design methodologies are studied and implemented. The components of an effective NTV business plan are reviewed.

The course includes an overview of market structures and concepts which have a strong impact on a wide variety of currentday technology ventures; including: Networks and Network Externalities, Two-Sided Markets, the Chasm, the Bowling-Alley and the Tornado; Selling for Free and ‘The Long Tail.’ Incorporation, financing, valuations, venture capital and deal structures are also discussed.

During the course students are expected to apply the discussed frameworks and methodologies to an early stage technology venture. The course is run in collaboration with TheTime (www.thetime.co.il), a technology incubator with a focus on startups in the areas of telecom, internet, media and entertainment. This allows participants to gain a better feeling of the way theory becomes practice.