Master in Management
Prerequisite Courses
Syllabi
COSTING AND DECISION MAKING 2
FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING 4
CORPORATE LAW 5
ECONOMICS 7
FUNDAMENTALS OF FINANCE 8
PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING 10
QUANTITATIVE METHODS 11
OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT 12
PSYCHOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT 13
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AF05 - 15 hours’ prerequisite course COSTING & DECISION MAKING
COORDINATOR: Emmanuel ZILBERBERG
Module/course Summary
Costs analysis provides key information when it comes to making a decision, i.e to sacrifice
opportunities in order to follow a certain course of action and take advantage of other
opportunities. Costs are easily mixed-up with price and they are part of the common vocabulary.
At the same time, the notion of cost, an economic and social construction, is complex to handle.
The course will be an introduction to the core concepts and vocabulary of cost accounting. The
course will be an introduction to the core concepts and vocabulary of Management Accounting.
It will present the design of a managerial accounting systems, insisting on the assumptions
and limitations of any cost calculation.
Module/course objectives
This Cost Accounting / Management Accounting course is not oriented towards calculation but
focuses mostly on decision making, including strategic decisions such as choosing between
a fixed and variable cost structure, managing idle capacity, dropping an activity, etc. It aims
at developing a critical thinking attitude by questioning any cost calculation which always
represents an opinion about how resources are consumed by a cost object. It wants to help
you integrating the cost concepts in your (strategic) thinking and facilitate your dialog with
management accountants whose techniques you will know, enabling you to ask them relevant
and challenging questions.
The objective of this course is to allow you to get to the level of students who are coming out
of the Premaster year.
What will I be expected to achieve?
After this course, you will be familiar with two complementary cost classifications. You will be
able to apprehend costs according to their behaviors (fixed, variable, and mixed) when the
company’s activity varies. You will also ask yourself questions in terms of costs being direct and
traced, or indirect and allocated. You will discover the challenge of finding the “right” criteria to
allocate the indirect (common) costs between the various cost objects. You will understand that
that you calculate costs for different purposes: financial report, decision-making, outsourcing
decisions, pricing.
The course will make you explore the advantages and drawbacks of a fixed and variable cost
structures in terms of profitability, volatility and risks. You will discover that fixed costs, often
considered only as a threat, represent also a profitability leverage.
You will question the concept of economies of scale and avoid the management accountant’s
pitfall who may think their role is to help minimizing the (unit) costs when they should strive to
increase the margins, those two objectives being different.
Skills
Cognitive and intellectual.
Enrichment of the decision-making skills by learning to carry out opportunity analysis.
Enhancement of modelization skills by learning how to focus exclusively on relevant elements
of costs and revenues (differential analysis). Mastering of the vocabulary and Excel techniques
of univariate and multivariate sensitivity analysis (scenarios analysis).
Development of a critical thinking perspective which is “naturally” conveyed by the topic as
in most cases, cost calculation can be considered as an opinion about the resources consumed by a
cost object. The critical thinking is constantly encouraged by inquiry-based pedagogy, which
is based on numerous questionnaires for which the number of attempts is not limited which
allows you to improve your understanding and score. You will realize while answering that
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your previous answers might have been wrong. You will have the possibility to compare your
answers to that of your peers, benchmark yourself and also see what are the easy/not so easy
questions.
Decrypting skills are also an objective as the course will present lots of real-life cases and
situations which require an interpretation. They can be considered as a critical thinking “sequel”
as they rely on autonomous and original thinking instead of rote learning. Real-life situations
also require an ability to mobilize cross-functional concepts belonging to micro-economics,
strategy, pricing, and of course, financial accounting and finance.
Values and attitudes
The course strives to open your mind and provide metacognitive skills (learning to learn) that
you will have to use permanently as a lifelong learner whose learning will be mostly outside a
formal institution. The online modality is a great opportunity to develop your learning autonomy.
Course content
Session 1
• Introduction to Management Accounting / Comparison with Financial
• What is a cost?
• Relevant costs and revenues
• Gained and lost behaviors
Session 2
• Cost behaviors
• Understanding the total and unit cost
• Behaviors (variable / fixed / mixed)
Session 3
• Cost Volume Profit Analysis /break-even point and margin of safety/ Degree of
Session 4
• Full cost and Cost-cross subsidization
Delivery modes
100% online asynchronous
Delivery modes
100% online asynchronous
Reading list
• MAAW represents an ongoing project to systematically categorize management and accounting
literature from the past 100+ years. The site is freely accessible to anyone on the web and particularly
useful to students, researchers, and practitioners interested - http://www.maaw.info/
• Some additional resources such as videos (found on the Internet, shot by myself) will be available on
the platform.
• The Management Accounting course will use an OER (Open Educational Resource) which is both
online and downloadable. - https://frama.link/Downloadable_textbook - https://frama.link/Online_
textbook
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CF05 - 15 hours’ prerequisite course
FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING
COORDINATOR: Christopher HOSSFELD
Module/course objectives
This course allows students that did not previously study management to follow the Master in Mana-
gement program without difficulties, in particular the course « Fundamentals of International Financial
Reporting » and other courses in related to Financial Reporting, but also the courses in finance and ma-
nagement control.
What will I be expected to achieve?
Understand the information provided in the different financial statements. Determine the impact of
decisions on the different financial statements.
Course content
Session 1
The context of financial reporting: accounting standards, various stakeholders and definition of conso-
lidated financial statements
Session 2
Financial statements: understanding and interpreting the balance sheet, income statement and cash
flow statement + first part of final exam
Session 3
The accounting model: controlling and understanding the impacts of the various operations on the fi-
nancial statements
Session 4
Non-current assets: Definition and recognition of non-financial non-current assets, distinction between
Capex/Opex, depreciation, disposal
Session 5
The impact of the main accounting policies: provisions, impairment and cut-off
Delivery modes
100% online asynchronous
Reading list
• www.bookboon.com: web-site with free accounting books in English (if the front page is in French
go to: comptabilité; otherwise: accounting).
• Weygandt J., Kimmel P., Kieso D: Financial and Managerial Accounting
• Weetman, P: Financial and Management accounting
• Stolowy H., Ding Y. Financial Accounting and Reporting – A Global Perspective, Cengage Learning,
7th edition, 2024.
• Weygandt J., Kimmel P., Kieso D. Accounting principles, 11th edition, Wiley, 2014.
4
DF05- 15 hours’ prerequisite course
CORPORATE LAW
COORDINATOR: David CHEKROUN
Module/course Summary
Law is an important part of the environment in which businesses operate. Time, money and opportuni-
ties can be lost through failure to identify the legal issues early enough or, indeed, at all. For this reason,
any manager should gain familiarity with the basic principles of those major areas of law which impinge
upon business activity. When such activity transcends national borders and becomes international, the
potential problems involved can escalate. Having an understanding of the kind of problems that may
arise will better equip managers to avoid or, at least, minimize the potential consequences.
The MiM participants will examine the necessary elements for creating legally enforceable business
contracts. We will study contract interpretation and the legal rules regarding the enforcement of
contracts.
We will then explore business organisations such as sole proprietorships, partnerships, limited liability
companies and different topics that dictate how to form, buy, manage, run, close or sell a business.
Module/course objectives
The objective of this course is to train students to anticipate how legal issues impacts on their business
activities. Legal principles will be analysed in terms of their foundations in social policy, as well as their
practical applications in business relations. Various factual scenarios will be analysed from a legal pers-
pective with the aim of producing credible conclusions and recommendations for future action.
On completion of this module, students will:
• appreciate the national, European and international background against which business operates;
• understand the concept of “legal families” and be able to explain the principal characteristics of
Common law and Civil law legal systems;
• be aware of the primary and secondary sources of the law of the European Union;
• understand the legal nature of the business contract and in particular the European & international
business contract;
• be able to identify the main forms of business organisation available in European jurisdictions and
explain the legal regulation of both internal and external relationships;
• be familiar with the role of alternative dispute resolution procedures, arbitration and litigation in the
resolution of business disputes.
Course content
Session 1
The legal environment of business & dispute resolution
• Business activities and the legal environment
• The Common law and the Civil law tradition
• Business dispute resolution
• Finding and analysing the law
Session 2
Contract law I – theory
• Formation (intent, offer and acceptance); validity (consideration, definiteness, written or oral form);
performance; remedies for breach (direct versus consequential damages, restitution, specific perfor-
mance)
• Interpretation (text, evidence)
• Enforcement of contracts: avoidance (mistake, fraud, duress, illegality, procedural and substantive
unconscionability, incapacity, impossibility, frustration of purpose and force majeure); third parties
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Session 3
Contract law II - case study
• This case study involves a factual scenario of varying complexity. Participants will be expected to
analyse the facts and evaluate the legal position presented. In solving a legal problem there is rarely
a “right” or definitive answer; indeed, there may be several “right” answers
• A successful solution lies in developing and evaluating various lines of argument arising from the
facts of the problem. It is therefore essential that the facts are correctly analysed, the “key” decision
points readily identified and the relevant legal principles appropriately selected and applied
Session 4
Business organisations
• Form (Sole Proprietorships - General & Limited Partnerships, Corporations & LLCs) general principles,
the companies incorporated under French Law (SARL, SA, SAS, SNC, GIE) - Corporate Governance
(Shareholders, Directors & Officers; Fiduciary Duties)
• Financing (Debt & Equity, Start-up Equity Financing): Seed Funding & Angel Investors, Series A, B, C
Funding, Strategic Investors, IPO (as financing) - Exit Strategies: IPO (as exit)
Delivery modes
100% online asynchronous
Reading list
• David Chekroun BL - 2021 HANDOUT
• Richard Schaffer, Filiberto Agusti, Beverly Earle, International Business Law & Its Environment South
Western College Publishing, 10th Edition, 2018
• Roger LeRoy Miller, William Eric Hollowell Business Law: Text & Exercises, Cengage Learning, 9th
Edition, 2019
6
EM05- 30 hours’ prerequisite
course ECONOMICS
COORDINATOR: Vanessa STRAUSS-KAHN & Pablo WINANT
Course content
Microeconomics Part:
Topic 1: Supply, Demand, and Markets
Readings: Chapter 4, 6, 7 and 8 of “Economics” by G. Mankiw and M. Taylor
Topic 2: Consumers’ Demand
Readings: Chapter 5 of “Economics” by G. Mankiw and M. Taylor
Topic 4: Costs
Readings: Chapter 13 of “Economics” by G. Mankiw and M. Taylor
Topic 5: Perfect competition
Readings: Chapter 14 of “Economics” by G. Mankiw and M. Taylor
Topic 6: Pricing with market power
Readings: Chapter 15 of “Economics” by G. Mankiw and M. TaylorBagels case.
Topic 7: Game theory and Oligopolies
Readings: Chapter 16 of “Economics” by G. Mankiw and M. TaylorBagels case.
Macroeconomics Part:
Topic 1: GDP, Cost of Living, Inequalities
Readings: Chapters 20, 23, 24 of “Economics” by G. Mankiw and M. Taylor
Topic 2: Long Run: Production Growth, Investment and Financial System, Unemployment
Readings: Chapters 25, 26, 28 of “Economics” by G. Mankiw and M. Taylor
Topic 5: Money and Prices in the Long Run
Readings: Chapters 29, 30 of “Economics” by G. Mankiw and M. Taylor
Topic 6: Open Macroeconomics
Readings: Chapters 31, 32 of “Economics” by G. Mankiw and M. Taylor
Topic 7: Short Run Fluctuations: IS-LM Model
Readings: Chapter 33, 34, 35, 36 of “Economics” by G. Mankiw and M. Taylor
Delivery modes
100% online asynchronous
Reading list
“Economics” by G. Mankiw and M. Taylor
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FF05- 21 hours’ prerequisite course
FUNDAMENTALS OF FINANCE
COORDINATOR: Fahmi BEN ABDELKADER
Module/course Summary
This course is designed to provide students with the fundamental theoretical knowledge and practical
tools of corporate finance. The purpose is to equip future managers and leaders with a framework that
allows them to maximize the value of a business in a sustainable and responsible way.
The course provides a comprehensive approach of the “value creation” process using the most recent
theoretical concepts as well as the most practical and modern tools of finance.
It particularly emphasizes the importance of understanding the complexity of financial decision making
in the contemporary business environment and how crucial is for managers to go beyond the numbers
and models. The class will be a permanent invitation to question financial concepts and understand
their limitations.
The course is organized around two main questions: (i) how to analyze the financial performance of a
company? (ii) how to value an investment opportunity and a business?
The first part is devoted to a short introduction to the firm’s financial statements and the most popular
financial ratios as a tool to decision making. It aims at preparing students to analyze the financial health
and the performance of a business. (This part is intended also to prepare students to the advanced
course ‘Financial Analyst’).
The second part provides the fundamental tools of valuation of an investment opportunity, including an
introduction to the Time Value of Money and the NPV principle. It prepares students to make business
decisions with a value
creation mind-set.
This course is an indispensable pre-requisite for the Finance course in Master 1 and all other finance
electives.
Module/course objectives
The aim of the course is to equip students with a framework that allows them to understand the com-
plexity of financial decision making in the contemporary business environment
Key objectives
• This course is intended to help you to:
• Learn how to “speak and think finance” and translate performance into financial terms
• Develop your critical thinking aptitudes towards finance tools and be aware of their limitations
• Master “your recommendation” - to be able to use finance to state your case and support your re-
commendation
• Develop proactive working relationships with finance professionals and increase your value to the
organization
• Get a better understanding of the numbers side of your “future job” and the financial implications
of your decisions
• Gain greater confidence with a working knowledge of business financials
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Course content
NB. Students are expected to read all the required readings.
Session 1
1. Introduction: Demystification of Finance and Cornerstone Concepts
Required Reading: Berk and DeMarzo - Chapter 1
Assignments: MyFinanceLab homework – The corporation
Session 2
2. Financial analysis statements: How to analyze the financial health and performance of a company?
Required Reading: Berk and DeMarzo - Chapter 2
Assignments: Calculate Financial ratios of a company (Excel file)
Session 3
3. Time value of Money and interest rates: what is the impact of time on the valueof money and how to
include it in your financial decisions?
Required Reading: Berk and DeMarzo - Chapter 3 & 4
Assignments: MyFinanceLab homework – Time value of Money
Session 4
4. Interest Rates: what are the factors that affect interest rates?
Required Reading: Berk and DeMarzo - Chapter 5*
Assignments: MyFinanceLab homework – Interest Rates
*These chapters will not be discussed in class. Students are expected to compulsory work autonomously
on these chapters.
Session 5
5. Capital Budgeting: how to value an investment opportunity?
Required Reading: Berk and DeMarzo - Chapter 7 & 8
Assignments: Capital budgeting Case (Excel file)
Delivery modes
100% online asynchronous
Reading list
1. Berk Jonathan and DeMarzo Peter Corporate Finance Pearson Education
2. Pierre Vernimmen Corporate Finance: Theory and Practice John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
3. Christophe Thibierge and Andrew Beresford A Practical Guide to Corporate Finance: Breaking the Fi-
nancial Ice Ed. Palgrave Macmillan
learn more: thibierge.net
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MM05 - 15 hours’ prerequisite
course PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING
COORDINATOR: Julien SCHMITT
Module/course Summary
Marketing is defined as “the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, deli-
vering and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large”. At
the heart of marketing is therefore value creation. As you will see in this course, marketing has to create
value not only for the firm to become more profitable but also for consumers by developing offerings
that they will be willing to purchase, and also for society at large in order to take part in a broader sustai-
nable development of society.
This online “Principles of Marketing” course will expose you to the fundamental concepts and termi-
nologies of marketing, and provide you with an understanding of how they are applied in practice. The
course consists in an online program of 9 modules that will present the main concepts and tools of mar-
keting that students are required to master.
Students are requested to study the online materials (watch videos and read online content) and to do
the corresponding exercises and quiz.
An individual online exam will assess students’ acquisition of knowledge.
Module/course objectives
- Discover and learn to manage the key notions and tools of marketing
- Develop both "problem setting" and "problem solving" skills
- Understand current developments in the marketing discipline and in market dynamics
- Identify the main professional opportunities in the context of marketing
Course content
Session 1
Introduction
Session 2
Market and environment analysis
Session 3
Understand consumers
Session 4
Segmenting, targeting, positioning
Session 5
Offering and branding
Session 6
Communication
Session 7
Distribution
Session 8
Price
Session 9
Marketing performance and control
Delivery modes
100% online asynchronous
10
QF05- 15 hours’ prerequisite
course QUANTITATIVE METHODS
COORDINATOR: Lynn FARAH
Module/course objectives
The objective of this course is to enable you to intelligently and critically read statistical studies in order
to conduct studies and analyses of your own. The emphasis is on business applications rather than rigo-
rous mathematics.
What will I be expected to achieve?
At the conclusion of this course the student will be able to:
• Explain the concepts and statistical techniques used to analyze business data.
• Use the essential tools of applied statistics, including data analysis, point and confidence interval
estimation, hypothesis testing.
• Apply statistical methodology properly in their future academic and professional careers.
• Use statistical analysis as a basis for decision making in all areas of business, customer service, pro-
duction operations management and quality control.
• Apply quantitative analysis to the problems found in managing a business, government, or non-pro-
fit organization, whether it is production or service oriented.
• Understand the complex, dynamic, and multidimensional issues and perspectives involved in statis-
tical analyses of business situations.
• Communicate clearly the results of statistical analysis.
Delivery modes
100% online synchronous
Reading list
Mac Clave, Benson and Sincich , Statistics for Business and Economics PEARSON
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RM05- 15 hours’ prerequisite course
OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
COORDINATOR: Joe MIEMCZYK
Module/course Summary
This course is aimed at students who have not studied operations management in the past.
The course will provide an overview of the key elements of operations management and will enable stu-
dents to have an understanding of how operations support broad business decisions. Operations does
not only concern production but also services and so the course will provide insights into both aspects.
Examples of operations practice will also be provided.
Module/course objectives
• Understand the nature of processes and their impact on performance.
• Understand how to resources are managed in an efficient way whilst ensuring quality or products
and services.
• Understand the nature of supply chains and their impact on performance.
• Show how operations and supply chain management have sustainability implications
• The course does not aim to train operations managers, but help students understand the operations
manager role in successful business.
Course content
Session 1
Introduction to operations management, the role of operations strategy, measuring operations perfor-
mance.
Session 2
Process design (mapping approaches) and analysis (cycle times, throughput times, capacity analysis,
etc.) and importance of process thinking.
Session 3
Quality management, lean and improvement approaches.
Session 4
Supply chain strategy, lean, efficient, responsive and agile supply chains.
Session 5
Sourcing Strategy.
Delivery modes
100% online asynchronous
Reading list
- Nigel SLACK, Alistair BRANDON-JONES & Robert JOHNSTON, Operations Management Pearson, 7th
edition, 2013. Specific chapters will be advised for each learning Author Title Publisher unit.
12
SM05- 15 hours’ prerequisite course
PSYCHOLOGY & MANAGEMENT
COORDINATOR: Isabelle DE BOYSSON
Module/course Summary
This online course is organized around 6 units or chapters, each one studying a specific topic.
Each chapter is structured in the following way:
LECTURE :
relating fundamental theories and concepts. This content is provided through Videos and compulsory
readings
ACTIVITIES :
as you go through the course, you will be given required tasks to perform (tests, quizzes, exercises, case
analysis, etc.) aimed at putting concepts in practice.
These assignments have to submitted on BlackBoard in order to move on to the next part of the
course;
STUDY MATERIAL :
where you will find each chapter’s slides and some additional readings (optional) and links.
In order to maximize your learning experience, we strongly recommend that you spread this course
over time and devote one week per chapter. You will hence have enough time to go through the
compulsory readings and videos and to fully understand and master the various concepts and analyti-
cal frameworks for each topic. This will also give you enough time to reflect on yourself and your own
experiences. Some additional documents or videos are optional, but we also recommend that you take
the time to read / watch them in order to fully benefit from the course.
Module/course objectives
The course attempts to present and analyze the components of human action and behavior in organi-
zational settings; at an individual level, at an interpersonal level as well as at a group level.
It will expose participants to key concepts, in order to strengthen their understanding of the dynamics
of behavioral processes. Participants will hence be able to perceive most of the psychological and so-
cial dynamics existing and developing within organizations and social situations. It encourages inde-
pendent, informed, critical and mature thinking regarding management and people.
Specifically, students will learn to:
Discern the psychological processes describing individual behavior in work settings by providing them
with key frameworks and concepts in managerial studies (individual and group level);
Be aware of the importance and the need of managing people in organizations;
Evaluate the dynamics of exchange between organization members;
Develop skills in analyzing human behavior in social and work settings in order to enhance appropriate
behaviors and reactions;
Get prepared for managerial and leadership roles in teams and organizations
Course content
Session 2
INTRODUCTION
- General introduction
- Understanding the determinants of human behavior
Session 2
PERCEPTION AND SOCIAL PERCEPTION
- The perceptual process
- Factors influencing perception
- Making judgments about others
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Session 3
MOTIVATION
- What is motivation?
- Managing performance through motivation
- Factors that affect motivation
Session 4
INFLUENCE AND OBEDIENCE
- Influencing others/Influencing tactics
- Obedience to authority
Session 5
GROUP DYNAMICS
- Foundations of team dynamics
- What is leadership?
- Leadership theories (trait, contingency, …)
Delivery modes
100% online asynchronous
Reading list
All required readings are provided in the course within the online platform, including the course
Textbook
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