EMBA Core Courses

Courses designed to create strategic leaders

Covering the full spectrum of general management principles, the Executive MBA Program’s core curriculum includes accounting, finance, organizations, strategy, economics, and marketing courses. Designed for experienced professionals, these courses will equip you with a balanced, dynamic skillset and help you become a more confident, well-rounded leader.

You are required to take all core courses, which you take at the same time as other students in your cohort.

All curricula and courses are subject to change.

Accounting for Management Planning and Control

This course examines the role of accounting information in managerial decision-making. You will review foundational accounting procedures across key topics, then progress to evaluating their limitations and the conditions under which they may produce misleading results. The focus is on the application of accounting information, not just its preparation.

Analytical Approach to Uncertainty

This course builds the foundational skills needed for decision-making under uncertainty. You will explore probability theory, core decision-making principles, and spreadsheet modeling, equipping you for future coursework in Statistics, Operations, and Finance.

Capstone 

This course serves as the culminating experience of your Kellogg EMBA journey. You will draw on two years of learning and apply it in a novel, real-world context, bringing together the knowledge and skills developed across the program. 

Economics of Competition

This course examines why competitive markets are considered the most effective way to allocate resources and why governments intervene in them. You will develop tools to analyze market strategy, evaluate business decisions, and anticipate the impact of regulation across key industries.

Executive Perspectives on Leadership

This course provides a thorough understanding of what it takes to lead a global company. Through lectures, cases, and readings, you will examine the foundations of global leadership, the practical steps involved in running and organizing a global enterprise, and the role of external investments, including mergers, acquisitions, strategic alliances, and private equity.

Financial Reporting Systems

This course introduces the financial reporting environment and equips you to analyze and interpret financial statements from an external user's perspective. You will develop fluency in accounting as the language of business, examining the balance sheet, income statement, and statement of cash flows, while building an understanding of the concepts and subjectivity underlying how these statements are prepared.

Foundations for Strategy Formulation

This course builds your understanding of how competitive strategy drives the creation and sustainability of profits. Drawing on microeconomic tools and concepts, you will apply them to real-world business situations through a mix of lectures and case discussions.

Frameworks for Strategic Analysis

This course addresses a central question in business: what should a firm do to achieve long-run profitability? The focus is on developing one of the most essential skills in business, strategic thinking, through active engagement with real-world strategic challenges. 

Leadership

This course takes a modern approach to leadership; one centered on accessing the skills, perspectives, and resources of others rather than developing everything independently. You will build the ability to spot opportunities early, leverage diverse ideas to drive innovation, and persuade and inspire those around you, enabling you to adapt as markets and career challenges evolve.

Managerial Economics

This course introduces core economic principles through the lens of pricing. You will explore buyer sensitivity, margin-volume trade-offs, price segmentation, and competitive dynamics, concluding with market entry and shifts in market power.

Managerial Finance I

This introductory corporate finance course equips you with the concepts and techniques needed to analyze and implement sound investment decisions. You will explore how time and uncertainty shape financial decision-making, covering discounted cash flow, cost of capital estimation, and firm valuation.

Managerial Finance II

This course builds on core corporate finance concepts to examine how financing decisions affect shareholder value. You will explore firm valuation using discounted cash flow and multiples, alternative financing sources and the capital-raising process, capital structure, payout policy, and instruments such as options and convertible debt.

Marketing Management

This course introduces the essentials of marketing: how firms and consumers behave and how marketers operate profitably in a dynamic environment. You will develop a practical analytical toolkit for understanding the strategic role of marketing and applying it to real-world business challenges.

Marketing Strategy

This course takes a strategic perspective on marketing management, focusing on how to develop a marketing strategy and design an effective marketing mix. Through case discussions and lectures, you will build the analytical skills to assess the competitive environment, identify and solve marketing problems, and develop actionable marketing plans.

Negotiation Strategies

This course develops your negotiation skills through a series of role-play simulations and debriefings. You will build proficiency in preparation, value-claiming strategies, and win-win negotiation methods, grounded in the core concepts that underlie negotiation strategy, process management, and the evaluation of outcomes.

Operations Management

This course introduces Operations Management from the perspective of the general manager. You will examine how operational decisions fit into a broader strategic context and develop a process-based view of operations, identifying the key levers for managing and improving business process flows.

Purposeful Collaboration 

This course prepares you to work effectively within your study group throughout the EMBA program. You will develop skills in forecasting, scenario planning, and group strategy, equipping your team to navigate the demands of challenging coursework, professional responsibilities, and competing priorities.

Statistical Decision Analysis

This course introduces the most widely used statistical concepts and methods, with an emphasis on understanding their power and limitations. You will develop hands-on knowledge of regression modeling, learn to distinguish correlation from causation, and build the judgment needed to make sound data-based business decisions.

Strategic Crisis Management

This course combines strategic thinking with an understanding of the ethical dimensions of business to prepare you for effective crisis management. Through case studies and simulation exercises, you will learn to identify reputational, political, and regulatory risks before they escalate; navigate high-pressure decision environments; manage stakeholders, media, and public opinion; and integrate crisis management into your broader business strategy.