Full-Time MBA Concentrations

Understand the critical importance of organizational finances. Identify and maximize financial opportunities, while avoiding risks. Gain a broader perspective on the global marketplace. Develop best practices in financial reporting, and learn how to make strategic investment decisions that deliver bottom-line value in any organization.

A concentration in accounting will enable students to understand and prepare financial statements, record business transactions, compute and manage costs, participate in strategies for mergers and acquisitions, develop and use information systems to track financial performance, and devise tax strategies.

Gain a deeper understanding of the practice of using analytics in business and industry. Learn how to understand, frame, and solve problems to make better decisions in different business areas.

A concentration in business analytics develops student creativity and helps students develop a good understanding of analytical tools and techniques to define important business problems and to derive insight from the data needed to solve the problems they analyze.

Become a success-driven, self-employed individual. Turn a powerful idea into a multinational organization. Manage a new business venture. Lead an entrepreneurial unit of a larger corporation. These are just a few of the valuable skills you will gain in our leading-edge entrepreneurship elective courses.

The MBA concentration in entrepreneurship focuses on the skills, knowledge, and attitudes required to successfully start a new venture, participate in an entrepreneurial company, or manage an entrepreneurial unit of a larger corporation.

Learn how businesses raise the capital they need to start and sustain themselves. Understand how people invest in companies and how financial markets work. Professors share firsthand knowledge and real-world perspectives on how an economy allocates money to where it will have the most value — giving you the strategic advantage.

The concentration in corporate finance, through its courses, teaches a core set of skills in financial modeling, debt and equity issues, valuation, mergers and acquisitions, financial planning, and risk management necessary in corporate finance positions as well as in other careers such as consulting. Students develop the skills and knowledge base to undertake positions in:

• Investment banks and commercial banks

• Corporate finance, treasury, and business development positions in Fortune 500 and mid-cap companies

• Financial consulting and corporate strategy roles

• Venture capital and private equity firms

• General management positions

The economic world has been revolutionized by the forces of globalization and firms of all sizes have led the way. The global market continues to integrate as barriers fall in the midst of successive crises reshaping global business models and its underlying operational environment. This multi-decade trend shows no signs of abating, and a clear understanding of the global economy and its drivers is vital to compete successfully in a constantly reconfigured world.

The international business concentration gives students a deeper and richer understanding of the environment of international business, and allows them to be effective leaders in the future, managing opportunities as well as shocks and risks. The Scheller College of Business has the unique distinction of being designated a national center of excellence in international business education and research through the competitive awarding of a national CIBER Center since 1993, last reaffirming this position in the 2014 national competition and award.

Leading and collaborating with a strategic purpose are key capabilities in successful organizations. All organizations are comprised of three types of resources: financial and material capital, intellectual property, and people. Many contemporary organizations are finding that the people they employ – and the knowledge and expertise these people hold – are their best source of competitive advantage.

With this concentration, students will develop an ability to lead in formally appointed positions and collaboratively in groups and teams. The concentration provides the capability for seizing opportunities to exercise leadership and collaborate within your strategically chosen function – such as supply chain, finance, marketing – or develop your ability to be a business partner within the area of leading human capital (e.g. human resources, organizational development, change implementation).

The courses will survey key topics that are related to managing people in organizations, including leadership, teams, strategic human resource management, etc. This concentration will give you a better understanding of how employees can function effectively and efficiently across different contexts such as teams and organizations. You will have plenty of opportunities for reflection, study, debate, and practice through which you can learn about leadership and enhancing effectiveness – both your own and that of other individuals and groups in organizations.

Flexibility is the hallmark of the Georgia Tech Scheller MBA. This concentration allows you to complete courses from the full breadth of academic areas to customize a curriculum that works best for your educational and career objectives. Whether your goal is to hone your leadership skills, gain practical experience through applied learning, or explore the broad knowledge of business, this concentration will support your aspirations.

The information technology concentration highlights the critical role of information systems in organizations. Understand the design and development of such systems. Learn how to transform information technology into business applications that deliver sustainable value across the entire organization from some of the world's most renowned IT management professors.

Advances in information technology (IT) have profound effects on how organizations generate value and how entire industries are structured. The information technology management concentration provides a deep understanding of how to manage the opportunities and threats created from the increasing digitization of organizations, markets, and entire industries. The concentration has two overarching components:

• Strategies and tactics for competing in fast-moving digital environments.

• Strategies and tactics for managing and analyzing information within and across organizations.

Marketing is about the creation, communication, and delivery of value to customers, partners, and society at large. To be successful in the contemporary marketplace, professionals must be able to apply the fundamental, enduring principles of marketing, while adopting new methods made possible by emerging technology.

The marketing concentration prepares students to thrive in today's marketing landscape by instilling knowledge that is both timely and timeless. Students choose from a wide variety of courses that cover the entire marketing mix, providing insight into such questions: What drives customer purchase decisions? How should customers be identified and managed to enhance profitability and loyalty? How are strong brands developed and maintained over time?

The concentration is appropriate for students with a variety of career objectives. Graduates will be prepared to think creatively and holistically about the marketing problems that they encounter, and to act decisively based on a thorough understanding of the discipline.

Learn to develop successful operations models from internationally recognized faculty with extensive research, consulting, and teaching experience. From supply chain to product innovation, you'll gain a deep understanding of operations management and the problem-solving skills to implement better operational performance on a global scale.

Operations management is the functional area of business primarily devoted to the creation, planning, and management of the resource capabilities used by a firm to create products or services. A variety of electives in operations combine a rich set of capabilities (in the form of analytics, skills, know-how, technologies, supply networks, projects, and processes) to meet a broad set of global performance goals (including value creation, revenue management, cost reduction, quality enhancement, flexibility, innovation and new product introduction, and sustainability).

With a variety of electives offered by world-class faculty, the concentration is also suitable for students who would like to gain a deep knowledge of operations management and develop the analytic abilities to deliver operational performance in any industry setting. The concentration will allow students to develop skills that are critical building blocks for careers in varied industries such as consulting, banking, healthcare, logistics, high tech, and analytics.

A concentration in product and service innovation will enable students to launch innovative products and services, to improve and optimize processes and services, and to leverage new technologies for business advantage.

Strategy is defined by the question, "Why are some companies successful while others fail?" The field builds on and integrates other functional areas to further our understanding of how firms gain and sustain competitive advantage.

Innovation, in turn, broadly includes value-creating activities, such as those associated with the creation of ideas, products, processes, services, and business models.

The concepts of competitive advantage, value creation and appropriation, industry profitability, and innovation are intimately linked. Indeed, the intersection of these two fields — strategy and innovation — reflects the focus of our faculty research and course instruction.

Gain a deeper understanding of business-relevant trends and innovation opportunities related to resource scarcity, environmental concerns, societal needs, emerging technologies, and policy developments.

Students interested in sustainability but not seeking to complete the concentration may still choose to take any of the electives listed below. The flexibility of the concentration in strategic sustainability supports those seeking to strengthen traditional career paths as well as those wanting to dive deeper and explore careers focused on particular sustainability-related areas.

Managers need an understanding of the legal and ethical environments in which they operate. Make more informed business decisions through knowledge of the laws governing contracts, commercial relationships, employment, intellectual property, and business formation. Learn to apply ethical frameworks to the decision-making process, employ corporate social responsibility, and manage risks associated with legal and ethical issues

The concentration in business law and ethics for MBA students examines legal and ethical issues confronting business managers and employees and trains students to discover solutions to such issues through practical application of concepts that avoid, manage, and minimize risks.

A concentration in real estate prepares students for a diverse set of career opportunities in a highly entrepreneurial global industry. These include real estate development, public and private nance, consulting, brokerage, property and facilities management, and land use planning.

TI:GER combines classroom instruction, innovation projects, group activities, and real-world experience into a total, immersive, practical education throughout three terms of the MBA program.

For students whose objective is to become technology innovators – in early-stage high-growth ventures, in consultancies, or in corporate positions in finance, marketing, operations, or strategy – the TI:GER experience provides essential skills, tacit knowledge, and networks for success.

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