Global Business Certificate Program | Northwestern SPS - Northwestern School of Professional Studies

This course covers accounting issues uniquely confronted by companies involved in international business. The primary focus of the course is to provide an overview of international accounting by drawing on real business problems, economies, and finance in order to understand what is contained in and how to develop and interpret financial reports. The course includes fundamental financial accounting concepts and methods across countries.

This course is conducted completely online. A technology fee will be added to tuition.

This course examines the economic structure, performance and problems of developing nations and emerging markets. Topics will include land use, labor, migration, credit, insurance and famine, with a focus on building students' understanding of the fundamental scholarship, debates and economic methodologies in this area. The course will also discuss development economics as a set of tools and as an evolving discipline in the post-colonial historical context. Students should be comfortable with basic micro- and macroeconomic concepts. Prerequisites: ECON 281, 310-A,-B, 311. Students may benefit from prior coursework in statistics, econometrics, or mathematical economics, though prior work in these areas is not required by prerequisite. Students should have a working understanding of microeconomic and macroeconomic theory, preferably including one quarter of introductory coursework in each area. 

This course will cover many of the basic concepts and facts needed to understand the functioning of international financial markets, including determination of exchange rates, balance of payments, and international asset flows and prices; international transmission of macroeconomic disturbances. Prerequisite: ECON 281, 310-A,-B, or equivalent.

An introductory course covering the basic concepts and models used in finance. Explores the mathematics and spreadsheet modeling techniques used in evaluating various financial assets, including stocks and bonds. Also surveys the risk-return tradeoff in financial markets and how investors gauge risk, as well as the basic concepts of Markowitz's mean-variance portfolio theory. The nature and impact of interest-rate risk on financial institutions is considered, and the duration of a financial asset is introduced in this context. Introduces the efficient market hypothesis and its implications for personal investing and corporate finance. Prerequisite: MATH 101, STAT 202, or college algebra, statistics, financial accounting, microeconomics, and macroeconomics, or equivalents. Carries business credit.

Understanding cultures and local values is a crucial step in the process for developing effective marketing plans and advertising campaigns. Perceiving cultural differences in foreign countries is particularly important for managers in charge of managing international business. But nowadays, is also important to adapt marketing approaches according to the multicultural environment inside Unites States. In this course students will learn how to detect and understand the characteristics that differentiate foreign markets, with special regard to the cultural peculiarities. Students will learn useful commercials skills, like how to deal with the eastern collectivistic cultures, how to consider Italian superstition, which is the better way to address a Japanese customer, and why it is not suitable to show off personal success in Finland.

This course is an introduction to successfully collaborating to build partnerships and drive solutions through business acumen and judgment to efficiently execute key business drivers of global organizations. The course will cover diverse global issues, including the challenges of cultural differences in a corporation when increasing its global platform and contributing to its core growth strategies, influencing diverse global functional departments, negotiation, leadership, project management, managing risk and building consensus on business opportunities for global companies, advising on global expansion and integrating global businesses. Students should develop the skills and appreciation of effectively contributing to a company's growth and success in an international market with a global perspective.

Leadership of global organizations requires understanding, appreciating and managing the impact of culture and the interplay of cultural patterns in everyday interactions. To be successful, leaders must be able to interpret complex cultural contexts and develop intercultural competence, not only in themselves but in the people they lead and the other organizations they work with. This course is designed to help students identify and explore the essential elements of a global mindset. Students examine the leadership styles of 21st century global leaders as they work collaboratively in teams to develop a unified construct of effective global leadership. This course is part of the second year Business Leadership cohort. This course is conducted completely online. A technology fee will be added to tuition.