Grant's resume.

Subjects taken during the MBA at Melbourne Business School

Grant Gray
1996-97

The elective subjects were chosen to round out the strong analytical and operational experience gained during the 8½ years of employ at Mobil Oil.

In particular, subjects most useful in an Asian business environment - those that extended understanding of organisational and cultural dynamics - and those that provided depth to building a business presence were of first choice.

Through this focus on subject type and by actually asking lecturers what subjects they planned to teach in forward terms (apparently a novel approach!), Grant was able to build a list of highly relevent study areas and get into even the most over-subscribed subjects.

Further - and again a little unusual for the typical over-worked MBA student - Grant took the opportunity of this sabbatical period to study a wide range of non-Course academic work on subjects ranging from the cultural significance of the Javanese wayung kulit shadow puppets to the clash of personal value systems within a work place. This has provided even greater depth than the subject list itself suggests - Porter's 5-Forces model only goes so far in explaining the World!

*SUBJECT*	*TYPE*	*SUBJECT DESCRIPTION*
Asia-Pacific Business Arena	Elective	To understand complexity and opportunity in Asia-Pacific and Pacific Rim markets and to develop skills in analysing market and political risk.
Business Strategy	Elective	To be able to analyse the strategic process of forecasting the external environment, assessing the firms current and expected strengths and weakness and to be able to develop strategy and firm capabilities valid within a competitive and dynamic business environment
Decision Analysis	Elective	To understand Decision Analysis techniques and their application to solve a range of problems in management and business Areas covered included linear, goal and integer programming, 'decision tree' method, network analysis technique and resource allocation methods.
Economics and Public Policy	Compulsory	To understand how economic policies of the Australian economy are formulated and implemented by the government and how they affect the business environment
Economics of Strategy	Elective	To understand the value of game-theoretic reasoning in solving business strategy problems and to develop the ability to apply this reasoning to a wide domain of problems.
Financial Accounting	Compulsory	To understand the principles on which financial accounting are based and to understand the role of financial accounting as part of a management information system
Information Systems	Compulsory	To understand the use of information systems in organisations from a management perspective and to develop an ability to integrate information systems with the overall business strategy
Leadership and Decision Making	Elective	To understand the principles underlying effective decision making at the individual, group and organisational level and to develop the ability to analyse and find solutions to common decision problems that occur in organisations
Management Accounting Control Systems	Compulsory	To understand the role of the management accounting system within the planning and control function of the organisation and the influence of the system on management behaviour and the organisation's strategy
Managerial Economics	Compulsory	To appreciate the value of economic reasoning in solving business problems and develop the fundamental economic skills required in managerial decision making
Managing Difference	Elective	To understand how the dynamics of underlying difference - cultural, gender, race and sexuality - impact at an organisational level and understand various approaches to and techniques for managing these differences and their impacts
Managing Entrepreneurial Operations	Elective	To understand concepts of entrepreneurial motivation and behaviour and to examine the process of new venture creation
Managing the International Enterprise	Elective	To understand the key issues, concepts and skills required to develop and implement corporate strategies across national borders
Marketing	Compulsory	To acquire a working knowledge of the marketing process and its application to solving of marketing problems within an overall organisational strategy
Marketing in Asia	Elective	To understand the major factors to be considered during various stages of international marketing, to be able to apply pre-market entry environmantal scanning and to understand the key success factors in the Asian market. The emerging market trends in Asia are covered extensively.
Negotiation Strategy and Process	Elective	To develop skills in negotiating such that the student will be able to negotiate in a range of business-related and personal settings in order to secure targeted and mutually acceptable outcomes
Organisations	Compulsory	To understand the basic concepts current in the field of organisational behaviour and to develop an ability to think critically about behavioural problems and management influence over them
Political Environment of Business	Elective	To understand the forces shaping the socio-economic environment for business and the issues this raises for the business itself
Project Finance	Elective	To understand the commercial and financial objectives of participants who use this financing approach with an emphasis on risk analysis from both the borrower's and lender's perspective
Valuation And Financial Analysis	Compulsory	To understand the scope and content of business financing and financial management. Analysis techniques covered include capital structure, debt/equity, solvency, cash flow and investment analysis

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