Syllabus: FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT (BA 629)

Spring 2019
The class meets Tuesdays from 11:00-13:40 in EBA-339.

Instructor: Babak Lotfaliei

Office: SSE 3304, Tel: 619-594-4790
Personal website: www.BabakL.com
E-mail: Babak.lotfaliei@sdsu.edu
Office Hours: 14:00-16:00 Tuesdays, or by appointment (email)
Assigned Examination Date: Tuesday, May 7, 11:05-12:35 in EBA-339

COURSE DESCRIPTION
This three-credit course is for all masters students in business. In this course, students learn
financial analysis and planning, investment, capital structure, financial markets, capital
raising and capital disbursement decisions, and valuation. By the end of this course,
students will understand the basics of financial management and its practice through
attending lectures, assignments, cases and exam preparation. Basic knowledge of
mathematics and statistics is a prerequisite for this course. BA 625 is a prerequisite
enforced for this course. For your best success in this course, it is also recommended that
you complete BA 623.

COURSE AND STUDENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES (SLO)

MBA Program Goals: MBA students will graduate with:

• A solid foundation in theoretical concepts and managerial skills needed to lead

business organizations.

• The ability to analyze environments in which managers make and implement

business decisions.

• The skills to formulate, communicate, and coordinate strategies to solve business

problems and pursue opportunities.

BA 629 contributes to these goals through its student learning outcomes. At the end of this
course students should be able to:

1. Analyze financial statements using standard financial ratios of liquidity, activity, debt,
profitability, and market value.

2. Apply techniques to project financial statements for forecasting financial needs.

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3. Explain the role of short-term financial management, and the key strategies and
techniques used to manage cash, marketable securities, accounts receivable and
inventory.

4. Identify the major sources of short-term financing available to the firm.

5. Apply future value and present value concepts to single sums, mixed streams, and
annuities.

6. Apply time value, risk, and return concepts. Apply valuation techniques to bonds.

7. Apply time value, risk, and return concepts to constant and variable growth models.
Apply valuation techniques to stocks.

8. Identify relevant cash flows for capital budgeting projects and apply various methods
to analyze projects.

9. Apply the concept of risk, its measurement for single assets and portfolios, various
types of risk, the source and use of betas, and the CAPM and SML.

10. Apply techniques for estimating the cost of each component of the cost of capital and
understand how to assemble this information into a cost of capital.

11. Explain the concept of leverage and the benefits and costs associated with debt
financing.

12. Identify the various long-term sources of funds for a firm.

13. Identify and explain the key international differences between major domestic financial
management tools, techniques, and practices and those environmental and
methodological differences that occur in the global market.

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 CONCEPT MAP

Time Value of Bond and stock Capital investment

Money (TVM) valuation decision: Project
concept valuation/feasibility

TVM
tools

Understand Determine
financial cash-flows
statements

Risk-return Calculate
concept cost of
capital

Basic Knowledge Long-

run
Financial Challenges Financial
markets in financial planning
management
Short-
term

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READINGS
Main Text:

1. S. Ross, R. Westerfield, and B. Jordan, Fundamentals of Corporate Finance,

11th alternate edition, McGraw-Hill/Irwin (A copy of standard edition is
available at the library for 2-hour loan. There may be second-hand copies available
online.)
a. Optional: If you use McGraw-Hill/Irwin Connect and LearnSmart, go to the
link: http://connect.mheducation.com/class/b-lotfaliei-ba629-s19 and
register for the e-book. You also have the option to order a hard copy via
the online system that seems to be a cheaper option than the hard copy.
2. Online Cases for BA 629: Financial Management: you can directly purchase all
the cases online from the website for Harvard business cases
(https://hbsp.harvard.edu/import/568567), or each individual case from Harvard
business review (https://hbr.org/search?term= ). If you do not have an account,
click on register and you can see the course after registering.
a. O.M. Scott & Sons Co.
b. Diamond Chemicals Plc (A): The Merseyside Project

Optional Supplemental Text:

• Craig W. Holden, Excel Modeling in Corporate Finance, 5th edition, 2012, Pearson
(URL: http://www.pearsonhighered.com/holden/, a copy is available in the library)
• S. Ross, R. Westerfield, and B. Jordan, Solution Manual: Fundamentals of Corporate
Finance, 2012, McGraw-Hill/Irwin (A copy is available at the library for 2-hour loan)
• Aswath Damodaran, Applied Corporate Finance, 4th Edition, 2014, John Wiley & Sons
(find data supplements on: http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/ )
• Stanley K. Ridgley, The Complete Guide to Business School Presenting, Anthem Press,
2012 (E-book available through SDSU library)
• Ivo Welch, Corporate Finance, 4th Edition, 2017, (Free e-book: http://book.ivo-
welch.info/read/).
• Analysis for Financial Management, R. Higgins, (Tenth edition), Irwin McGraw-Hill,
2012.
Optional Supplemental Data Access:

• Wells Fargo lab: Datastream (Workstation No. 17), Bloomberg (13 terminals):
o It is optional and highly recommended to acquire Bloomberg certificates, which
adds to your resume. The process start by a visit to the lab.
• Library’s website: Standard & Poor's NetAdvantage, Mergent online
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COURSE SCHEDULE
Contents such as deadlines are subject to change, but I will announce the changes in class
and on Blackboard. It is expected that you have read the material prior to each class.

Week Session Activity

Topics: Course Outline, Needs assessment, Introduction to financial

statements,
1 29-Jan
Chapter 1: Introduction.

Topics: Time Value of Money (TVM)

2 5-Feb
Chapter 2, 5

11:59PM is the deadline to finalize and create group list for the cases
on Blackboard
3 12-Feb
Topics: Discounted Cash Flows (DCF) technique
Chapter 6
Assignment 1 is due before beginning the class,
Quiz from Assignment 1
4 19-Feb
Topics: Interest rates and bond valuation
Chapter 7
Topics: Working with financial statements and financial planning
5 26-Feb
Chapter 3, 4, 18.2

Topics: Stocks valuation

6 5-Mar
Chapter 8

Assignment 2 is due before beginning the class,

Quiz from Assignment 2
7 12-Mar
Topics: Investment criteria, Capital investment decisions,
Chapter 9,10

8 19-Mar EXAM 1, 90 minutes beginning at 11:05

Meeting Case 1 presenters during office hours before the class.

9 26-Mar Topics: Capital investment decisions, Project analysis Project
Chapter 10,11

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 Week Session Activity

- 2-Apr Spring Break

Case 1 report is due before beginning the class.

Presentations for Case 1
10 9-Apr
Topics: Introduction to financial markets
Chapter 12
Peer review for Case 1 is due before beginning the class
Meeting Case 2 presenters during office hours before the class.
11 16-Apr
Topics: Risk and return
Chapter 13
Case report 2 is due before beginning the class.
Presentations for case 2
Assignment 3 is due before beginning the class
12 23-Apr
Quiz from Assignment 3
Topics: Cost of capital
Chapter 14,16
Group member evaluations are due.
Peer review for Case 2 is due before beginning the class
13 30-Apr Assignment 4 is due before beginning the class
Quiz from Assignment 4
Review and practice for the course material

EXAM 2, 90 minutes beginning at 11:05

14 7-May
Deadline for collecting seeds from the course’s webpage

ASSESSMENT AND GRADING

Grade of this course is based on four assignments with quizzes (15%), two in-class exams
(60% = 30% exam 1 + 30% exam 2) + Case analysis reports (10 %) + Case presentation
(5%) and participation in the class (10%).

# FOUR ASSIGNMENTS (via Blackboard) AND ASSIGNMENT QUIZZES 15%

Assignments will be given throughout the course. The grade for each individual is
determined through answers to the assignment problems (50%) and the assignment quiz
(50%).

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 The assignments are done individually. Although discussions with your classmates are
highly encouraged, you must present your work that is original and is not merely a copy
of your peers'. Only online submissions through Blackboard are accepted. Each
assignment will be collected at the beginning of the class via Blackboard. If you prefer
to use pen and paper, you can scan your assignments and submit the file. No late
submission will be accepted. Do not leave the submission to the last minutes. The
assignments will be checked for potential plagiarism. The assignments will not be
returned to the students, but may be discussed with the lecturer during office hours.
The solutions for each assignment will be posted after the quiz on Blackboard. If an
extension is provided for some students, the solution will be posted after their extended
deadline, which only happens if those students have provided legitimate excuses.
Please make sure you have your name on the file name (e.g. A3_john_smith.pdf). I also
strongly recommend students to submit the files in PDF format to avoid any issues that
would corrupt the file’s view such as conflicts between Mac and PC. The grades of the
assignments are based on how much effort students made for answering the problems
and it is for credit. Assignments will receive full grade based on effort, on-time
completion and submission. Show all work to demonstrate effort.

The assignment quizzes contain one question related to the assignment, and will be
distributed at the beginning of class. Students have 10 minutes to answer. Make sure
you understand the assignments. If a student makes the same mistakes in the quiz as in
the assignment, they will receive the credit in the quiz. It is highly recommended that
students review the assignment solution and learn from checking the answers.

# FIRST EXAM 30%

# SECOND EXAM 30%

Both exams are in-class and closed-book exams. You have to bring green Scantron
(Form No. 882-E) answer sheets and please make sure you fill out all your information
on the sheets I expect that you show your calculations in the exam booklet because you
may receive partial grades. Correct answers on Scantron for problems without showing
required calculations receive only partial credit (typically 2/5). A non-programmable
calculator is allowed. Exams begin sharply 5 minutes after the allocated start time and
last 90 minutes. A formula sheet containing all required formulas for the exam will be
provided and available on Blackboard prior to exam for practice. Samples of some
exams from past years are available on Blackboard in order to provide some ideas for
students about the exams. However, the questions on the exams in this course will be
different and are not limited to only the assignments and the sample exams.

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# CLASS PARTICIPATION 10%

Participation assessment is based on: class participation, group discussions and

activities, and submitting assignments, evaluations and cases on time (3%). Students
are also required to actively post and participate on online course discussions and
debates. Students are encouraged to post their questions online, respond to their peer’s
questions, actively post related news or interesting resources related to the course,
debate and share their experience related to the course material. The link for the online
blog is https://www.thecn.com/6023289 . The code for registration will be posted on
Blackboard. Students create their profile and upload a professional photo on LinkedIn,
the CN, and Blackboard. Online activity will create seeds. More information about
seeds are available on this link (titled “A Few Things about Anar Seeds Every CN
Member Should Know”). Only seeds related to your course are counted towards your
grade, not your total seeds from other activities on the CN. The course page has a
barometer on top which compares your current status with the target seeds. It is
recommended that you contribute to the course page during the semester since
collecting all the required seeds in only a few days is not possible due to the cap on
daily seeds. The seeds at the end of semester determines the online activity grade (2%).
At the end of the semester, team members will send their evaluation on the performance
of their teammates to the instructor. The contribution to the team work determines a
part of the participation grade (5%).

It is not recommended for students to be absent during sessions with the case
presentations, exams and quizzes. If a student cannot attend any of these sessions, the
student should inform the instructor and the team members before the absence with
providing the proper excuse.

Cases:

# CASE PRESENTATIONS AND AUDIENCE 5%

Each group has a presentation during the course in a consultant role which is evaluated
by their peer group and the instructor. The evaluation will depend on how
professionally the case is analyzed and presented by the group. Peer groups are also
evaluated based on their questions and comments about the case and the presentation.
Hence, the peers also have to read the case and understand it while they are not expected
to do an in-depth analysis or submit a report. The allocated peers and the presentation
sequence for the groups will be announced on Blackboard. 4% is for presentation and
1% is for customer evaluation. These grades are not curved.

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 A week before the presentation, each presenting group meets with the instructor for 20
minutes to discuss the progress on the case. At least 2 members of the team must be
present during the meeting. The meetings are held during the office hours. The
sequence of the meetings with the teams are based on the team numbers in an ascending
order. For example, if teams 1, 6 and 3 have meetings about their case progress, the
first 20 minutes of the office hours belong to team 1, the second belongs to team 3, and
the third is allocated to team 6. If a team cannot meet during the allocated time, an
alternative meeting time must be arranged during the week before their presentation
and make sure at least 2 members can make it to the meeting. Each presenting team is
also expected to submit a one-page analysis summary of the case 48 hours before the
meeting. Half page is a brief review of the case, its problem and critical information.
The other half explains what the team has done to analyze the case so far and some of
their preliminary results. The instructor will confirm the meeting or postpone it,
depending on the quality of the summary. If a team does not submit the summary they
will lose 2 points on their presentation. If the quality of the analysis leads to postponing
the meeting, the team will lose 1 point from their presentation. If a team does not meet
with the instructor at least 2 days prior to the presentation, the presentation is
automatically cancelled and the grade will be zero.

Time management is important for the presentations. Each presentation for each team
is maximum 20 minutes, including questions and answers from customers. Consultants
manage the time and decide about the presentation style. I recommend 15 minutes
presentations and 5 minutes for questions.

Peer groups act as customers for the consulting group. Customers must be prepared for
the presentation by reading the case and being ready to ask relevant questions. The
instructor will act as a senior member of the customer group during the presentation,
and will address both the consultant and the customer group with his questions about
the case. While all the team members are not required to present, they should be ready
to respond to questions from the audience which are addressed to them. Some
presentation evaluation criteria with examples are available at the end of the syllabus.

While practice for presentations is optional, it is highly recommended. For practice,

students can record and review their mock presentation before the class at their
convenience by booking Room 63 in Media Center under the library’s glass dome.
Students can also access the electronic version of the optional reference related to
presentation skills through the library’s website.

# CASE REPORTS AND REPORT REVIEWS (via Turnitin) 10%

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9% is for case report and 1% is for peer review evaluation. Peer review grades are not
curved. At the beginning of the presentation session, only each presenting team submits
a team report for the case. The report is maximum 4 pages (main part) with unlimited
appendices. Students acting as customers for the week are required to review a
submitted case on Blackboard; those who have submitted a report are not reviewers
that week. Each student who did not have a report due will review a report allocated by
computer system. Each student will submit 1 report as a group and 1 peer review.

The report is submitted as a group. For example, a group of four students should submit
1 report. The report will be checked for potential plagiarism by Turnitin software and
the instructor. It is team’s responsibility to ensure that all citations are done properly in
the report and there is no plagiarism in the report. The sample rubric used in grading
the case report is available on the last page of the syllabus. The students are able to see
the feedback on their report, the rubric of their grade and the reviewer's comments on
Turnitin. You can learn how to see the details of the feedback and your grade on
Turnitin via the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzXDMiciCsI.

The reports will also be evaluated by each student who did not present and submit a
report (from the customer’s point of view). Right after the class, the peer review process
begins and the links become available in Turnitin via Blackboard. Turnitin
automatically allocates a report to each individual reviewer with all the online tools to
review and leave comments on the paper anonymously. The review is returned to the
instructor via Turnitin with the comments before the next session. Another part of the
case grade for a student will depend on the quality of comments left by the student as
a peer for the consultant report. Each reviewer must fill out the evaluation form and
leave at least 3 positive and 3 constructive comments for the report. The constructive
comment must provide clear implication for the writer about how to improve the report
and/or its contents. While the reviewers are encouraged to read the report text carefully
and mention any writing issues, they do not leave only writing and word-smithing
comments: maximum 1 out of 6 comments is counted towards the review grade, if there
are several comments about the writing style or word-smithing. The reviewers have the
opportunity of sitting in the presentations of the cases that they write the peer review
for. The reviewers can understand the pros and cons of each team’s analysis and
compare them to see how their case analyses could be improved. While only one of the
reports will be allocated to the reviewers randomly, it is better to use the presentation
session to understand the case and possible feedbacks that the reviewers can provide
for presenting teams in their report. For example, if a team has not done financial ratio
analysis, and its report is allocated to a reviewer with the same issue, the reviewer can
provide the feedback about the ratio analysis.

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 Please make sure you keep the electronic receipt from Turnitin after submissions for
future reference. If you do not receive the submission receipt, it is very likely that you
have not submitted the report. No late submission will be accepted. Only submissions
through Blackboard’s Turnitin are accepted. Turnitin will automatically assign each
reviewer a report as soon as the reviewer opens the review assignment. Reviews are
also submitted through Turnitin. You are not required to submit or email the receipt. If
you are not familiar with Turnitin, or face any problems with Turnitin features, or have
any other technical difficulties with Blackboard, please contact student help desk
located in the Love library or call them at 619-594-3189 (http://library.sdsu.edu/scc).

Do not leave the submission for the report or the peer review to the last minute. It is
possible to face some unexpected problems that might delay and cancel your
submission (e.g. file format incompatibility, internet disconnection etc.). For example,
I strongly recommend students to submit the report files in PDF format to avoid the
common problem of file incompatibility issue. Remember in the real world deadlines
are strict and you do not leave your submissions to the last minute. For example, if you
leave your submission to 5 minutes before the deadline, you increase the chance that
you may fail to submit your report before the deadline. Even if the system prompts that
late submission is accepted, there is no option for late submission and you will not be
able to upload files after the deadline. You have the option to change your submission
before the deadline. However, if you plan to change your file multiple times before the
deadline, notice that you should "save" and not "submit" your file. A saved file is not
considered as a submitted file. You have to choose to submit before the deadline so that
your saved case report would be considered in your grade.

# WITHIN GROUP EVALUATION

At the end of the semester, team members will submit their evaluation on the
performance of their teammates via Blackboard. Students will distribute 100 points
among their peers. For example, in a team of 3 people with equal effort and
performance of the members, each member has two peers to evaluate. The member will
allocate 50 points to each of the peers. The sum of all the grades allocated to the
teammates will add up to 100. I strongly recommend that teams pick a team leader each
time and rotate this position among themselves for each case to gain experience. I also
recommend the team members to grade their peers fairly and only based on their
contributions to the team.

Group evaluations posted by peers for each student has strong inflating (or deflating)
effect on the case evaluations. For example, consider a student that received 80% of the
grade for all the case reports and presentations. However, the group members have
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 allocated total of 125% to the student’s performance in the group for the hard work.
Then, the student will receive a full grade (125%*80%=100%) for the case reports and
presentations.

TOTAL 100%

Note: Only paper, memorandum-style requests (not e-mails) carefully explaining the
reason are accepted for re-grading requests of exams will be accepted. A re-grade might
result in a lower or higher grade. Please do not forget to bring your RedID for the exams.

SDSU Policy: According to the grading policy of the finance department, grades shall
genuinely distinguish between high and low levels of academic achievement. Graduate
grades shall be: A, superior performance; B, satisfactory performance; C, minimally
passing; D, unacceptable for graduate degree credit and F, failing. The grade for average
graduate achievement shall be B. Faculty may use plus or minus grades (A- through D-
only) at their discretion. For letter grades, you can use the following scale from SDSU's
website. Historically, the average grade for this class has been 3.2 (B) for curving.
Therefore, you will be graded on a curve, not on absolute scale.

Naive grade calculation example: XY 123 has 2 exams each weighted 40% and a case
report. Jing has received 65/100 in exam 1 and the class average was 70. She also received
30/40 for case report and the class average was 20. The historical average grade in XY 123
was 3.26 (B). He wants to estimate a) his grade and b) his pro forma grade, if he receives
an A in Exam 2:

a) A simple and naive estimate of her grade without knowing anything about curving
65 30
�40%∗ + 20% ∗ �
70 20
is: 3.26*( )=3.64: B+
(40%+20%)
b) A simple and naive pro forma grade of her is :
65 30
3.26∗40%∗70 + 3.26∗20% ∗20 + 4∗40%
( (40%+20%)+40%
)=3.78: A-
Please kindly note that your grade may not exactly match your estimation due to estimation
error from factors such as your team-member evaluations. For more details, see group
evaluations below.

SDSU POLICIES
Plagiarism: Cheating and plagiarism are serious violations of academic standards and, if
they occur in connection with an academic program at SDSU, may warrant academic
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sanctions (such as grade modification by the instructor) as well as disciplinary sanctions
by the administration (such as probation, suspension, or expulsion, including an
educational component such as an interactive learning program and/or a reflective paper).
In order to coordinate information to permit appropriate disciplinary action for first-time
and repeat offenders, Executive Order 1006 requires faculty members to file an academic
dishonesty report describing violations with the Center for Student Rights and
Responsibilities. Refer to Policy File for additional details (Academics: Cheating and
Plagiarism). SDSU library has tutorial for plagiarism which would help you test your
knowledge on the subject (http://library.sdsu.edu/guides/tutorial.php?id=28). Examples of
plagiarism are representing parts of your group member’s written report as your own work
in the main part, or failing to cite your references properly.

Students with disability: If you are a student with a disability and believe you will need
accommodations for this class, please contact Student Ability Success Center at (619) 594-
2643 (tac.sasc@sdsu.edu). Even a temporary disability may qualify you for the services,
which you can confirm with Student Ability Success Center. To avoid any delay in the
receipt of your accommodations, you should contact Student Ability Success Center as
soon as possible. Please note that accommodations are not retroactive, and that I cannot
provide accommodations based upon disability until I have received an accommodation
letter from Student Ability Success Center. Your cooperation is appreciated.

Religious holidays: By the end of the second week of classes, students should notify the
instructors of affected courses of planned absences for religious observances. Please notify
me in a timely manner and a reasonable accommodation will be reached.

Additional policies governing academic issues which affect students can be found in the
SDSU Senate Policy File (July 2017, http://senate.sdsu.edu/policy-file.aspx).

CLASSROOM POLICIES
If you could not register officially for this course or you do not meet the pre-requisites of
the course and you have strong reasons for registering in the course, please contact and
seek the approval from the chair of the finance department. After receiving the approval,
please contact me to arrange the extra space in the course. However, it does not guarantee
your registration as your rank in the waiting list will determine the priority of your
registration.

It is strongly advised that students punctually attend each class. Textbooks, references and
power point slides cannot substitute the teaching/learning activities in class. In unavoidable
situations such as a job interview, it is recommended that a student notify to the instructor
in advance. In addition, students shall submit assignments on time. Be aware that
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maintaining a strong sense of delivery is a good quality as a financial analyst. However, in
an event out of a student’s control, it is recommended that a student report to the instructor
in advance. Finally, plagiarism will not be tolerated in this course.

No late submissions are accepted. Therefore, students are advised to submit their work well
before the deadline to avoid inconvenience.

Team work: You have a very high chance of reducing the course load, if you practice
working in groups.

This is particularly important while working on the cases: If you split the labor among the
team members, cases are easy to complete during the time available. Cases are hard to do
individually since they require a lot of analysis. Cases also require you to look at them from
different perspectives which only can be accomplished through team work. For example,
one member can run ratio analysis, while another member runs pro forma statements, and
the third person looks at the business and its environment. If any team members work
individually, they will risk their grade because they may receive a bad grade from their
team members. Unfortunately, the worst case scenario is a lose-lose condition where a team
has all the members working individually.

As an example for “within group evaluation”, if John, Joe, and Jack are in the same team,
John decides about allocating 100 points to Joe and Jack. If they have contributed equally,
each would receive 50 points from John adding up to 100. Joe and Jack also allocate a
grade similarly. However, if John believes that Joe did not contribute, Joe receives very
low mark. Given a low mark allocated to Joe by Jack, Joe will lose part of his grades for
all the reports, presentation, and participation, because it signals that he was not
contributing to the group.

Some students are busy and cannot meet regularly. Therefore, I recommend the following
strategies:

• You can share your work by collaborating on documents using websites such as
Google Docs, Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.
• Try to communicate and learn from other groups about their group management
techniques.
• If you cannot meet in person with the members, you can meet virtually using
software such as Google Hangouts, Skype, and other chat software.
• Your team leader can divide the labor.
• In the case that some members are not capable of doing some tasks, you can
provide them with alternate tasks to contribute.

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 • Be fair: try not to do free-riding on other group members because they will reflect
your contributions in the grade that they allocate to you.

Code of Professional Conduct in the Classroom

In preparing our students for careers in business, government, and non-profit organizations,
it is essential that we strive for the highest levels of professionalism. Central to that
objective is the development of a respectful and professional atmosphere in and around the
classroom. It is expected that both students and professors will treat each other as well as
visitors to the Faculty with respect and consideration. In order to foster such an
environment, the following is expected of all parties:

Communal Responsibilities:

• Classroom Preparation: Students and professors must come to class prepared for that
day’s topic and ready to engage themselves.
• Timeliness: Both students and professors should arrive before the official start of class,
such that the professor then begins class on time. It is the responsibility of the professor
to then end class on time, thus not causing students to be late for their next class.
• Food: Individuals should be discreet in the bringing of food into the classroom, and it
is the responsibility of each person to properly dispose of any waste they may create
so as not to detract from the development of a professional atmosphere.

Professor Responsibilities:

The instructor (i.e., professor, lecturer, or graduate teaching associate) shall be in charge
of the class and shall be responsible for its discipline and grading. The instructor shall
provide and follow a syllabus, shall maintain an atmosphere conducive to learning, and
shall administer examinations and other exercises to determine the level of student
attainment in a manner reasonably calculated to minimize the possibility of dishonest work.
Grading practices shall meet the highest professional standards of objectivity, fairness, and
accuracy, and testing procedures shall be designed to reasonably determine student
attainments in the course’s subject matter.

• Class Cancellation: If a professor cancels a class, he/she must reschedule it with

proper notice to all students. The Area Coordinator and Associate Dean Academic
should be notified of such cancellations.

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• Returning Assignments: Assuming their assignments are turned in on time, students
are entitled to have their coursework returned within a reasonable amount of time and
be provided with appropriate feedback.
• Final Grade Submission: Professors are required to submit final grades in accordance
with university-designated deadlines. Professors may not distribute or post grades in a
way that allows anyone other than the individual student to access them.

Student Responsibilities:

The student shall cooperate with the instructor and fellow students in maintaining an
atmosphere conducive to learning. The student shall be courteous to faculty and fellow
students and shall be scrupulously careful to adhere to the highest standards of academic
honesty.

• Electronics: Electronics should only be used in support of the classroom experience.

Towards this end, the following policies hold: Cell phones/blackberries should be
turned completely “Off” (Using the “Silent” mode is not sufficient). At no time should
someone during the course of the class engage in making/receiving phone calls,
sending/receiving SMS’s/emails, using cameras, or surfing the internet with such
devices. The use of computers is at the discretion of the professor, and should be made
clear by him/her. If they are allowed, they should only be used to support that day’s
material (i.e., taking notes, using the web as directed by the professor). Checking email,
surfing the web for non-class related topics, chatting on the net, or working on other
projects are not acceptable forms of behavior. All other forms of electronics (i-pods,
MP3 players, PDAs, etc.), should also be maintained in the “Off” position.
• Newspapers/Other Material: No one should be reading newspapers or other material
not related to that day’s class.
• Leaving Class: Students should not be walking in and out of class in a manner
disturbing other students, the instructor, or the learning process.

List of skills
Below is a list of the financial practices and skills that we will learn and cover in this class
through lectures, assignments and preparing for cases and exams. In addition to concept
map, you can check your progress using this list:

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 Topic Related practices

Stakeholders of the firms in real world, How to control managers, Agency

Management
cost, Limited liability effects

SEC EDGAR, Fed’s FRED, Bloomberg terminals, Datastream terminal,

Acquiring data
IBES, Mergent

Analyze 2-minute statement browsing, Sources & uses statement, Financial ratio
financial analysis (e.g. DuPont system, cycles analysis, common-size financial
statements statements),

Pro forma statements, Percentage Of Sales (POS) method, External Funds

Financial
Needed (EFN), Growth planning and strategies, Sustainable growth rate,
planning
Internal growth rate, Scenario and sensitivity analysis on financial plans,

Decision making exceptions in using Net Present Value (NPV), Internal

Rate of Return (IRR) & Profitability index (PI) versus NPV, Scenario and
Project analysis sensitivity analysis with Excel, Bidding price, NPV profile, Break-even
analysis: Cash versus accounting versus financial break-even, Operating
leverage, Project evaluation methods in practice,

Financial
Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM)
markets

Financing Estimating weighted average cost of capital, M&M propositions,

process and cost Estimating market value of debt, Estimating equity betas, Unlevering and
of capital re-levering betas, Estimating cost of capital with unlevered beta,

Discounted cash flow (DCF) method, Estimating mortgage and other loan
Valuation payments, Loan amortization, Multiples, Sensitivity analysis factors,
Gordon growth model,

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 Criteria Scale1(4/10) Scale2 (6/10) Scale3 (8/10) Scale4 (10/10)
Has a summery but it is Has a summary and it Has a summary and it
Summary 5%
not informative about the communicates the main communicates and
Summarize the main Has no summary
main finding and solutions issues and solutions on prioritize all the findings
messages of the report
on the case the case on the case efficiently
Identify 10% Identifies and understands Identifies and understands Identifies and understands
Identifies and ranks all the
Identify the issues on the few of the issues in the some of the issues in the most of the main issues in
main issues in the case
case case case the case
Analyze the case using Applies all the possible
Runs a superficial
Analyze 20% limited number of tools, Apply all the necessary tools to the case and use
analysis of the case and
Analyze the case and such as rations and pro tools to back up identified them not only to identify
does not interpret them
discuss the issues formas, and only supports issues with the numbers but also prioritize the
well
a few issues identified. issues
Makes some Makes insightful
Makes a few
Propose 20% recommendations for the recommendations and rank
recommendations and Makes appropriate
Recommend solutions issues and a few seems to them based on their
some unrealistic or recommendations and
and analyze the solutions be unrealistic or effectiveness. Supports the
contradicting each other. supports them with the
and its conflicting. Backs up some solutions with numbers
Has limited back up from analysis and numbers
consequences solutions with analytics and shows their effect on
the analysis.
and numbers the case
Makes appropriate but Connects the issues,
Connect 15% Makes little or no Critically explores several
somewhat vague solutions and the theory
Link the theory to the connection between the issues and connects them
connections between the appropriately and applies
practice and the case issues, resolutions and the to theory while highlights
issues, solutions and the the theory in a related
situation theory its pros and cons
theory. manner
Writing 30% There are more than Writing is totally free of
Spelling errors are There are occasional
Easy to read, occasional spelling errors. grammar and spelling
frequent. Hard to follow spelling errors. Clear
punctuation, spelling, and Most ideas are presented errors. Clear and concise
the ideas presentation of ideas
grammar clearly. presentation of ideas
The sample rubric used in grading the case report: The rubric is subject to some changes depending on the case

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 Some presenter evaluation criteria:
Appearance criteria examples:
Avoid:
• Small text
• Too much text
• Too much content
• Too crowded slides
• Too many animations
• Unreadable color contrast in slides
• Typos or grammatical errors
• Just reading from text
• Informal dress
• Unprofessional behavior
Content criteria examples:
Avoid:
• Not being on time to start and
finish
• Over-interpreting
• Contradicting yourselves
• Calculation errors
Some audience (customers) evaluation criteria:
Criteria examples:
Avoid:
• Asking questions which already
have been answered by the
consultants or the case
• Being late or missing the session
• Informal or harsh criticism
• Missing errors in the presentation
Have:
• Ease of read in the slides
• Slide numbers
• Use graphs properly
• Eye contact with the audience
• Highlight key results (e.g. numbers)
• Summary and conclusion slides
• Concise content in the slides
• Proper color contrast in slides
• Dress business formal
• Act professionally
Have:
• Using all the tools relevant to the
case e.g. environmental analysis,
financial analysis,
• Answering questions properly
• Backup slides to present details
Have:
• Acting professionally
• Appreciating the effort of the
presenters
• Asking for clarifications
• Read the case completely and be
prepared to ask proper questions
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