MARK-554 Models of Profitability

Faculty:

Homa, Kenneth

Some companies are consistently able to outperform their competition and achieve sustained financial returns far above industry averages. Models of Profitability, a 6-week elective intended to be a synthesis course for second year MBAs, explores the fundamental business approaches of high-performance, profit-maximizing companies from empirical, managerial, conceptual, and analytical perspectives. The over-arching objective of the course is to crystallize a clear understanding of how exceptional marketing-intensive companies make money by focusing on models of profitability, with ‘models’ broadly defined to include: generalizable principles, empirical examples, conceptual representations, analytical prototypes, implementation ‘blueprints’, and operational metrics that may be generalized and broadly applied. The course focuses on the development and implementation of highly successful business designs (organizational practices, strategies, tactics, measurement systems) in highly competitive environments. Among the points of emphasis are: investor & ‘customer-centric’ thinking, profitability metrics & incentives, value creation and capture, strategic control through segmentation & differentiation, system economic leverage from scale and share, customer and product line profitability, sales growth & revenue management, price customization & yield management, turnaround & sustained growth models, and Internet business models. The course is case-based, with occasional speakers from excellent companies. MBA second year students only, preference to students who have taken MARK 555.

Credits: 1.5

Prerequisites: SECOND YEAR MBA STUDENTS ONLY

Other academic years
There is information about this course number in other academic years:

• 2005-2006 Fall and Spring
• 2006-2007 Fall and Spring
• 2009-2010 Fall and Spring
• 2010-2011 Fall and Spring
• 2011-2012 Fall and Spring
• 2012-2013 Fall and Spring
• 2013-2014 Fall and Spring

More information
Look for this course in the schedule of classes.

The academic department web site for this program may provide other details about this course.