McDonough School of Business
McDonough School of Business

Executive MBA Course Listings

The Georgetown Executive MBA program is uniquely positioned to prepare students as leaders who understand the existing complexities of today’s business challenges at the nexus of commerce, government, and policy. Our program is differentiated by an inspiring curriculum steeped in global management and the understanding of external factors such as government and international institutions and organizations that influence global markets. Our belief that business can be used as a force for positive change in the world underscores our distinctive approach to the teaching of ethical leadership, and our choice of 10 electives offers greater flexibility for students to customize their professional skill-set in today’s global marketplace. 

Our two-century presence in Washington, D.C., combined with the widely acknowledged expertise in other Georgetown schools, bring a level of knowledge, distinctiveness, and interdisciplinary focus that differentiates the McDonough EMBA program and can only be revealed on our campus and in the Georgetown Community.

Core Courses

During the core courses students develop a common understanding of fundamental business theory and practice.

Opening Residency: Georgetown Means Business

This introduction to the program provides an in-depth, live case experience, focused on ethical business decision-making and teamwork. Students apply a high-level view of finance, marketing, strategy, and other fundamental business areas to global companies facing real challenges in today’s competitive international marketplace. Students collaborate to produce a final presentation at the conclusion of the week. 

Decision Analytics

This course provides a prefatory yet comprehensive perspective on analytics and quantitative methods used in business decision-making activities. Case studies and statistical software are used to illustrate and reinforce concepts and develop competence.

Marketing

This course offers a strategic perspective to developing, implementing, and reviewing marketing strategy. Students are asked to be consultants as they take on the role “marketing strategist” to review companies’ design, implementation, and modification of marketing strategies. The course focuses on the strategic building blocks required to be an effective marketer. This entails analyzing the customer as the most critical input in marketing strategy development, as well as testing the feasibility of the strategy by analyzing the company and competitive environment. Thus, the final analysis of the market includes a thorough understanding of our constituencies, competition, and our own firm. In the rest of the course, students learn how to develop their marketing toolbox to successfully implement our marketing strategies. This will include individual and integrated focus on product, distribution, pricing, promotion, and packaging decisions. This discussion and focus includes issues involved in managing the business, including profit analysis, marketing research, operations, etc.

Firm Analysis and Strategy

Firm Analysis and Strategy provides the tools that managers need to make economically and strategically sound business decisions, and ultimately identify and/or create sources of competitive advantage. The course first explores market demand and supply, economic costs, pricing strategies, and selected topics in game theory. It then relates this material to strategic considerations associated with the attractiveness of various markets; how firms use resources and capabilities for competitive advantage; how firms position themselves in markets in response to rivals’ competitive decisions; among others. Finally, the course delves into advanced subjects at the intersection of microeconomics and strategy, such as horizontal integration, vertical integration, and the nonmarket environment. Throughout the course, students are placed in the position of decision makers (or their advisors) and are expected to address various challenges germane to the firm’s competitive advantage.

Finance

Designed for forward-thinking executives in the dynamic financial arena, this course explores critical decisions of global enterprises, from mergers to debt strategies, using insightful resources to highlight their impact on shareholder value and corporate direction. Students will engage with the nuances of investing and financing decisions and how they impact business value, exploring crucial financial instruments like stocks, bonds, derivatives, and forex. Central to our approach is guiding students in determining optimal investments and their financing to maximize firm value. 

Global Operations

Managing global production and supply chains, implementing operations improvement programs, and assessing the impact of new technologies in operations.

Residency: Structure of Global Industries

This on-campus residency offers an integrated framework to study and practice concepts in international trade and investment, trade policy, economic growth, and monetary and fiscal policy. Teaching and learning takes place partly through lectures and principally through practicums supported by team meetings. The practicums require original, creative work by the teams of students who create a business, determine the locations of production and markets, and recommend adjustments to shocks in the business environment. 

Accounting for Executives

Executives are responsible for effectively communicating financial information to external stakeholders and ensuring that high-quality financial and operational data is used internally to make informed strategic decisions. Throughout this course, we will cover three main areas: why financial statements take the form they do; how financial information can be used to evaluate performance; and how successful organizations design systems that help employees obtain and use financial resources to achieve the organization’s strategic objectives. Our discussions will concentrate on fundamental principles and emphasize recent global and regional topics of interest.

Organizational Behavior and Leadership

Study executive leadership, policy making, and the application of behavioral science concepts to management problems.

Residency: Global Business Experience

Explore a pressing business problem facing a real international company in this global consulting project. Meet remotely with your client, then travel abroad to deliver recommendations to senior leadership of the organization. 

New Business Ventures

Transform a promising corporate innovation opportunity into an innovation venture concept proposal, and launch it as a new innovation concept. Learn the key steps in the venture creation process, including customer discovery, feasibility analysis, product development, marketing and internal stakeholder support and fundraising.

Ethics for Business

Develop a deeper understanding of the ethical implications of leadership, including the role of values/beliefs and social influences on your decision making, the use of power and influence (for good and for bad), and taking responsibility for the consequences created by your actions.

Strategic Advocacy for Business

Learn and apply the core elements of developing and implementing major advocacy strategies in an era where businesses are increasingly required to participate actively in policy making, politics and regulation in Washington and other global capitals.

Global Capstone

Through student-designed, in-country field research-based projects, student teams will integrate the EMBA curriculum as they explore and investigate practical challenges of global strategy through analysis of global industries and environments. The course consists of on-campus classes and team meetings, non-classroom library research, experiential field research conducted in a variety of locations around the world, and concluding presentations in the knowledge-sharing symposium.

Elective Courses

Second-year EMBA students customize their program by taking seven electives. Note, electives may vary based on the composition of the cohort, faculty recommendations, and key business issues of the time.

Here is a list of electives offered recently:

Georgetown University reserves the right to modify the requirements for admission and/or graduation, the program curricula, tuition, fees, and other regulations affecting the student body.