Curriculum
The Blended Learning Part-Time MBA is a response to expectations of working professionals with 4 to 10 years of work experience who wish to accelerate in their careers while completing their studies. This semester based, blended learning format is unique amongst part-time MBAs in Ontario and provides our students, their families and employers with the flexibility necessary to fit their busy schedules. The blended delivery approach will consist of three intensive face-to-face weekend residencies per semester combined with weekly technology-enabled learning requirements during the off-campus periods.
Courses
This is the approved calendar of courses.
Fall | Winter | Summer | |
---|---|---|---|
Year 1 | BL600: Leadership Fundamentals
BL602: Economics and Business Statistics |
BL610: Management Fundamentals
BL604: Creating Customer Value |
BL601: Managing Financial Resources
BL603: Competing Through Digital Transformation and Analytics |
Year 2 | BL605: Managing Organizations
BL651: Management Accounting for Decision Makers (half) BL652: Intermediate Finance (half) |
BL700: Business, Government, and Global Environment
Elective (1 course) |
BL653: Intermediate Marketing (half)
BL654: Intermediate Operations (half) Elective (1 course) |
Year 3 | Elective (1 course)
BL720: Strategic Management BL723: Strategic Integration Project (part A) |
Elective (1 course)
BL723: Strategic Integration Project (part B) |
Elective (1 course)
BL723: Strategic Integration Project (part C) BL753: Program Synthesis and Future Planning (half) |
Course Progression
First Year
The first year is similar to what we provide in our full-time MBA program — but it’s adapted for working professionals so you can apply the concepts immediately in your career.
Second Year
During the second year, there are intermediate courses in the core areas of accounting, finance, marketing, and operations. These build on what you learned during the first year. Your electives give you the opportunity to tailor your experience to your career and specific interests.
Third Year
During third year, what you’ve learned so far, your professional experience, and the key program features of innovation, integration, and interdisciplinary learning, are all brought together in the strategic innovation project.
Descriptions of core courses can be found below. To access a full list of BLPT courses, including electives in the blended learning format, access the Academic Calendar here.
Course Descriptions
Leadership Fundamentals (BL600)
This course provides participants with an opportunity to engage in learning experiences, case studies, simulations and reflection exercises designed to increase leadership effectiveness in both professional and personal contexts. Students will develop an increased understanding of established leadership literature and models of effectiveness for leading self, others, teams and organizations, resolving conflicts and managing change.
Economics and Business Statistics (BL602)
Students will learn economic and other analytical techniques to support decision-making. The core economic principles will be covered – supply and demand, pricing in a real world environment, pricing in auctions; macro economic core principles and institutions. This course will also build on the Data Analytics/ Stats module in Foundations 1, and will discuss confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, ANOVA, and Regression analysis using in-class experiments and macro/micro datasets.
Creating Customer Value (BL604)
Understanding customers and what they value is critical for organizational success. In this course, students will learn to look at the business from a customer perspective, learn key marketing concepts and understand how information and communication technologies can create value for customers. The first part of this course will focus on strategies to satisfy customers via specific choice of product, price, promotion and distribution. Emphasis will be placed on the importance of choosing appropriate target markets, as no business can satisfy all of the people all of the time. The second part of this course will focus on leveraging technologies and vast amounts of online data to better understand and serve one’s customers. Online strategies that add value to customers will be discussed. This course marries key concepts from the worlds of Marketing and Information Systems.
Management Fundamentals (BL610)
MBA students will gain a cross-functional view of management from a variety of organizational functions to enhance your perspective and set you up for success throughout your MBA journey. Develop a comprehensive management skill set that will propel your thinking, value ROI and enhance your overall view on business. We will deliver a refreshing perspective on management theories that have stood the test of time, as well as leadership insights on new management concept, covering both qualitative and quantitative learnings. The course will finish with a class case competition designed to have students integrate and demonstrate the various skills areas covered throughout the semester.
Managing Financial Resources (BL601)
The objective of the course is to introduce students to both the fundamental concepts and practical issues in business finance and accounting. This course aims to improve students’ skills in interpreting, analysing, and applying accounting and financial information in order to make superior financial decisions. This course will provide students an introduction to financial statement analysis framework, cost management, breakeven and contribution margin analysis, and relevant costing. The course will also emphasize the following key concepts of financial management: capital budgeting, working capital management, and capital structure.
Competing Through Digital Transformation and Analytics (BL603)
This course will expose students to the strategic and transformative role digital technologies and information systems can play in creating and sustaining a competitive advantage for organizations. Students will also be introduced to the most popular analytic tools to make business decisions both within a firm and across a supply chain in an increasingly digital environment. This course will emphasize the best practices required to unlock the full potential of organizational investments in digital technologies and systems, in addition to the use of state of the art analytic tools to prescribe the best course of action for different business problems.
Managing Organizations (BL605)
This course is focused on the elements that enable organizations to create and sustain competitive advantage in a global economy. Students will also examine globalization and the steps managers take to establish or expand their operations in international markets. Students explore the influence of forces such as culture, economics, politics and geography on management decision making.
Management Accounting for Decision Makers (BL651)
Many different types of economic decisions require accounting data. This course is concerned with the analysis of and accounting for costs and the use of relevant accounting information in decision making. This course also highlights the development and presentation of management accounting information, and the use of these special-purpose accounting reports for planning and control.
Intermediate Finance (BL652)
This course provides an in‐depth understanding of the way companies make financial decisions. The material builds on concepts of the time value of money, risk/return analysis and corporate finance first encountered in BL601, and makes extensive use of the accounting concepts, especially the organization of the balance sheet and income statement. However, BL652 is more detailed and practical, focusing on applications of theory and the complications encountered in real firms and markets. Course coverage centers on advanced corporate financial management, including: project analysis and risk management; firm valuation as stand-alone and for mergers; capital structure and financial distress; models and principles of corporate governance.
Business, Government and Global Environment (BL700)
This course equips students with an understanding of the domestic and international institutions (e.g., IMF, WTO, NAFTA, etc.), and forces that shape the environments facing business, not-for-profit, and public service organizations. This understanding comprises historical and current contexts, theory and the ability to devise strategic responses to the environment. Major topics include the structure and roles of government, culture and business ethics, international trade and investment, and foreign exchange.
Intermediate Marketing (BL653)
Building on concepts learned in core, this course will help students develop a deeper understanding of marketing and its applications primarily through practical problem solving exercises. The students will learn how to use marketing principles to make better decisions, from high level strategic decisions to more granular, tactical ones centered on the effective deployment of the marketing mix elements. The course will be taught through a combination of cases, lectures, and projects.
Intermediate Operations (BL654)
Business processes take inputs such as materials, services and technology, add value and transform these inputs into outputs such as products and services. Operations managers design, manage and improve individual and supply chains of business processes. Some of the activities comprising operations management that will be covered in this course are: process analysis and quality improvement, planning and control, and supply chain design. The course shows how integration of operations management with marketing and accounting creates competitive advantage.
Strategic Management (BL720)
Strategic management focuses on the concept of strategy analysis, formulation, and implementation by exploring the functions and nature of general management. The course serves as an opportunity to develop skills for strategic thinking and analysis, leadership, communication, teamwork, and cross-functional integration.
Strategic Integration Project (BL723)
The Strategic Integration Project course serves as the major capstone assignment to the BLPT MBA program. Over the course of one year, teams of students will work together to integrate and apply the wide range of knowledge and skills that they have developed throughout the program, using a host company as their basis of analysis. A key objective of this process will be to provide recommendations that will help the company improve its performance based on externally oriented or internally relevant metrics. Executives from the client companies will be invited to class to observe and assess final student presentations and reports. The course will be offered in a multi-term format (A/B/C).
Program Synthesis and Future Planning (BL753)
This capstone course is intended to capture key learning points and reflections from your courses undertaken and your respective program experience to create a roadmap for your life journey beyond this program. The purpose of this course is to allow you to press the pause button and take stock of the breadth of knowledge gained and the ups and downs experienced, so you can comprehend the significant progress you have made. By reflecting on your progress, you have an opportunity to reassess your personal vision, life goals, career aspirations, priorities, and future personal and professional development. Throughout this course, you will gain clarity on your values, aspirations, and strengths, as well as how learned leadership and management practices could be incorporated into your profession and workplace. You will also gain a heightened awareness of who you are and identify professional pitfalls to avoid. You will develop your own structured personalized learning portfolios that you will be able to use with existing or prospective employers, as well as your own business and volunteer organizations that can help facilitate career progress and, more importantly, attainment of professional fulfillment and purpose.
More Options
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More information about our other MBA options, including full-time, full-time with co-op, and accelerated, are available on the main MBA program website.