Business School – Master's level (all)

The lecture introduces the system of German GAAP, which is principally relevant for all domestic companies with the legal obligation to keep records. The lecture further provides an overview of the main accounting concepts within the system of German GAAP.
Hereafter, the course first describes asset and liability recognition criteria, such as the definition of (immaterial) assets, liabilities and onerous contracts. Second, the course introduces revenue recognition principles. Third, the lecture discusses measurement principles, such as acquisition and construction costs, valuation of liabilities and depreciation.

This course teaches financial statement analysis in the context of equity valuation. The first part covers common tools of financial statements analyses (accounting analysis, ratio analysis, analysis of narratives) and the derivation of inputs into valuation models. Applying this knowledge, techniques for a consistent identification of free cash flows and abnormal earnings from integrated pro-forma financial statements (financial modelling and business planning) as well as the estimation of required rates of returns from capital market-based data are discussed. In the second part, methods for equity and asset valuation, in particular the cash-flow based DCF-models and the earnings-based abnormal earnings (AE) and earnings growth (AEG) models are covered. Finally, in the third part the course focuses on applications of fundamental analysis and valuation methods for equity investments and in Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A, purchase price allocation and the valuation of intangible assets).

The course addresses in-depth the accounting for financial instruments and by financial institutions under IFRS as well as related conceptual issues currently discussed by standard setters and bank regulators. It covers the definition of financial instruments, their classification, initial and subsequent measurement, impairment, derecognition, as well as their accounting in the context of hedging transactions. We also discuss relevant notes disclosures in banks’ financial statements and links to capital regulation.

Topics of transaction accounting are discussed and illustrated by using case studies. The course is specifically aimed at students with a basic knowledge of financial and transactional accounting, who want to deepen their knowledge of selected, practice-oriented issues. Six main topics will be covered in-depth: definition of transaction accounting, economic motivation for transactions, private law basics for M&A, transaction accounting under IFRS, carve out transactions, link between financial and tax accounting in an M&A context.

The course complements the fundamentals of group accounting by elements which are relevant in accounting practice. First, accounting after change of legal form is presented and discussed. Accounting in case of mergers is focused on. Then, specific questions relating to the consolidation according to German GAAP, German Tax Regulations and IFRS such as deferred taxes or goodwill impairment test are emphasized. The course is enriched by discussions on the latest changes in accounting regulations with respect to consolidated financial statements.

In this course, offered jointly with KPMG, current topics from the frontier between financial accounting, consulting, risk management, regulatory law and capital markets with a focus on the financial services sector will be covered. The participants will form groups of three to four students and discuss problem areas of high practical relevance using both practice-oriented and academic approaches. Results will be summarized in a consulting report and presented in a final results presentation.

The aim of this course is to provide students with an insight into analytical disclosure theory, one important stream of literature in accounting research. The overview provides insights what shapes firms’ reporting decisions.

Subjects of the course are the basics of the legal investment framework of (German) insurance companies, of asset/liability-management and of the management of investment risks of insurance companies.

This course builds on FIN500 and extends the discussion of modern portfolio management and its applications. It covers issues in bond portfolio management, performance measurement, risk management, and fund management.

The course provides students with an understanding of important empirical methods and their application in finance. It covers topics in asset pricing, corporate finance, and market microstructure. Students will learn to perform empirical analysis using the software package Stata. The course enables students to plan and carry out empirical research in finance on their own and prepares for an empirical seminar or master thesis in the finance area. Part of the course consists of the practical application of the methods learned in the lecture to various case studies.

The topic of this course is the practical application of the statistics program “Stata” in Finance research. The course contains three major sections: How to use Stata, an introduction to the usage of the most common databases in Finance at this university, and an application example.   
In the first section, we will introduce project and data management with Stata. In addition, we will teach estimation techniques and programming basics. In the second section, we will show where to get access to common datasets in Finance research. In the last section, students will have the chance to apply their knowledge to a practical example.
The course is offered shortly after the start of the seminar theses, that is, at the beginning of January in the winter semester (HWS) and at the beginning of July in the summer semester (FSS).

 

There is abundant evidence suggesting that the standard economic paradigm of rational investors does not adequately describe behavior in financial markets. Behavioral Finance examines how individuals' attitudes and behavior affect their financial decisions. This course reviews recent research on possible mispricing in financial markets due to the nature of psychological biases. Moreover the course deals with behavioral finance models explaining investor behavior or market anomalies when rational models provide no sufficient explanations. Topics will include among others overconfidence, prospect theory, heuristic driven biases and frame dependence.

The topic of this course is the restructuring of corporations through mergers, acquisitions and divestitures. The purpose of the lecture is to provide an understanding of restructuring processes and to provide an analytic framework to analyze the motivation of these activities and their individual merits. A special focus will be on the economic analysis of corporate strategy and the contractual structures of various types of transactions. We will also discuss valuation and cost of capital in an international context. The lecture will frequently draw on empirical studies, especially on event studies. Participants will be required to solve several case studies in groups of up to three students.

This course deals with quantitative methods for the management of market and credit risks. In addition, it covers risk-based performance management.

The core of this course deals with asset management for private investors in an international context. We will cover the structure of the delegated investment markets around the world with a focus on the U.S. and Europe. The focus will be on traditional mutual funds and related products. Besides the classical asset management theory, this course will place a great weight on the practical implementation of portfolio strategies and the problems that can arise. We will learn how to measure the performance of investment strategies and of fund managers. Furthermore, behavioral aspects (irrational behavior of mutual fund investors and managers) will be discussed.

This course provides an in-depth look at financial institutions and the role they play for financial markets today. The course will address questions such as: Which financial institutions exist? Why do they exist? What risks do they face? How do they manage those risks? How does the behavior of financial institutions impact financial markets and asset prices? How does their behavior impact the economy at large? How should we regulate financial institutions? The course Financial Institutions II will put emphasis on important non-bank financial institutions (e.g., pension funds, mutual funds, hedge funds etc.).

Contents: This course provides an in-depth look into selected topics in financial regulation. The course will be offered in three blocked all-day sessions. The first session will analyse financial regulation from the perspective of a commercial bank manager. The second session will analyse financial regulation from the perspective of a financial regulator, such as the European Central Bank. Core themes throughout the course will be the proper assessment and management of financial risks in accordance with the existing regulatory framework for banks. Students will be tasked with a graded group assignment that provides the opportunity to translate the knowledge acquired in the first two sessions into practice by analysing regulatory issues for existing banks. Groups will present their results in the final session.

Contents: This course provides an in-depth look into selected topics in sustainable finance. The course will be offered in three blocked all-day sessions. The first two sessions will provide an overview of recent academic approaches to thinking about sustainable finance, as well as an introduction to the market for, ecosystem of, and central themes concerning sustainable finance. A core focus of this course will be on sustainable finance issues from the perspective of institutional investors, and, in particular, on impact investing. Students will be tasked with a graded group assignment that provides the opportunity to translate the knowledge acquired in the first two sessions into practice by analysing sustainable investment projects and by structuring a (hypothetical) fund that can be marketed to institutional investors. Groups will present and discuss their results in the final session.

Modern organizations are influenced and driven by information technology (IT) and information systems (IS) in various ways. As competition becomes borderless, organizations are forced to continually examine ways to operate more effectively and efficiently. Information technology and information systems are a crucial means of obtaining these goals in the digital Age. IT and IS are also key enablers of new products, services and processes. This course is designed for students who desire an insightful synopsis of IT management concepts and practices.
It is the objective of this course to offer profound insights into information systems and information technology management. Strategic and tactical issues are given more attention than operational aspects.

IT management today is challenged by fast technological change, new digital opportunities, growing cost pressure, and increasing business and regulatory requirements. IT management needs to ensure that IT functions become much more agile, flexible and efficient than ever before. For a state-of-the-art IT management a solid know-how regarding

• Intelligent demand management,
• Application and data architecture,
• IT infrastructure,
• Organization and workforce management,
• Business/IT governance and lean IT processes, and
• Sourcing and location setup incl. vendor and partner management

are crucial.

In addition, it is expected that IT managers have a good understanding of the core business of their company (business/IT alignment) and sound IT cost management capabilities. Furthermore, IT managers need to be able to understand opportunities of the digital age, evaluate the value of new technologies, and drive digital transformation jointly with the business.

This course provides students with an introduction to scientific research methods and theories in the field of information systems. Master students gain a broad overview of the strengths and weaknesses of different methods and theoretical perspectives. This overview prepares them for conducting own, bounded research projects (e.g., master theses) as a first step towards a scientific career. This course primarily targets students of the Mannheim Master in Business Research but is also open to students of the Mannheim Master in Management and the Master in Business Informatics.

In this course, students come to understand the importance of theory for organizing and cumulating knowledge as well as the importance of rigorous empirical methods to establish the validity of findings. The course covers publications in premier IS journals to exemplify and discuss procedures of qualitative, quantitative, and design-oriented research. 

The course is taught in a seminar style, requiring students to prepare readings for discussions in class. Attendance in classroom sessions is mandatory. Students are required to prepare textbook chapters and selected readings on IS research in advance of the course. A list of required readings is distributed after registration. In addition, students are assigned contemporary articles published in IS journals that must be evaluated based on the topics covered in the course and presented during classroom sessions. Each student finally writes a term paper of four to five pages on an assigned topic.     

More and more products, from consumer to business markets, show an ever increasing amount of software at their very heart. The ability to understand, design, and manage software-intense products has become of great importance to ensure sustainable success across all industries.
This module introduces key aspects of the entire software product lifecycle, ranging from product strategy and planning, to the actual product development and finally the post-development phase covering aspects such das the product launch and product support. Furthermore, the interplay between processes, people, and practices will be discussed and contemporary software development paradigms will be framed into this interplay. This course puts specific emphasize on the two roles of the product manager and the product designer (also: Usability / User Experience Professional) within software development. Following an interdisciplinary perspective, this course will introduce key concepts from the field of management, marketing and human computer interaction. The course contents will be put into a practical perspective by selected industry talks. Furthermore, as part of a case study, the students will be asked to analyze and propose solutions for a given software product development challenge leveraging the knowledge acquired within the lecture and industry talks.

The lecture deals with the topic of “Corporate Social Responsibility” (CSR). The focus is on the background of CSR and the relationship between profit generation and responsibility. For this purpose, theoretical foundations of CSR as well as practical CSR competencies are discussed. One of the central questions is how CSR can be managed under competitive pressure and recent developments such as digitization, disruption of business models, and globalization. Managerial challenges in the field of CSR management are illustrated by case studies.

Successful entrepreneurs pursue new business opportunities in a pioneering way. They significantly contribute to innovation, growth and employment generation. Meet top entrepreneurs who share their experience and insights in MAN 632 and explore their entrepreneurial challenges in real-life case studies.
The course takes a four-pronged approach:
We bring distinguished entrepreneurs to class who share their insights, lessons learned and advice on how to build and grow a business from a Business-to-Consumer (B2C), Business-to-Business (B2B) and Corporate Entrepreneurship (CE) perspective.
We work on real-life case studies with newly developed and most recent Mannheim Business School Cases. You will prepare your results and suggestions, present in Case Study Sessions and deepen your insights by discussing and reflecting your insights with the founders coming to class.
We develop tools and concepts based on an underlying strategic perspective to grow the venture. We will address and connect the four focus areas of 1) Team, Culture and Communication, 2) Growth-Oriented Marketing and Strategy, 3) Financing Growth and Exit 4) Corporate Entrepreneurship & Corporate Venturing
We will embark on a daylong field trip to PERI GmbH to explore corporate entrepreneurship in practice.
The blend of unique practical insights from top entrepreneurs, discussing concepts on how to advance the business with them, and theoretical insights and tools, will enable you with outstanding skills and a great network. This will support you in advancing your own venture and/or your corporate career in the future. Next to the practical insights and tools, you will also gain fundamental insights into theoretical perspectives on entrepreneurship to prepare your master’s thesis and/ or future research career.

You do not think inside the box and love working on challenging projects? Next to studying, you are eager to apply your knowledge in the real world and learn from startup teams on the project? You like new ideas and love their execution? You want to dive deeper into the anatomy of business models and get the unit economics right? Then you should opt for Entrepreneurial Spirit. The course is a new format to foster startup growth, entrepreneurial culture and to advance the startup ecosystem at and around the University of Mannheim. With their expertise, the students support the startups in improving their products, services and business models and help them to be more competitive. We will work with real companies in this course and you will actively contribute to their growth. Thus, high dedication, willingness to take over responsibilities and professionalism are a prerequisite. There are two tracks in MAN 633: One for students who have no startup project yet and one for students (individual or founding team) who work on their own advanced startup project.
MAN 633 helps to advance startups in our network by sending students teams as a task force (Inside the Venture Track) but also helps students with an advanced startup idea to reach their next milestones and gain support in a course format (Own Venture Track). For both tracks, the course starts with an initial educational full-day workshop. The initial workshop is the same for both tracks and provides hands-on tools to assess, structure and solve startup challenges. The workshop part is concluded with an exam (20%). Following this educational element, the students form interdisciplinary teams of 3–5 and solve challenges in real ventures. Experienced MCEI coaches will work closely with the student consulting teams to make sure that they are on track to maximize their learning experience while simultaneously permitting the teams to have as much fun as possible.
Inside the Venture Track (for students with no own startup)
Offers students who have no own startup but want to experience the startup world an excellent opportunity to work at eye-level with an experienced real-world startup team. The concept:  Solving challenges of young companies with student approaches and on-site by student teams. Assisted by an experienced MCEI coach, the students carry out joint projects with the startup after a needs analysis. The startups are recruited via our extensive MCEI network. The projects have a mid-term presentation (20%), end presentation (20%) and a final managerial report (40%).
Own Venture Track (for students who already work on their advanced startup project)
Further advance your own startup in class. Your performance appraisal will be according to milestones set at the beginning of class and you will receive continuous counseling by MCEI coaches. MAN 633 offers you the opportunity to recruit a student team from class to work on your startup’s challenges during the course just like in our “client companies” in the Inside the Venture Track. Please approach the instructors upon course registration to sort out whether your startup project is eligible for our Own Venture Track. This offer is for advanced startup projects only – you can start greenfield (i.e., at idea stage) in MAN 631. The projects have a mid-term presentation (20%), end presentation (20%) and a final managerial report with continuous status updates (40%).
The direct integration of the students into the startups within the framework of the course enables a joint action-oriented learning experience on both sides. In addition, we strengthen the startup community, promote startup companies and potential startups, integrate startups directly into the university's offerings and support the transfer of knowledge and technology between the university and the economy

The course focuses on the knowledge and skills necessary for developing a new global business. `High tech’ and `low cost’, or frugal innovative start-ups are compared and contrasted taking business cycles, cultural contexts and levels of development into account. Models of managing international change are the basis.

The course focuses on the knowledge and skills necessary for developing a new global business. `High tech’ and `low cost’, or frugal innovative start-ups are compared and contrasted taking business cycles, cultural contexts and levels of development into account. Models of managing international change are the basis.

This course is intended to expand students’ knowledge on basic human resource management (HRM) processes and instruments by adding an international and a strategic dimension. In the first part of the module (international dimension), we examine the impact of national context on HRM and discuss basic HRM functions in international organizations. Topics include international recruiting and selection, training and development, compensation, and employee relations.
In the second part of the module (strategic dimension), we focus on the dynamics of HRM systems. Various approaches of how singular HRM practices conceptually and empirically form bundles are considered. We review how HRM practices can be aligned with respect to other HR practices (horizontal fit) as well as organizations’ objectives (vertical fit) to form HRM systems that help improve organizations’ performance.

In this course, we study performance management and analyze the link between incentives and individual’s performance in organizations. Based on the performance management process, the course covers performance measurement and monitoring, key performance management tools, and implementation of performance management systems targeted at employees in organizations. Furthermore, the course investigates the role of incentives in organizations, both theoretically and empirically from a psychological and economic perspective.

This course exposes students to a broad range of strategic and financial restructuring techniques (e.g., equity carveouts, spin-offs, leveraged buyouts) that can be applied to improve business performance. We will engage in an analysis of the rationale underlying specific corporate restructuring transactions, the process of executing these transactions, and their effects on the welfare of managers, stockholders and other corporate stakeholders. Current business cases and guest speakers representing the different parties involved in corporate restructuring (e.g., investment bankers, consultants, business unit managers, employees) will help illustrate how various corporate restructuring approaches may be applied in business practice to increase firm value.

In this course, we will critically reflect upon the role of corporate centers of multinational companies (MNCs). A particular emphasis will be placed on the challenges faced by corporate centers and their opportunities for value creation in their quest to turn a conglomerate discount into a conglomerate premium.

For each semester, we choose and discuss a focus topic in the area of public management. For this purpose, we analyze scientific papers, discuss practical examples, conduct cases studies and do project work.

World-wide public and nonprofit organizations make an important contribution to society. In order to face the increasing economization and globalization in the public and nonprofit sector, organizations need to professionalize. Combined with the public and nonprofit-specific organizational purpose, these tendencies pose particular challenges to public and nonprofit management. These will be highlighted by analyzing scientific papers and by discussing practical cases and project work.

The lecture “Innovation Management“ provides an overview of theoretical foundations and fundamental conceptions in the field of innovation management. The lecture further analyses innovative activity at the industry as well as at the firm level. In particular, determinants that affect the development and the spread of innovations will be scrutinized. At the industry level, special emphasis will be put on the prediction of market development and future trends. At the firm level, the development of innovation strategies and alternative implementations of innovation processes will be covered. Core topics are, for instance, a business venture's incentive systems, organizational structures that are supposed to foster innovative activity, collaboration in innovation processes, commercialization strategies, and the design of internal interfaces between different departments.

Organizational behavior is defined as the systematic study and application of knowledge about how individuals and groups act within the organizations where they work. The lecture presents essential theories and concepts explaining how individual and group behavior shape the internal dynamics of organizations. The course deals with factors that facilitate or hinder effective behavior. Topics include communication, motivation, individual skills, abilities, and emotions, group dynamics, leadership, power, organizational culture and organizational design.

Relevant topics from the area of entrepreneurship and management research are analyzed and discussed. The focus of the seminar can thereby differ somewhat from term to term. Generally, research seminars may be conceptually or empirically oriented.

Theoretical foundations of empirical research. Statistical foundations of empirical research (key summary statistics, important theoretical probability distributions, methodology of hypothesis testing and key test statistics). Introduction to qualitative empirical research. Introduction to experimental empirical research. Introduction to survey-based empirical research. Introduction to empirical research based on secondary data.

This module gives an overview of the market research process and deals with methods for data analysis and interpretation. The emphasis is on multivariate methods of data analysis. In presenting those analytical methods, a special focus is on discussing strengths and weaknesses of different methods and on possible fields of application in market research projects. Moreover, the application of different methods by means of common statistical software packages will be demonstrated.

Marketing begins and ends with the consumer – from understanding consumer preferences and needs to providing consumer satisfaction. Thus, a clear understanding of consumers is critical in successfully managing the marketing function in any organization. This module examines the nature of consumer behavior and consumer decision process. The effects of psychological influences (such as learning, motives, perception, and beliefs and attitudes) on consumer behavior and decision making are discussed. Understanding consumers' behavior and the irrationality of the human decision-making process is key to developing winning marketing strategies for advertising, branding, pricing or promotions.

This modules provides new and articulate strategy concepts, analytical frameworks, and hands-on tools for students to execute industry analyses and develop competitive strategies.  Building on consumer behavior, customer analytics, industry analyses and strategy foundations, it helps analyze the competitive behavior of firms (including pricing, market positioning, product development, expansion, entry and deterrence) under various economic conditions of industry structure.

This module is designed for students who want to develop a capacity for analysing business situations, formulating strategies for the marketing of innovations, and helping companies to establish sustainable customer relationships. The lecture establishes the theoretical and conceptual background of innovation marketing. Supporting material, such as readings and case studies, will complement the lecture. Over the term, students will work in a team to apply their learnings to a real-world case with our corporate partner Mercedes-AMG.

This module is designed to introduce students into the field of marketing communications and communication management.  The emphasis will be on the role of advertising and other promotional mix elements in the integrated marketing communications program of an organization. Attention will be given to the various marketing communication tools used in contemporary marketing including advertising, direct marketing, the Internet and social media. Moreover, the process by which integrated marketing communications programs are planned, developed and executed as well as the various factors and considerations that influence this process are examined.

The module deals with the basic marketing task of serving, retaining and developing customers from an instrumental and strategic perspective. Accordingly, the lecture is divided into the two components sales management and customer relationship management. Thereby, sales management deals with the fundamentals of channel design, the management of external sales partners and the internal sales force as well as the basics of personal selling. In the part customer relationship management, the students will learn how to achieve customer loyalty and how to increase the value of the customer relations from a long-term perspective.

The module is designed for students who expect to undertake international marketing assignments, work for global corporations or help smaller companies to expand globally. The course portrays opportunities and competitive challenges in regional market settings and pays special attention to the issue of standardization versus adaptation of marketing programs.

The course examines the key aspects of consumer behavior. It defines consumer behavior as the acquisition, consumption, and disposition of goods, services, time, and ideas by (human) decision making units. Based on this definition important implications for retailing are explored.
Starting from the Elaboration Likelihood Model, we distinguish between the central and peripheral route of information processing and discuss topics such as decision making and store choice (both high and low involvement).

Although brand names represent one of the most valuable (intangible) assets for a firm, creating and nurturing a strong brand poses considerable challenges. Branding is therefore a critical management task that has both strategic and tactical elements. The concept of brand equity can provide managers with a valuable perspective and a common denominator to interpret the potential effects and trade-offs of various strategies and tactics for their brands. Brand management involves the design and implementation of marketing programs and activities to build, measure, and manage brand equity.
The aim of this module is to introduce students to proven techniques and frameworks for assessing and formulating branding strategies and tactics that improve the long-term profitability of brand names. This course revolves around understanding how to develop effective branding strategies, while keeping in mind economic and psychological factors of branding.

In this course we discuss methods and concepts that were developed to support and improve rational decision making in various areas of application. We will cover decisions under certainty and risk (EUT), decisions with single and multiple objectives, and decisions given incomplete information about probabilities or preferences. The course also covers descriptive decision theories such as Prospect Theory. An introduction into probability calculus including Bayes Theorem will be given. We will also discuss various visualization techniques such as influence diagrams and decision trees.

This lecture gives an overview about market developments in road and rail transport, inland and maritime shipping. Part of this is the overview of present and future transportation technologies. General business developments in the shipping, trucking, and railway industries are discussed as well as individual strategies of companies active in these transportation sectors. Another focus is laid on the developments of transportation policy, which is still an important framework for the business activities of transportation companies. As traffic infrastructure is a key factor for the performance of transportation services, the possibilities for an optimization of the use of the existing traffic infrastructure are discussed. Attention is not only given to the developments in Germany, but also to the developments in Europe and other world regions.

Services are the largest and fastest growing segment of our economy. However, services pose particular challenges to managers due to their intangible and experiential nature, time-sensitivity/perishability and high levels of customer involvement. Accordingly, managing services requires tight integration between operations, marketing, strategy, technology, and organizational issues from an integrated viewpoint with a focus on the customer. Therefore, it is important to understand both how services differ from manufacturing operations and to understand the potential and limitations of how traditional operations management techniques can be applied to services.
This course provides managerial concepts and selected analytical tools for effectively and efficiently managing service operations in face of these challenges. In particular, we will look at critical management decisions related to service strategy development, service operations design, process analysis, capacity management, service pricing and revenue management, service quality management, customer relationship management, etc.
For understanding and developing the managerial concepts underlying productive service systems, we will rely on fundamental theory, state-of-the-art research insights, and actual case studies of firms that have achieved long-term profitability in practice. Applications cover a broad range of service industries, such as transport and communication, retailing, hospitality, professional services, e-services, as well as service functions of the manufacturing sector.

Fulfilling a customer order typically involves multiple parties, such as suppliers, manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers, each of them having their own objectives. At the same time, all parties are dependent on each other to serve the final customer. Supply chain management addresses the interplay between individual objectives and overall supply chain performance. The key insight is that supply chain coordination can generate a win-win situation, benefiting all supply chain members. This course discusses the need for supply chain coordination and introduces several mechanisms for achieving it. Key topics include supply chain coordination, incentive alignment, supply chain contracts, and information asymmetries.

This course introduces mathematical modeling approaches for planning and scheduling of operations. Operational and tactical planning tasks are formulated as linear and mixed-integer linear programming models. All lectures will be given in a computer lab, where the optimization models are implemented and solved using standard software. Different heuristic techniques to cope with high complexity are introduced and implemented. During the course the students will work on several case studies and assignments (individual and in groups).

In today's e-business environment, there is an increasing number of unlocked opportunities to increase profits through Revenue Management (RM). RM is a short-term planning instrument in order to effectively match supply and demand and thereby maximize profitability – by selling the right product to the right customer at the right time through the right channel for the right price. RM takes into account that on the supply side, resources to produce these products are usually constrained and often perishable, and therefore, the effectiveness of the abovementioned market-related decisions is highly interrelated with resource allocation decisions.
Today, RM is a large revenue generator for several major industries relying on sophisticated RM systems; Robert Crandall, former Chairman and CEO of American Airlines, has called RM “the single most important technical development in transportation management since we entered deregulation.” While airlines have the longest history of development in RM, applications have rapidly diffused beyond airlines to industries such as retailing, hospitality, railways, car rental, telecommunications and financial services, internet service provision, electric utilities, broadcasting and even manufacturing.
For outside observers, RM may seem often like an art. But finally, the most important pillar of RM is analytics – including systematic data analysis, forecasting, and powerful optimization that allows taking all market- and supply-related profit drivers simultaneously into account. This course provides the key ideas, the underlying basic models and state-of-the-art methods of RM.

Looking back over the past twenty years, competitive purchasing approaches created significant value for firms by driving substantial cost savings to the bottom line. However, the widespread usage of professional procurement techniques has eroded the advantages that they had for pioneers in the 1990s and in the early years of the current century. In addition, environmental, competitive, geopolitical, and technological changes have created an uncertain business environment in which a mere focus on purchasing cost will not be sufficient to support sustainable competitive advantage.

Against this backdrop, this module covers advanced approaches in procurement that aim at creating “value beyond cost”. After a detailed analysis of the purchasing process, the module addresses the following core topics: pre-transaction issues (from need specification to supplier selection problems), contracts and contract management, negotiation tactics and strategies, advanced technical (e.g., product teardown analysis) and commercial levers (e.g., reverse auctions) for value optimization, special purchasing situations (e.g., commodities, services), global sourcing, and sustainability in the supply chain context.

The module consists of regular lectures and exercise classes in which extended and short cases will be discussed. Guest speakers from industry will share their management and consulting experiences in procurement.