The course follows the following structure:

1. Overview of the key financial accounting terms and financial reporting in accordance with the core IFRS principles
2. Management accounting for strategic decision-making, including cost-volume-profit analysis and activity-based costing
3. Management accounting for strategy implementation, covering strategic budgeting, variance analysis, economic value added, strategy map and balanced scorecard frameworks
4. Guest lecture on linking sustainability and financial performance in an international company
5. Final group presentations on the guest company assignment

Accounting is the language of business. This course offers a comprehensive introduction to accounting information as a key instrument to inform external stakeholders, manage business performance, lead organizational members, and drive superior and sustainable value creation.

At the end of the course, you should have a sound basic literacy in financial and managerial accounting. Literacy refers to both “reading” (understanding) and “writing” (doing). Therefore, the course emphasizes and trains you in two aspects: the sound conceptual understanding of the fundamentals of financial and managerial accounting and the clever utilization of the disciplines’ essential toolkit.

You should also be in a position to appreciate that accounting is about much more than numbers. Yes, it is highly quantitative, but it does not only refer to mind-boggling number crunching and other consciousness-enhancing stunts. Rather, it is “the forgotten leadership discipline”. This is so because accounting numbers like revenues, costs, and profits do not manage themselves – people manage them, and people are managed with them.

The overall idea is that you will know what every manager and leader must absolutely know about accounting. And that you can readily apply the acquired knowledge and skills to solve real-world, strategic problems. Most importantly, however, we identify likely applications to your career as an effective and responsible manager and leader in your firm and in our society.

The class relies on latest research and best practices to cover the main roles and uses of accounting information in business. Specifically, the learning objectives are:

1. Understanding of key accounting concepts and the financial reporting process companies use to prepare their external financial reports and inform their stakeholders, at the end making a timely link to ESG reporting
2. Application of management accounting and control frameworks to use accounting information for internal decision-making
3. Implementation of management accounting tools for strategy execution

80% of attendance is required, full participation is highly recommended, attendance on days 1 ,4, and 5 is mandatory.

It is a workshop-style class, with many interactive elements. Students are expected to solve group cases in class, hold group presentations, provide feedback on each other’s work, and discuss their progress with peers and their instructor. The class is also accompanied by individual pre-class and homework online quizzes to account for individual learning progress.

The final group assignment for this class is based on the publicly available data about the guest company as well as information provided by the guest speaker. The key task is to come up with a viable strategy map and the related balanced scorecard for the case company, linking to the core strategic objects and performative objectives in terms of international presence and sustainability goals.

• 35% final group presentations
• 45% group case assignments
• 10% individual kick-off quizzes
• 10% class participation

Grading scale is as follows:

• Excellent (1): 90%-100%
• Good (2): 76% - <90%
• Satisfactory (3): 65% - <76%
• Sufficient (4): 50% - <65%
• Fail (5): <50.0%

• This course is suitable for the CEMS master program students interested in understanding the language of business, i.e., accounting, and applying this knowledge for strategic decision-making and strategy implementation. Interest in the subject and willingness to prepare for and actively participate in the class are a must.

  Pre-course quizzes have to be completed by Nov 18 EOD to be included in the final grade.

  It is required to get access to the case studies, as these will be used in the group assignments and in-class discussions. All the cases can be acquired here: https://hbsp.harvard.edu/import/1225038

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While extensive knowledge of accounting is not a must, students who are experienced in (management) accounting are encouraged to read the relevant readings to stay fit for the class. Please refer to the handouts and readings provided on Canvas.