Business Administration

Accounting is the language of business. If you are learning accounting for the first time, embracing its foundational concepts may be challenging. Mastery of accounting primarily rests in your ability to critically think through and synthesize the information as it applies to a given situation. You should approach the learning of accounting the same way you would approach learning a foreign language; it will take time and practice to ensure you remember the concepts.

Many sub-disciplines fall under the umbrella of accounting, but this course will focus on financial accounting. Accounting as a business discipline can be viewed as a system of compiled data. Data should not be confused with information. In accounting, data is the raw transactions or business activity that happens within any business entity. For example, if someone uses $30,000 of their savings to start a business, that is a point of data. Now that you have this data, what will you do with it? Of course, the answer is accounting!

This course will introduce you to financial accounting in preparation for more advanced business topics. Recording financial information in a standard format allows managers, investors, lenders, stakeholders, and regulators to make appropriate decisions. In this course, we will look at the Income Statement, Balance Sheet, Statement of Cash Flows, and Statement of Shareholders' Equity. You will learn how to compile and analyze these financial statements from the accounting data you have created.

This course is designed to teach you about the customer service work environment, methods for successful customer relations, and career advancement tactics.

Managers who compile financial reports and stockbrokers working on Wall Street both claim to "work in finance". So, what exactly is it? Finance is the management of a company's money and scarce resources. It is distinct from accounting: while accounting aims to organize and compile past information, finance is geared toward deciding what to do with it.

Firms keep detailed financial records to distribute organized reports to managers, shareholders, and government regulators. This introductory course focuses on what managers, investors, and government agencies do with this information. It serves several fields of finance and is comparable to courses some universities call "corporate finance" or "financial management".

Here, we discuss several subfields of finance. We explore determining which projects have the best potential payoff and how to manage investments and value stocks. All finance boils down to one concept: return. It essentially asks: "If I give you money today, how much will I get back in the future?" Although the answer to this question varies widely from case to case, you will know how to find the answer after you finish this course.

We explore financial concepts such as the time value of money, pro forma financial statements, financial ratio analysis, capital budgeting analysis, capital structure, and the cost of capital. We also introduce stocks and bonds. When you finish, you will understand financial statements, cash flow, time value of money, stocks and bonds, capital budgeting, ratio analysis, and long-term financing, as well as how to apply these concepts and skills when making business decisions.

This course will introduce you to business statistics: the application of statistics in the workplace. Statistics is how we gather, analyze, and interpret data. If you have taken a statistics course in the past, you may find some of the topics in this course familiar. You can apply statistics to any number of fields, from anthropology to hedge fund management, because many of us interpret data best when it is presented in an organized fashion. Here, we will look at summary statistics, which give an overview of a data set, such as the average score on an exam. However, the average does not always tell the entire story since half of the students could have gotten 100 on the exam and the other half 60. Using statistics, we can learn a lot more about how data is organized. To do that, we will use statistical tools to analyze data, draw conclusions, and make predictions about the future. The course will begin with data distributions, followed by probability analysis, sampling, hypothesis testing, inferential statistics, and regression.

Management Information Systems (MIS) is a formal discipline within business education that bridges the gap between computer science and well-known business disciplines such as finance, marketing, and management. In spite of this, most students will only take one or two MIS courses as part of their undergraduate program. The term Management Information Systems has several definitions that might depend on where you look or who you ask. Common among these many definitions is that MIS represents a collection of technologies, people, and processes that manage the information and communication resources of an organization. Even if you do not realize it, you use MIS every day. If you use email, you are using MIS since email is an information system--though you, the user, only see one end of it. If you log into a computer every morning and access or edit data on corporate servers, you are using information systems.

There is no shortage of quotes in which inspirational business leaders describe the sources of their success. Their reasons are often diverse, but almost everyone comes back to the same thing: people. The people are the company; they create success. Even so, there is more to successful business leadership than managing human capital since you must also have a suitable structure and culture at your firm. Imagine the U.S. military: it boasts some of the best-trained soldiers in the world, but that talent would be wasted without a structure designed to appropriately deploy forces. In other words, the military would not be as successful without streamlined organizational behavior. Organizational behavior (OB) is the study of how people interact in organizations. These interactions are governed by a number of factors, including your personal life, the personality of your boss or your boss' boss, a direct report, the team you have been assigned to, or the direction that the top of the organization has given to you. OB researchers carefully monitor these dynamics within an organization because any time there is friction, money is lost. A certain level of friction is to be expected (and often even desired), but most of the friction that occurs within an organization is counterproductive and detrimental to the bottom line. In this course, you will study the factors that have the greatest impact on organizational behavior. From managing individuals and understanding group dynamics to managing conflict and initiating change, organizational behavior affects everyone in a firm.

This course focuses on how information systems that store, collect, and manage data can be paired with analytic techniques to provide organizational decision-makers with information and insights that allow them to make more effective decisions. The ultimate aim of any decision-making process is to produce more efficient and effective organizational operations that enable a company to gain a competitive advantage.

With the advent of automated transaction processing systems, a large amount of data is created and stored as a result of organizational operations. When coupled with external data on customers, economic indicators, customer preferences, and even text-based social media, this data can be used to feed analytic models. This big data can be stored in data warehouses, extracted and organized with systems like data mining, and incorporated into data governance and quality management systems.

Sometimes, data can be interpreted directly based on how it is presented. Data visualization and dashboards can present data to decision-makers in useful formats like graphs, heat maps, tree maps, charts, word clouds, text tables, and sentiment analysis.

Often, raw data does not provide the decision-maker with sufficient insight, no matter how well presented. Data are used to populate models for more complex analysis to provide the decision-maker with additional insight. Models represent reality that the decision-maker can interact with through forecasting and scenario analysis. We cover many analytic approaches, including predictive analytics, prescriptive analytics, diagnostic analytics, and cluster analysis. Continuous refinement and optimization of analytical models based on feedback and evolving business requirements is important.

Finally, the course examines the legal structures affecting data privacy, protection, and security. We look at laws and industry-specific regulations, the ethical principles underlying them, and the importance of adhering to these laws and regulations. We also discuss how to support privacy, including ways to anonymize and pseudonymize information, and consider ethical best practices in the context of organizational policies.

Human resource management (HRM), also called human capital management, refers to how organizations strategically allocate their most valuable resources – their employees – to areas of the company where they will be the most productive. HRM requires more than a strong human resources department: it requires smart, capable team managers working with the human resources (HR) department to carry out common goals. This cooperation involves careful strategizing, good leadership, and other solid business practices. Companies often maintain their competitive advantage by holding onto resources other businesses lack. Having the right employees separates highly successful firms from their competitors.

As a discipline, HRM dates back to the early 1900s, but its most strategic components result from transitions that took place in the workforce in the late 1960s. When it passed Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, the U.S. Congress mandated that all organizations adhere to laws that now govern how they treat and respond to employee complaints. At the same time, businesses began to realize the advantage they gained when they integrated women and minorities who were transitioning into the workplace. Increasing diversity created cultures that reinforced and supported their missions and visions. Everyone has a core belief system shaped by their circumstances and experiences that guides their perceptions and beliefs. We often gravitate toward the situations we understand and make sense to us. To effectively manage human capital, business professionals often have to step outside of their comfort zone to support innovative practices and make strategic decisions that are in the company's best interest rather than support a static culture they may consider to be more "comfortable".

We discussed the basics of managing human capital in BUS208: Principles of Management. In this course, we introduce more advanced topics, such as identifying your business's needs to carry out a proper recruitment and selection process. Training, development, and performance evaluations can help you shape each employee into an ideal firm resource. Providing adequate compensation and incentives can help you retain these precious resources within the firm.

Although you may not be planning for a career in HRM, this course will help you appreciate that much of your career success will depend on working with the right people.

This course will introduce you to entrepreneurship and business planning. By way of introduction, the word entrepreneur originates from the French word entreprendre, meaning "to undertake". Today, we define an entrepreneur as an owner or manager of a business enterprise who attempts to make profits by starting and growing his or her business. In earnest, entrepreneurs are a diverse group of risk-takers who share the same goal of cultivating ideas and developing them into viable business opportunities. Take a quick look at the statistics below to get a sense for some of the (potentially surprising) qualities that have been attributed to entrepreneurs:

• According to a recent report by the US Census, every day approximately 2,356 Americans are becoming entrepreneurs by starting new businesses.
• According to a 2006 report from Northeastern University's School of Technological Entrepreneurship, 62% of entrepreneurs in the US claim innate drive as the number one motivator in starting their business.
• According to a January 2008 report by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, women run 33% of small businesses.
• Lastly, according to an October 2006 report by Northeastern University's School of Technological Entrepreneurship, 42% of entrepreneurs say they launched their first ventures during childhood (via a lemonade stand, paper route, or something similar).

As you can see, the entrepreneurial community is diverse, yet its members share a number of striking similarities. This course is geared towards both the eclectic mix of individuals planning to develop and launch their own businesses as well as those with established small business ventures that they would like to expand. We will begin by reviewing the history of small businesses and identifying a successful entrepreneur's characteristics. The course will then coach you in some basic business skills, teaching you how to write a business plan, launch a new venture, identify market opportunities, create a marketing plan, and finance a business. Finally, the course will also review aspects of building a successful team.

Project management involves leading temporary efforts to achieve unique goals, distinct from the ongoing nature of operations. It requires a structured approach using defined process groups – initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing – and draws on key competencies like strategic thinking, interpersonal communication, and business insight, as outlined by PMI's Talent Triangle. Applicable across nearly every field, project management skills are vital in today’s workplaces where employees often manage tasks alongside regular duties. This course introduces foundational concepts, tools, and techniques to help you effectively manage projects from start to finish.

When someone says their "strategy" in basketball is simply to win, they're not describing a strategy. A strategy is a deliberate, goal-oriented plan of action. For example, a more accurate basketball strategy might be: "I will apply defensive pressure to force turnovers and capitalize on the opponent's mistakes to increase our chances of winning." Strategy begins with clearly defining your goals; only then can you create a plan to achieve them.

In business, strategy operates much like in sports, politics, or even warfare. Many early business strategists studied military strategy to gain insights into competition and tactics. While the science of strategy has evolved, the core idea remains: success requires a thoughtful, intentional approach.

Strategic management is setting goals, analyzing the environment, formulating strategies, and implementing them effectively. It starts with defining an organization's mission, purpose, and future direction. From there, the process includes conducting internal and external analyses (like SWOT or PESTLE), identifying opportunities and threats, and crafting strategies that align with the organization's strengths and values. Once developed, strategies must be executed, monitored, and refined based on performance and changing conditions.

For instance, if a company sets a goal to increase sales by 50% in three years, the real challenge lies in determining how to reach that goal. Will it lower prices, acquire a competitor, expand into new markets, or pursue a different path entirely? And if lowering prices is the chosen strategy, how will the company maintain profitability? These are the types of critical questions that strategic managers must answer.

This course serves as the capstone of the Saylor Academy Business Administration program because it integrates concepts from all previous courses. If you've completed those, much of the content will be familiar, but you'll learn to connect the dots and apply that knowledge strategically here. The course begins by defining strategy, then moves through each component of the strategic process: establishing mission and values, conducting internal and external analyses, developing a competitive advantage, crafting strategies, and finally, implementing and monitoring them. It also covers important considerations like leadership, ethics, and adaptability. By the end, you'll have a comprehensive understanding of thinking strategically and leading effectively in dynamic business environments.

This course will introduce you to entrepreneurship and business planning. By way of introduction, the word entrepreneur originates from the French word entreprendre, meaning "to undertake". Today, we define an entrepreneur as an owner or manager of a business enterprise who attempts to make profits by starting and growing their business. In earnest, entrepreneurs are a diverse group of risk-takers who share the same goal of cultivating ideas and developing them into viable business opportunities. Consider the statistics below to get a sense of some of the (potentially surprising) qualities attributed to entrepreneurs:

• According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor's 2024/25 report, around 800 million people worldwide were involved in starting or running new businesses in 2021. Further, in the United States, entrepreneurship activity increased by 7% in 2021, with an estimated 21.6 million Americans starting or running a new business.
• According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, immigrants are almost twice as likely as native-born Americans to become entrepreneurs. 
• The 2021 State of Women-Owned Business Report by American Express revealed that the number of women-owned businesses in the US grew by 58% between 2014 and 2021, compared to a growth rate of 12% for all businesses. 
• According to the 2024 Wells Fargo Impact of Women-Owned Business Report, there are over 14 million women-owned businesses in the U.S., representing 39.1% of all businesses. These businesses employ 12.2 million workers and generate $2.7 trillion in revenue.
• According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2024/2025 Global Report, the top 10 countries for entrepreneurship are the United Arab Emirates, the Netherlands, Finland, Saudi Arabia, Lithuania, South Korea, Switzerland, the United States, Qatar, and India.
• The average age of a first-time entrepreneur in the United States is 34 years old. According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2024/2025 Global Report, the 18–24 age group exhibits the highest Total Entrepreneurial Activity rate globally.

As you can see, the entrepreneurial community is diverse, yet its members share many striking similarities. This course is geared towards both the eclectic mix of individuals planning to develop and launch their own businesses and those with established small business ventures they would like to expand. We will begin by reviewing the history of small businesses and identifying a successful entrepreneur's characteristics. The course will then coach you in some basic business skills, teaching you how to write a business plan, launch a new venture, identify market opportunities, create a marketing plan, and finance a business.

This is a graduate-level course. Making financial decisions is something that we do in our personal lives, as well as in the business environment. On a personal basis, we may consider the interest rates charged by various credit cards or the best terms we can receive on a home mortgage. A business is also involved in regular financial analysis and uses that analysis to make business decisions. Companies face decisions on allocating funds to invest in plant and equipment needs, new product introductions, research and design activities, staffing levels, market expansion plans, and so much more. A good understanding of financial principles is the basis for making sound decisions in any of these areas. Management is charged with the responsibility to create value for its shareholders. That value results from making good decisions on investing the firm's capital in such a way as to realize a positive return. It is also critically important that management not only understand the basic financial principles and theories but also how to apply them in the firm's day-to-day operations.

There is no more important function in business than managing its people. All the business units depend on the people who work within that department. The productivity of the firm and its ability to compete in today's dynamic business environment hinge entirely on the ability of the people within it to achieve the firm's strategic goals.

In this graduate-level course, we will examine the task of managing people from multiple perspectives. Workers come to the firm with individual attributes and become part of the group dynamic. This course draws from management theory, sociology and psychology, communication theory, leadership theory, and systems theory to provide a comprehensive view of all the factors that affect the management of people. We then apply those theoretical perspectives to practical applications in the business world. Finally, we consider the effect of destructive practices and offer insights into positive practices to manage people.

Businesses undertake projects for many reasons, such as solving business problems, creating a competitive advantage, or delivering value to the consumer. There are as many types of projects as there are businesses, products, processes, and operations. Thus, every business must decide what methods to use for various projects.

Most companies will have more than one project going at the same time. The process that it uses for each project may differ. A software project may use an agile method, whereas product development may use a traditional method. Some projects are small and do not need a long time or financial commitments. Others can rise to the scope of a mega project requiring vast resources and budgets.

Regardless of the type of project, having a definitive process for achieving the project's goals can be the difference between failure and success. The field of project management is so important to businesses that the PMI has developed professional standards and a certification process for people who specialize in project management and are at different stages in their careers. This course will follow the principles and practices of the PMI, which defines five key project process groups and ten knowledge areas.

Ultimately, how a company undertakes and completes projects can be a competitive advantage that allows it to deliver business value.

Today's world of business relies more on data than at any other time in history. Data can help companies generate smarter business decisions, capture information, and enhance their overall decision-making processes.

Today is a challenging time for businesses. Leaders and managers are responsible for delivering services and products to customers and stakeholders, which requires them to make strategic and operational decisions every day. It isn't easy to find a company or leader who wouldn't want to use data to make decisions, since data is much more reliable than intuition. Without data, managers may base decisions on biases and false assumptions that cloud judgment and ultimately lead to poor decision-making.

For example, Google created a department of People Analytics to help make human resource (HR) decisions using data. Google used data from performance reviews and employee surveys to answer its most challenging questions. Its data revealed that managers with specific performance characteristics improved employee happiness, which increased longevity at Google and, in turn, improved employee productivity.

Business management teams need good information to function. Having a strong business intelligence team supports data-driven decision-making at all levels and at all stages of an enterprise's lifecycle. Of course, having data alone is not enough. Knowing how to collect, filter, and analyze data and then report the intelligence gleaned from it ensures that management teams have what they need to make informed decisions. Business intelligence (BI) involves collecting, analyzing, and presenting data from reliable sources in formats that help the management team understand and use it efficiently. Throughout this graduate-level course, we will explore how BI can be used in every stage of the decision-making lifecycle and how and when to focus on specific BI applications and approaches.

From start-up through growth periods, to competition battles, through maturity and reinvestment or reinvention to prevent decline, business intelligence provides critical information about all aspects of the firm's health and prospects. Throughout the course, we will explore the use of BI in every stage of the life cycle to understand how and when to focus on BI applications and approaches.

For a real-world example, consider how you make decisions for yourself or your family. When you shop, do you choose products based on price? Packaging? Whether they're on sale? If you have a coupon? The prestige of the brand? A friend's or expert's recommendation? Product reviews? We collect and synergize this kind of information daily without thinking about how we do it. In this course, we will break down how businesses conduct this process at a larger scale – from recognizing a need to fulfilling it – just like you do when making decisions.

If you choose the wrong brand of shampoo, your family will get over it, but when a business makes the wrong choice, its bottom line suffers, and the company itself may fail to survive. This is the value of BI.

Business owners have been generating data for years. Yet, analyzing the data has often proven difficult. Recent innovations in technology have increased data for almost every business exponentially. This data explosion ushered in much-needed tools for analyzing data and uncovering valuable insights. The increase in data also allowed improved data communications through data visualization.

Data-driven communication unlocks the value of everyday business data, creating a powerful asset that a business can use for competitive advantage. Therefore, it is one of the most sought-after skills in companies today. Data-driven communication enables practitioners to select and structure data for visual communication.

During the last several decades, financial markets have led the globalization process as businesses and organizations around the world have found themselves increasingly operating and competing on an international scale. This course outlines the genesis and nature of financial dynamics primarily from an international perspective. The learning outcomes of this course will allow you to operate with confidence in global financial markets from several different perspectives. Specifically, this material can benefit individuals interested in the financial management of multinational organizations or who intend to operate in financial services, both the buy-side and sell-side.

Consumer behavior studies individuals, groups, or organizations and how they choose, purchase, and discard products, services, experiences, or ideas. The discipline also examines these processes' effects on consumers and society. This is a broader definition than those used in the past, which focused more on the immediate experience of the buyer and the consequences of the purchasing process. There are several good reasons for studying consumer behavior. First, consumer behavior theory provides managers with the right questions to ask about specific consumers. Second, in addition to influencing consumers and companies, marketing practices designed to influence behavior can also affect society. Finally, successful marketing decisions by commercial firms, nonprofit organizations, and regulatory agencies require a solid understanding of consumer behavior. Numerous examples of actual business practices make it clear that successful firms can apply theories and information about consumer behavior daily because the more knowledge the marketer is armed with, the more likely a campaign is to resonate with the target consumer and succeed.

This graduate-level digital marketing and advertising course will cover the essential concepts and skills you need to become an effective digital marketing strategist and advertising manager. From planning and implementing campaigns to analyzing performance data, this course is designed to better understand how digital media are used today and how they can be leveraged within your organization.

Learn how to develop a digital marketing strategy and interactive campaign that will lead your product or service to success. This course covers elements of online advertising, such as search engine marketing (SEM), social media, email marketing, and content marketing. You’ll also learn about identifying influencers for your product or service.

This graduate-level course focuses on familiarizing you with the key aspects of the marketing research process and methods supported by real-world applications. Marketing research is vital in facilitating data-driven decision-making in the marketing field. It serves as a crucial source of information for decision-making across all aspects of marketing, including the micro and macro environment, customers, and the 4Ps of Marketing (Product, Price, Placement, and Promotion). Market researchers gather and analyze data to generate valuable insights that inform a range of decisions, from uncovering consumer preferences to testing products and pre-testing messaging for brands, products, and services. The data collected covers a wide range of areas, including competition, market assessment, the marketing efforts of competitors, industries, consumers, marketing segmentation, and various environmental factors such as government regulation, technological developments, and many other relevant stakeholders.

Negotiation and conflict management are required skills for all working professionals; these skills assist managers in keeping the organization and workforce moving forward. Conflicts arise between employees, teams, or departments within the organization, vendors, customers, and other businesses. While some conflicts may be good for organizational productivity, in this course, we will review the more difficult types of conflict and how they may be resolved. The workplace and individuals will benefit from better conflict management and negotiation skills. Assisting employees in conflict management and negotiating situations are skills that few people possess in the business world today.

This course will help you become a better negotiator and handle conflicts that occur within the workplace. Several different tactics and techniques will be taught in this course that will help you feel comfortable and know what to do in any conflict situation that may arise.

As a leader, it is important to facilitate change in any organization. A good leader first understands themselves and then how to engage employees to get behind and assist in implementing change. Before implementation, changes must first be understood by all, before employees will follow them. This course will help leaders understand the change process and what tools may be utilized to assist that process.

Many factors need to be understood about the change process, including the human element, straightforward leadership, change models, stages of change, and the organization's culture. Facilitating positive change and improving an organization through change is a specific skill that is necessary for leaders to develop.

This course will focus on developing these skills and what it takes to manage change in any organization effectively. This course will also cover how to determine what organizational changes are needed. Within this context, we will analyze change management practices and theories and review failed changes that organizations have attempted to implement. We will also review the impact of change on employees and how to mitigate resistance.

The first step in entrepreneurship is understanding your personality traits and mindset that will help your new business venture succeed. This course will address this first step in your journey by allowing you to better understand the role of entrepreneurship in society and address creativity processes to help you develop your new idea. Many tools can be used to help you develop an idea, such as Timmons' Framework, which we will address in this course. Once you consider the creativity process, generating ideas is a key aspect of the planning phase of your business. As ideas are generated, you'll consider if they are viable financially and marketable, but also address if they meet your personal goals. Once you have a list of ideas, you can begin to vet them – determining which ones have viability in the marketplace. In this course, you will learn several ways to vet ideas, such as through competitive analysis, feasibility studies, and opportunity assessments.