Ready to take
things up a level?
Executive Master of Business Administration
Curriculum
This is a part-time, in-person program in Vancouver, Canada; unfortunately, international students are not eligible to apply.
Our international students are encouraged to explore our Full-Time MBA, Graduate Diploma in Business Administration or Master of Science in Finance programs.
SFU Beedie’s Executive MBA program gives you a 360-degree view of leadership, strategic analysis and change management. The first five semesters follow a logical progression, allowing you to grow your skills and apply them as you learn. In the final summer semester, you bring everything together in a final capstone and a closing retreat.
Orientation
Your Executive MBA experience begins in early September with a compulsory intensive orientation weekend in Whistler. This team-building opportunity introduces faculty, staff and students, and provides you with a foundation for cohort-based learning.
Year 1
In the first three terms, the program focuses on enhancing your managerial skills by building on your existing work experience. You’ll be able to develop effective analyses based on business process and implementation in the various functional areas.
Fall
Leadership and Teamwork
Explore the management of relationships and how to work effectively in teams. Learn how leadership can impact an organization in the face of competition, power, controversy and conflict.
Accounting for Decision Making
Enhance your decision-making abilities by learning how the various forms of financial information that companies publish in financial statements are related, and how you can extract useful information from them. Gain the theoretical and practical knowledge you need to use accounting information for strategic planning and decision-making.
Business Ethics
Examine the relevance and importance of the highly topical subject of business ethics, with special attention given to corporate social responsibility, professional ethics and reputational capital.
Spring
Finance
Gain a solid grounding in the principles of business finance. You’ll be introduced to important financial tools and gain an appreciation of how business decisions impact both financial performance and shareholder value.
Managerial Economics
Learn how to facilitate decision-making in the presence of risk, uncertainty and missing information by applying economic concepts to analyze supply and demand, costs and productivity and industries.
Marketing
Learn how to apply the fundamentals of marketing management, including understanding the fundamentals of competitive rationality, why competitive advantage needs to be managed as a process, and the creation and valuation of customer equity. Learn how to formulate and implement offering, pricing, placement and marketing communication strategies that will lead to growth and competitive advantage.
Summer
Structure and Change in Organizations
Apply contemporary organizational theory to the managerial challenges of entrepreneurial, corporate, public sector, and not-for-profit organizations. Learn how to use this in areas of organizational structure and change, adapting the organizations to their changing environment, and articulating alternate plans for organizational survival (and where possible, growth).
Operations Management
Understand the processes by which goods and services are produced and the impact of operations on corporate strategy and elements in the value chain.
Information Technology and Organizational Transformation
Learn about the strategic role information can play in organizations. This course will assist you in making the choices required to plan, acquire and manage information technology.
Year 2
In the final two terms, you will develop a strategic mindset as you apply strategy models to changing environments, both globally and locally. The program ends with a second executive retreat.
Students who choose the optional Americas MBA for Executives stream will take classes with their SFU cohort in Vancouver in the Fall, Spring and Summer terms of Year 1. In Year 2, the Americas MBA for Executives residencies take place in August (Vancouver, Canada), October (Sao Paulo, Brazil), February (Mexico City, Mexico) and April (Nashville, USA) in lieu of the following Vancouver based curriculum.
Fall
Strategy
Learn the principles and frameworks for evaluating threats to an organization’s performance. Gain opportunities to apply these tools to real-world cases.
Cross Cultural Management
In order to function in an increasingly global business world, you’ll require the ability to understand the influence of crossing national and cultural boundaries on organizations and on organizational practices. Special emphasis will be placed on the management of people and groups in international organizations.
International Competitive Strategy
Focuses on building global competency and the skills needed to develop strategies, design organizations and manage the operations of companies whose activities span national boundaries.
Negotiations
Learn how to become a better negotiator. Plan for various negotiation situations and improve your ability to negotiate.
Spring
Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Come to an understanding of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship and learn the conceptual tools needed to launch and run a business.
Corporate Responsibility
This course provides a holistic view of corporate responsibility, encompassing the social, ecological and economic responsibilities of organizations. You’ll explore corporate social responsibility and environmental sustainability, sustainable business models, corporate transparency and reporting, and responsible leadership.
Indigenous Business Environments in Communities
Taken alongside Indigenous Business Environments, this course provides local experiential learning opportunities designed to support students in gaining an understanding of how to build respectful partnerships with Indigenous community and to learn how businesses across industry sectors could work with Indigenous peoples to incorporate the legal and ethical considerations of Indigenous knowledge and worldviews within the current and future economic landscape.
Special Topics: TBA
Course topics change on an annual basis based on interests and availabilities. Prior topics include Mergers and Acquisitions and Corporate Governance.
Capstone
Put your new knowledge to the test in a simulation working on your own and within a team.
Commitment to the Calls to Action by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
As a business school, SFU Beedie School of Business is committed to supporting student learning to be in right relations with Indigenous peoples. Part of the core curriculum is learning about the history and aspirations of Indigenous communities to gain a better understanding of how to build respectful partnerships with community and Nations in alignment with their economic development goals and enact economic reconciliation.
Connect with our team
Our admissions team is more than happy to answer your questions so you know what you can expect before, during, and beyond your program.