Open Enrollment Courses

Since the second industrial revolution, economic growth has been intimately linked to the increase of global production and consumption. Population growth, urbanization and climate disruption make us realize that moving forward, this economic model can no longer ensure sustainable living for all within planetary limits and that we rapidly need to move away from this linear model and return to a circular economy.

Visionary leaders* have shown that with a systemic and cross-disciplinary approach, circular economy can decouple economic growth from the depletion of natural resources through the creation of products, services, business models and public policies that allow resources to remain in use at their highest quality and value at all times.

Using real business cases, the course explores which circular economy solutions and business strategies can be developed to respond to new usages and the environmental challenges of the 21st century. Students learn how they can act upon changing the current economic system and become leaders in this major paradigm shift

This class provides an overview, and discusses the details of, different alternative asset classes. Presented in this class will be different types of alternative assets, such as Private Equity, Venture Capital, Real Estate, Infrastructure and Private Debt, as well as their strategies, actors and structures applied. A general overview will include fundraising, typical transactions valuation, value creation, exit strategies and tax structuring, followed by individual, in-depth lectures on different asset classes. Practitioners such as fund managers, lawyers and auditors will be participating in the class and give a first-hand insight into their activity. The class targets financial sector professionals in Luxembourg with an aim to develop an understanding of alternative assets and Private Equity, in particular, but it can as well provide a sound basis for anyone who aims to start a career in Private Equity and alternative asset classes.

This class aims to provide students with a better understanding of trending digital technologies and how they can best to be integrated into existing businesses. The first part of the class provides an overview of new technologies; how they work and the tools that can be used by non-experts. Three major themes will be covered: Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain. During the second part of the class, we will evaluate two to three traditional companies from different sectors and present their activities. The aim is to adopt digital technologies that will enable them to substantially transform and benefit their businesses. Benefits may be realised all along the value chain and can range from simple cost and efficiency savings to the creation of new sources of revenues due to a reassessment of the existing business model. You will be equipped with analysis and innovation management tools for the digital transformation of business.

You will learn a project management approach which links with the Project Management Framework, Processes and Knowledge Areas as used in the PMBOK Guide of the Project Management Institute. We look at the soft skills needed to manage a project, focusing on potential obstacles, thus enabling participants to avoid, anticipate or manage these. The approach is pragmatic, all concepts will be systematically translated into concrete applications and integrated in participants’ professional context. A wide variety of didactical tools will be used, respecting David Kolb’s experiential learning cycle. The class will culminate in a final assignment and possible application for the CAPM® Certificate exam.

In a business world of increasing speed, ambiguity and complexity, effective communication is becoming an increasingly important skill for success in the workplace. It plays an essential role in maintaining interpersonal relationships in the corporate context and leading transformational change. This course sets out to equip leaders with the insight, skills and confidence to connect with people in a way that enables and energises collaboration for change.

Students will become familiar with financial risk assessment and management, and the regulations applicable for financial institutions. They will learn how important market participants, such as banks, insurance companies, pension funds, mutual and hedge funds, are looking at risk measurement and management. Various risk types are covered, including market risk (interest rate risk, currency risk, etc.), credit risk, operational risk, and systemic risk, and risk management strategies and instruments are analysed. Recent risk management topics, such as counterparty credit risk for derivatives, central clearing and collateralization will also be covered. International regulations (Basel I-III) are studied in their historical development, as well their most recent modifications aiming to prevent further financial crises. The rapidly growing relevance of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) related risk factors for the assessment of investment opportunities will be laid out, including the latest developments in this dynamically evolving area. Throughout the class, case studies will put the theory learned into practice.

There is a global movement within the private sector to address the triple bottom line: People, Planet, Profit. This new model, called Impact Economics, is driving the growth of new business, leveraging market forces to drive social innovation and positive change. Harnessing the power of entrepreneurship to address societal problems has created a new breed of change-makers: social entrepreneurs. Using the mindset of entrepreneurial thinking to tackle problems as opportunities, these mission-driven entrepreneurs are creating a global buzz through their inspirational stories. The development of social ventures has created international attention and evolved into cross-sector collaboration with companies, investors and an engaged public sector. They have stimulated new forms of financing, such as venture philanthropy and impact investing, seeking financial returns alongside measurable social or environmental returns. Students in the class will learn about the key trends in the Impact Economy and specifically how social entrepreneurs are actively designing and co-creating solutions for the most pervasive societal failures. We will explore how financing and support structures have developed alongside these innovative and impactful structures.

CEOs often say that people are their company’s most important asset, and that it is the strength of their work force that will carry the company through tough times. On the other hand, executives are taught that “cash is king”, especially in a business downturn. So what should business leaders do in the face of the current economic crisis? Should they focus on maintaining cash or people? This class will present the role of modern People Management, and will explore how to organize people strategically across the value chain. Specifically, the following aspects will be covered: Background and origins of Human Resource Management (HRM), maps and models of HRM, measuring the impact of HRM, organizational structures (HR in small vs. large orgs), talent management, performance measurement, and reward systems, among others topics.

Today’s stock market is strongly dominated by the use of mathematical models and quantitative methods. Many asset managers use algorithmic trading and promote the use of robo-advisors. Nevertheless, some of today’s star investors still base their decisions on a detailed analysis of a company’s fundamentals. Investors such as Warren Buffett or Howard Marks have become the main promoters of an investment approach called “Value Investing”. The goal of this course is to teach the student the basic concepts of this method.

This class examines the strategies and techniques for successfully introducing and managing change in organizations. The curriculum explores power, influence, leadership, motivation, and communication in the change process, as well as organization development, organizational learning and innovation management. Student teams develop a framework for recognizing factors that influence change and a process map to manage change effectively.

Successful integration and effective management of sustainability at a company requires having committed leadership, clear direction, and strategic influence—and none of this will happen without a robust governance structure. Sustainability governance helps a company implement sustainability strategy across the business, manage goal-setting and reporting processes, strengthen relations with external stakeholders, and ensure overall accountability. How and where sustainability fits into the overall corporate structure can be very revealing of a company’s direction and priorities. It’s important to keep in mind that there is no cookie-cutter structure that can be applied; every company must tailor its approach for what makes most sense given its business model, structure, resources, and level of sustainability integration into the business.

This one-credit class aims to sharpen your knowledge of international business leadership. Skills that make a player successful in his domestic market may be the very reason for failure when approaching international clients. Success in global markets today is mainly about cross-cultural skills, true flexibility and personal capacity to navigate the complexities of multidimensional foreign markets. Adapting your knowledge to quickly understand a multicultural situation will make the difference abroad, sometimes even more than your value proposition. In order to make those leadership competences a natural reflex, we will together gain new perspectives and expertise, benchmarking your individual management style against practical business cases from around the world.

The class aims at providing a hands-on introduction to blockchain, distributed ledger and crypto-currencies. It will address three major topics: Use cases for blockchain technologies in supply chain management and payment systems, as well as tokenization of assets. Secondly, the class will detail how blockchain technology is implemented using different programming frameworks (Ethereum and Hyperledger). The third topic is the design of payment architectures based on blockchain. The class will focus on the Interledger protocol developed by Ripple as a key element to achieve global interoperability.

It is quite clear today for actors of the financial sector that they need to define and show how they create value to society, but even beyond, how they contribute to securing legitimacy and trust in society and help to support the financing of the evolving policy environment. The course articulates around an innovative teaching style that combines theory and practical business case studies allowing candidates to concretely put into practice the main concepts and definitions learned.

Corporate Finance expands upon the principles and techniques of financial management to apply the concepts of the maximization of firm value, the time value of money, marginal cash flow analysis and risk. It will also cover a range of financial management decisions including financial forecasting, valuation, capital budgeting, the determination of the costs of capital, optimal capital structure, distribution decisions, mergers & acquisitions, and project financing. The class engages students to actively apply concepts and techniques relating to the above areas through the extensive use of case studies. Students will be designing financial models in Excel to analyze problems and will be asked to explain their results and decisions during class discussion. Both quantitative and qualitative strategic considerations will also be debated. The importance of looking beyond the numbers will be emphasized throughout the class. Special attention will be payed to the identification of key value drivers, justifying and questioning assumptions, conducting sensitivity analysis, and doing what managers do: making, explaining, and defending decisions.

This course discusses and analyzes the concept of sustainability within a business and management setting.  It will analyze the complex relationship between business and the environment and it will explore the nature of business in today’s global context where addressing environmental and social issues is becoming increasingly important.  Furthermore, it aims to discuss how the talents of business might be used to solve world’s environmental and social problems.  Rather than focusing on a ‘doom and gloom’ approach, the course aims to emphasize the solutions towards a sustainable economy.

This class provides participants with an introduction to Luxembourg labor law by exploring the current challenges facing the world of employment, such as work life balance, the use of IT at work, the supervision of employees, and the future of the employment relationship. The class will offer students the opportunity to discuss these topics in depth using relevant articles and case studies. During the last class there will be oral group presentations based on labor law cases for which students will be graded.

Mergers and Acquisitions tend to be the most visible, time-consuming, high-risk and high-reward transactions that companies get involved in. Substantial amounts of management time, strategic thinking, and capital are invested into getting them right. The consequences for all stakeholders of this kind of transaction are most of the times very significant. It’s hard to exaggerate the strategic importance of M&A deals to the organizations and the people involved. The course is designed to cover all aspects of M&A transactions, from analysis and preparation to valuation of the target company, implementation and results, and it is broadly organized into the following follows:

1. M&A strategy – what does it make sense to buy (or divest)?
2. Valuation – how much should we pay for it?
3. Financing – how should we finance the deal?
4. Negotiation / Due diligence –understanding risks and closing the deal (or not)
5. Post- merger integration – now that we have it, what should we do with it

Students will be engaged to actively apply concepts and techniques relating to the above areas through the extensive use of case studies. They will design financial models in Excel to analyze problems and will be asked to make their own decisions and explain them during class discussion. Both quantitative and qualitative strategic considerations will be debated. The importance of looking beyond the numbers will be emphasized throughout the course.

Organizational psychology is the application of psychological theories to work environments aiming to improve organizational outcomes such as performance, satisfaction, health and well-being. This class will explore human behavior in the workplace, including potential “spillover” effects on/from other life domains such as family and friends. The class modules introduce psychological concepts driving human behavior and their organizational applications for you to become a more effective leader for your Self and others.

The objective and purpose of this class is to provide an in-depth discussion of the modern development in investments and portfolio management. Both theory and empirical evidence will be discussed. We will also learn insights from the latest findings in behavioral finance and how to incorporate them in the management of a portfolio.

The aim of this class is to introduce students to various digital channels, their advantages and ways of integration, including inbound, outbound, social media and mobile marketing. The application of the knowledge, skills and competences acquired will help future managers in creating digital marketing plans to manage digital marketing performance efficiently.

“In business as in life, you don’t get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate” - Chester L. Karrass. You negotiate every day. Your negotiation skills determine what time you go for lunch with colleagues, when to have a department meeting, your salary and compensation, your portfolio of responsibilities, the terms of an acquisition or the strategy of your company. How other people feel when negotiating with you also has a significant impact on the quality of your future relationships. In summary, your negotiation skills are a key factor for individual and organizational success. This class is designed for managers who have the analytical skills to discover optimal solutions to business challenges who seek to further develop their negotiation skills to get these solutions better accepted and implemented.

In the recent year the use of data and insights based on data is touching any business, even the most traditional ones. As a business owner, entrepreneur or just manager in a company aiming to exploit the potential of data, it is required to transition to a more data-analytics thinking mindset. Far from being required to become a data scientist, with deep technical knowledge, this course intends to set up the basis to become data-analytics oriented, which requires basic understanding of data mining and modeling techniques and the quality and usability of data models, knowing how to define a successful data-science strategy within your business, being able to set up a reliable data science process management and your first data-science team. Moreover this course would like to help the student identify the value of data and its potential monetization strategies, by exploring some real use-cases from the market.