New York City Specializations
The Stern Executive MBA program offers a diverse range of specializations for students wishing to focus their studies in specific areas of Business Administration. Each Executive MBA student can specialize in up to three distinct fields, which require the completion of at least nine credits chosen from relevant elective courses defined by the faculty. Specializations are entirely optional and not required for completion of the program.
Popular Specializations
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming our economy. Companies are investing resources to better understand how AI can offer potential new ways to solve business problems across industries and sectors. This specialization is interdisciplinary and will enable MBA students to speak the language of AI and learn how to effectively lead AI-enabled organizations.
The banking specialization includes courses on investment banking and global banking, as well as risk management and related topics. The banking specialization may be suitable for students who see themselves entering careers in commercial or investment banking, or for students in other finance functions (e.g. corporate treasury) where banks are a primary provider of financial services, and other disciplines that support banking infrastructure (e.g., information systems).
The Brand Management Specialization prepares students to manage a product in a company. Brand managers are responsible for orchestrating the design, positioning, development, and delivery of successful products. They generate, develop, and curate ideas, design products, create strategies and roadmaps, and plan releases. To be effective in this role, brand managers must have not only a deep understanding of the market, the user, and the product, but knowledge of all the functions on which they depend and the ability to coordinate their efforts. This includes making sure that researchers provide the needed customer insights, engineers build the right products, salespeople sell, and the supply chain delivers.
The corporate finance specialization encompasses a wide range of courses, from basic corporate finance to restructuring firms, and on to such subjects as private equity and venture capital. Corporate finance focuses primarily on financial issues at the firm level, such as how new companies raise capital, how companies decide on a capital structure of equity versus short-term and long-term debt, and the governance structure of firms. These issues hold relevance for students who want to understand the broad financial issues and choices facing firms and how these choices influence performance, valuation and risk. A corporate finance specialization is useful for students who will work in corporate financial operations and in other finance assignments, such as fundamental company analysis, private equity, mergers and acquisitions, etc.
Economics can be divided into two broad areas: microeconomics and macroeconomics. Microeconomics focuses on the theory and activities of individual consumers and businesses. It studies market structures, pricing policies, business strategies, and, generally, optimal decision making by economic agents. Macroeconomics is concerned with aggregate economic activity and its determinants. It studies inflation, unemployment, and output and how monetary and fiscal policy affect all of them. Both micro and macro are useful in analyzing economic growth and historical economic developments. Studying economics provides an invaluable perspective to anyone choosing a career in business or in areas of government involved with business.
The entertainment, media, and technology specialization is designed to blend theory with practical applications. Students gain a broad understanding of the strategy and operating principles that drive the individual sectors of the entertainment industry. Classes are structured to encourage students to explore concepts, frameworks and models, and analyze industry data across revenue streams (including licensing, sponsorships and promotion). Students analyze leading companies in the industry, such as Viacom, CBS, Time Warner, Disney, News Corporation, Sony, and NBC/Universal. Courses are offered in various disciplines including marketing, finance, economics, accounting, management, law, and information systems. Topics covered include movies, network television, production, theater, music, sports, cable, syndication, radio, telecommunications, new media, and publishing.
The general finance specialization allows students to sample from the entire menu of finance courses and may be appropriate for students who specialize in another field (e.g. marketing or management) and wish to gain a broader exposure to finance themes across different areas.
The financial instruments and markets specialization includes courses on equity markets and debt instruments, as well as futures and options and other more specialized topics. This specialization focuses primarily on understanding the markets in which various financial instruments are traded and understanding the factors that influence the return and risk characteristics of financial instruments, both individually and in portfolios. The financial instruments and markets specialization may be suitable for students pursuing careers in the securities industry or the broad area of investment management.
FinTech covers technology-enabled business model innovation in the financial sector. Such innovation can disrupt existing industry structures and blur industry boundaries, facilitate strategic disintermediation, revolutionize how firms create and deliver products and services, create significant privacy, regulatory and law-enforcement challenges, provide new gateways for entrepreneurship, and seed opportunities for inclusive growth. Examples of innovations that are central to FinTech include cryptocurrencies and the blockchain, digital advisory and trading systems, artificial intelligence and machine learning, peer-to-peer lending, equity crowdfunding and mobile payment systems.
Managing across political frontiers, cultures, national economies, and financial systems presents difficult and often intriguing problems and comes together most dramatically in multinational enterprises. Students pursuing careers in multinational firms, financial institutions, international organizations, or government agencies are strongly advised to acquire a solid perspective on the global dimensions of business, alongside their functional area of concentration. This insight has been the basis of the continued popularity of global business as a specialization in the MBA program. Our broad spectrum of internationally focused courses consider important functional issues such as international trade and international macroeconomic relationships; international accounting and taxation; international marketing; and international banking and finance. They also convey specific skills such as international financial management and international negotiations. The global business specialization builds on the international content of the MBA core, notably the Global Economy course.
The healthcare sector represents about one fifth of the US economy. With its numerous hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and laboratories, the greater New York City area is at the center of this growing sector. The Healthcare specialization is targeted at MBA students who desire to deepen their knowledge of the market forces, corporate strategies, and entrepreneurial initiatives that are shaping the sector.
The leadership and change management specialization helps students develop their leadership potential and enhance their expertise in managing changing technological, competitive, demographic, and other organizational contingencies. Courses introduce specific concepts, theories, and tools that can assist executives entrusted with the task of leading organizational change. Students develop skills in diagnosing forces of change, developing change strategies, and monitoring the effectiveness of change initiatives. This specialization is particularly useful for those planning careers in general management, consulting, or business development.
The management specialization is designed for students who will pursue careers as general managers in large established firms, family firms, social enterprises, or new ventures. Students build additional expertise in both strategic management and the management of organizations. The courses in this specialization provide students with the knowledge necessary to be a senior manager of a business unit or firm. Students can combine coursework in strategy and strategic management with additional learning in negotiations, leadership, and decision-making in a way that provides an overall understanding of the management process of both large and small organizations.
This specialization enables you to think about technology-enabled business models, and the alignment of information technology and operations with corporate strategy. Decisions about investments in IT and the design of operations have far reaching consequences for development of products and services, managing customers, and achieving operational excellence.
The marketing specialization is designed for students who desire to be skilled across the wide range of marketing activities. Courses in the curriculum range from those at the level of marketing strategy and pricing strategy to tools courses such as marketing research and advertising management. The diversity of the offerings allows students to not only learn cutting edge concepts but to tailor their program to their specific career plans. Students electing the marketing specialization take jobs across the broad spectrum of business. They may be found in consulting, consumer packaged goods, pharmaceuticals, and financial services.
The goal of a successful strategy is the alignment of a firm’s internal resources and capabilities with external market opportunities to sustain an advantage relative to rivals. The strategy specialization is designed for students who will pursue careers in strategy consulting or corporate strategic planning departments. Careers oriented toward general business management, entrepreneurship, and investment banking also will benefit from greater depth in strategy coursework. The courses in this specialization provide students with cutting-edge theories and practice on such topics as value creation and capture, external analysis of industries, internal analysis of a firm’s competitive strengths and weaknesses, competitive positioning, multimarket and corporate strategy, strategic decision-making, and strategy implementation.
This specialization provides students with the knowledge and skills needed to create economic value in tandem with social and environmental value at their current and future employers. Students will develop a mindset for proactive citizenship and an expertise in today’s most pressing global issues, increasing their academic and professional competitiveness and positioning themselves at the forefront of thought leadership on the future of business.