There are no pre-requisites for this subject.

The student will be able to: - Understand the basic functional areas of the firm. - Understand basic elements of the firm's competitive environment. - Understand the importance of planning and use basic planning and control tools. - Understand the importance of financing and investment decisions and use basic finance tools. - Understand the differences among the main production management systems. - Understand the scope of marketing and its importance for a firm's success.

Compulsory course materials include not only the contents of the lectures and practical sessions, but also the chapters of the reference books that are indicated for each topic. Moreover, students will be expected to have a knowledge of the economic, political and social context in accordance with their status of university students, based on the press or other information media. PART I. INTRODUCTION 1. The current business environment 1.1. Globalization 1.2. Digitalization 1.3. Diversity 1.4. Sustainability 2. Corporate social responsibility 2.1. Towards shareholders 2.2. Towards clients 2.3. Towards employees 2.4. Towards lenders 2.5. Environmental responsibility Readings: Madura (2010), Chapter 2. PART II. FIRM STRATEGY 3. General strategy 3.1. Industry analysis 3.2. Internal analysis: resources and capabilities 3.3. Business stategies 3.4. Corporate strategies 3.5. Decision trees: Graphical representation and problem solving. Readings: Dess and Lumpkin (2003), Chapters 3, 5 and 6. Mateos (2006), Chapters 5 and 6. 4. Marketing strategy 4.1. Identifying the target market 4.2. Positioning 4.3. Consumer behavior Readings: Maynar, Bañegil and Galera (2007), Chapter 9. 5. Production strategies 5.1. Production concepts - Break-even point and operational leverage - Productivity and costs - Economies of scale - Costs and benefits of inventories - Flexibility 5.2. Production strategies - Mass production - Flexible production - Just in time production 5.3. Project management: PERT diagram. Readings: Maynar, Bañegil and Galera (2007), Chapter 7. PART III. FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT 6. Financial analysis 6.1. Accounting information: financial information in the balance sheet and income statement. 6.2. Economic and financial analysis of the firm - Accounting ratios - Economic and financial return. - Leverage: operational, financial and total. - Working capital - Production to invoice lead time Readings: Madura (2010), Chapter 15. Maynar, Bañegil and Galera (2007), Chapter 5. 7. Investment decisions 7.1. Caracterizing an investment project 7.2. Payback 7.3. The time value of money 7.4. Net present value and internal rate of return Readings: Maynar, Bañegil and Galera (2007), Chapter 6. Madura (2010), Chapter 17. 8. Financing 8.1. Debt financing 8.2. Equity financing 8.3. Capital structure Readings: Maynar, Bañegil and Galera (2007), Chapter 6. Madura (2010), Chapter 16. PART IV. ORGANIZATION AND HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT 9. Organizational structure 9.1. Elements of structure - Chain of command - Scope of control - Line and staff 9.2. Horizontal and vertical coordination 9.3. Departmentation criteria 9.4. Types of structures -Functional -Multidivisional -Matrix -Horizontal -Modular Readings: Madura (2010), Chapter 8. Mateos (2006), Chapter 9. Daft, Murphy and Willmott (2017), Chapter 4. 10. Human resource management 10.1. Internal labor markets 10.2. High performance work practices 10.3. Externalization 10.4. The role of the legal framework PART V. PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT 11. Production decisions 11.1. Location 11.2. Capacity 11.3. Plant layout Readings: Maynar, Bañegil and Galera (2007), Chapter 7. 12. Production control 12.1. Productivity control 12.2. Quality control 12.3. Inventory control Readings: Maynar, Bañegil and Galera (2007), Chapter 8. PART VI. MARKETING DECISIONS 13. Product and price 13.1. Product attributes 13.2. Price setting Readings: Madura (2010), Chapter 12. Maynar, Bañegil and Galera (2007), Chapter 10. 14. Product distribution and promotion 14.1. Distribution - Distribution channels: direct, one level, several levels - Market coverage: intensive, selective and exclusive distribution - Characteristics of retailers - Services of wholesellers 14.2. Promotion - Advertising - Personal sale - Sales promotion - Social networks Readings: Madura (2010), Chapters 13 and 14. Maynar, Bañegil and Galera (2007), Chapter 10.

Every week there will be a theory session (in a large group) and a practical session (in a small group). Students must study the contents of each theory session after the session takes place. Exercises and cases must be solved before the corresponding practical sessions. Practical sessions will be devoted to discuss and provide solutions to the exercises that students will have previously worked at. There will also be weekly office hours which will be scheduled by each professor at the beginning of the term.