The UPC School of Professional & Executive Development is a college in Spain which offers a wide selection of lifelong training courses with over 200 yearly master’s degrees, postgraduate courses and specialization courses with a professional outreach, adapted to the current economic and social, business and professional needs.

Course content of the Master in Business Administration Program

Business Strategy
-Fundamental characteristics of business management systems and processes.
-Methodologies used for designing the organisational structure of companies and different organisational models.
-Strategy and strategic management concepts such as strategic management elements and different strategy classes.
-The stages of strategic process from strategic analysis of the environment and internal aspects of the company to the implementation of the strategy, as well as the strategy formulation process.
-The best strategies to use for different business situations.
-Systems used for assisting decision making.
-The idea generation processes, the different stages of creating a company and the concept of the entrepreneur.

Marketing and Commercial Management
-Marketing concepts and elements.
-The function of marketing management, the tools they use and their contributions to business strategy.
-Elements of the business environment and their influence on commercial decision making.
-The strategic marketing planning process and proper marketing policies for any given situation.
-The Marketing MIX.
-The market. Different types of markets. Market segmentation. Factors that influence a consumer¿s decision to purchase.
-Decisions about products and the strategies involved.
-Tools used in the commercial negotiation process.
-Producing marketing plan content.
-Pricing strategy and its influence on demand.
-Basic advertising concepts and tools used in the creative process.
-The sales process: developing an argument, making an objection, sales and tracking.
-Concepts, mechanisms and barriers to international commerce.
-Strategies for entering external markets.
-Importer and exporter operations such as the means of payment and international payment.
-The foreign currency market.

Accounting and Finance
-The necessity of accounting, what it is, how it is organised and what role cost accounting plays within the company.
-Accounting concepts: company assets and results, costs and their clarification and other concepts.
-The accounting method, accounting cycles and the terminology used in financial accounting.
-Accounting functions for active, passive, deposit and expense accounts as well as registering and evaluation.
-Determining and distributing the results of the exercise.
-Presenting accounting reports using annual accounts reports.
-Analytical accounting methodology.
-Cost models and the practical implications and limitations of each one.
-Activity based costing and decision making costs.
-Management control systems.
-Tools and concepts used in investing and financing decision making.
-How to analyse financial products on the market.
-Finance operations, interest rate equivalencies and financing schedules.
-The functions and classifications of financial revenues.
-Different types of loans.
-Concepts behind short term financial management.
-Basic understanding of investment research.
-Methods for evaluating investments, including their advantages and limitations.
-The use of accounting statements for obtaining information about a company.
-Different types of accounting statement analysis.
-Long and short term finance cycles.
-Finance planning methodologies.
-The most important variables used to establish a company¿s finance policy.
-Determining factors in the finance structure of a company.
-Financing sources for a company.
-Methodologies for evaluating companies.
-Finance markets the their elements.

Economics and Law
-Basic concepts of economic science.
-Characteristics of capitalism and how it works.
-Methodology for calculating GDP based on supply, demand and revenues.
-Resources for the global economy, its distribution and the results of economic development.
-Prime indicators for tracking the economic climate.
-The consequences of the European integration process.
-Basic concepts of Private Property Law.
-Legal regulations that regulate financial activity.
-The legal framework used to develop business activity.
-Basic elements of Commercial Law: companies, business people and business activity.
-Origins of Commercial Law.
-Protection procedures for: consumers, competition and intellectual property.
-Fundamental concepts behind commercial contracts, the main characteristics of commercial contracts and the obligations and rights of the different parties involved.
-The legal organisation of businesses and different types of commercial societies.
-Foundational requirements and regulations of all of the different types of commercial businesses.
-Legal provisions for financial crisis situations: bankruptcy and the institutions involved.
-Financial and legal elements of securities in their different modalities: bills of exchange, checks, promissory notes and others.
-The tax system structure: resources at the state, autonomous community, local and European levels.
-Basic concepts behind the structure of any tax: taxable events, taxpayers, taxable income, net tax base, tax rate.
-Legal terminology and origins of Tax Law.
-Progressive, regressive and proportional taxes.
-Different measurements of the payment capacity: income, wealth and consumption.
-Tax figures that are levied based on previous measures and the structure of these taxes. Evaluation of the advantages and disadvantages of each of these.
-Evaluation criteria for any tax.
-Peculiarities of the value added tax.
-Elements that determine the existence of a work relationship and the special elements involved.
-Terminology, legal institutions and origins of Labour Law.
-Working conditions that determine legal regulations.
-The dynamics of work relationships and the function of government in this area.
-The rights and obligations of business people and employees, different types of labour contracts and the possible variables involved over time (modification, suspension, termination).
-Collective relations, the agents involved (unions and employers) and the instruments involved (collective bargaining, collective labour conflicts, strikes, lockouts).

Human Resources
-The function of personnel management and the role that HR plays in the management of a company.
-The contributions of personnel management and the competitive advantages it provides for the organisation.
-A general view of human behaviour and how it affects business.
-The responsibilities of human resources management within a company.
-The challenges involved in personnel management nowadays.
-Management roles and the associated competencies and abilities.
-Management processes and participation in meetings.
-The delegation process and decision making.
-The process for establishing effective interpersonal relationships.

Operations Management
-Basic concepts and terminology used in operations management as well as its contributions to the competitiveness of the company.
-Strategic, tactical and operational decisions in the area of operational management.
-Causes, functions and problems related to stock.
-Planning techniques linked to production and calculating needs.
-Basic concepts behind quality control and the elements involved.
-Toyota's production systems and the Kaizen methodology.
-Logistics chain management and its identification as a competitive advantage for organisations.
-Localisation decisions.
-Concepts, characteristics and application of plant distribution.
-Project management

Master's Final Project
-Development of a business plan to be done in groups.

Contact Details:
UPC School of Professional & Executive Development  
Carrer de Badajoz, 73, 08005 Barcelona, Spain
Phone: +34 902 76 07 40