Business Administration

The first lesson will be introductory. The icebreaker will be the discussion of a financial statement presented in integral form first and then in two successive condensed (reclassified) forms. Since this is an introductory course, we will try to obtain insights using common critical sense even if we do not yet have any basic knowledge on the subject. At the end of the course, we will repeat the exercise on a new balance sheet to appreciate the effectiveness of the analysis that we will have acquired.



The following nineteen lessons will be structured according to two main blocks:



I) The first, will be an introduction to the concepts of market and industry. We will also look at some fundamental elements that will help us to deal with the second part of the course. In particular we will focus on:



· Concept of supply and demand;



· Market equilibrium;



· The cost structure;



· Profit maximization;



· Short and long term choices;



· The opportunity cost;



· Economies and diseconomies of scale;



Price elasticity and volatility;



· Market power;



· The creation and sharing of value between supplier and market;



· Price discrimination;



II) Having at this point acquired the necessary basic notions, in the second part of the course we will try to fully understand the concept of "enterprise", a naturally central element of Business Administration. Our journey will continue with a very simple question: who is the manager and what does he/she do? From this starting point, we will come to discuss and investigate together:



· The concept of risk;



· Operational and strategic decisions;



· The vision: values, beliefs and purpose;



· The mission;



· The corporate strategy;



The attractiveness of an industry;



· The business strategy: cost or differentiation;



· The corporate strategy: market inefficiencies and synergies;



· Diversification;



· The income statement;



· The balance sheet;



· From budget to strategy;



Return on Equity;



· Margin on sales, capital turnover and financial leverage;



· Forms of enterprise: SAS, SNC, SRL, SPA;



· Governance and control bodies;



· Brand: awareness and image;



· Critical success factors;



Marketing analysis: company, customers, competitors;



· Marketing strategy;



· 4Ps: product, price, place, promotion;



As mentioned above, at the end of the course we will carry out another exercise of analysis and understanding of a company through the study of its reclassified financial statements.