Economics and management

The first lesson will be introductory. The icebreaker will be the discussion of a financial statement presented first in full form and then in a summarized (reclassified) form. Even if we do not yet have any basic knowledge on the topic, we will analyse the statements together to obtain food for thought using common critical sense. At the end of the course we will repeat the exercise on a new balance sheet to appreciate the effectiveness of the analysis we have acquired.

The following 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 cover some critical topics that will help us tackle 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;
- Price discrimination;

II) Having acquired the necessary basic notions at this point, 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 discuss and explore 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;)
- Brand: awareness and image;
- Critical success factors;
- Marketing analysis: company, customers, competitors;
- Marketing strategy;
- 4Ps: product, price, place, promotion;

As mentioned previously, 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.