Business Essentials MasterTrack® Certificate

In this course, you’ll develop an understanding of how accounting is an information system that produces financial statements. You’ll cover fundamental concepts such as the basics of accounting for assets and liabilities, and learn how to use a statement of cash flows to evaluate a company.

As you advance through the course, you will also:

• Learn to interpret the impact of economic events on balance sheets, income statements, and statements of cash flows.
• Familiarize yourself with the measurement theories underlying financial statements.
• Understand how to write and analyze financial reports.
• Analyze the differences between financial reporting environments and comprehend their influence on the functioning of capital markets.
• Develop an awareness of the ethical dilemmas that emerge in financial accounting.
• Recognize how financial statements communicate economic events to shareholders, investors, and creditors, and assess the impact that this information has on these different groups.

In this course, you’ll master the basic principles of marketing, including segmentation, targeting, and positioning, and learn the key elements of the marketing mix—product, price, promotion, and place—that enable a brand to implement a consistent and successful marketing plan. You’ll also explore issues surrounding social and environmental sustainability that relate to specific marketing decisions.

As you advance through the course, you will also:

• Discuss models and tools that allow marketers to decide upon and monitor marketing activities.
• Develop critical thinking skills to solve problems in marketing.
• Make decisions and develop strategies based on careful analysis in order to present and defend these strategic decisions to key stakeholders.

In this course, you’ll learn about how a business structures its mission, the realities of general management, and the issues underlying value generation in business. You’ll also discuss the models, theories, and tools that will allow you to effectively analyze complex competitive situations and make decisions that increase a firm’s competitive standing vis-à-vis its competitors. These include Porter's 5 forces, entry barriers, resource-based view, value chains, scale and learning curves, price wars, and the prisoner's dilemma. Finally, you’ll explore social responsibility and sustainability issues in the context of competitive and corporate strategy.

During the Skills Portfolio module you’ll begin by mastering agile methodologies that you will later apply in your Capstone project. From there you’ll move to the visual design lesson, where you’ll explore new ways to brainstorm, ideate, and apply design thinking to solve business challenges. Next, you’ll focus on sharpening your communication skills to become an effective leader. Finally, you’ll explore strategies and approaches for pursuing your career goals through the career management lesson.

In the Capstone Project, you'll have the opportunity to put into practice what you have learned throughout this program. Your project will include a submodule for each of the four subject areas you'll have focused on, and there will be four week-long online workshops to complement what you have learned in the first three modules of the program.

You will be presented with a real case study or company dilemma, conduct an extensive analysis of the current situation, and recommend specific action plans to solve existing dilemmas of the companies being discussed.