Accounting and Finance
Learning outcomes
After completing the course, the student will:
- understand how different areas in business studies are connected in the entity of enterprise functions and in making a profit
- understand the role of ERP and its meaning in managing a company
- apply different business analysis tools in planning and managing a business and understand the essential role of strategy in the process
A central part of the course is to see the business as a whole: the student will understand why it?s not practical to optimize single functions separately and why the management needs to have a holistic perspective of the company.
Contents
- The foundation for this course is a business simulation game, which engages the students in real-time decision-making and provides them with various tasks related to various business topics.
- The participation takes place in small virtual groups, where the team members (3-4 students) may all come from different universities.
- The thematic core for the simulation is supply chain management and the entity formed by different functions of a company. The relevant themes include several areas of cross-company logistics: purchase, inventory management, delivery, customer relations, and the reporting related to these topics. The course emphasizes effective management of the supply chain and the impact it has on the company?s profit and cash flow.
- During the course, the students are also introduced to the dynamics of supply chains in company networks, where the students? company is a part of a network of suppliers, competitors, and customers.
- In addition, the course gives an overall picture of the role of a company?s information systems in steering the business as a whole: how the different functions utilize common enterprise resource-planning and how the ERP works as an essential tool in decision-making.
- The theoretic material and the exercises distributed in the course are related to the abovementioned supply chain management and other LITO learning themes.
Teaching language
Finnish, EnglishModes of study
- Degree Programme Students
- Other Students
- Open University Students
- Doctoral Students
- Exchange Students
The assignments of the course are mainly related to the planning of the simulation company operations and to the analysis of materialized operations. These include:
- developing a business plan
- analyzing the profitability in light of various parameters and reporting these to the different stakeholders
- various strategic analyses on the company operations and on the competitive situation (SWOT, Pester, bench-marking)
- calculations related to the company?s basic supply chain and ERP parameters
- income statement and profitability, gross margin, and cash flow analysis (the essential parameters covered in INTRODUCTION TO FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATION course)
- market analysis
Furthermore, a written assignment on team dynamics and a team functionality analysis and reflections.
Evaluation and evaluation criteria
Numeric 1-5.The performance will be rated based on the assignments given out during the course.
Study materials
Simulation game instructions, description on the simulation environment, self-learning videos, course hand-out, and selection of other articles (announced later)
Further information
October 2018, February 2019 and April 2019
Belongs to following study modules
2018–2019
