CAPSTONE – Measuring & Maximizing Corporate Value

The aim of the course is to develop an understanding of how to systematically integrate and manage all functions of a company in order to compete successfully in the corporate world of stock-exchange listed companies in the twenty-first century. A major perspective of this course is to synthesize prior coursework in order to help the student develop an integrated concept of issues affecting contemporary business environments. To help expose students to the realities of dynamic organizational issues CAPSTONE (a computer simulation) and a combination of lectures and case studies will be utilized. By utilizing Capstone, students will be able to test alternative actions of operating a business in a competitive environment without incurring costs or the risk of implementing them in a real setting. Most organizational strategic and tactical decisions will be made after consulting with the colleagues/Board Members. Each student will have the opportunity to simulate this form of organizational life when working within his or her Capstone Team. A great deal of reputable multinational companies (IBM, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Google, etc.) continuously applies Capstone simulation to improve the managerial skills of their employees.

You will be placed in a Team/Management Board and will manage and analyze your Capstone Company as well as competitors in the marketplace. Over the period of eight years (eight rounds), the students/you will make decisions about various aspects of their company. Your decisions will affect not only respective company sales and profits but also a vast number of quantitative and qualitative outcomes.

You will have insight into problems facing top managers (CEOs, Marketing Directors, CFOs, Sales Directors, and Production Directors/Planners). You are, just as the Management Directors, expected to set up a strategy, and objectives and pursue the best business policy in order to maximize the value of the firm you manage. The objectives are achieved more systematically and successfully by considering and applying concepts previously developed in other courses as well as in this course. To evaluate the firm’s/team’s performance, several criteria will be examined. Each Team’s performance will be evaluated on the basis of both financial and non-financial key performance indicators that signal whether the shareholder value has been created or destroyed.

Course leader

Igor Gvozdanovic, Ph.D., serves as the CEO of Platinum Invest, a fund management company that manages three mutual funds that he assisted in establishing in 2007. For the last seven years, he has also been lecturing finance courses at the ZSEM.

Target group

This course is recommended for final year undergraduate students, master and MBA students.

Course aim

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