ACCT 559 - Strategy and Operations Through CFO Lens

Cons: Stay far away from this class if Herb is the professor. Class structure / assignments / expectations are disorganized and the professor doesn't seem to know what the objective of each session is (nor can he seem to find the classroom on time). The intro day emphasized the importance of strategic thinking but the "cases" are just looking at 10-Ks and discussing surface-level accounting concepts like amortization and free cash flow. Marshall should consider refunding the tuition for these credits, unless students were intending to pay to listen to Herb make jokes about accountants and Macc students twice a week. The market value of someone workshopping their tight five is about $20 GA at the Laugh Factory, not six grand Pros: Since the class itself doesn't demand any of your actual attention, there's a lot of opportunity to catch up on emails, do assignments for other classes, or watch postseason baseball. The Dodgers didn't make a particularly inspiring run this year, but they have about 100m AAV coming off the books, and can hopefully go shopping for some impact players this winter. My chess elo also went up by about 100.

The prof is very very disorganized. The "cases" are just 10-Ks for companies without much guidance about what to focus on. The prof did not put any effort in the class or material and would always be at least a couple of minutes late. He didn't always have enough material to cover. I don't really know what I took away from this course. Wouldn't recommend it at all

Truly amazing speakers. Quite high level - definitely not going to actually improve your financial analysis skills, but will make you conversational about a number of industries

Gives a good view of what the CFO is looking at short term and long term. (It's often much more than just the bottom line). The class gives insight into the big-picture CFOs need to think about and how a company's Board plays into decisions.

Excellent speakers (CFOs) from different industries. High quality of class room discussions.

Good way to learn about financial strategy in a lot of different industries. Great list of guest speakers.

This is a bit demanding, but one of the best classes. You will have great chances to learn various industries and to listen to real market insight from current CFOs.

This is an interesting and highly interactive class with excellent guest speakers. It provides an opportunity for students to think through challenges and considerations from the perspective of a CFO and does not require an extensive finance or accounting background.

Very solid course here at Marshall with really quality speakers (at least 8 CFO's from Disney, Caltech, etc.). The professor is a retired KPMG partner so can impart a lot of real-world experience and is well connected. Work is challenging, especially the board meetings, but is worth it!

Finance is a core part of any successful strategy and as someone with no finance background and who struggled in corporate finance, THIS class helps me think about how finance is actually factored into strategy. If you can't justify your strategy with the numbers, it doesn't matter how good of a strategy you think it is. This class makes it make sense and it makes you think about how to be compelling when you provide recommendations to clients. Yes, the class suffered from being online, so maybe something to keep in mind for when we're back in person.

Good guest speakers, but the class is very poorly organized. There are many small check in assignments not listed on Syllabus, the blackboard is a mess (assignments spread in different folders, Zoom links under announcements, content all over the place), etc... This makes the class difficult to follow, especially now that everything is online. Owens is not very flexible, and he is basically trying to do whatever he is used to do in person over Zoom. and the class is 100% discussion based. I understand Owens try to focus the classroom time on the speakers, but he try to cover his lectures with videos in Blackboard, which is not effective nor interesting. With so much screen time already, I'd rather have this content during class or in any other fomat there weren't facing a screen. I truly don't recommend taking this class online. It is the worse organization I've ever seen in my whole academic life. [useful field] Yes, since the class aims to discuss hands on finance it is useful to understand the dilemmas faced by finance executives in different industries

The guest speakers are great but he really expects you to have a strong financial base. It's a bit difficult to keep track of all the assignments and their due dates.

The class gives a great overview of how finance plays into multiple industries. Helpful for everyone.

It's a really interesting class that has great speakers and dives in deep into specific industries and the key metrics/trends within them. BUT it's structure is entirely discussion based, making it very difficult to have the same value when held online. Really wish I was able to take it in-person! The professor is great though, very knowledgeable and does his best to keep the conversation going. [useful field] General industry overview: Yes. Finance knowledge or concepts: No.

This class is different than most at marshall. It's a good break from the typical lecture and stare at a powerpoint all class. You do have to participate in board meetings where you have to present in front of the class and get asked questions about your position by classmates. John Owens is a super nice guy and is really into learning new things. He is very passionate for the class but the only downfall is that it's a little disorganized. Some time it's difficult to know what deliverables are due but if you take the class with friends, it's easy to stay on top of things and the deliverable are fairly straight forward. Outside of the board meetings most deliverables take 30 min max.

Crash course on many industries. Facinating discussions around critical issues within them. Highly recommend if you want to build your knowledge holisitcally and apply some of the knowledge you've learned in past courses in a safe space.

This course is great if you hope to learn about many industries through the CFO perspective. Professor Owens pre-records videos (about 30 minutes per class) for students to watch prior to class, then students discuss the content during class. This class will prepare you to think very analytically and use data to back your assumptions and opinions. The main downside to this class is Professor Owens can be quite disorganized and is constantly changing the syllabus.

The course is divided into multiple industries and lots of the time you just learn how they function - watching videos, reading industry related articles, etc. It may be interesting for the general knowledge, but if you know the industry you'd love to work in, 90% of the class would be irrelevant to you. The professor is very enthusiastic, but disorganized and demanding. We all struggled to track what homework is due to what class and so on. He also mixes different idustries in time: you may read articles on homebuilding , attend a session with wealth management guest and submit your position on a medical company in one week - it's very confusing.

The course structure is something I really like. You get to think like a CFO and work on wide variety of industries from retail to energy. Great speakers (CFOs of all the companies we analyse), you represent two companies in board meetings, debate about your proposal and the professor gives a detailed feedback on your performance. I enjoyed this class!