ACCT 559 - Strategy and Operations Through CFO Lens

This is one of the best classes at Marshall. The classes teaches a mix of strategy and finance through expereince and not through lectures. It is very hands on and makes you think through the different options that a CFO would weigh. Then, that CFO comes into class and speaks about the suggestions that we gave and gives real-world experiences to help us see what a career in finance could entail.

Great class to enhance your "debate" skills and your knowlegle about various industries. Guest speakers are incredible. Board meetings are super fun and a nice exercise of communicating strategy. I just don't like the industry classes; they are sometimes boring and unnecessary - reading the company's 10-k and preparing for CFO / board meetings are more than enough.

Excellent speakers, exposure to a wide variety of businesses, engaging discussions - what more could you want?! This has been one of my favorite classes at Marshall. Owens is very personable and works to get to know his students. I highly recommend.

You learn about so many different industries and there are great guest speakers.

This course is structured in a really cool way. Based around Board Meetings, where you have a class about an industry/company, then 3 pre-selected teams of 3-4 choose a recommendation for the company (investment, etc.) and pitch the idea to the class. The groups challenge each other and the rest of the class can ask questions. There's no winner declared, but it's a great experience. John also cares about the class and students and wants to provide a good learning experience.

I appreciated the insights into different industries in the business landscape I didn't previously have exposure to. The CFO guest speakers are very cool and high-profile (Mattel, Amgen, Netflix, Cedars Sinai, etc.) and provide interesting a glimpse into the life of a C-Suite exec. Also a good opportunity to get to know some Masters of Accounting students (get them on your team!)

Great guest speakers across a variety of industries that allows you to better understand businesses I previously knew nothing about. Found it to be really interesting and worthwhile.

The class is Ok. The best parts of the class are debates and CFO visits.

I'm not sure why this course is so highly rated. There is value in doing research and having to debate and defend your positions as you do a few times in the course. There are also some good CFO's that come in and speak. However, there is very little learning that you receive from the professor. And it becomes too repetitive with so many CFO's coming and listening to other students ask different versions of the same question.

1) Exremely dedicated teacher. Had never seen such a level of involvement. 2) Guest speakers!!!! Wanna be able to network with CFOs of Fortune 500 companies? This class is made for you. From the CFO of Mattel to the one of Parsons to the one of Capital Group to the one of Macerich. Impressive number of CFOs cross industries that come to class to give a presentation. This class is more dedicated to high level strategy and the teacher does not provide any financial metrics or theory. It is more an introduction to all kinds of industries. If you still do not know what you want to do post MBA, this class could allow you to find out!

There are a lot of great CFO's that come in to speak to the class but it gets a little repetitive after awhile. The workload is not too bad so you won't be scrambling all semester to get assignments done. Overall the class is very average

Great insight into a number of different industries, debates were extremely entertaining.

Many CFOs come into class as speakers

So far so good. The professor is awesome. The guest speakers talk about real-life situations.

This class is all about understanding how a CFO functions. Amazing guest speakers who are current CFO's of the companies. Only downside, when CFO visits, classes start at 8 AM.

Great structure to this class. The rotating lecture/debate/guest speaker allows a great chance to explore different industries. Great speakers and good opportunity to learn from top CFOs in Los Angeles. Pretty light workload. Definitely a class where the value you get back equals the effort you put in.

Super easy course. Learn a lot about several industries and learn more about CFOs are thinking. This is important for all functions as CFOs hold the purse strings for whatever you want to do. Great professor, great guest CFOs!