FBE 532 - Corporate Financial Strategy

Most of the classes are spent talking about interesting corporate financial decisions happening in business news and then tying the events to concepts that we've discussed. It has some overlap with Abram's Valuation's class, but I feel like I have learned more applicable skills in Valuations than in this class. I think Ayca is great and probably wouldn't take this class if she wasn't teaching it. Another note - there are 10+ HBS case assignments throughout the semester, but you only have to complete and present 1-2 of them in a group, and then be prepared to ask questions as other groups present other cases. It's not as much work as you'd think (most are pretty interesting)

The course seems like a slight variation from Abrahams Valuation's class. Same structure with HBS cases with half of them involving DCF. If choosing between classes I would probably choose valuations. Some of the conversations we would have were interesting and I appreciated that we would talk about real world events but kind of felt like there wasn't much structure

really nice guy who loves telling stories. more about reading and analyzing cases as opposed to building financial models

"This is a class where you end up getting whatever you put into it. He gives lectures for the first 4 weeks, and then the class become almost entirely case-based. My class had almost nobody who had run the numbers before, and the class was like pulling teeth occasionally. On the days that people had done the work, the class was amazing. Read the room before committing. He is a wonderful man who is exactly like President Bartlett from the West Wing, and provides folksy anecdotes frequenctly "

The class is enjoyable and the case-based nature of it puts what you are learning into context. I feel like I am getting information that will be helpful in a role within corporate finance and eventually as CFO. The discussions are interesting and can be great, but it depends on if the class did the case. I still find the class enjoyable and interesting and I really like Professor Griffith's style and general demeanor.

**By the time you read this, Prof Weinstein will have retired** 1) Best non-core class I have taken. Best non-core professor by far. 2) Prof Weinstein's case method, incessant cold-calling, and argumentative nature make this class wonderful. Seriously, it's great. Make sure your professor is a cold-calling, argumentative hard-ass and the course will remain great. Dynamic and challenging, you instruction in proportion to the work you put it. 3) Warning: This class is hard. If you didn't do well in Core Corporate Finance (A), brush up or take valuation before starting this class. 70% of course grade is the final exam, which is a 5-hour take-home modeling-heavy case assignment.

The course is almost completely case-based. Many of the cases are interesting, however I really did not like Griffith's teaching style. He went over the cases during class, but didn't share any of the notes on the cases for us to refer to after the fact, making it difficult to study for the mid-term exam, which asked a lot of questions pertaining specifically to details of the cases. Griffiths expects everyone in the class to have a thorough and complete financial understanding, without him teaching us most of the content. Course content is interesting, but the organization of the course needs a lot of work.

It's a solid cased-based class that teaches strategy through a financial lens. If you are going into consulting, the analyses performed may be useful to your work.

Professor Weinstein is a complete ASS. He assigns quizzes every week which contain heavy financial analysis that the class does not teach you how to solve. To make matters worse, after submitting the quiz you can never access it again so you don't know which questions you got wrong or why you got them wrong. Also, the professor does not go over the quizzes nor does he explain the answers during class. This professor honestly just doesn't give a damn about teaching students and its evident in his demeanor. Worst class i've ever taken in my life - honestly i should be reimbursed my tuition for this class.

Weekly quizzes on the readings where the class isn't taught how to do the calculations until after the quizzes. Also, 70% of the grade is on the final. Class is too advanced unless you have an extensive M&A finance background.

This is a really good course but it is pretty advanced. If all you really know about finance is from core you can do well in this class but I recommend taking another finance course before. Probably a better class for second years or people with finance backgrounds but but you'll be ok if you read the cases.