The Full-time MBA program offers six areas of career concentration:
Other options:
Consulting/General Management
Students are encouraged to pursue a secondary concentration to supplement the general management coursework.
Student who choose this concentration will complete 12.0 hours of coursework in such courses as: Law & Ethics, Management Control Systems, Project Management, Cost Analysis, and Financial Statement Analysis. All students must complete a 3.0 credit Consulting Practicum or Six Sigma Practicum. Additional elective coursework varies, depending upon the chosen career path.
Career paths available:
- Marketing consulting
- Operations/internal consulting
- IT consulting
- New ventures consulting
For more information, contact Ken Middaugh.
Entrepreneurship
This concentration is designed for those students interested in: starting their own venture as a new business or within an existing company; pursuing entrepreneurial activity as a member of a team; providing services (financial, marketing, or other) to entrepreneurial firms; deferring entrepreneurial activity to the future;
or becoming a member of their family business. Students are encouraged to pursue electives in additional career areas, including finance, marketing and consulting/management.
Student who choose this concentration will complete 12.0 hours of coursework in such courses as: Family Business Dynamics, Launching Your Venture, Creativity & Feasibility, Commercializing Innovation, and Entrepreneurial Essentials.
For more information, contact Stan Mandel.
Finance
Finance teaches a core set of skills in financial modeling, debt and equity issues, valuation, mergers and acquisition, financial planning, risk management, financial reporting and analysis. Students who choose the finance track will train to become the next-generation financial analysts, investment bankers, security analysts and asset managers and executives for U.S. and global enterprises.
Student who choose this concentration will complete 12.0 hours of coursework in such courses as: Advanced Financial Management, Financial Modeling, Value Creation, Investments, Strategy Games, Forecasting, and Capital Markets.
Career tracks available within Finance:
- Corporate Finance / Treasury
- Investment Banking
- Securities Analysis/Asset Management
Students interested in Finance should consider enrolling in the Certified in Financial Management program and work toward sitting for the Level I examination of the Chartered Financial Analyst program. For more information, contact Rob Nash.
Health
The Wake Forest University Schools of Business has teamed up with the world-class Wake Forest University Medical School and North Carolina Baptist Hospital to provide an MBA Health Concentration which will prepare future health leaders to succeed in this dynamic environment and to take advantage of the many opportunities for growth. The program will provide all students with core knowledge in health policy and public health, including regulation and reimbursement policies. Entrepreneurs and managers of health services who are often responsible for multi-million dollar facilities and thousands of employees require effective analytical skills, human resource management tools, a sound understanding of finance and reimbursement, an ability to recognize strategic opportunities and devise innovative responses, and the ability to cooperate strategically with public-sector partners. In keeping with the Wake Forest University motto, Pro Humanitate, the new MBA health concentration will provide comprehensive familiarity with and ability to bridge clinical and public sector cultures. The two-year MBA with a health concentration will equip you with the skills, mindset, and experience required to expand your current position or to step out into new areas of healthcare, biotechnology development and commercialization, and public-private sector health partnerships.
Student who choose this concentration will complete 12 hours of coursework in such courses as: Topics: Healthcare & Landscape, Topics: Clinical Immersion, Business Process Management, and Biotechnology Law & Policy, etc.
Career tracks available within the Health concentration:
- Healthcare Delivery & Support Services (Operations)
- Healthcare-Related Business & Life Sciences (Innovation and Entrepreneurship)
View the Health Concentration Curriculum in detail. For more information, contact Len Preslar via email.
Marketing
In today's fast paced and ever-evolving marketplace, the knowledge and skills gained from an MBA concentration in marketing can be used to help firms create value for customers. Creating customer value involves understanding customer needs and desires, developing unique and superior products and services, and developing and communicating compelling brand messages. Organizations also prize individuals who can help them understand the value of their customer segments and enhance firm growth through innovative approaches to customer service. Marketing courses at Wake Forest University help students develop their skills in strategic, conceptual and analytical thinking.
Student who choose this concentration will complete 12.0 hours of coursework in such courses as: Marketing Research, Pricing, New Product Introduction, and Buyer Behavior.
Career paths available:
- Brand Management
- International Marketing Management
- Integrated Marketing Management
Careers typically pursued by MBAs with a concentration in Marketing include:
- Brand management
- Marketing research
- Retail management
- Professional sales
For more information, contact Derrick Boone.
Operations Management
The operations management curriculum will help students develop a comprehensive understanding of issues related to the management and analysis of business processes. Such an understanding is becoming more critical to the success of an organization in today’s environment due to the recent advances in both manufacturing and information technologies and the emergence of global manufacturing and service sectors across the economy.
Students who choose this concentration will complete 12.0 hours of coursework in such courses as: Operations Strategy, Business Process Management, Introduction to Six Sigma, Forecasting, Database Management and Managine E-Operations & Supply Chain.
Career tracks available within Operations Management:
- Six Sigma & Process Improvement
- Supply Chain Management
Students pursuing Operations Management tracks also should consider working toward one or more of the following:
- CIRM or CPIM certifications through APICS
- PMP certification through the Project Management Institute
- Black belt (Six Sigma) certification through the American Society for Quality.
For more information, contact Scott Shafer.
Independently Designed Concentration
This option, available by petition only, allows students with specialized interests and backgrounds to focus in an area such as real estate. Students work with a faculty advisor to identify appropriate coursework, both within the Schools of Business and through graduate courses elsewhere at the university.
Information Technology Management
Offered as a secondary concentration only. This concentration serves as an excellent complement to other functional areas. Information Technology (IT) continues to impact all organizations in very profound ways. From the application of existing IT, to streamlining operations or enhancing customer relationships, to the deployment of emerging technologies (such as wireless communications) in the development of new products and services, IT continues to represent a major investment for all businesses. Developing a solid understanding of how to assess, acquire and deploy IT effectively is a key requirement for every competent manager. The Wake Forest Schools of Business Information Technology Management (ITM) concentration is designed to provide such an understanding. The emphasis is on managing IT, not developing it, and hence the coursework does not presuppose any background in IT beyond that covered in the first-year.
Students who choose this secondary concentration will complete 9.0 hours of coursework in such courses as: Database Management, System Analysis and Design, Emerging Information Technologies, and Information Resource Management. For more information, contact Ron Thompson.
Career typically pursued by MBAs with a secondary concentration in ITM include:
- Project Manager
- Consultant
- Information Systems Analyst
- Business Analyst
