Topics for academic discussion at final state exams

                                        Business Management

The academic discussion is the second part of the state examination. It follows after the diploma
thesis defence. It should take approximately 15 minutes. During your academic discussion, you might
encounter fields and questions based on the compulsory courses you passed throughout your study.
You should then be ready to answer them. Examples of such fields are:

Microeconomics:

1.       Profit Maximization

2.       Cost Minimisation

3.       Monopoly and Monopoly Behaviour

4.       Oligopoly

Macroeconomics:

1.       Macroeconomic data

2.       Inflation

3.       Unemployment

Corporate Management Systems:

1.       Business processes and modelling (process structure of an organisation, functional and
product-service departmentalisation, BPM Lifecycle, computer models, their simulations and
optimisations).

2.       Quality management system (purpose; characteristics; Deming theory of profound knowledge
and quality management system).

3.       ISO 9000 family of standards (purpose; system approach to quality management; principles
of quality management; explanation of the content of ISO 9001:2016 and the purpose of the content).

4.       Project management (project definition, project planning, progress tracking).

5.       Information and knowledge management (information systems components; IS business value,
IS life cycle, knowledge management, business intelligence).

Corporate Finance:

1.       The time value of money (future value and compounding, present value and discounting,
annuities, perpetuities)

2.       Project analysis and evaluation (break-even analysis, operating leverage, financial
leverage, cost of capital, different types of investment appraisals)

3.       Property and financial structure of company (material definition of selected parts of
balance sheet in extended version (as statement informing about company financial state at
particular date)

4.       Profit and loss statement in extended version and Cash flow statement (P/L statement as
statement informing about effect of economic activities in targeted period)

5.       Extensive ratios of financial analysis and profitability ratios and their use (horizontal
and vertical methods of financial analysis, profitability ratios and their use);

6.       Activity ratios, analysis of operating and financial risk (indicators monitoring parts of
assets blocked in other than cash form in context of different impact on company profit,
multiplicator of shareholder value (financial leverage), analysis of operating and financial risk,
contribution margin)

7.       Indebtedness analysis (long-term solvency, fundamentals of financial structure in context
of theoretical rules and methods of financial structure optimisation, liquidity analysis –
liquidity measurement)

Strategic Management/Consultancy Project:

1.       General strategic management: Types of strategies, strategic drift, culture and its
impact on strategic thought

2.       External analysis: Pestel framework, Porter´s 5 forces, Competitive environment, Industry
lifecycle analysis, Competitive environment analysis

3.       Internal analysis: VRIO framework, resource based view, Value chain analysis, BCG matrix,
7Mc Kinsey, SWOT analysis

4.       Competitive advantage: Business models, Balance scorecard, Value creation

5.       Strategy formulation tools: Strategic options and generic strategies, strategic position
and action evaluation tool.

International Management:

1.       Global environment – important variables, current trends, the impact of recent world
political/economic development on MNEs and management of MNEs, global trading blocks

2.       Culture, cross-cultural communication and HRM – cultural variables in international
management, theoretical approaches, cross-cultural communication issues – sources of problems
(incl. theoretical underpinnings), staffing approach, developing global talents

3.       Organisational structures of MNE – centralisation/autonomy, types of structures and their
characteristics, incl. advantages and disadvantages, risks

4.       Mergers and acquisitions – reasons for acquiring a firm, acquisition phases, problems,
recommendations

5.       Developing strategy – steps in global strategy development, entry modes incl. advantages
and disadvantages, risks

Business Research:

1.       The basic approaches and forms of business research

2.       Quality in research: validity and reliability

3.       Questionnaire design