Switzerland MBA Program

Learn In Exquisite Switzerland

Recognizing the global demand for diverse and well-educated business leaders, The Richard DeVos Graduate School of Management, Northwood University, and the Hotel Institute Montreux (HIM), have formed a strategic alliance to offer the Master of Business Administration degree. This innovative academic partnership with HIM provides students the opportunity to pursue a world-class, accredited U.S. graduate degree while on HIM’s beautiful Montreux, Switzerland campus.  The program combines Northwood’s academic content and approach with HIM’s first-class student services to offer a unique educational and cultural experience. The accelerated one-year program consists of four, nine-week modules delivered by outstanding DeVos faculty from the United States.dv1

This Full-time program of study is designed for high-caliber students from undergraduate programs and companies across the globe.  The program prepares students to not only survive in today’s complex global economy, but also prepares students to drive change within it. DeVos graduates are poised to excel and surpass their counterparts in their careers more rapidly. We achieve this feat by empowering our students in a truly dynamic student-driven learning approach. With integrated management curricula, DeVos students learn management by practicing management in an interactive format utilizing the signature DeVos Case Study Methodology.

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Course Schedules

The program begins in early September of each year.

Teaching Hours

The program is taught in four modules of nine weeks each. Courses are delivered as two week seminars - e.g., Course I in weeks 2 and 6, Course II in weeks 3 and 7, and Course III in weeks 4 and 8 of each module. Weeks 1, 5, and 9 of each module are dedicated to individual and group deliverables.

Module 1
Week Start Date Course # Course Title
  9/6/2008   Orientation
Week 1 9/8/2008

D-1

Deliverable Week
Week 2 9/15/2008 511 Analysis of Individual Behavior
Week 3 9/22/2008 516 Quantitative Methods & Problem Solving
Week 4 9/29/2008 542 Line of Business Strategy
Week 5 10/6/2008 D-2 Deliverable Week
Week 6 10/13/2008 511 Analysis of Individual Behavior
Week 7 10/20/2008 516 Quantitative Methods & Problem Solving
Week 8 10/27/2008 542 Line of Business Strategy
Week 9 11/3/2008 D-3 Deliverable Week
 
Module 2
Week Start Date Course # Course Title
Week 1 11/10/2008 D-4 Deliverable Week
Week 2 11/17/2008 513 Economic Perspective & Analysis
Week 3 11/24/2008 533 Operations Management
Week 4 12/1/2008 521 Leadership, Management & Influence
Week 5 12/8/2008 D-5 Deliverable Week
Week 6 12/15/2008 513 Economic Perspective & Analysis
  12/20/2008 Break Begins Holiday Break
  1/4/2009 Break Ends Holiday Break
Week 7 1/5/2009 533 Operations Management
Week 8 1/12/2009 521 Leadership, Management & Influence
Week 9 1/19/2009 D-6 Deliverable Week
 
Module 3
Week Start Date Course # Course Title
Week 1 1/26/2009 D-7 Deliverable Week
Week 2 2/2/2009 534 Managerial Economics
Week 3 2/9/2009 531 Managerial Finance
Week 4 2/16/2009 532 Managerial Marketing
Week 5 2/23/2009 D-8 Deliverable Week
Week 6 3/2/2009 534 Managerial Economics
Week 7 3/9/2009 531 Managerial Finance
Week 8 3/16/2009 532 Managerial Marketing
Week 9 3/23/2009 D-9 Deliverable Week
  3/30/2009   Spring Break
 
Module 4
Week Start Date Course # Course Title
Week 1 4/6/2009 D-10 Deliverable Week
Week 2 4/13/2009 551 The Managerial Perspective
Week 3 4/20/2009 541 Corporate Financial Management
Week 4 4/27/2009 552 Corporate Strategy
Week 5 5/4/2009 D-11 Deliverable Week
Week 6 5/11/2009 551 The Managerial Perspective
Week 7 5/18/2009 541 Corporate Financial Management
Week 8 5/25/2009 552 Corporate Strategy
Week 9 6/1/2009 D-12 Deliverable Week
  6/6/2009   Graduation
Online Courses
Module Start Date Course # Course Title
1 & 2 9/6/2008 501 Principles of Accounting
1 & 2 9/6/2008 517 Introduction to Business Simulation
Online Courses
Module Start Date Course # Course Title
3 & 4 1/26/2009 526 Business Management Simulation & Exercises
 
*Changes may be made in the order of courses.
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Required Curriculum
Module 1:9 Weeks Module 2:9 Weeks
  • Analysis of Individual Behavior
  • Quantitative Methods & Problem Solving
  • Line of Business Strategy
  • Economic Perspective & Analysis
  • Managerial Finance
  • Leadership, Management & Influence
  • Principles of Accounting
  • Introduction to Business Simulation
Module 3:9 Weeks Module 4:9 Weeks
  • Managerial Marketing
  • Managerial Economics
  • Operations Management
  • Corporate Strategy
  • Corporate Financial Management
  • The Managerial Perspective
  • Business Management Simulation & Exercises
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Course Descriptions

MBA 501: Principles of Accounting (Pass/Fail) | (Prerequisite to be determined by admissions) | 2 credits
The focus of this course is designed to provide the student with skills required to read and analyze financial information.  Emphasis is placed on the impact that transactions and managerial decisions have on financial statements and the use and evaluation of those financial statements.  This course is designed as a condensed course, either as a refresher-type accounting course or a "first look".  The course avoids the traditional debit/credit approach to learning accounting.  Rather than focus on the "bookkeeping" approach of journal entries, emphasis is placed on the impacts to financial statements.

MBA 511: Analysis of Individual Behavior | 4 credits
The focus of this course is on developing the student's skills to observe and affect individual behavior. The central tenets of the course are to gain the skills necessary to objectively observe individual behavior and to recognize the personal and emergent influencers that drive such behavior. Emphasis is also placed upon gaining the competencies necessary to see/project the implications of behavior on an organization's effectiveness.

MBA 516: Quantitative Methods & Problem Solving | 4 credits
The focus of this course is on developing the student's process and ability to solve problems using quantitative tools, techniques, and analysis to find and fix business and management problems. Specific techniques include classical statistics, decision theory, regression, and simulation. Emphasis is on the interpretation of statistics in a variety of business issues.

MBA 517: Introduction to Business Simulation | 2 credits
The focus of this course is to acquaint students with the use of simulations to provide an opportunity to practice business and managerial skills.  Simulations include group and individual behavior excercises, general business simulations, and games involving logic and critical thinking.

MBA 513: Economic Perspective & Analysis | 4 credits
The focus of this course is on the understanding and application of basic economic principles and concepts that managers need in order to devise and implement operational and strategic plans within their organizations. The course provides an overview of applied microeconomics, macroeconomics, international trade and finance, as well as an introduction to public policy issues.

MBA 521: Leadership, Management & Influence | 4 credits
The focus of this course builds upon the knowledge and skills developed in MBA 511. The student explores the organizational influencers of behavior. The course employs a conceptual framework to integrate these into the mix of personal and emergent influencers that can drive the behavior of individual members of a firm. Central to the course is the acquisition of the leadership and management skills necessary to affect individual behavior to improve organizational performance.

MBA 531: Managerial Finance | 4 credits
The focus of this course is to review tools, concepts, and techniques concerning financial management and introduces the student to the concept of value-based management. Specific topics include financial principles, financial analysis, time value of money, capital structure, working capital management, long-term financing, and financial forecasting.

MBA 532: Managerial Marketing | 4 credits
The focus of this course is to examine the marketing function in firms participating in both consumer and business-to-business markets, with primary emphasis on the concept of marketing management and its organizational role. Analysis of tactical and operating decisions and processes of the marketing function and the implications of such actions upon a firm as a whole are explored. Areas investigated include market and customer information, market segmentation, competitive analysis, market research, sustainable differentiation, and the marketing mix.

MBA 533: Operations Management | 4 credits
The focus of this course is on developing the student's process and ability to solve problems using data and analysis. Emphasis is placed on developing the skills to identify problems, evaluate alternative actions and to justify and defend decisions and recommendations in order to find and fix problems across the organization. Specific topics covered include: a problem solving framework, decision criteria, root cause analysis, relevant costs, and process analysis. The focus of this course is to also develop the skills necessary to investigate and understand the operating process, measure and analyze such a process, and develop and evaluate plans for changing or refining the operating process.

MBA 534: Managerial Economics | 4 credits
The course covers microeconomic concepts relevant to managerial decision-making.  Topics include demand and supply analysis, consumer demand theory, forecasting, productions and cost analysis, market structure, risk analysis and regulatory theory.  Application of the concepts to cases is used for an understanding of the economic tools and their potential use for solving real-world problems.

MBA 541: Corporate Financial Management | 4 credits
The focus of this course is to emphasize value-based management. Specific topics include cost of capital, capital budgeting, valuation, and special topics.

MBA 542: Line of Business Strategy | 4 credits
The primary focus of this course is on achieving sustainable strategic differentiation at the line-of-business level. This requires the simultaneous evaluation and management of the organization's internal (processes, structures, resources) and external (competitors, suppliers, other stakeholders) environment in an effort to satisfy the selected primary customer needs of the line-of-business strategy.

MBA 551: The Managerial Perspective | 4 credits
The focus of this course is to serve as the capstone management course, which focuses on developing the skills to effectively design, staff, and operate a global organization, from the perspective of the general manager. Emphasis is also placed on developing the ability to analyze the ethical implications and tradeoffs of managerial decisions. Human resource management issues are also explored.

MBA 552: Corporate Strategy | 4 credits
Building on line-of-business strategy, this course develops the student's ability to anticipate, evaluate, and respond to stakeholders expectations within a corporate strategy perspective. This requires that the student develop the ability to simultaneously evaluate and manage the organization's internal and external environment. Corporate strategy tasks include: articulating vision, determining shareholder expectations, choosing lines of business in which to operate, establishing boundaries, identifying capabilities and core competencies, acquiring and allocating resources, and managing inter-line of business activity fits and activities.

MBA 526: Business Management Simulation & Exercises | 4credits
The focus of this course is to acquaint students with the use of simulations to provide an opportunity to practice business and managerial skills. The course utilizes a computerized simulation as a vehicle to place the student in the position of making tactical and operational decisions inherent in the marketing management and sales functions. Emphasis is placed upon developing relevant business and management skills necessary to make such decisions and projecting the effects of such decisions on the performance of an organization as a whole. Simulations include group and individual behavior excercises, general business simulations, and games involving logic and critical thinking.
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Program Tuition & Fees

Fees (U.S. Students)*

Semester 1 (2) 9 Week Modules $23,900
  Additional Charges $2,300
 
Semester 2 (2) 9 Week Modules $23,900
  Additional Charges $2,300
 
MBA Degree Program Total (U.S. Funds) $52,400

Fees (All Other Students)

Semester 1    (2) 9 Week Modules CHF 23.900
  Additional Charges CHF 2.300
 
Semester 2 (2) 9 Week Modules CHF 23.900
  Additional Charges CHF 2.300
 
MBA Degree Programme Total CHF 52.400

* Financial aid available to those that qualify.

Included in Semester Fees: tuition, accommodation (double standard), and meals

Included in additional charges: Enrollment fees/documents, introduction weekend, instructional materials, visitor tax, residence permit, student card, medical insurance, VAT, facilities including library services, internet, gym, etc.
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Contact Information

Academics, Graduate
4000 Whiting Drive
Midland, MI 48640
Phone: 800.MBA.9000
Send Email

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