BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION CSS SYLLABUS (100 MARKS)

I. Management

• Defining Organization, Management, and Management in Organizations
• Four Management Functions, Management Roles, Management Skills
• Organizational Internal-External Environment
• Management Planning, Goal Setting, and Decision Making
• Strategic Management Process: Strategy Formulation and Implementation
• Developing Organizational Structure and Design
• Designing Adaptive Organizations
• Managing Change and Innovation
• Leadership and Motivation

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II. HR Management

• Role of Human Resource Management in Organizational Performance
• Functions of HRM
• Process and Methods of Job Analysis
• Planning and Forecasting Personnel Needs
• Recruitment and Selection
• Training and Development
• Performance Management and Appraisal: Methods and Processes
• Establishing Strategic Pay Plans
• Compensation and Benefits
• Ethics, Justice, and Fair Treatment in HR Management
• Labor Relations and Collective Bargaining

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III. Financial Management

• An Overview of Financial Management
  • Introduction and significance of financial markets
  • Differentiation between real assets and financial assets
  • Types of Financial Markets
  • Role of capital and money markets in economic development
  • Organizational goals and shareholder wealth maximization perspective
• Time Value of Money
  • Cost of money and factors affecting the cost
  • Interest rate fundamentals and determinants of market interest rate
  • Role of time value of money in finance
  • Concept of future value and present value
  • Making timelines, annuities, perpetuities, and mixed cash flows
  • Present and future value of cash flow streams
  • Compounding interest (discrete and continuous)
  • Loan amortization
• Analysis and Interpretation of Financial Statements
  • Reading financial statements
  • Horizontal and vertical analysis (common size, ratio, trend analysis)
  • Forecasting financials for decision making
  • Evaluating credit, management, profitability, and risk
• Risk, Return, and Introduction to Pricing
  • Measures of risks and return
  • Investment return and expected rate of return
  • Standalone risk (standard deviation and coefficient of variation)
  • Risk aversion and required rate of return
  • Portfolio risk: diversifiable vs. market risk
  • Security Market Line and CAPM
  • Calculating WACC
  • Discounting for price determination
• Cash Flow and Budgeting
  • Significance of budgeting
  • Making cash budgets and financial forecasts
  • Profit vs. cash flow
  • Reading and analyzing cash flow statements
• Capital Budgeting
  • Significance of capital budgeting
  • Cash flow calculations (incremental cash flows)
  • Capital budgeting decision rules (NPV, IRR, MIRR)
  • Finding optimal capital structure
  • Calculating appropriate discount rates
  • Capital rationing

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IV. Operations and Supply Chain Management

a. Operations Management

• Operations & Productivity
  • Role and significance of OM
  • Future trends and differences between goods and services
• Operations Strategy in Global Environment
  • Developing mission & OM strategies
  • Critical Success Factors (CSF) and aligning core competencies
• Process Strategy
  • Four process strategies
  • Process analysis and design, mapping, flow diagrams
  • Process re-engineering
• Capacity Planning
  • Design and effective capacity
  • Capacity planning (leading vs. lagging strategies)
  • Single & multiple product break-even analysis
• Location Strategies
  • Factors affecting location decisions
  • Methods for evaluating location alternatives
• Layout Strategies
  • Types of layout and design methods
• Inventory Management
  • Role of inventory, models, and systems (EOQ, safety stock, service level)

b. Supply Chain Management

• Introduction to Supply Chain Management and Logistics
  • Objectives, importance, and decision phases
• Supply Chain Performance
  • Achieving strategic fit and related challenges
• Supply Chain Drivers
  • Facilities, inventory, information, transportation, sourcing, pricing
• Balancing Supply and Demand
  • Bullwhip effect and demand collaboration
• Supply Chain Coordination
  • Obstacles and managerial solutions
• IT in Supply Chain Management
  • Role of IT, CRM, and risk management

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V. Marketing

• Introduction to Marketing
• Developing Marketing Strategies and Plans
• Scanning the Marketing Environment
• Analyzing Consumer Markets
• Market Segmentation
• Managing Marketing Information
• Branding
• Product Life Cycle
• Pricing
• Managing Distribution Channels
• Integrated Marketing Communications