HARVARD UNIVERSITY

EXTENSION SCHOOL
MGMT E-2620
BUSINESS ANALYSIS AND VALUATION
Fall 2015 SEMESTER
(Preliminary)

Faculty
Lecturer Ned Gandevani, MBA, PhD
Office Phone: 617-603-6951
Cellular Phone: 617-910-6256
E-mail: Gandevani@fas.harvard.edu
Office hours: Tuesdays 5 to 5:30 and 7:30 to 8 pm

Teaching Assistant Mr. Kanwar S. Anand

Phone: (804) 512-4078
Email:kanwar_singh@g.harvard.edu
Live online webinar: Saturdays 7 pm - 8 pm EST.

Course Description
Financial statements are important sources of insight as to the financial health, prospects, and
value of a company. But just how accurate are these reports? Is management's view trustworthy
or biased? What are the warnings? This course introduces a framework for the analysis of
financial statements and financial plans, with particular focus on their usefulness in valuing and
financing companies and evaluating corporate and management performance. (4 credits)

Course Format
The course format will be based on the assigned readings, exercises, and cases from the
textbook. The homework and cases should enhance your understanding and comprehension of
the material in the textbook. In addition, the cases should provide a link from the classroom to
relevant business situations and problems.

Online option in on-campus courses

This course meets on campus each week, and the lectures are videotaped and posted online. If
you enroll in courses with an online option, you can attend lectures in person; watch them online
at your convenience, or both.

Prerequisite
Since this is very similar to a second year MBA course that builds on what was covered a
number of core courses, a successful completion of graduate level finance and accounting
courses is also required here: Financial Accounting Principles MGMT E-1000. Managerial
finance MGMT E-2020, Financial Statements Analysis and Valuation MGMT E-2600, and
Corporate Finance MGMT E-2700 are helpful.

Course Materials
Required: Financial Reporting, Financial Statement Analysis and Valuation, 8th Edition
James M. Wahlen, Stephen P. Baginski, Mark Bradshaw
ISBN-10: 1285190904
ISBN-13: 9781285190907
2015

Exams
There will be a mid-term and final examination in this course. Exams will be worth 60% towards
your final course grade. These exams will occur on the date indicated on the syllabus, unless
otherwise noted. The midterm exam will be online. The final exam will have two parts; online
and take-home. The take-home project should be submitted on the date indicated on the
syllabus.
Note: the undergrad students may have a different take-home project from graduate students.

Homework and Case Assignments

Students are expected to review and complete homework and case assignments using the
information that is provided below. These assignments will be worth 40% towards your final
course grade: Each weekly assignment should be submitted to Canvas, the course website on
the appropriate due date. No late submission is accepted.

Grading
The maximum score in this class is 1,000 points. The categories, which contribute to your final
grade, are weighted as follows.

Assignment Points Weighting

Case Assignments and 400 40%

Problems
Mid-term Exam (online) 250 25%

Final Exam (Parts A & B) 350 35%

Participation Bonus Credit 50 5%

Total 1050 105%

 Letter Grade Grade %
A 94 100%
A- 90 93.9%
B+ 87 89.9%
B 83 86.9%
B- 80 82.9%
C+ 77 79.9%
C 73 76.9%
C- 70 72.9%
F Below 70%

Disability Services Office

The Extension School is committed to providing an accessible academic community. The
Disability Services Office offers a variety of accommodations and services to students with
documented disabilities. Please visit www.extension.harvard.edu/resources-
policies/resources/disability-services-accessibility for more information.

Academic Honesty
The Harvard University Extension School expects students to understand and maintain high
standards of academic honesty. Examples of academic misconduct include, but are not limited
to, the following: plagiarism, cheating and computer network abuse. All work submitted to meet
the course requirements is expected to be the students own work. In the preparation of work
submitted to meet course requirements, students are expected to distinguish their own ideas
and language from information derived from other sources. Without prior written approval by
both instructors, students may not submit the same material for two courses.

You are responsible for understanding Harvard Extension School policies on academic integrity
(www.extension.harvard.edu/resources-policies/student-conduct/academic-integrity) and how to
use sources responsibly. Not knowing the rules, misunderstanding the rules, running out of
time, submitting "the wrong draft", or being overwhelmed with multiple demands are not
acceptable excuses. There are no excuses for failure to uphold academic integrity. To support
your learning about academic citation rules, please visit the Harvard Extension School Tips to
Avoid Plagiarism (www.extension.harvard.edu/resources-policies/resources/tips-avoid-
plagiarism), where you'll find links to the Harvard Guide to Using Sources and two, free, online
15-minute tutorials to test your knowledge of academic citation policy. The tutorials are
anonymous open-learning tools.

Expectations and Assumptions

It is important to your success in this course to remain current with the readings, homework and
case assignments. Please be prepared to discuss the assigned readings, cases and homework.
Homework, case assignments and examinations will occur on the date indicated on the
syllabus. The submission of late case assignments or an unexcused absence from an
examination will not be accepted. I will have office hours by appointment throughout the
semester. My office hours in campus are 30 minutes before and after each class.
Students Participation
To help students to gain a better learning experience, I offer 50 points bonus credit for
attendance and participation. Students do no need this to obtain a full credit for the course.
However, its offered as a bonus for those students who participate in one of the four ways listed
below:
1. Weekly in person class attendance in campus.
2. Weekly online class attendance; must be active in chat room to gain any credit.
3. Weekly attendance and asking questions in Sections conducted by TAs, at least one per
week.
4. Posting a detailed summary for each chapter with proper APA format in-text and end-text
citations in Canvas

Undergrad Students
Students who have signed up as an undergraduate course will need to take Part A of the final
exam only.

Lesson Plan

WEEK DATE TOPIC READINGS ASSIGNMENT

1 9/1/2015 Overview of Financial Chapter 1
Reporting, Financial
Statement Analysis, and
Valuation
2 9/8/2015 Asset and Liability Chapter 2 TBD
Valuation and Income
Recognition
3 9/15/2015 Income Flows versus Cash Chapter 3 TBD
Flows: Understanding the
Statement of Cash Flows
4 9/22/2015 Forecasting Financial Chapter 10 TBD
Statements
5 9/29/2015 Forecasting Financial Chapter 10
Statements
6 10/06/2015 Risk-Adjusted Expected Chapter 11 TBD
Rates of Return and the
Dividends Valuation
Approach
7 10/13/2015 MIDTERM ONLINE EXAM: Chapters 1,2,3,10, & 11
8 10/20/2015 Risk-Adjusted Expected Chapter 11 TBD
Rates of Return and the
Dividends Valuation
Approach
9 10/27/2015 Valuation: Cash-Flow Chapter 12 TBD
Based Approaches
10 11/03/2015 Valuation: Cash-Flow Chapter 12
Based Approaches
11 11/10/2015 Valuation: Earnings-Based Chapter 13 TBD
Approaches
12 11/17/2015 Valuation: Earnings-Based Chapter 13
Approaches
13 11/24/2015 Valuation: Market-Based Chapter 14 TBD
Approaches
14 12/01/2015 Valuation: Market-Based Chapter 14
Approaches
15 12/08/2015 Final Review
16 12/15/2015 Due Date for Online and Take Home Parts of FINAL EXAM Final
Exam Covers Chapters 1, 2, 3, 10, 11,12, 13 & 14