Course: ACCTG 321 Cyber – Strategic Management & Cost Control Systems

Lawrence Zmerega
School of Accounting – Golden Gate University Graduate School of Business

Contact Information
Email: l.zmerega@gmail.com
Office Hours: virtually by appointment – please email me

1. Course Description

This is an advanced accounting course with an emphasis on understanding organizational strategy

around cost analysis and controls. Students will be introduced to various Strategic Cost
Management concepts via a series of case studies and discussions. Topics include: i) Value Chain
Analysis; ii) Strategic Position Analysis; iii) Cost Driver Analysis; iv) Profit Variance Analysis; v)
Activity-based costing; and vi) Ethical considerations and Strategic Cost Management.

Prerequisites:
 Acctg 320: Issues in Modern Management Accounting
 Acctg 351A: Economics, Finance and International Business for Accountants

2. Course Objectives

a. To develop an understanding of strategic cost management concepts, frameworks,

and applications.
b. To begin developing the skills necessary to interpret complex financial and operational data
that can drive recommendations to internal & external stakeholders
c. To understand that many times there is not one “right” answer, while recognizing common
pitfalls and challenges in conventional cost management
d. To develop a fine business and finance acumen necessary to interpreting strategic level
issues impacting an organization
e. To develop communication skills necessary to succeed in a strategic analysis capacity

3. Required Materials

 Primarily Strategic Cost Management: The New Tool For Competitive Advantage, Shank
and Govindarajan [ISBN 10: 1439150362]. I will also assign articles and other readings
throughout the course.

University Library

The Golden Gate University Library is an excellent resource for researching various topics.
Remote (off campus) access to the library requires your last name and student ID# (located on
the front of your ID card). Be sure to type in ALL 7 digits, including the leading 0.

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4. Course Requirements, Procedure & Student Responsibilities

Participation: Every CyberCampus course includes a web-based discussion area, where you
interact with your instructor and classmates. The discussion simulates traditional classroom
interaction, except that participation is asynchronous. This means that students can visit or
contribute to the discussion at any time. Most weeks will have a participation component that will
consist of web-based discussions and/or homework that is to be submitted via Dropbox or email.

Participating in online discussions is easy. All you need is the browser you are using to view this
page. No other software or plug-ins is required.

Each of you should participate in class discussions based on the weekly lessons and other
materials posted. Online participation may actually be more important than in the live classroom,
since participation is your chief opportunity to communicate your understanding of the material.

Sustained participation will earn a maximum of 325 points. Consistent participation may enable you
to move up from one letter grade to another; conversely, participation that is inconsistent, untimely,
or nonexistent may diminish the final letter grade.

Participation runs from Sunday to End of Day Saturday PST - following the schedule of the
weekly lessons. Students must post to the discussions by EOD Saturday PST to receive credit.
For weeks where participation consists of online discussions, active participation requires each
student to add value to a discussion. A mere sentence stating a truism without amplification or
support is equivalent to no participation. Likewise, a statement that a student agrees with another
participant, without expansion of the idea, is not participation. However, asking a good question
about something you are having trouble understanding can be very good participation.

Exams: The Midterm and Final exams will be comprehensive – that is, they will be based on all
materials learned to that date. The exams will be case studies and/or problems that require
responses in complete sentence/paragraph form. The Midterm Exam will be individual-based in a
proctored format (via ProctorU). The Final Exam (Capstone Project) will be take-home.

5. Grading Policy Distribution – Online Discussions

90%-80%-70%-60% breakdown for A, B, C and D categories:

Grade Skills
A Contributions are prompt, timely, relevant, self-initiated; remarks are raised
freely on all assignments throughout the course; there is no attempt to
dominate conversation; high acumen of subject matter/relevant application
B Student generally keeps up with the discussion. Needs some prompting to
contribute.
C Participation is spotty; picks and chooses topics to get involved.
Demonstrates little initiative.
D Some participation, makes relevant remarks
F No participation

6. Grading Policy Distribution – Overall Course

Grading Percentage
A 90% - 100%
B 80% - 89.9%
C 70% - 79.9%
D 60% - 69.9%
F 0% - 59.9%

+ and – grades will be assigned as applicable.

7. Grading Categories

CATEGORY POINTS
Discussion & Participation (13 weeks, 25 points each) 325
Mid-term 300
Capstone Project 375
Total Points 1000

Please note that unexcused late work is never accepted. Acceptable excuses are medical or of a
similar nature.

8. Academic Integrity

Students are responsible for adhering to University standards of academic integrity (as set forth in
the Golden Gate University Catalog). All students are responsible for understanding what
constitutes academic dishonesty which includes but is not limited to both cheating and plagiarism.
Students are responsible for understanding what plagiarism is and how to avoid unintentional
plagiarism by carefully following accepted scholarly practices- accurately recording sources of
materials to be cited, quoted, paraphrased, or summarized, and acknowledging these sources in
accepted documentation formats.

Plagiarism is the intentional or negligent presentation of another person's idea or product as one's
own. It includes but is not limited to:

* Copying all or part of another person's written work without proper citation or attribution

* Representing as one's own specific phrases, sentences, paragraphs, or the specific substance
of another person's work without giving appropriate credit

* Paraphrasing another person's original ideas, theories, explanations, examples, models,

principles, research issues and strategies, cases, conclusions, etc. without proper
attribution

* Representing as one's own another person's computer programs, web content or designs,
graphic or artistic works, mathematical or scientific solutions, charts, tables, figures, or
illustrations in any medium.

All work submitted by students in this class (including but not limited to, comments, postings,
charts, examples, problem set solutions, and exam answers) must either be the product of the
student's own words, understanding or work, or must have credit attributable to the original source.
Students may post content from another source verbatim so long as the original source is given
credit. It is generally suggested that a higher learning outcome is achieved by a student who has to
synthesize information from different sources and express an understanding in his or her own
words. The process of synthesizing and paraphrasing also allows the student the step of self-
assessing their real understanding of what they have just read.

9. Instructor Bio

Lawrence Zmerega:

I am a licensed CPA/CMA/CFM/CGMA/CFE/FCPA. I began my career with KPMG in Silicon

Valley. I have spent the past few years in the accounting and finance consulting space, primarily
assisting hedge funds and other alternative investments entities. I hold an MBA from Oxford
University in England and Bachelor/Master of Accountancy degrees from the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign.
10. Course Outline

Broadly speaking, we will follow this sequence.

Session Topic

Session one  Lesson 1: Introduction to Strategic Cost Management

 Shank reading: Chapter 1: An Introduction to Strategic Cost
Management: New Wine, or Just New Bottles?

Session two  Lesson 2: Three Themes to Strategic Cost Management

 Shank reading: Chapter 2: Strategic Cost Management: 3 Themes

Session three  Lesson 3A: Conventional vs. Strategic Cost Analysis

 Shank reading: Chapter 3: Demonstrating Strategic
Versus Conventional Analysis: A Peek at the SCM
Themes
Session four  Lesson 3B: Conventional vs. Strategic Cost Analysis

Session five  Lesson 4: Value Chain Concept & Managing Costs

 Shank reading: Chapter 4: The Value Chain Concept: The First
Key to Effective Cost Management

Session six  Lesson 5: Cost Analysis Consideration in Value Chain Analysis

 Shank reading: Chapter 5: Cost Analysis Considerations and
Managerial Applications of Value Chains: An Extended Field
Study
Session seven  MIDTERM

Session eight  Lesson 6: Strategic Positioning

 Shank reading: Chapter 6: Explicit Attention to Strategic
Positioning: The Second Key to Strategic Cost
Management
Session nine  Lesson 7: A Strategic Perspective on Cost Management Tools
 Shank reading: Chapter 7: Profit Variance Analysis: A
Strategic Perspective on a Common Cost Analysis Tool

Session ten  Lesson 8: Non-Financial Performance Measures

 Shank reading: Chapter 9: Nonfinancial Performance Measures:
Another Key to Strategically Adapted Cost Management

Session eleven  Lesson 9: Third Key to Strategic Cost Management

 Shank reading: Chapter 9: What Drives Cost? The Third Key
to Strategic Cost Management

Session twelve  Lesson 10: Activity Based Costing

 Shank reading: Chapter 11: Activity-Based Costing:
Theory, Practice, & Limitation

Session thirteen  Lesson 11: Contemporary Strategic Analysis

 Shank reading: Competitive Strategy In the Age of the Customer

Session fourteen  Lesson 12: Company-Level Analysis & Closing Comments

Session fifteen  CAPSTONE PROJECT