Program Curriculum

This course is tailored for individuals currently working in or contemplating working in a family business, either as a family member or a non-family executive. The material covered also gives a greater understanding of the dynamics of family business for current or future private and investment bankers, family office professionals, accountants, lawyers, and other service professionals working closely with families of wealth in the region.

This course provides students with a comprehensive and most up-to-date understanding of family office and insiders’ view and practical aspects of family offices, especially Asian family offices. The course will address questions based on extensive research and the latest case studies on family offices in Asia and around the world by the instructor.

The course equips students with the specialized knowledge and skills needed to address the increasing complexity faced by family businesses and family offices in managing wealth, family relationships and family legacy across generations. Students will learn the key elements of effective family governance, analyze influencing factors, and develop competencies to establish robust governance frameworks. The course prepares graduates to serve as trusted advisors/family professionals and support/drive the smooth generational transitions for wealthy families.

This course describes the wide spectrum of investment strategies, ranging from those focusing on financial returns and others focusing on social returns. It provides students with knowledge of the current trend in impact investing and philanthropy, how it influences firms and the society, and the challenges faced by firms and the financial industry, with a focus on family office.

This course offers a comprehensive exploration of wealth management, encompassing strategies and techniques. Students will delve into advanced topics in financial planning, investment management, risk assessment, and estate planning from asset owners’ perspectives. Special focus will be placed on mastering the framework and practical skills required to develop effective asset allocations. 

Use of accounting data in decision-making, financial planning, control, and performance evaluation within organizations.

This course aims to introduce students to key financial concepts and theories, and show students how to apply them in real life. Valuation of cash flow streams (PV of cash flow streams, annuities, and perpetuities); valuation of bonds; valuation of stocks using dividend discount model; capital budgeting decisions (NPV, IRR, payback); capital structure; limits to the use of debt (trade-off models); estimation of cost of debt and equity; WACC; terminal value.

This course provides students with knowledge of the legal structures (including family office, family investment funds and family trusts) used for wealth management, succession planning and tax planning. It also discusses governance issues of these structures, philanthropic structures and other succession planning tools, and relevant trust laws, financial regulations and tax rules.  

This course is intended to introduce students to the legal and regulatory issues surrounding alternative methods of dispute resolution aside from litigation. Specifically, the course focuses on the practical factors relevant to selecting appropriate dispute resolution methods in resolving conflicts in distinct circumstances, within family businesses. 

This course explores the complexities of relationship dynamics and conflict resolution in family businesses and family offices. Students will develop awareness and sensitivity to intra-generational and trans-generational relationship dynamics, acquire practical conflict resolution skills, and enhance self-awareness to manage interpersonal challenges effectively. The course integrates theoretical frameworks with practical tools and strategies, enabling students to navigate complex family relationships while fostering harmony and collaboration.

The goal of this course is to provide students with understanding and insight into a set of leadership challenges facing all businesses and organizations in the world today. This course will identify how privately-held family businesses may need to understand and address these challenges differently from other types of business organizations.

This course provides students with knowledge about how family office can adopt an Integral Approach and combine tangible (such as legal, financial and operational) and intangible (such as relational, emotional and spiritual/transpersonal) aspects in its service provision. Students will get first-hand exposure in the form of self-reflection workshops, individual sharing and group project works.

This course aims to provide students with a holistic introduction to the alternative investment ecosystem, covering sectors such as private equity, venture capital, real estate, infrastructure, private credit, hedge funds, secondaries, royalties, and others.

This course is designed to give students a comprehensive understanding of the unique dynamics and challenges faced by family offices and businesses. This course offers a deep dive into the intricacies of managing and operating these specialized entities while emphasizing the importance of effective project management and problem-solving skills. By engaging in real business projects, students will not only apply their knowledge but also develop a comprehensive understanding of family office and family business dynamics.

The FOFB Practicum is a unique opportunity for students in the program to gain practical experience and apply their knowledge in a professional setting. By completing the Practicum, students will be equipped with practical experience, enhanced professional skills, and a deeper understanding of the complexities and challenges of family office and family business management.

This is an integrated multidisciplinary course on Chinese culture, aiming to provide students with a broad understanding of the perspectives and methodologies of humanistic studies on Chinese culture across various disciplines, including history, anthropology, literature, linguistics, philosophy and religion. Emphasis will be put on the introduction of fundamental concepts and general methodological/theoretical underpinnings of the studies of Chinese culture in humanities perspective. This is a compulsory foundation course for all students in the MA program in Chinese Culture.

This course provides students with an overview of the underlying information technologies used in the finance, banking, and insurance industries. The course covers the critical business, legal and technology issues and the related risks faced by corporate executives when analyzing, designing, launching and managing Financial Technology projects to drive business innovations.

Major techniques and approaches to the development and implementation of corporate strategies. Underlying concepts, analytical techniques, internal and external competitor analysis and evaluation of strategic options.

This course is designed to prepare business managers to succeed as members of a merger and acquisition project team. Students will be able to work out how merger and acquisition can help to achieve the strategy, to know how merger and acquisition transactions work in practice from search to merger integration, to get insight into the particular opportunities and challenges of merger and acquisition, and to apply this thinking in a team environment.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been heralded as one of the next great phases of human advancement. The practical applications of AI are extremely vast and touch almost every aspect of business and society. As with any major technology revolution, it presents both immense opportunities, as well as significant challenges. This course will aim to provide students with an overview of the main branches of AI as well as explore use cases and practical business implementation within different industries and technologies to better understand the coming AI Human-centric revolution. We will also discuss how the recent pandemic has influenced AI development and given rise to new business use cases. After the course, the students will be able to identify and leverage AI to enhance and/or disrupt business models and whole industries while keeping in mind social and ethical dimensions for the greater good of the world. The course is also intended to aid the thinking and personal development of students so that they are better able to adapt to the future job market and shape the societal systems of tomorrow.