Master of Management in Hospitality (MMH)
Degree Requirements

The Dean’s Distinguished Lecture Series (DDLS) provides a unique opportunity for successful industry leaders to share their experiences with MMH students in a small group setting. Speakers will share their views about the successful skillsets, temperaments, and leadership styles needed to be an effective and valuable executive. They will also focus on critical industry-related issues. The speakers are chosen by the SHA dean for their knowledge, experience, and proven success in the hospitality industry. This course will give you have an unparalleled opportunity to learn how hospitality executives view the current and future status of the industry.

The Leadership Development Program (LDP) is an industry-focused, experiential course. Learn more about hospitality industry experiences in the MMH program here.

Operations Management is designed to address the key operational and logistical issues that have strategic as well as tactical implications for hospitality and related service-sector companies. In this course, we will address how a well-defined operations strategy can lead to a set of coherent managerial decisions and improve corporate performance. Several world-class firms have demonstrated that efficient operations can become a potent, competitive weapon in even the toughest business environments. Throughout the course we will focus on key quantitative and data-driven techniques to assess operational performance and improve decision making.

Corporate Finance builds on prerequisite courses. Topics include applications of discounting techniques, evaluation of capital expenditures, estimation of cost of capital, bond and stock valuation, portfolio theory, asset-pricing models, and capital-structure decisions. The course emphasizes valuation skills as a means to bring together the cost of capital, financing, and operating issues faced by a firm. You will come to understand the financial impact of managerial decisions and know how to differentiate decisions that increase the value of a firm and to properly evaluate investment and financing decisions. You’ll also learn standard techniques of financial analysis, such as discounted cash-flow valuation, capital budgeting, risk analysis, and estimation of the cost of debt and equity.

Marketing Management for Services covers the fundamental principles, frameworks, and processes for designing marketing strategies and solving marketing problems with a focus on the unique challenges faced by service organizations. You will examine theories and practices for segmenting and targeting markets, understanding and influencing consumer behavior, managing brands, developing products, designing pricing approaches, creating marketing communications, managing distribution channels, and analyzing customer satisfaction, loyalty, and equity. The course focuses on best-in-class techniques and practices for services-marketing analysis, planning, and implementation and for ethical decision-making in dynamic business contexts.

Organizational leaders in the hospitality industry depend on written, visual, and oral messages to solve problems and to accomplish professional goals within the workplace. Students learn to think critically, ethically, and strategically about communication in a variety of contexts and for a variety of purposes; for example, proposing an idea and addressing real ethical challenges that may occur in a crisis situation. Students will practice communication principles, such as developing and supporting an argument and crafting clear, concise messages.

As part of the Leadership and Ethics course, students will complete the Leadership Development Program during which a group of senior executives from the hospitality industry visit Cornell to evaluate MMH students as individuals and as part of a team. They assess how well you are able to lead, take direction, work with others, present ideas, and listen to others’ ideas. At the end of the class, one or more of the industry “coaches” meet with you individually and in teams to evaluate performance. This centerpiece of the orientation process is designed to outline some of the personal and career goals students will want to work toward in the coming year.

The Leadership Development Program (LDP) is an industry-focused, experiential course. Learn more about hospitality industry experiences in the MMH program here.

During your first semester you can take up to 1.5 elective credits to narrow your studies or begin working toward a specialization.

Learn more about specializations here.

This introduction to managerial accounting, which is the use of accounting information for decision making and control, covers cost behavior, cost classification, cost-volume-profit analysis, product costing, budgeting, variance analysis, cost estimation, cost allocations, customer-profitability analysis, managerial control systems, and performance measurement.

Properties Development and Planning serves as an overview of hospitality project development and planning from the perspective of an owner and manager. You will learn about the role of the development team, feasibility studies, space programming, construction and renovation management, and functional and design criteria for hotels and restaurants. Teams will prepare program documentation for a new lodging property or concept.

This course examines the primary role of the Human Resources Management function in hospitality organizations: to implement policies, practices, and systems for attracting, selecting, developing, and retaining quality employees. Effective functional performance ensures strategic alignment, enhances competitive capabilities, and adds tangible value for all stakeholders.

The MMH Master Class is an experiential-learning course through which students apply knowledge to a real-world setting in the form of a consulting project for a sponsor hospitality organization. The class involves guided discussions on topics related to the consulting process, strategic management, the industry vertical and business context in which the hospitality firm competes, and financial, marketing, and operational issues to direct project scoping, analysis, and reporting. Students have the opportunity to engage with industry executives, explore opportunities, and present solutions to management during a multi-day immersion held at the site of the sponsor organization.

The Master Class is an industry-focused, experiential course. Learn more about hospitality industry experiences in the MMH program here.

During your second semester you can take up to 7.5 elective credits to narrow your studies or continue working toward a specialization.

Learn more about specializations here.

This course examines competitive strategies, cooperative strategies, and growth strategies within the hospitality industries and beyond. The goal is to develop a mastery of the strategic issues facing hospitality as well as important new qualitative tools to perform analyses. Using a case-based approach, the course focuses not only on hospitality, but also on other industries, allowing for thinking “outside the box” and development of novel solutions not possible by studying hospitality alone. The course integrates knowledge from all previous MMH courses including marketing, finance, organizational behavior, and human resources.

Finish out MMH degree requirements with up to 15 elective credits, ensuring that you have completed the minimum of 48 credits for the program. You can pick your final electives to round out your knowledge in your area of specialization.

Learn more about specializations here.