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Successful commercial real estate developers are master coordinators, working with multiple counterparts every step of the way to create and maximize value through real estate projects. To do this, they use a thoughtful, organized process—regardless of project size.

Based on the research and expertise of John Hausknecht, Ph.D., you will evaluate the possibility of working with or without a system, identify the properties and benefits of different systems, and explore different approaches to performance management. Steps to mitigate risk will be outlined, common rating and feedback errors will be examined, and support in delivering feedback will be provided using tools such as a Communication Plan. With the completion of an action plan at the end of the course, you will be ready to apply what you learn to your own organization.

The hotel asset manager is responsible for managing lodging investments to meet specific objectives. Their role in building value is analyzed at both the portfolio and the property level. In this course, Professor deRoos focuses on the importance of developing a strategic vision for asset management and explores the latest asset management techniques in pursuit of that strategic vision.

Your new project not only needs funding—it needs the right type of funding. You need to know how to choose between debt and equity funding, and when to consider acquiring funds from capital markets. These outside funding sources will have their own expectations for rates of return, and the cost of this funding is driven by a number of external factors such as the state of the economy and the industry.

Investing in proper management of a real estate asset is investing in future profitability. Excellent maintenance and tenant management can increase property values by lowering operational costs, increasing cash flow, and generating higher rents and occupancies.

The key to financial success for any business is choosing the right projects to pursue at the right time, for the right price and with the right financing structure.

Managers must foster a good workplace atmosphere and be able to deal effectively with behavior issues as they arise. Doing so improves productivity and employee engagement and helps an organization avoid costly legal liability.

In this course, you will learn about perceptual and psychological processes that impact the way that individuals interact with people who are demographically dissimilar from them. You will examine psychological processes that impact personnel decision making within organizations. This understanding will help HR professionals to design better practices and will help line managers to more effectively leverage the potential among employees from diverse backgrounds. The course will also help you understand why “Diversity” is now often referred to as “Diversity & Inclusion” by explaining what inclusion is and how it differs from diversity. Why is inclusion so important, and what are its building blocks?

Managing a business means managing its financial resources, regardless of your job title. Your ability to make smart decisions about projects relies on your understanding of timelines and cash-flow calculations to track cash flow and payments, the value of securities and investments, and how to determine overall cost effectiveness. To do this, you need a good working knowledge of a number of financial concepts.

For a hotel investment to be successful, you must first have accurate and reliable data about the critical aspects of the hotel operation, such as occupancy, revenue, expenses, and cash flows. But how do you generate these detailed forecasts? In this course, Cornell University professor Jan deRoos leads you through this analysis using the Hotel Valuation Software he developed with HVS International.

Real estate development projects have many moving pieces; the project manager guides and aligns resources to bring those pieces together into a coherent, financially successful whole.

The sheer variety of sources and types of data that can aid in decision making are almost overwhelming. The key to making good use of the data lies in knowing what specifically to pay attention to, understanding the relationships and variables among the data, and making the right connections. Experience is essential to knowing and making educated guesses about what to pay attention to. Familiarity with statistical methods will provide you with a significant advantage over relying on gut instinct alone.

A company's financial performance, and its ability to grow and thrive over time, can be assessed through ratio analysis, the basic evaluation tool for asset management, solvency and profitability. Whether you are managing the financial performance of a department, unit, or the organization as a whole, working with these ratios can help identify opportunities and allow you to make adjustments to improve performance.

Real estate investment has a long history, going back well before the advent of the stock market. But unlike investing in stocks, real estate usually requires the use of leverage: a property is acquired with a percentage of equity, the rest financed with debt. To make that risk pay off, investors must have a clear strategy, know whether investments will be profitable, and understand how best to raise capital. In this course, Jan A. deRoos, professor at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, uses real-world examples and practical tools to teach these critical components of profitable real estate investment.