MANAGEMENT OF FINANCIAL AND INSURANCE FIRMS

1. Knowledge and understanding: Each student must be able to handle the issues of the course, to fully understand the main concepts and peculiarities that underline the logics of financial and insurance firms. He/she must demonstrate a good understanding and knowledge of the analysis and the competitive dynamics of the financial services industry, with particular attention to the dynamics of globalization, virtualization, and (de)regulation processes, the strategies and management of financial and insurance firms, as well as to develop advanced critical thinking skills and reasoning on the theoretical and practical arguments discussed in the class. Each student must be able to report his/her knowledge of the issues contained in the individual teaching modules with the proper language and technical knowledge and the ability to develop new and creative ideas on the topics discussed in the class. Finally, this course is oriented to combine different teaching methods that are aimed to guide the students to develop both inductive-deductive and deductive-inductive logical processes. The exam is not located in the final phase of the course; during the entire course an accurate and continuous check of the understanding and effective acquisition of knowledge gradually transmitted to the students will be made, thereby stimulating fruitful and active student participation.

2. Applying knowledge and understanding: Particular attention is paid to future graduates, who are called to deal with the professional problems aforementioned, often under different assumptions or in different contexts, including cross- and interdisciplinary settings. In order to do so, the instructor uses a teaching methodology oriented to instill the analytical tools and concepts offered during the course, aimed at the development of critical thinking skills in the student in a continuous process of analysis and synthesis, presenting cases in the classroom, guiding the study and analysis with the help of the appropriate teaching tools and technologies. The teacher will verify the actual acquisition of these skills by the students, including the critical and constructive discussions with students.

3. Making judgments: The development of the autonomous critical thinking skills in the context of the issues offered is one of the main learning objectives of the course. A good acquisition of the theoretical knowledge and operational capabilities of the program outline is not sufficient for a complete education of the student if such preparation is not accompanied by the acquisition of a thorough, independent, socially and morally responsible assessment capacity, of framing, and solving a problem, proposing models that are considered the more appropriate to the analysis of the financial problems considered. Such awareness will serve as a guide for teachers throughout the topical curriculum, making them interact with students in a constructive logic, in order to stimulate in all teaching phases their capacity of reflection, acquisition and interpretation of the information needed and of the essential data for managing complex issues, the construction and understanding of formal models, both descriptive and prescriptive. Particular attention is paid, therefore, to the training for searching the most appropriate economic and financial information sources, such as specific publications, databases, websites, and so on, and the correct interpretation and elaboration of the data collected for their proper use in today’s reality.

4. Communication skills: The student is placed in the condition to relate and to transfer to third parties, including non-specialists, with clarity, precision and mastery of expression and appropriate technical language, information, analysis, value judgments, projects and proposals relating to the most complex financial issues, business and market conditions. In doing so, the student will know how to explain the motives and assumptions of such complex issues. It is not enough, in fact, to know how to build a fair representation of the problem addressed; the student needs also to know how to justify why the specific problem occurs, by explaining the underlying assumptions that affect the development of the whole analysis. The teachers will also stimulate and ensure the active participation of each student, through the organization of appropriate educational activities mentioned above, also held in the English language. The student is encouraged to continually speak up their thoughts verbally and formally with the appropriate arguments, language and techniques as well as to prepare written documents, multi-media presentations, individual and in group discussions to present in the classroom thereby stimulating a fruitful collaboration and communication.

5. Learning skills: We provide students with appropriate suggestions and ideas for the most active participation to the entire educational process and for the improvement in their study methods, in the perspective of infusing more effective learning skills of the discipline, that has specific features as concerns stimulating learning by means of an appropriate inductive-deductive process. The teacher will constantly check if the transmission of knowledge is done effectively, reviewing during the academic year the teaching method, taking into account the actual composition of the classroom. In this context, the assessment of the progressive learning experience is a natural, logical corollary of the learning process, which is constantly monitored and improved, partly to prevent a traumatic approach to the exam tests. At the end of the education process, the student will also be able to continue personally and effectively new and more advanced studies in the field of economics and management of financial and insurance companies as well as to carry out master level research in an autonomous and conscious fashion.

The course of Management of Financial and Insurance Firms offers an in-depth graduate knowledge of the evolutionary trends displayed by the financial service industry (i.e., globalization, virtualization, (de)regulation), and analytical understanding of the processes and key management methods that concern financial and insurance firms. Moreover, this course aims to apply with accuracy the conceptual categories and methods to the analysis of the financial service industry and companies, in order to comprehensively understand and master the critical tools related to financial and insurance firms, and to develop a critical understanding of the various subjects and themes, at both the theoretical and practical levels, discussed in the class. The course is organized in three parts. Part One will bridge the analysis of the characteristics of financial companies with the definition of their strategic choices that are required to successfully compete the evolution of the contexts in which such firms operate. Part Two will look at the fundamental characteristics of the financial companies with a particular emphasis given to the formulation of strategic decisions that are required to successfully compete in the context in which they operate. Part Three will focus on the management of the insurance firms. In particular, it will examine in depth the management of insurance firms and the key conceptual categories and the main differential factors (organization, capital and operations) between the insurance firms and other major categories of firms (industrial firms and large commercial distribution companies) that may affect their efficient operations. In such a way, students will learn the structures and specific characteristics of the insurance market and the concepts of risk and insurance.

Teaching methods:

Lectures, applied activities, in-class presentations and discussions with executives and entrepreneurs operating in a variety of financial and insurance firms, progress reports and final test.