Since business schools emphasize finance and accounting, it makes sense that MBAs would be more common among chief financial officers.

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A. and requires core business classes, such as corporate strategy, accounting and finance.

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A. programs blend the study of traditional business topics like finance, accounting and operations with contemporary courses that help leaders take into account personal integrity, governance and the role of business in society.

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Most schools instruct business students in finance, accounting, law, and they often provide a strong alumni network.

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They can help on negotiations, operating a business, hiring or firing, accounting, finance, legal and probably most useful of all, their contacts.

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Mr. Lev is the Philip Bardes professor of accounting and finance at New York University's Stern School of Business and the author of "Winning Investors Over" (Harvard Business Review Press, 2012).

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Not to replace the finance, accounting, marketing and operations skills necessary to run a successful business, but to complement them with the creative problem solving skills necessary to invent a new one.

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We note low inventories, low real interest rates, rational consumer resilience, high levels of bank cash (since the write-downs are generally non-cash accounting entries), small business flexibility and reasonable output gains apart from housing, autos and finance.

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" He believes demand in both government and private industry has remained steady because accounting "flows from big business down to the mom-and-pop store on the street that needs to finance its loan.

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