An MBA Graduate DefinedAn MBA is a degree awarded to individuals who complete required coursework in the management sciences. The MBA title stands for Master of Business Administration and implies that the person holding the title is qualified to hold a senior management position within a company. An MBA manager is similar to the captain of a ship. He is responsible for the company's decisions and plans and for supervising the company's employees. The goal of an MBA manager is to maximize the company's value through the use of the company's tangible and intangible resources. Maximize this value by getting the highest profits possible. In the following discussion, I will examine how senior management in general and MBA graduates in particular can use the field of management accounting to make decisions/plan and control employees in order to maximize profits. For clarity in this essay, senior managers and MBA graduates should be considered as one. Managerial Accounting Defined Managerial accounting is the process of using information systems to provide data to senior managers who then use this data for decision making/planning and monitoring employee performance in order to maximize profits. The data used by managers is provided by the Financial Accounting function. This information is used to improve the performance of the Marketing function, which generally provides the company's revenue, and the Operations function, which generally bears the majority of operating costs. Marketing and operations are therefore the functional areas that an MBA graduate generally deals with. Management accounting is vital to a company's success because it quantifies a company's performance. By quantifying certain performance variables, senior management can perform its two most important functions: 1) decision making/planning and 2) controlling employee behavior. The theory of the firm tells us that a firm exists to maximize the value of the shares that investors have provided. Profits come from decisions about which items to produce and sell (Marketing) and from planning what inputs are needed for this production and distribution business (Operations). Value maximization comes from maximizing revenue and minimizing total costs. In business, resources are always limited or finite. Therefore, they must be employed in the most economical and productive manner...... middle of paper...... Statement. Suppose senior management has noticed a decrease in profits for the lemon-lime soda the company produces. Examining financial accounting data they found an unexpected increase in the cost of the lime flavoring used because a supplier of the product went out of business. In this case, an MBA manager must make a decision about the alternative sources available for the flavoring input and, as always, try to purchase it at a lower price. Once again, financial accounting data (cost information from the income statement) was used by senior managers to solve a planning/decision making problem within the operations function. Summary In conclusion, managerial accounting is a process that MBA graduate managers can use to gain insights into employee planning/decision and control. The process involves examining financial accounting data and applying that information to maximize profits across the Marketing and Operations functions. Specifically, maximize marketing revenues and minimize operational costs. Managerial accounting has one approach.