Results for STRAMGT

This course examines fundamental issues of general management and leadership within an organization. You will learn about setting an organization's strategic direction, aligning structure to implement strategy, and leading individuals within the firm. You will master concepts, frameworks, and tools to assess an industry and a firm's competitive environment, and to craft alternatives. You will study the interplay among formal structure, informal networks, and culture in shaping organizational performance. By integrating leadership theory, the lessons of practical application, and your own experience, you will develop skills and capabilities essential to leading others. And you'll gain a better understanding of your own leadership preferences, strengths, and weaknesses.

In the Managerial Skills Labs we examine several common managerial challenges faced by executives. Together with Faculty, students explore these topics using four case examples, each asking students to evaluate a series of situations, develop alternatives for their resolution, and ultimately recommend and implement a course of action from the point of view of the company's owner/manager. We have selected small to midsized businesses as the context for these discussions in order to highlight the impact that key decisions and their implementation can have on the broader organization. Class preparation should include not only analysis and conclusions, but also specific recommendations on implementation. Students should come to class prepared to role play important conversations between management and other key individuals.

Generative Leadership: How to Create Innovative Ideas and Convey Them with ImpactnnnThere are three major sections to this course - Design Thinking, The Improvisational Mindset, and High Performance Communication.nnnDesign ThinkingnnnOutcome:nnParticipants learn to employ User Centered Design as promoted by the Stanford d.school. They become adept at Empathizing with the end user, practicing focused Need Finding, Defining the Problem, Ideating, Rapidly Prototyping and Adapting to Feedback.nnnExperiences:nnParticipants learn the Design Thinking process through a hands-on, collaborative design challenge, like redesigning the Briefcase for a specific user.nnnThe Improvisational MindsetnnnOutcome:nnThe participants increase their ability to respond flexibly to novel situations and to generate innovative solutions on a collaborative, creative team. The mindset is cultivated by practicing 5 key principles. Say "Yes, and". Treat Mistakes as Gifts. Inspire your Partner. Dare to be Obvious. Notice the World.nnnExperiences:nnThe key principles are taught through a series of immersive theater exercises derived from Johnstone, Spolin, and Ryan. Valuable readings include IMPROV WISDOM, by Patricia Ryan and journal articles on improv and brainstorming.nnnHigh Performance CommunicationnnnOutcome:nnThe final segment of the class is a chance to apply the principles of User Centered Design and the Improvisational Mindset to design and deliver messages that go beyond just transmitting information - they get results. Participants successfully use a version of the Design Thinking process to rapidly develop content that is tuned to the audience's needs, and that they can deliver in a way that is agile and responsive to real time feedbacknnnExperiencesnnGenerative Leadership culminates in a group presentation designed to influence key stakeholders. To be successful, participants will have to draw on all sections of the course. AS WE SPEAK is our text.

This course introduces the basic concepts of strategic management, focusing on their application in a semi-globalized world, where international borders are less significant than in the past but still very important. There are texts that will be required reading, but each class will also feature a case discussion.

This course is offered for students who at some time may want to undertake an entrepreneurial career by pursuing opportunities leading to partial or full ownership and control of a business. The course deals with case situations from the point of view of the entrepreneur/manager rather than the passive investor. Many cases involve visitors, since the premise is that opportunity and action have large idiosyncratic components. Students must assess opportunity and action in light of the perceived capabilities of the individuals and the nature of the environments they face. The course is integrative and will allow students to apply many facets of their business school education. Each section will have a specific focus, please select the instructor(s) with your interests: Leslie, Siegelman - High tech ventures; Ellis, Chambers, Childs - Diverse types of ventures; Ellis, Foster - Diverse types of ventures; Siegel, Brady - High tech emphasis, but diverse types of ventures; Siegelman, Hattendorf - Social ventures; Reiss, Chess - Very early stage ventures.

This course is offered for students who, in the near term, aspire to the management and full or partial ownership of a new or newly-acquired business. The seminar, which is limited to 40 students, has a strong implementation focus, and deals in some depth with certain selected, generic entrepreneurial issues, viewed from the perspective of the owner/manager. Broad utilization is made of case materials, background readings, visiting experts, and role playing. Throughout the course, emphasis is placed on the application of analytical tools to administrative practice.

Startup Garage is an intensive hands-on, project-based course, in which graduate students will apply the concepts of design thinking, engineering, finance, business and organizational skills to design and test new business concepts that address real world needs . Our aspiration is to help teams identify an unmet customer need, design new products or services that meet that need, and develop business models to support the creation and launch of startup products or services. Even those teams that do not successfully launch a venture, or individuals who decide not to move forward, will learn critical, cutting-edge techniques about starting and launching a venture. nnnCollaborative, multi-disciplinary teams will identify and work with users, domain experts, and industry participants to identify and deeply understand customer needs, then proceed to design products or services and a business model to address those needs. .Each team will conceive, design, build, and field-test critical aspects of both the product or service and the business model. nnnThis course is offered by the Graduate School of Business. It integrates methods from human-centered design, lean startup, and business model planning. The course focuses on developing entrepreneurial skills (using short lectures and in-class exercises) and then applying these skills to specific problems faced by those users identified by the teams. Teams will ?get out of the building? and interact directly with users and advisors to develop a deep understanding of the challenges they face and to field test their proposed services, products, and business models.nn

This course focuses on the strategic management of technology-based innovation in the firm. The purpose is to provide students with concepts, frameworks, and experiences that are useful for taking part in the management of innovation processes in the firm. The course examines how they can be managed effectively. Specific topics include: assessing the innovative capabilities of the firm, managing the Corporate R & D function, managing the interfaces between functional groups in the development function in the firm, understanding and managing technical entrepreneurs, building technology-based distinctive competencies and competitive advantages, technological leadership versus followership in competitive strategy, institutionalizing innovation, attracting and keeping corporate entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurship can be an exhaustive experience. This course is structured to provide valuable skills and strategies aimed at enabling aspiring entrepreneurs to mitigate personal burnout while in pursuit of new ventures. In terms of this course, an entrepreneur is defined as a person who risks mobilizing resources to capitalize on a perceived opportunity of value-creation-change. A "social entrepreneur" creates social value, a "business entrepreneur" creates profit, and a 'hybrid entrepreneur' blends the two. This course will tailor student's class work to fit his or her entrepreneurial orientation. Students who opt to focus their coursework on social or environmental entrepreneurship may petition to have this course count toward the Certificate in Public Management and Social Innovation. nnnResearch is showing that a significant career hazard of entrepreneurship is emotional burnout- exhaustion from raising capital, growing new teams, competing with established players, and more contributes to the challenges of entrepreneurship. The goal of this course is to teach students how to identify and develop an increased capacity in emotional resilience as a means of mitigating burnout in oneself and in the diverse "community of actors" one is attempting to mobilize into concerted action aimed at value-creation-change. Research is also showing that one of the key causes of chronic stress is leader-identity development: when men and women of diverse-identities - different from the dominant-identity, engage in value-creation-change within a given community of practice and context, chronic adversity is a given. The effort of diverse-identities to lead value-creation-change introduces a chronic re-evaluation and re-definition of 'leader' within the given culture. From a global perspective this chronic adversity dynamic is especially true for women leaders. For men and women of diverse-identity, this dynamic is a consequence of power inequity. Both the diverse-identity and dominant-identity leader need to strategically anticipate and proactively address this dynamic in order to sustain his or her role as an agent of value-creation-change.nnnUsing the "critical-incident empathetic-inquiry" approach students will interview aspiring and practicing entrepreneurs on how they successfully recovered from, adapted to, and sustained perseverance in the face of situational and chronic adversity. These interviews will be recorded and analyzed from both a content and emotional decision-making perspective. Particular attention will be paid to how the practice of "empathetic-inquiry" in itself is a learnable micro-intervention with the potential of alleviating stress, supporting recovery, and sustaining effort. It is presented, taught, and practiced as a fundamental "emotional literacy" entrepreneur leadership skill.nnnFrom a diversity perspective, students will also be exploring how unsupported leader-identity development within a given cultural context and community of practice can be a major cause of stress and burnout. Via the "critical-incident empathetic inquiry" process students will focus on interviewing and learning from "exemplars" with whom they identify, with the aim of learning from "exemplar's" personal leader-identity journey.nnnThis course enables students to be practitioners of "empathetic inquiry" in entrepreneurial contexts in order to provide an added advantage to GSB students pursuing entrepreneurship after graduation and beyond.

This seminar provides the opportunity for students to study the structure and dynamics of the U.S. health care industry, and some of the ways it intersects with the global health care industry. The U.S. health care industry represents over 15 percent of the nation's GDP and is rapidly changing as a result of government regulatory reform enacted in 2010. The seminar's aim is to develop participants' ability to create strategically informed action plans that are imaginative, inspiring and workable in this highly dynamic environment. The seminar's pedagogy involves informed debate to evaluate and hone well-researched views by the participants and instructors, as well as the writing and presentation of position papers by small groups of seminar participants on the key dynamics of the industry. In the course of the seminar discussions, we aim to deepen our understanding of strategic dynamics and transformational change at the societal, industry and organizational levels of analysis. After developing a complete picture of the structure of the health care industry and the strategic relationships among the key players - the strategic landscape -, the seminar will focus on how health care reform and other external forces will affect the strategic opportunities and challenges of four types of players in the strategic landscape: (1) Incumbents (e.g., pharmaceutical companies, hospital companies, insurance companies); (2) entrepreneurial startups (e.g., home monitoring, genetic testing companies, information services); (3) cross-boundary disruptors (e.g., health clinics, Wal-Mart, Cisco, Google); and (4) international health care providers (e.g. in Mexico, India, Thailand) Four student teams will be formed to focus on one of the four types of players. Each team will prepare a research paper focused on determining how their type of player can take advantage of the regulatory, technological, social, cultural and demographic changes, and who will be the likely winners and why. During the first round of discussions (sessions 2-5) all participants will take part in examining the different parts of the competitive landscape. During the second round (sessions 6-9), the different teams will present their research findings and perspectives about the strategic opportunities and threats which exist. As part of the second set of sessions, the instructors will bring in domain experts to further augment the discussion.

This seminar provides students with practical solutions to some of the challenges faced in family business transitions.nnnFamily businesses are by far the dominant form of commerce world-wide, albeit the majority are small "mom and pop shops." Some research shows that large businesses, whatever the form of ownership, have an average lifespan of around forty years, while small businesses (at least in Japan and Europe) average around twelve years. So, if businesses in general do not survive, then it is a wonder that any family business can survive from one generation to another, let alone two, three, four or more.nnnThere are three essential requirements to succeed in a family business transition. First, it may seem obvious that the business must succeed, but it is less obvious what advantages a family business has over its non-family-owned counterparts. Second, the ownership structure must effectively maintain family cohesion and support the business. Finally, family members need to organize in thoughtful ways to work effectively with one another.nnnThe beauty of a family business is that it can be more profitable than companies with non-family ownership. Two fundamentals, at least, provide this advantage - a strong value system and a long-term economic perspective. The operative word above, however, is "can"; it is by no means a foregone conclusion that a family business will be more successful. Families must thoughtfully develop their advantages, while at the same time avoiding the pitfalls inherent in any family business.nnnAccordingly, this course is offered for students whose families own a family business or who are interested in the special challenges faced by family businesses. International students are encouraged to register as different cultural perspectives to family business will enrich the experience for everyone. Particular focus will be given to the transitions from one generation to another and the lessons learned that can be applied during the entire life of the business.

Improvisational acting (i.e., improv) requires fast, flexible, and creative thinking; intense listening and effective self-presentation; and the ability to act without fear of failure. These skills are also vital for being a successful entrepreneur. In this class, you will learn techniques of improvisational acting that can transform your thinking about business and your approach to life.

The primary objective of this course is to introduce students to the fundamentals of how to sell and to what selling is truly about. The course is appropriate for anyone who wants to understand and show proficiency with the skills required by different selling situations (e.g., direct sales of products and services, selling oneself in an interview, raising money for a new venture, running a company as CEO, etc.). The course looks at the entire selling process of lead generation, prospecting, qualifying, discovery, understanding value, customizing presentations, objection handling, negotiation and closing. Students will work together in groups outside of class to complete team-based exercises designed to introduce them to and give them practice with selling fundamentals in each stage of the selling process; students will then come together in class with the instructors to share and process the learning from these exercises.

Investing in the healthcare sector is fraught with idiosyncratic challenges. First, the sector is very diverse and it spans biopharmaceuticals, medical devices, diagnostics, health care information technology, and health care services. Second, business models are evolving: business-to-business, business-to-physician, business-to-patient, business-to-business-to-patient, business-to-business-to-physician, etc. Third, the sector is exposed to strong non-market forces: regulatory and reimbursement which are important elements to one's investment thesis. These challenges are amplified when investments focus on either early stage private ventures, or small capitalization public companies. Yet the possible returns for early stage and small cap investors are significant: fledgling healthcare companies can grow to multi-billion business and can have a long and lasting impact on people's life and well being. Topics to examine in the seminar include:n* Investment criteria that investors use to screen investment opportunities in this sector. Specific issues in biotech, medical devices, and services will be addressed.n* How early stage ventures evolve as they mature and how the investment criteria change with the stage of the companyn* How the investors change with the stage of the company: venture capitalists, private equity, public markets.nWe will examine these topics through a combination of guest presentations, lectures, and practical applications to real investment opportunities.nnInstructors: Richard Lin, Stefanos ZeniosnnRichard Lin is a partner with Three Arch Partners, a healthcare focused venture capital firm and is also the general partner/portfolio manager of Three Arch Opportunity Fund, a hedge fund focused on small cap healthcare opportunities. He is looking forward to sharing his experience with the class. Stefanos Zenios is a professor at the GSB, an expert on health care systems and the on the innovation process. He has recently completed a study in which he has developed a data-driven methodology that can be used by investors to identify predictors of success in early stage ventures. He will share his research findings with the class.

For aspiring entrepreneurs who don't have a burning idea or desire to start a company from scratch, acquiring a small business can provide a direct route to running and growing a business. This class will explore entrepreneurial acquisition (EA), including the Search Fund model. Key topics to be addressed:nn- Raising the money to acquire a company and building an investor groupnn- Conducting a search for a company to buy: analyzing industries, finding resources, creating deal flow and managing relationshipsnn- Evaluating acquisition opportunities, including financial analysisnn- Performing due diligencenn- Legal considerationsnn- Structuring and closing the dealnn- Assuming leadership from the sellernn- Early stages of operating and building the businessnn- Economics to the entrepreneur and investorsnn- Partnering or doing it alone

We will visit and analyze four local small businesses. (I hope we will visit all four companies but, when it makes more sense logistically, we may meet the manager at the GSB). The companies will vary from very small companies with limited growth plans (for example, in the past we visited a yogurt shop and a small company that makes devices elderly people use to call for help) to start-up technology companies with dreams of rapid growth (in the past we visited a venture-backed greentech company and an internet wedding products business). We will talk with the owners about a wide range of strategic issues, including:nn- How are they organized?nn- What plans do they have for new lines of business? Why? How do these fit with the current business?nn- How do they set prices? nn- What incentive systems do they use to manage various types of employees? How do they find new employees? What do they look for when they hire?nn- What do they see as their potential sources of competitive advantage?nn- Where do they see their companies in 5 years? What will it take to get there?nnnBefore each meeting, we will spend a little time going over basic background information about the company and its industry. After each meeting, we will spend time analyzing the company and its challenges, focusing on what is and is not scalable, if and how the company can insure a profitable strategy going forward, and what strategic changes the company should consider now and as it grows.nnnStudents will be responsible for helping gather background information before the visits. They will be expected to participate in the visits and the discussions before and after the visits. Finally, if time allows, students will make a short presentation on the final day of the class about the strategy of a small business (either one they have worked for, one that they are familiar with, or even just one that they have read about.)nnnThis class is the result of a book project that the instructor is currently working on about small business strategy. He (along with two co-authors) has been visiting small businesses all over the United States (specializing in remote locations and, as luck would have it, extreme weather conditions.) See our blog at http://www.roadside-mba.com/ for more details. This class brings these small business road trips to Silicon Valley.nn

This course covers some of the stages of investment in early stage high-growth companies, especially the seed funding of a novel idea to initial venture capital rounds. We will concentrate on how investors and entrepreneurs make and should make important decisions at different stages and on typical mistakes. Some questions that we will discuss are: How do angels and VCs generate and process their deal flow and select companies? What are typical mistakes of entrepreneurs in raising capital and negotiating with financiers? How do VC funds operate and make decisions? How are VCs involved in business decisions such as recruiting talent and replacing CEOs? What are the important provisions of financial contracts between VCs and founders? How to value early-stage companies? The course is mostly case-based. The course is for those who want to become entrepreneurs and thus likely consumers of angel and VC financing and those who want to pursue a career in the financial services industry. No prior knowledge of the VC industry is needed.

In today's competitive marketplace, smart companies from Fortune 500 firms to early stage start-ups rely on innovation to keep them one step ahead of the game. The role of intellectual property (IP) as a strategic business asset has been punctuated by the recent multi-billion dollar deals involving patent portfolios, as well as the fierce patent wars raging in courts around the world. nnThis class will help you understand the value of IP, by thinking strategically about how to effectively leverage the trade secrets, patents, technologies, trademarks, structures and processes that are critical to many businesses. The class will focus on the state-of-the-art, best practices related to IP strategy, and how they are shaped by economic, strategic, legal, regulatory, and market factors. nnThrough a combination of case studies, class discussion and guest speakers, the class will cover a variety of issues shaping a successful IP strategy in today's global marketplace. Some of the topics we will cover include:n n- Building and managing an IP portfolio that is aligned with business objectives; n- The innovation cycle and technology transfer mechanisms; n- Extracting value from the IP portfolio through transactions (e.g., licensing, sale, enforcement); n- IP valuation in financial reporting; n- Tax planning related to IP (e.g., cross border transfer pricing, IP holding companies); n- Review of corporate IP litigation and the principals of IP damages; n- Patent reform and the role of the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO); n- IP strategies for start-ups & entrepreneursnnRon Kasznik is Professor of Accounting (Stanford GSB). Ms. Efrat Kasznik is an IP valuation and strategy expert, with 20 years of consulting experience, focusing on helping companies bring their innovation to market. She is the founder and President of Foresight Valuation Group, an IP consulting firm providing valuation and strategy. Ms. Kasznik is a member of the leadership committee of the Licensing Executives Society (LES) High Tech Sector, and has been listed on the IAM Strategy 300 list of top IP strategists in 2013.

This five-session 2-point Bass seminar will involve students (maximum 20) in analyzing the evolution of the global semiconductor industry and how it has been and will be affected by strategic actions of entrepreneurial startups, incumbent corporations, and governments in multiple geographies. The purpose of the seminar is to help students sharpen their skills at the intersection of business strategy and technology strategy in order to more effectively lead strategic change in and of large complex systems. While the instructors will provide relevant pre- readings, students will be expected to complement these materials with their own research of theoretical and empirical sources. Class discussions will focus on several topics: 1) the converging computing and wireless communications industries;(2) The future growth of key market segments of the semiconductor industry; (3) The prospects of different technologies and architectures going forward; and, (4) The future structure of the semiconductor industry. Students will be expected to help structure the discussion and move it forward toward conclusions. Students will organize into three teams each focused on one of the topics and prepare a five-to-ten page group report of their most important findings and conclusions that extend current knowledge.

This five-session 2-point Bass seminar will involve students (maximum 18) in analyzing the emerging global electric automotive industry by focusing on: (1) The electric automotive industry in the U.S. and Europe, (2) the electric automotive industry in Japan and Korea, and (3) the electric automotive industry in China. We will each time examine the strategies of the key automotive companies as well as that of the government and other key players such as infrastructure providers. The purpose of the seminar is to help students sharpen their skills in identifying facilitating and impeding forces of strategic change, and in assessing and estimating the direction and rate of strategic change. While the instructors will provide relevant pre- readings related to these topics, students will be expected to complement these materials with their own research of theoretical and empirical sources. They will also be expected to help structure the discussion and move it forward toward conclusions. Students will organize into three teams each focused on one of the regions and prepare a five-to-ten page group report of their most important findings and conclusions that extend current knowledge.