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 ImpactnnThere are three major sections to this course - Design Thinking, The Improvisational Mindset, and High Performance Communication.nnDesign ThinkingnnOutcome:nParticipants 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.nnExperiences:nParticipants learn the Design Thinking process through a hands-on, collaborative design challenge, like redesigning the Briefcase for a specific user.nnThe Improvisational MindsetnnOutcome:nThe 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.nnExperiences:nThe 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.nnHigh Performance CommunicationnnOutcome:nThe 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 feedbacknnExperiencesnGenerative 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 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, Rachleff - High tech ventures; Ellis, Chambers, Childs - Diverse types of ventures; Foster - Diverse types of ventures; Siegel, Brady - High tech emphasis, but diverse types of 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. Collaborative, 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. This 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.

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.

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.nnFamily 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.nnThere 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.nnThe 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 that are inherent in any family business.nnAccordingly, 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 and selling value, customizing presentations, objection handling, negotiation and closing, and demonstrates how curiosity plays a critical role in every stage of the process. This is not a typical GSB case-study-based course. Students who have taken the class describe it as a hands-on, skill-based class. As students in this class, you will work together in groups outside of class to complete team-based exercises designed to introduce you to selling fundamentals in each stage of the selling process. You will be practicing and utilizing newly learned skills in real life each week; there will be lots of repetition. You will then come together in class with the instructors to share and process the learning from these exercises.

In this course, we will investigate to what extent venture capital (in the U.S. elsewhere) fosters innovation as well as how other types of financing can drive or hinder innovation. Our discussion will be based on most recent academic and industry empirical evidence, as well as illustrative case studies. We will start with discussing venture capital as an industry, explain the organizational structure of venture capital firms as well as incentives of different players in the industry. We then explore in more detail how we can measure innovation and the relationship between VC industry and innovation activity.

Creative success is highly unpredictable; but creativity is increasingly becoming a source of competitive advantage in a variety of markets, from music and film, to new media, video games and software. Creative competitiveness brings with it a set of unique strategic challenges. How do you anticipate market reaction when there are no agreed-upon criteria for evaluating quality? How are barriers to entry retained, or overcome, in industries pervaded by reputation and status? How can creative talent be managed effectively under such circumstances? And what are the strategic implications of emerging digital technologies on the dynamics of creative markets?nnThis course is intended for students interested in understanding these issues, especially from the point of view of new entrants. It focuses primarily, though not exclusively, on the intersection between traditional creative markets such as music and film, and digital technology. We will explore recent cases of innovative startups on the forefront of digital media; of companies intermediating between producers and consumers such as social movie services and online radio; and on the strategic analysis of creative markets. In particular, we will explore insights from recent research on consumer taste and how identity impacts success in creative domains.

A condensed version of Startup Garage focused on exploring entrepreneurial opportunities in China. Stanford teams will work jointly with students at the Graduate School of Management at our partner, Peking University (PKU). The teams'€™ goals will be to identify a business startup model that has been successful in the US and explore how to modify and transplant that model for the Chinese market. We will be meeting in our immersive classroom at the GSB, and we will connect with our partners at their classroom in the Stanford Center at Peking University.nnThe course will begin with a workshop that introduces the key concepts taught at Startup Garage: empathy, ideating, prototyping and testing of the complete business model. Teams will apply in a rapid fashion all steps of the Startup Garage process to their business idea. Because a central element of the Startup Garage is to get out of the building, the partnership with PKU will enable the teams at Stanford to have access to on the ground, out-of-the-building, real time information. The process will culminate into a short presentation summarizing each team'€™s assessment about the viability of the business idea and immediate next steps. At the end of the course, teams who wish to continue exploring their business idea can join the fall quarter version of Startup Garage and maintain their collaboration with their PKU team. Teams will be formed within the course, and they will be advised by our network of Startup Garage advisors, which includes investors with experience in the Chinese market, as well as advisors and faculty from PKU.nnInstructor: Stefanos ZeniosnStefanos Zenios is a professor at the GSB and the director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. He is the lead architect of Startup Garage, an experiential second year elective in which teams of students explore new business ideas by using a combination of design thinking and lean startup tools. He is continuously exploring ways to apply the Startup Garage process to different entrepreneurial challenges, including the challenge of exploring entrepreneurial opportunities in emerging economies.

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 nonmarket 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 multibillion business and can have a long and lasting impact on people's life and wellbeing. Topics to examine in the seminar includen- 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 company.n- 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.nnTentative List of Speakers: Mike Kaplan (MMC Health Services); Noah Knauf (Warburg PincusnHealth Care Group); Oleg Nodelman (EcoR1 -Capital value-oriented biotech investment fund);nTom McKinley (Cardinal Partners); Peter Ehrich (Crassey & Co); David Kim (Ghost TreenCapital); Marc Galetting (Longitude Capital); Anne DeGheest (Health Teach Capital)nnInstructor: Stefanos ZeniosnStefanos Zenios is a professor at the GSB and an expert on health care systems and the on innovation processes. He has completed a study in which he has developed a datadriven 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). As the course covers topics such as what makes a good industry, raising capital, how to source deals, dealing with investors, due diligence, and negotiation, the course is also applicable to those interested in private equity, venture capital, start-ups, and general management. The class relies heavily on the case method, and each class includes guests (often the case protagonists) who bring practical and current experience to the classroom. The two group projects are intended to be highly practical, simulating real-world situations. Professors Dodson and Kelly each have over 20 years of experience in the subject matter.

The world has made great progress in addressing some of the globe'€™s challenges, but we have much more to do -€“ only possible by developing and scaling new technological and social science interventions. Over the past three decades, we have applauded many breakthrough research, design and technology innovations, and more recently we have witnessed an encouraging commitment to strengthen health, education, finance and other systems to support reaching "the last mile"€ of development. With this barbell approach, however, we have often ignored, misunderstood and under-invested in the critical, tough and unsexy challenges crossing the middle of the value chain -- innovation's valley of death: product and system adaptation and evaluation; evidence generation and design validation; formal or informal regulatory approval and registration; and the appropriate design, introduction and optimization of the intervention'€™s uptake of before markets, governments or other systems can truly take them to scale. This class will use an inter-disciplinary approach to look at variety of economic, scientific, and systemic factors that pull innovation forward, that push it from behind, and often to the world''s detriment block its successful implementation and scaling. Grounding the work on both traditional and emerging research and theories on social change and development, we would apply real world experiences and several important case studies in order to examine the way good ideas get stuck advancing to real solutions, and how innovations fail to scale to make any meaningful impact on outcomes that matter. We will also examine the root causes for these challenges. More important, we will focus on innovations and methodologies that have overcome these barriers, where we have witnessed both simple and complex innovations reach literally millions or even billions of lives. The seminar will involve a combination of lectures, case studies, visiting lecturers, and a project tackling a particular aspect of a specific problem. While the aperture on innovation theory would be quite wide across multiple sectors and models, the focused case examples would be derived from global health innovations. Our goal is to help the next generation of social innovation leaders think more about some of the mistakes of the past, and lessons for the future, and new ways of approaching old problems, all from a practitioner'€'s point of view.

As technology-driven ventures are having more and more impact, entrepreneurial ecosystems have been developing in recent years around the developing world. Following the lead of Silicon Valley, the most developed and sophisticated ecosystem of all, these newly formed industry networks that include universities, incubators and accelerator programs, angel investor networks and venture capital firms can now support local entrepreneurs and innovation better than ever before. As developing economies grow and get more sophisticated, entrepreneurial opportunities arise across markets and industries. Despite this fertile ground for new endeavors, entrepreneurs face particular challenges and risks that they would not encounter in Silicon Valley.nn

This six-session 2-point Bass seminar will involve students (maximum 20) in analyzing the evolution of the global semiconductor industry in light of the convergence of computing and wireless communications, 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 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.

This course studies principles for leading organizations and creating business value from the perspective of a high-level executive. Topics include product development, business models and pricing, people management, time allocation, measurement and accountability, creative destruction, the development of new capabilities, and marketing.