Results for STRAMGT

Get the strategy right, and the chance for success is great. Nowhere is this more evident than in today's world of major challenges. Strategy is at the heart of problem solving and achieving objectives, yet few people can define strategy, much less understand how to conceptualize, design, and execute effective strategies that yield the best outcomes.This course will meet once a week to focus on interesting and engaging case studies, each of which illustrates a key ingredient of strategy. Some are well-known historical events, while others are less obvious, but all have a strategic lesson to share. They are quite diverse, from the planning of a high-risk rescue in the Colorado Rockies, to a product crisis in a Fortune 50 company, to a little-known failed military mission of WWII, to a commercial airline disaster. The ability to think through challenging and varied scenarios is both instructive and mind-stretching. There will be some pre-reading on each case study and there may be a field trip for students to put their lessons into practice. The course is designed to be highly interactive; all to enable students to unravel the mystery and power of strategic thinking. Students will also have the opportunity to select and analyze a case reflecting interests of their own. This course can help students not only prepare for a career in a range of fields, but also as they meet the challenges of their current coursework. Problem-solving skills are central in every walk of life; this seminar can help students build a stronger foundation for sound decision-making.

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.

This course deals with the overall general management of the business enterprise. Extensive case studies of a variety of companies of differing size, industry, and current conditions provide the basis for the comprehensive analysis and establishment of a strategic management approach for the organization. Frameworks are presented for strategy identification and evaluation; assessing industry attractiveness; evaluating the firm's capabilities, resources, and position; determining the optimal horizontal and vertical scope of the firm; entering into strategic alliances and joint ventures; and formulating and implementing strategy in multi-business organizations.

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.

Americans spend nearly 7% of their income on food items and another 5% on food services annually (US Census). Food spend is at the intersection of two of the most important industries in the US: health care and agriculture. Food production today supports the food consumption causing our extraordinary burden of disease; 75 cents of every dollar of the $4.8 billion spent annually on health care is for diet-related disease. The health care system accounts for over 17% of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP). Agriculture and agriculture-related industries contributed 4.8% to the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) in 2012.nThis course focuses on the opportunities across these industries for food, health, and nutrition entrepreneurship. The course is designed for students with a broad interest in the food or health systems and/or who are interested in careers in food-related fields.nnWe will examine the food system from three points of view: the consumer, nutritional science, and policy. The class will focus on problem-solving from the perspective of an entrepreneur. The class will involve lecture, discussion, and prominent guest speakers who are entrepreneurs themselves or industry leaders.

The purpose of this course is to provide students with insights into the newest innovations in healthcare service delivery, information technology, biotech and medical devices and how venture and private equity investors evaluate and determine where to invest their money among these areas to maximize return, minimize risk, and capitalize on a highly fluid marketplace that represents nearly 20% of the U.S. GDP. Through presentations by leading entrepreneurs in the field, students will be challenged to reach conclusions regarding which healthcare sectors are the most promising for venture investing and which individual companies presented reflect the best opportunities, particularly in light of the seismic shifts currently underway within the healthcare industry driven by both public and private considerations. This is not primarily a finance class, but more substantively about the nuances of emerging healthcare businesses and venture finance as applied to this very unique sector.

This seminar will showcase successful women entrepreneurs and their professional and personal journeys. We will study how they navigated finding an idea, forming and building a team, being an effective leader, raising money, overcoming setbacks, and assembling a board. We will explore some of the unique challenges women face when approaching entrepreneurship. Speakers will also include female venture capitalists and social entrepreneurs, and male entrepreneurs. The class will use cases, panel discussions, readings and videos and social time with the panelists. nnnThis class is appropriate for women and men considering starting a high-impact venture as well as those who are just curious about entrepreneurship. This class will help you understand your own capabilities and interest in being an entrepreneur.

This workshop provides students with a structured forum in which they can find, develop and receive feedback on a new venture idea. The target audiences are students who have yet to find an idea worth working on, or are trying to decide which of several ideas to pursue. You should NOT take this workshop if you are already actively working on an idea. There are other GSB classes for you. Students can develop an idea alone, but partnering with one or more class members is encouraged.nnThe structured part of the workshop covers: the process of finding new business ideas; how to research and vet a new idea; how to build a business model around an idea; and how to ultimately pitch the idea to others. As part of the workshop, students will spend time helping classmates think through and improve their ideas. Students have the option to present their ideas at the end of the quarter to outside guests or submit a progress report.

This course considers the challenges faced by start-ups in achieving liquidity. We take the perspectives of organizational behavior, marketing, and finance, and examine forks in the road faced by firms that have already launched products. Marketing topics include how to market firms for sale and calculating the addressable market. Organizational topics include hiring and firing, and the role of founders after sales. Finance topics include how the choice between sale and IPO affects value realized, and private equity exits.

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, qualification, discovery, understanding value, customizing presentations, objection handling, negotiation and closing. This is not a typical GSB case-study-based course. Students who have taken the class describe it as a hands-on, practical, skills-based class. Students will work by themselves and together in groups to complete individual and team-based exercises designed to introduce them to and give them practice with selling fundamentals in each stage of the selling process. Students will be practicing and utilizing newly learned skills in real life each week; the focus will be on doing stuff (e.g., using curiosity in a situation outside the classroom) rather than thinking about and talking about stuff. Students will then come together in class with the instructors to share and process the learning from these exercises.nn

This is an integrated lab course in Entrepreneurship designed to teach students the process of creating a new viable venture - from idea to launch. It is a dynamic and interactive course organized around projects undertaken by teams of 3 to 4 registered students from the MSx and MBA programs, together with other graduate students within Stanford who bring expertise of particular relevance to the idea being pursued. This course is designed not only for students with immediate entrepreneurial aspirations, but also for any student considering starting an entrepreneurial venture at some point in his or her career. The course is a two quarter class, with admission to the class by team and idea. In the winter quarter, teams will research, craft, and morph their idea into a viable business concept. In the spring quarter they will further refine their concept and develop a strategy and plan to attract financial, human and other resources. At the end of the spring quarter, teams will present their plan to a panel of experts and potential investors to simulate the funding process. The new course builds on a predecessor course S356 "Evaluating Entrepreneurial Opportunities" and encapsulates new and important research and findings as they relate to the process of new venture creation. The teaching method is primarily learning by doing (LBD) through a structured process and supported by relevant lectures. Learning is further enhanced through meetings with the instructor, coaching by experienced mentors and review by peers. Field research as well as prototype product development are integral to the course. Since admittance to S321/S322 is by team and the quality of their idea, team formation takes place during the autumn quarter. Informal student mixers and seminars will be held to facilitate team formation and idea generation. Each team of 3-4 students should preferably consist of 1 or more MSx students and graduate students from the MBA program or other Schools - Engineering, Medicine, Law, Science, Education - to bring diversity and depth to the team. The application-selection process is described on the S321/S322 website.

This is an integrated lab course in Entrepreneurship designed to teach students the process of creating a new viable venture - from idea to launch. It is a dynamic and interactive course organized around projects undertaken by teams of 3 to 4 registered students from the MSx and MBA programs, together with other graduate students within Stanford who bring expertise of particular relevance to the idea being pursued. This course is designed not only for students with immediate entrepreneurial aspirations, but also for any student considering starting an entrepreneurial venture at some point in his or her career. The course is a two quarter class, with admission to the class by team and idea. In the winter quarter, teams will research, craft, and morph their idea into a viable business concept. In the spring quarter they will further refine their concept and develop a strategy and plan to attract financial, human and other resources. At the end of the spring quarter, teams will present their plan to a panel of experts and potential investors to simulate the funding process. The new course builds on a predecessor course S356 "Evaluating Entrepreneurial Opportunities" and encapsulates new and important research and findings as they relate to the process of new venture creation. The teaching method is primarily learning by doing (LBD) through a structured process and supported by relevant lectures. Learning is further enhanced through meetings with the instructor, coaching by experienced mentors and review by peers. Field research as well as prototype product development are integral to the course. Since admittance to S321/S322 is by team and the quality of their idea, team formation takes place during the autumn quarter. Informal student mixers and seminars will be held to facilitate team formation and idea generation. Each team of 3-4 students should preferably consist of 1 or more MSx students and graduate students from the MBA program or other Schools - Engineering, Medicine, Law, Science, Education - to bring diversity and depth to the team. The application-selection process is described on the S321/S322 website.

We'd like to introduce you to Samantha Palmer, a recent Stanford graduate who took several classes at the d.school. Each class further confirmed the importance of the design thinking process, methodology, and community. By the end of her Stanford career she truly believed that design thinking had the potential to change her life.n nAs graduation approached, Samantha found a position at a large tech company in Silicon Valley and was excited to bring the design thinking methodologies with her. A few weeks into her new job, she asked her team if they wanted to talk to some users before launching into their next big project. She was met with a room of blank stares and apprehensive questions. n nHow might we give Samantha the skills she needs to change the mindset of her colleagues, spark design thinking at her company, and get her first design-driven project off the ground? n nWhen you take a class at the d.school, you walk away confident in your creative skills and fluent in the design process. However, when recent graduates (re)enter the workforce, they quickly become discouraged by the stagnancy of company cultures. They see the need to trigger and sustain change, but don¿t have the understanding of organizational psychology to do so. Organizational Psychology of Design Thinking asks you to take on Samantha¿s challenges. n nOver the course of the semester, students will engage in 2 large-scale projects:n- Project 1 (Empathy - Synthesis) - Working with partner companies, students will apply organizational psychology and design frameworks to better understand company culture.n- Project 2 (Ideation - Testing) - Using their work from Project 1, students will prototype and test organizational changes in real company settings.nn**Please note** Our class will take an experimental approach Organizational Psychology of Design Thinking. The majority of classes will be conducted in the field allowing students to take a hands-on approach to design thinking. Please be aware and build travel time into your class schedule.

This course is for students who may want to undertake an entrepreneurial career by starting and/or joining the senior management team of a social venture. It covers all phases of a venture - ideation and venture creation, resource acquisition, managing growth and harvest/exit. The instructors believe, for the most part, social ventures (which include both for-profit and non-profit structures) should be treated and managed like profit maximizing ventures, and many topics and themes encountered in this course will be similar to those covered in other entrepreneurial courses, such as Formation of New Ventures. Of course there are important differences related specifically to social ventures, some of which are critical to understand properly to effectively start and manage a social enterprise. We will highlight these differences throughout our sessions, so while that the lessons learned in this class can be generalized to all ventures, we do not advise you to take this class unless you really want to learn about social ventures. All the cases used in class and class discussions will be about early stage companies and organizations in the social venture space. Guests, both social entrepreneurs active in the field, and social impact investors, are heavily featured in class discussions and are an important part of the classroom experience.

The Social Ventures Practicum is an experiential learning course for student teams actively working to launch a social venture (nonprofit or for-profit or tbd).n nDesigned as a follow-on to ideation courses such as STRAMGT 356: Startup Garage or the Design for Extreme Affordability sequence, this course will focus on the business planning needed to launch your venture.n nIn weekly sessions through Winter Quarter, teams will work through topics unique to social ventures (e.g. mission, theory of change, impact measurement) as well as topics common to any venture, e.g. product/service market fit, business/economic model, financial planning, early stage financing, logistics, sales/distribution, and board/talent development. Each team will receive significant one-on-one coaching from the instructors, as well as opportunities to share their work with peers and learn from/present to guest speakers.n nTeams will emerge with a solid business and impact model, ready to raise their first round of seed funding. This course will prepare students for the Stanford Social Innovation Fellowship, Echoing Green, and other similar post-graduate funding opportunities.n nThe course will assume a level of familiarity with key social impact frameworks, so students are encouraged to take another social innovation course or to have prior experience working with mission and theory of change.

This 3 unit course is a case study course specifically for those students interested in entrepreneurship and/or investing. The partnership (and interaction) between the entrepreneur and the investor is a very important dimension in the growth of many start-ups. This course examines the entrepreneur ¿ investor relationship from both the entrepreneur's and the investor's perspectives.nnFrom the point of view of the entrepreneur ¿ we look at how to select an investor and match the investor to the growth trajectory of your company, how and when to approach those investors as well as the positioning of your company within their portfolio. The course gives entrepreneurs the opportunity to connect with members of the VC community on a novel business idea or, if you do not have a business idea, we will help you find one to `adopt¿ for this course through the CES site (https://mygsb.stanford.edu/mba/programs-centers/center-entrepreneurial-studies-ces/looking-startup-idea). You can then use that idea / company as a basis for the paper and team project.nnFrom the point of view of the investor ¿ given the rapid evolution in the investor sector, it is important for entrepreneurs (and future investors) to understand investors¿ motivation and process. We will explain why entrepreneurs have many more investor alternatives today compared to several years ago, how investors look for their next opportunity, the investors¿ selection process and how investors plan to work with the entrepreneur after the investment.nnThe course is geared for multiple audiences: the student who is considering an entrepreneurship or investor career path and the student who is exploring a start-up idea (and perhaps formed a team). Both audiences will benefit from a greater understanding as to what happens `behind the scenes¿ (e.g. in the investors partners¿ meeting and at the negotiating table) between the entrepreneur and investor. Each class is case study based with engaging class discussions led by experienced venture capitalists. The course includes frequent guest speakers (both entrepreneurs and investors) who will give alternate and candid `off the record¿ details about their experiences.nnClass participation is integral to a successful exchange of ideas; therefore, we make class participation 50% of your total grade. The other 50% of the grade is based on both an individual paper and your contribution to a team project. The individual project is a short 3-5 page paper focused on a subject facing entrepreneurship (i.e. investor selection or managing the equity split within the team). The team project is a short presentation to the class on the business idea and then a more complete presentation to a panel of VC investors.

In this course, students will investigate opportunities and challenges of entrepreneurial ventures trying to make a positive impact in public education. The course requires a basic level of understanding of the U.S. K-12 public school system. The first session will analyze the structure of the public education as an industry, with a special emphasis on understanding the achievement gap. Subsequent sessions will explore challenges in increasing efficacy, ensuring financial sustainability, and scaling for entrepreneurs who have sought to change student outcomes, solve pain points, and innovate. The course will feature a variety of ventures (including schools, education technology, training, and supplemental services) and organizational models (for-profit, not-for-profit, and benefit corporation). This course is suitable for students aspiring to be entrepreneurs, leaders in entrepreneurial organizations, leaders in educational organizations, Board members, donors or investors. (Note: this is not a "how-to" course on starting an entrepreneurial venture.)

The focus of this class is on the challenges and key issues associated with the creation and management of a professional sales organization. Our emphasis is developing and managing the selling effort of business-to-business and business-to-consumer capital goods and services. There will be relatively little emphasis on sales technique (i.e., students should not expect a course on "How to be a Better Salesperson"). The course is organized to follow the development of the sales function from strategic inception through to execution and implementation: choosing a go-to-market model (e.g., direct sales, VARs, OEMs, hybrid models); building and structuring the sales organization (e.g., sales learning curve, organizational structure, allocating territories and quotas); and managing the sales force (e.g., hiring/firing, compensation, forecasting, culture). We will address these topics in the context of both early stage ventures and later stage enterprises.

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.

Many of America's most successful entrepreneurial companies have been substantially influenced by professionally managed venture capital. This relationship is examined from both the entrepreneur's and the venture capitalist's perspective. From the point of view of the entrepreneur, the course considers how significant business opportunities are identified, planned, and built into real companies; how resources are matched with opportunity; and how, within this framework, entrepreneurs seek capital and other assistance from venture capitalists or other sources. From the point of view of the venture capitalist, the course considers how potential entrepreneurial investments are evaluated, valued, structured, and enhanced; how different venture capital strategies are deployed; and how venture capitalists raise and manage their own funds. The course includes a term-long project where students work in teams (4-5 students per team) to write a business plan (or a business model canvas) for a venture of the team's choosing.

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 45 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 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 advisers to develop a deep understanding of the challenges they face and to field test their proposed services, products, and business models.

Most everyone associated with technology start-ups would agree that the most important initial characteristic of a successful endeavor is a compelling vision. The journey from vision to escape velocity is highly dependent on management's ability to translate that vision into a product or service that closely and economically addresses a customer's significant point of pain. Without a tight product market fit, the start-up's offering will not be able to break through the market's gravitational forces which strongly favor existing solutions, resulting in likely failure. With tight product/market fit, it is far more likely the company will achieve repeatable and growing sales success. Conventional wisdom dictates that a start-up launching a new product should focus its energy understanding what the market wants (problem) and then translating that knowledge into an optimal set of product features (solution). This is the ideal strategy if one is attacking a market that already exists. However if the start-up pursues an entirely new market or re-segments an existing market, customers are unlikely to be able to articulate the benefits and features they will need. The approaches required to pursue new or re-segmented markets are radically different from those applied to existing markets. As a result it is not relentless execution and exploitation of a well understood market that will lead to success, but discovery of a new market or segment that is in need of the product as envisioned. If done well, this process of finding the optimal product/market fit has a disproportionate impact on success. Our course explores the many issues associated with optimizing product/market fit. A take-home midterm, a group paper, and an in-class exercise comprise 50% of a student's grade with class participation representing the remainder. STRAMGT 353 is recommended prior to taking this course.

This is a two-quarter clinical course offered in the Winter and Spring Quarters that brings together upper-level graduate students in business, law, and education from Stanford to collaborate with their peers at other universities (Columbia University, Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Michigan) and provide strategic research and consulting to public education organizations. Participants engage in a rigorous and rewarding learning experience, including:nnn(i) An intensive seminar in the design, leadership and management, and transformation of public school systems, charter management organizations, start-ups, and other K-12 public- and social-sector institutions;nn(ii) Comprehensive skills training in team-based problem solving, strategic policy research, managing multidimensional (operational, policy, legal) projects to specified outcomes in complex environments, client counseling, and effective communication; andnn(iii) A high-priority consulting project for a public education sector client (e.g., school district, state education agency, charter management organization, non-profit) designing and implementing solutions to a complex problem at the core of the organization’s mission to improve the educational outcomes and life chances of children. The participant's team work will allow public agencies throughout the nation to receive relevant, timely, and high-quality research and advice on institutional reforms that otherwise may not receive the attention they deserve.

This is a two-quarter clinical course offered in the Winter and Spring Quarters that brings together upper-level graduate students in business, law, and education from Stanford to collaborate with their peers at other universities (Columbia University, Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Michigan) and provide strategic research and consulting to public education organizations. Participants engage in a rigorous and rewarding learning experience, including:nnn(i) An intensive seminar in the design, leadership and management, and transformation of public school systems, charter management organizations, start-ups, and other K-12 public- and social-sector institutions;nn(ii) Comprehensive skills training in team-based problem solving, strategic policy research, managing multidimensional (operational, policy, legal) projects to specified outcomes in complex environments, client counseling, and effective communication; andnn(iii) A high-priority consulting project for a public education sector client (e.g., school district, state education agency, charter management organization, non-profit) designing and implementing solutions to a complex problem at the core of the organization’s mission to improve the educational outcomes and life chances of children. The participant's team work will allow public agencies throughout the nation to receive relevant, timely, and high-quality research and advice on institutional reforms that otherwise may not receive the attention they deserve.

Teams that concluded at the end of the fall quarter that their preliminary product or service and business model suggest a path to viability, continue with the winter quarter course. In this course, the teams develop more elaborate versions of their product/service and business model , perform a series of experiments to test the key hypotheses about their product and business model, and prepare and present an investor pitch for a seed round of financing to a panel of seasoned investors and entrepreneurs.n nThe key premise for the course is that a robust venture creation process involves development and validation of a series of hypotheses about a new product or service, its value proposition, and how the business will acquire customers, make money, scale up to achieve profitability, and raise funds to achieve the key milestones to profitability. In Startup Garage: Testing and Launch, teams will learn how to precisely formulate these hypotheses and early stage milestones, and how to test them using one or more of the following low-cost approaches: a) online experiments with minimally viable products; b) interviews with partners, advisors, investors, and business experts; c) analogies from existing businesses that were successful in proving hypotheses that are analogous to what the new startup wants to prove.n nThe course focuses on further developing entrepreneurial skills using the same pedagogical approach used in S356: short lectures, extensive in-class exercises focused on each team's specific projects, and 'get out of the building' assignments. Teams will have the opportunity to:nn- Get out of the building and interact with users, advisors, investors and partners to develop a deep understanding of the challenges they face, to field test their proposed services, products, and business models, and to gather data.nn- Interpret the data and make important startup decisions in the context of their own project: pivot, persevere, or perishnn- Develop creative go-to-market strategies and test their effectivenessnn- Develop and deliver in front of real investors an investor pitch, elevator pitch and executive summarynn- Negotiate term sheets with venture investorsnn- Develop a hiring plan for their first year of operation and consider equity and other compensation plan

This course seeks to provide a survey of the strategic, governance, and management issues facing a wide range of nonprofit organizations and their executive and board leaders, in the era of venture philanthropy and social entrepreneurship. The students will also be introduced to core managerial issues uniquely defined by this sector such as development/fundraising, investment management, performance management and nonprofit finance. The course also provides an overview of the sector, including its history and economics. Cases involve a range of nonprofits, from smaller, social entrepreneurial to larger, more traditional organizations, including education, social service, environment, health care, religion, NGO's and performing arts. In exploring these issues, this course reinforces the frameworks and concepts of strategic management introduced in the core first year courses. In addition to case discussions, the course employs role plays, study group exercises and many outsider speakers.

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 both startups and large technology-focused organizations. The course examines how leaders can manage fast-changing technological innovations effectively. Specific topics include: assessing the innovative capabilities of the firm, managing the technical function in a company, navigating 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 entrepreneurs.

A fundamental challenge of an entrepreneur is the chronic emotional adversity new leaders face, at a task, relationship, and identity development (diversity) level. This class applies to both social entrepreneurs and business entrepreneurs. n nThis developmental flow of this course draws heavily on Goleman's emotional intelligence skills developed in OB 374: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills. Student's completing this class have called it 'touchy feely for entrepreneurs'.nnThe goal of this class is to learn to identify, build on, and leverage one's personal emotional resilience schema. Emotional resilience is the capacity to 'successfully adapt to emotional adversity'. When emotionally flooded decision-making is significantly impaired. Creative problem solving and teamwork are severely compromised. The capacity to down-regulate physiological arousal when emotionally 'flooded' by adversity and regain one's equilibrium of perception is a learnable skill. It is an intentional extension of one's personal emotional resilience schema. For an entrepreneur it is also a strategic advantage. Just as individuals can become emotionally flooded and incapacitated by adversity so can teams. In this 'flooded' state individuals and teams fall back on coping patterns of action. When what is most needed is timely and intentional 'down-regulating' behaviors: 1) self-soothing, and 2) co-soothing, that achieve emotional equilibrium. Students will engage in one-on-one interviews to identify different soothing strategies and resilience schema's learned by themselves, classmates, and experienced entrepreneurs.n nTo achieve this goal four educational behaviors will be engaged:n1. Learning one-on-one 'critical incident' interview skills that facilitate empathic-inquiry, emotional disclosure, pattern discovery and adaptive-reflection.n2. Identify one's present 'emotional resilience schema'.n3. Use critical incident interview skills to identify other entrepreneur's 'emotional resilience schema'. n4. Identify student's incidents of adaptive-reflection documented in submitted reflection journals (1-4) and summarize student's personal 'emotional resilience schema' growth trend.nnThis class is structured around Five Critical Incident (one-on-one) Interviews that the student will participate in. Each interview will be digitally taped and a copy saved by the student for review and analysis and submitted with each respective reflection journal (5). Students are expected to complete a 1000 word Emotional Resilience Reflection Journal entry summarizing their leanings from each of the Five Critical Incident Interviews.

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 course will examine innovation (creating a different offering that customers want to buy), its role in the continued success of organizations, and the role of the non-founder CEO in leading an innovation organization. There will be special emphasis placed on how successful non-founder CEOs manage risk and potential failure in leading their organizations.

This case-based course is offered for students who want to refine their ability to manage challenging professional conversations. The class, which is limited to 32 students, will focus on the preparation for and execution of role-played dialogue as well as on postmortem analysis. Most of the respondent roles will be external to one's company, and some will be front line or mid-level people with limited educational credentials. Broad utilization will be made of background readings plus visiting case protagonists and experts. There will be nine class sessions, each of one hour and forty-five minutes.

At the beginning and usually at the heart of every new business is an idea. Around that core idea talent is assembled, technology is developed, investors are attracted, capital is deployed, business models are evolved, and products and services are created and sold. But what happens if a business'€™ core idea turns out not to be protectable, and can be freely used by competitors, many of whom may have significantly greater resources, pricing power and other competitive advantages? Or conversely, how do you recognize opportunities to enter markets in which incumbent barriers to entry are, from an IP standpoint, weak or illusory? Using hypotheticals premised on reported cases, this course explores the business impact and implications of the rapidly-changing and often confusing law around how to protect what are often the most valuable core assets of a business. In particular, and with the assistance of business executives from impacted companies and institutions, the Supreme Court'€™s recent decisions in Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International, Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, and Mayo v. Prometheus will be discussed, and their implications for business models and both offensive and defensive strategy in fields such as software development, e-commerce, personalized medicine and medical diagnostics will be explored.nnIt is the objective of this course to help students to recognize and think critically about how the ability or inability to protect, or the scope of the protection available for, new ideas impacts everything from the funding and viability of a new business to the business model and IP strategy selected to advance it.

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.

The Global advertising market is forecast to top $600 Billion in 2016, with advances in advertising technology, such as online publishing, digital and mobile advertising platforms, as well as new ways of consuming video content, driving a rapid evolution of the market. We analyze this evolution from the perspective of three main constituents: 1) Marketers who rely on advertising to launch and sustain product sales, 2) Publishers and media owners for whom advertising often represents the largest source of monetization, and 3) Advertising agencies who design, plan and buy media for advertising campaigns. From the marketer’s perspective, we will look at the metrics and methods that are used in optimizing the use of advertising in an increasingly fragmented, complex marketplace.nnnFrom the media side, we will look at different selling and delivery strategies that can help publishers, particularly digital ones, monetize their audience more effectively.

This course explores how digital disruptions are having tectonic shifts on large, successful and established companies, whether they have a digital foundation or not. Both new and existing high technology firms such as Google, Amazon, Uber, Airbnb, Instacart and others are reshaping industries as disparate as life sciences and transportation. The management principles, competitive strategies, partnerships, and core competencies of the 20th century are being challenged in a world of bits and the global network in which all companies are forced to compete. In this course we will explore some of the fundamental technological changes impacting these industries, such as scaling assets without owning them, partnerships with digital leaders and new distribution strategies for goods and services. We will hear from CEOs of both leading Fortune 500 companies and new disruptors about what it takes to survive and thrive in this new digital economy.

In today's competitive marketplace, companies -- from Fortune 500 firms to early stage start-ups -- rely on intellectual property (IP) to keep them one step ahead of the game. The role of IP as a strategic business asset has been punctuated by the recent multi-billion dollar deals and acquisitions involving patent portfolios, as well as the fierce Mobile market patent wars raging in courts around the world. This class will explore the value of corporate IP assets by thinking strategically about how to effectively leverage the knowledge, trade secrets, patents, technologies, trademarks, structures and processes that are critical across industries. We will focus on the elements of a successful IP strategy, and how that strategy is shaped by economic, strategic, legal, regulatory, and market factors. nnThrough a combination of case studies, class discussion and guest speakers, we will cover a variety of issues shaping a successful IP strategy in today's global business environment. Some of the topics we will cover include: nn* Building and managing an IP portfolio that is aligned with business objectives;n* The innovation cycle and technology transfer mechanisms;n* IP portfolio monetization strategies (e.g., licensing, sale, enforcement);n* IP considerations in Mergers & Acquisitions;n* Tax planning related to IP (e.g., cross border transfer pricing, IP holding companies);n* Managing corporate IP litigation risk;n* Patent reform and the role of the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO);n* IP rights challenges while doing business in developing countries;n* IP strategies for start-ups & entrepreneurs.nnMs. Efrat Kasznik is an IP valuation and strategy expert with more than twenty years of experience advising companies of all sizes, from startups to Fortune 100s, on extracting value from their IP. She is the founder and President of Foresight Valuation Group, an IP consulting and startup advisory firm providing valuation and strategy services for a range of purposes, including M&A, financial reporting, technology commercialization decisions, tax compliance, transfer pricing, and litigation damages. Ms. Kasznik has been a co-founder, CFO and advisor to several startups and incubators in the US and Europe, including the Stanford Venture Studio at the GSB. She is listed on the IAM 300 list of World Leading IP Strategists, and is a member of the leadership committee of the High Tech Sector, Licensing Executives Society.

This class will provide an overview of the rapidly evolving world of financial technologies. New market entrants are promising to change the way we borrow, save, invest, and transact. Incumbents enjoy substantial market power but are struggling to keep up technologically as they wrestle with antiquated core infrastructure. We will analyze the emerging competitive landscape and the strategic dynamics in play. The class will begin with a short review of digital platform economics in which we will cover basic concepts such as network effects and economies of scale. We will then dive into a series of case studies and industry analyses. Particular attention will be paid to the areas of payments, alternative credit, and virtual currencies.

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 premise of the course is that managers are concerned with how to scale excellence in organizations and that scaling skills are essential for any leadership role. It will be taught with Shantanu Narayen, the CEO of Adobe. The course is designed to appeal to a wide range of audiences: students seeking to build new organizations, or turn around poorly performing organizations, or grow existing organizations to greater heights. We will focus on how to transform the footprint of a firm, and yet, not lose the mindset. Executives also need to think about to spread 'good behaviors' and make them widespread very quickly, and conversely, on how to shrink bad behaviors and make them small very quickly. This course aims to train students into becoming effective leaders of organizational change. We will use a mix of cases written specially for the course, and 'live cases' with guest speakers from the C-Suite

How do you get the best new social innovations to reach the hundreds of millions of people who need it the most? And how do ensure that they are developed, deployed and scaled in a way that is relevant, appropriate and sustainable?nnInnovators tackling the world's most difficult problems often ignore, misunderstand, and under-invest in the critical business challenges involved in crossing "the middle of the value chain." This is innovation's valley of death: product and system adaption and evaluation; evidence generation and design validation; formal or informal regulatory approval and registration. How do you design, introduce, and optimize the intervention's uptake before it can be taken to scale by markets, governments or other systems? nThe class is taught be Steve Davis, President & CEO of PATH (www.path.org), the leader in global health innovation, and former global Director of Social Innovation at McKinsey & Company. nnWe take an inter-disciplinary approach to look at the factors that pull innovation forward, push it from behind, and (often to the world's detriment) block its successful implementation and scaling. First grounding the discussion in research on innovation and social change, we then apply business principles, real world experiences and several important case studies in global health to examine the way good ideas get stuck, and how good ideas can turn into innovation that matters. We focus on root causes for failure, success factors, and business practices and tools to enable millions of lives to be impacted by social innovation. The seminar combines lectures, case studies, visiting practitioners and team projects focused on the business case for scaling specific social innovations. The goal is to help the next generation of social innovation leaders think more about some of the mistakes of the past, lessons for the future, and new ways of approaching old problems, all from a practitioner's point of view.

This course will develop Business Strategy frameworks, some of which will be familiar from the core Strategy class and others of which will be new, and apply them to growing businesses. We will look at companies attempting to grow, as well as family businesses and some enterprises that will always be small. Each session, we will spend some time developing frameworks based on required reading. Then we will analyze individual companies using a combination of written case studies, video and audio excerpts of interviews with business owners, and guest speakers (or, if feasible, company visits). Issues we will consider include:n- What makes a business scalable?n- When are barriers to entry feasible and sustainable?n- How can a firm differentiate itself? How might that limit growth?n- What can small firms do effectively that large organizations cannot?n- How do organizational issues such as incentives, hiring, and delegation limit growth and/or create advantages for small and growing enterprises?nnGrades will be based on class participation, a group written assignment applying concepts from the class, and a take-home exam.

As technology-driven ventures are having more and more impact, entrepreneurial ecosystems have been emerging in recent years in developing economies. Following the lead of Silicon Valley, 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 these economies grow and get more connected, exciting opportunities arise across markets and industries such as replicating a successful business model, leapfrogging the last technology, targeting the base of the pyramid or starting a venture capital firm. Despite the fertile ground for new endeavors, entrepreneurs face particular challenges and risks that they would not encounter in Silicon Valley.nnThis case driven course will include the participation of investors and entrepreneurs that have seized these opportunities across the world. By taking this course, you will be better equipped to observe and explain emerging ecosystems and the opportunities they present. It is targeted towards students who are thinking about creating or investing in new ventures in emerging markets.

This course addresses how firms should structure and exploit their value chains as a competitive strategy. Structuring the value chain could involve decisions such as vertical integration which requires the firm to acquire key supply or customer operations, spinning off an internal operation or outsourcing a key operation, or merging with another firm that has similar products, services or markets. Exploiting the value chain could involve leveraging the value chain to enable faster product innovation, product development and launch, creation of new channels, or expanding to new markets. The course takes the perspective of senior management, possibly C-level executives, on how to develop strategies around such value chain issues.

Venture Studio for Credit is a self-guided project-based course in which students apply the concepts of design thinking, engineering, finance, business and organizational skills to design and test new business concepts. Students will work one-on-one with instructors and coaches to move through a workbook(s) and attend Thursday afternoon workshops where they will have team-to-team interaction. nnThis course integrates methods from human-centered design, lean startup, and business model planning. Outside of meetings and workshops, teams will get out of the building and interact directly with users to develop a deep understanding of the challenges they face and to field test their proposed services, products, and business models.nnPrequalifications: 1. Projects must be exploring the commercialization of a technology innovation pioneered at a Stanford lab. 2. Teams must be a minimum of three people with at least one student enrolled for credit and representing a minimum of two schools. 3. All team members must be available to attend mandatory workshops on Thursdays from 3-4:20pm. Failure to meet all three prequalifications will result in an automatic drop.

This six-session 2-point Bass seminar will involve students (maximum 20) in using strategic thinking to analyze the evolution of the semiconductor industry through the eyes of several key companies. The purpose of the seminar is to help students sharpen their skills in strategic recognition and in leading strategic change in large complex systems where technology trends play a major role in business outcomes. 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. After an initial lecture reviewing tools and industry dynamics, class discussions will focus on the situations of specific industry leaders. For the first 90 minutes of each of the next four sessions, we will be joined by a C-level executive from a leading semiconductor player to discuss his or her perspectives. Students will be expected to help structure the discussion and move it forward toward conclusions. Students will organize into 3-4 teams each focused on one of the sub-sectors or companies and prepare a five-to-ten page group report and present their most important findings and conclusions during the last class.

This six-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.

The general objective of the course is to develop a solid grasp of the changing socio-economic and political situation in China (with its challenges both for China and for the rest of the world). It should make then possible to define sustainable strategies for managing effectively in China and for handling the growing interdependence between China and the US and China with the rest of the world. From assessing critically the performance of China today, students will get an insight in the current complex dynamics of China renaissance/transformation and discuss alternative scenarios, with their business and socio-political consequences on the medium term. From this analysis and with a prospective perspective in mind, we will explore alternative strategic business approaches and propose responsible management practices required to build, overtime, a mutually rewarding growing inter-dependence.n nMore specifically, the course will initially identify the multi-causality behind China's achievements and discuss some of the dysfunctions associated, today, with such performance. The conditions of management effectiveness required to enter and succeed overtime in the Chinese market will be identified while the challenges faced by the global expansion of Chinese firms overseas will be illustrated. nThe course will rely upon different pedagogical methods; it will create conditions to share and leverage participants' experience and it will make use of a number of recent cases and research results. nnAuditors will be admitted, but they will have to be present (and prepared) in all the sessions.

In recent years, we've seen an explosion of innovative business models blazing new trails in emerging markets. Many of these models are achieving commercial success while transforming the lives of low-income populations. Using nine cases of both early-stage, entrepreneur-led ventures and later-stage, public or large-cap firms, this course will examine best practices for scaling new enterprises in emerging markets. It will do so primarily through the lens of a potential investor. It will also explore what is required to spark, nurture and scale entire sectors that serve rapidly growing, often low-income markets. What does it mean to work in markets with limited infrastructure? What common mistakes are made -€“ whether in business model design, in supply chains, or in dealing with government -€“ and how can we avoid them? Which are the best business models to serve markets that corporations have traditionally ignored, and in which government has failed to deliver? Who might be threatened by the success of these new businesses? The seminar is a good match for Stanford students interested in working or investing in emerging markets. It will be taught by Matt Bannick, who leads Omidyar Network (a $744m impact investing fund) and is the former President of eBay International and of PayPal.