11 - 19 of 19 results for: STRAMGT

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. Intellectual Property (IP) such as patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets are assets that businesses can leverage to obtain competitive advantage, but IP in the hands of third-parties, including competitors, can also be a significant risk. In either case, significant financial outlays and management resources may be involved in obtaining protection, advancing or defending a claim or challenging third party IP. How can different types and combinations of IP be used to create competitive advantages for a business? How may IP risks be mitigated? And how do you optimize alignment between your company's business model and strategy, on the one hand, and its IP model and strategy on the other?nnThis course explores the business impact and implications of the rapidly-changing and often confusing law around how to protect what are very often the most valuable core assets of a business. With the assistance of experienced business executives from markets ranging from biosciences to software to sound engineering, we will review the IP and other tools that can be leveraged to achieve and sustain competitive advantage, and will discuss the legal and business shoals, and the practical contractual, cost and timing issues, that entrepreneurs and other business executives need to be able to navigate. In the course of these discussions, we will survey the Supreme Court's recent decisions in Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank Internat'l, Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, and Mayo v. Prometheus that over the past few years have reduced the scope of available patent protection in major industries, and will explore their implications for business models and both offensive and defensive strategy in fields such as software development, e-commerce, personalized medicine and molecular diagnostics.nnIt is the objective of this course to help business 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.

This course looks at the entire selling process of prospecting, qualification, discovery, customization, objection handling, relationship building, and closing. Our primary objective is to offer a hands-on, skills-based class in which students work together in groups to practice the fundamentals of effective selling. Over the six sessions of this compressed course, we will focus on the following aspects of effective selling: creating a value-based prospecting script; meeting objections with curiosity (rather than argument); using advanced questioning to qualify prospects and understand the problems, impacts, ideals and benefits of potential customers; creating customized presentations that map your solution to your customer's needs; using interaction to promote customer engagement; accelerating the process of building trust and developing relationships; and overcoming the limiting beliefs associated with closing deals and obtaining commitments from customers. By the end of the course, you will not only have more confidence, but also a sales toolkit that you will be able to customize and deploy when you encounter selling situations in the future. The course is appropriate for anyone who wants to understand and become more proficient with the skills required in different selling situations. Our experience suggests that students who have a particular selling context in mind - such as a new product to sell - will benefit from this course, but this is not required. If you want to feel more confident in both traditional and non-traditional selling situations - like pitching to an investor or selling yourself in a job interview - this course will be helpful.

Leaders of arts and creative organizations face unique challenges. Taking the perspective of the CEO, Chairman of the Board and Artistic/Creative Director, and drawing on various cases and in-class exercises, students will learn about advancing artistic excellence and creative innovation while expanding audiences and achieving financial goals. We will survey a variety of settings from non-profit museums and performing arts organizations to start-ups and large players in the music, theater and film industries. Among the topics explored will be governance and management; reaching multiple audiences; managing fiscal and creative tradeoffs; maintaining relevance in the age of online consumption; standing out in real and virtual spaces; and achieving growth amidst rising costs and diminishing revenues.

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.

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 six-session (2-unit) Bass seminar focuses on strategic leadership and builds on core strategic leadership coursework in the MBA and MSx programs. The course uses the seminar format with expectations of extensive contributions from all students to the discussion in each session. Through seminar discussions, we aim to deepen our understanding of strategic dynamics and transformational change at the industry and organizational levels of analysis in dynamic environments. The seminar's aim is to improve participants' ability to develop strategically informed action plans that are imaginative, inspiring and workable. The seminar's conceptual frameworks include traditional tools of strategic and competitive analysis from the core course on strategic leadership, conceptual frameworks developed by the instructors that help understand the role of strategy-making in the evolution and transformation of organizations and industries, and theoretical frameworks that help understand the interplays between technology strategy and corporate strategy. Three of the six session will feature discussions with senior executives from key industry players. The seminar's pedagogy involves informed debate including with the guest executives to evaluate and hone well-researched views by the participants as well as the writing and presentation of position papers by small groups of seminar participants concerning the seminar's analytical topics. In this fall's seminar we will examine the evolution of the global semiconductor industry in light of the ongoing impact of Moore's Law and the convergence of computing and wireless communications industries, and how it has been and will be affected by strategic actions of entrepreneurial startups, incumbent corporations, and governments in multiple geographies. Several interrelated topics will be discussed as they impact three key industry segments of the global semiconductor industry that are the focus of the seminar.

This six-session 2-point Bass seminar will involve students (maximum 24) 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.