31 - 40 of 85 results for: GSBGEN

In the past decade the notion of impact investing has gained substantial popularity. But what is impact investing and what do impact investors actually do? This course will explore the current role of impact investing in developed economies, with particular focus on the United States. We will review the history of the field and explore the concept of a continuum of risk and impact. The course is designed to examine the practice of impact investing from multiple perspectives. It will broadly cover impact investing across multiple asset classes with a focus on venture capital impact investing. Selected practitioners from leading firms, organizations and portfolio companies will join for a portion of a number of classes to provide first-hand insight. The creation and measurement of social impact while answering financial return expectations, as well as the Limited Partner perspective in impact investing will also comprise a key part of the course's intellectual underpinning. Assignments are created to mimic the real-world tasks and challenges in impact investing, debate the issues that those in the field grapple with today and encourage students to explore how the industry can expand. There will be a final project and presentation for the course. Classes will include both presentation and dialogue, with frequent student participation strongly encouraged. Ideally, at the conclusion of the course, you will not only understand the qualitative aspects of impact investing and the role of metrics, but also the basic financial analysis that underlies investments made across numerous asset classes and in particular venture capital.

This course applies economic concepts to the practice of structuring contracts. The course extends over two quarters, meeting three hours per week the first quarter and two hours per week the second quarter. Students enrolled in the course must take both quarters. All or most of the first quarter is spent in a traditional classroom setting, discussing economics articles and case studies of actual contracts that illustrate the concepts described in the articles. Beginning either at the end of the first quarter or the beginning of the second quarter until the end of the course (the "deals" segment of the course), the class explores the connection between economic theory and contracting practice by studying specific current deals. Students, divided into groups, study a deal beginning in the first quarter. Then, during the deals segment of the course, each group gives a presentation of its deal to the class. The following week, a lawyer or other participant in the deal will come to class and lead a discussion of the deal. When it works, the students' and the practitioners' analyses are mutually enlightening. The course examines new deals each year. Deals that studied over the years have included movie financings, biotech alliances, venture capital financings, cross-border joint ventures, private equity investments, and corporate reorganizations.

GSB514 - Creating High Potential Ventures in Developing Economies (2 Units)nnNote: Students who want to work on a team to investigate a specific new venture idea in addition to participating in the seminar/discussion sessions (see details below) should enroll in GSB314 for 4 units. nnThis course addresses the distinctive challenges and opportunities of launching high-potential new ventures in developing economies. Developing economies are attractive targets for entrepreneurs because many are just starting to move up the growth curve, and they offer low-cost operating environments that can be great development labs for potentially disruptive innovations. They increase in attractiveness when their political institutions stabilize and they become more market-friendly. At the same time, developing economies pose serious challenges. Pioneering entrepreneurs take on significant risks to gain early mover advantages. Specifically, entrepreneurs will not be able to count on the same kind of supportive operating environments that we take for granted in the developed world. They often face cumbersome permit and licensing processes, poorly developed financial and labor markets, problematic import and export procedures, unreliable local supply chains, weak infrastructure, corruption, currency risks, limited investment capital, lack of financial exits and more. This course is designed to help would-be entrepreneurs - both founders and members of entrepreneurial teams - better understand and prepare for these issues as they pursue the opportunities and address the challenges to start, grow, and harvest their ventures in these environments. nnGSB514 is a seminar/discussion format in which students will read about and discuss the key challenges described above and potential solutions. Guests will describe their own startup and investing experiences in developing economies and answer questions. A framework based on the recently published World Economic Forum (WEF) report on "Entrepreneurial Ecosystems Around the Globe and Company Growth Dynamics" will be used to structure the course. Each student will prepare a short paper on a topic of interest from the course.

Successful leaders understand the power of authentic, memorable communication.nnnThis course uses the lens of oral communication and presentations, to introduce the essential elements of the strategic communication strategies that make authentic, memorable communication work.nnnFocusing on oral communication and presentation, we introduce the essentials of communication strategy and persuasion: audience analysis, message construction, communicator credibility, and delivery.nnnDeliverables include written documents, focusing on individual and team presentations, with students receiving continuous feedback to improve their communication effectiveness, and to sharpen their authentic leadership voice.nn nnThis highly interactive, practical course, is focused on feedback to help students at all levels of communication mastery develop confidence in their speaking and writing. Course includes presentations, assignments, lectures, discussions, simulated activities, in-class feedback, and filmed feedback.nn nnIn this course you will learn to:nn-Recognize strategically effective communicationnn-Implement the principles of strategic communication across different platformsnn-Develop clearly organized and effective presentations and documentsnn-Diagnose and expand, your personal authentic communication stylennnAs you make your super round selection, keep in mind that wait lists have been long for this course.

The exponential growth in our understanding of the workings of the human brain has led to a rather startling and maybe embarrassing (even depressing) conclusion. While the human brain is unique among species in its ability to strategize, conceptualize, hypothesize, etc., it is now undeniable that most of our decisions, behaviors and experiences are shaped by instinctual brain systems. Thus, constituting the broad goals of this seminar, it behooves us to first understand the workings of the instinctual brain and then leverage this understanding to craft solutions for real-world issues from the vantage points of the "firm" as well you as an individual, a leader and an innovator. Topics that will be covered from your vantage point include leadership skills including being effective at influencing key stakeholders within and outside the firm and being effective at making decisions, personal as well as professional. Topics that will be covered from the firm's vantage point include crafting superior value propositions at the decision as well as the experience phases of the "customer" journey, fostering an innovative organizational culture and developing incentives to increase employee engagement.

The course explores the role of mindfulness, self-compassion and compassion in the workplace, and the contribution of these qualities to leadership. Topics addressed will include: How can mindfulness enhance clarity in purpose and productivity? What is the connection between mindfulness and compassion? Is compassion in the business world a strength or a weakness? Are compassion and profit motives fundamentally incompatible, or can they support each other? What does compassionate leadership look like? Can mindfulness and compassion be trained at the individual level, and built into company policy? How does self-compassion support effective leadership and recovery from setbacks? Participants in the course will engage with exercises from evidence-based programs targeting the development of mindfulness and the practical application of the skills of self-awareness, self-compassion, and perspective taking in the context of work and relationships.

We will analyze markets that match people to other parties. We will spend one day each on the job market, higher education, and life partners. We will investigate the following issues:n- Can we expect a competitive environment to lead to an efficient outcome? If not, why are there "market failures"?n- What is the role of hidden information in the market?n- How can the problems in the market be solved?n- What are the business opportunities in this market? Do entrepreneurs entering the market make it operate better or worse?nnWe will spend one day each on job markets, higher education, and dating/marriage markets. Each of these three days will be divided into three sections:n- Section 1: Lay out an underlying economic concept related to the market (such as Network Externalities, Signaling, Adverse Selection, or Search Theory)n- Section 2: Analyze a case or a few mini-cases focusing on players in the relevant market.n- Section 3: Discussion with a guest from the relevant industrynnThe fourth day will be a set of shorter analyses of other matching markets, potentially including pets, car sharing, apartment rentals, and the like. Also, if any students in the class have a related business idea they would like to share and discuss, we will analyze that for part of the final day.nnTo determine whether you would be interested in the class, it may be useful to look at the instructor's book Everything I Ever Needed to Know About Economics I Learned From Online Dating (you can Look Inside on Amazon or find excerpts, articles, and videos online if you Google Paul Oyer book). Only one day of the class will focus on dating/partners, but the book will give you a sense of the types of issues we will address on any given day.

Creativity is one of the most coveted attributes of successful business leaders. It is also among the most widely sought attributes that innovative companies like Facebook, Google and Apple are looking for when they hire. Yet, creativity remains a mystery to many individuals. Who has it and who doesn't? Can it be learned? How do successful creators really think and work? Is there anything different or special about the way they organize their lives and manage their work? This new Week 0 course will engage these provocative questions and others. We will explore what recent research tells us about the roots of creativity and its developmental course over the life-span. We will also examine some of the prevalent myths regarding the nature of creativity. The course will take a variety of approaches to mastering these topics, including reviewing the latest academic research (including some of my own work in this area). These ideas will be illustrated, moreover, by provocative and inspiring case studies. You will also have an opportunity to think about your own personal creativity and how to develop it further. The course is designed to be very intellectually engaging, as well as offer you an opportunity for self-reflection lively discussion.

This course is open only to leaders of the Service Learning Trips or Global Study Trips. The course will meet nine times only on Tuesdays (because of the limited time and the fact that the course is experientially based, attendance at all classes are required). In addition, students will meet with a Master Coach just before their trip to review how they are operating as a team. There will be a final lunch meeting in January where the Winter Trip leaders will share their experience with the Spring Trip leaders. nnThe purpose of this course is to help trip leaders in the planning and conducting of the trip so as to maximize the learning for the trip participants and the trip leaders as well as increasing the overall success of the trip. A range of topics will be covered including: articulating a vision for the trip, developing their team as a high performing team, making quality decision, resolving interpersonal issues (within the team and with participants), understanding how to make full use of the faculty member and dealing with the myriad of issues that are likely to arise.nnClass time will mainly be spent discussing and role-playing a series of short cases that have been developed around issues that have come up in past trips. These role plays will be the basis of peer feedback. The cases will be supplemented by short lectures to provide the conceptual underpinning. There will be a very modest reading list.