Curricular Programs

Covers the essential principles of the risks and rewards associated with Private Equity and Venture Capital. Financial analysis of a business and risk/return characteristics, business valuation methods, and the financing sources are covered to better understand the required returns to risk investors. Other topics include: fundraising, early stage, middle stage, and ultimately late stage investments; buyouts and exit strategies; the structuring of the “deal”; the creation of term sheets, negotiation strategies, and human capital and resources.

We have designed the course to be radically interdisciplinary.  Over the course of the semester, you will be exposed to academics and practitioners from widely divergent fields.  Each will share with you the creative problems that they face, and how they are tackling them… or perhaps, challenge you to tackle them.  By reflecting on what they have to offer, you’ll improve your ability to think divergently… a critical precursor to creativity.  We are engaging our speakers opportunistically, when they’re available.  Because of that, we won’t have a structured daily schedule, and you should expect last-minute changes.  What you will have is a structured process for capturing your daily experiences, reflecting on them, comparing your take-aways with others, and synthesizing them into a broader understanding of the creative problem-solving process, a wider range of “lenses” for viewing situations, and new tools for approaching complex, ambiguous challenges.

This course considers the relationship between theories and practice in the two very different realms of business strategy and design. The course focuses on analyzing complex information, developing and exploring alternative solutions, and prototyping future innovations and scenarios. Visual and other design techniques and tools are added to the traditional strategic toolbox to bring new insights into new venture strategy, competitive strategy, marketing strategy and tactics, decision sciences, entrepreneurship, business plan writing, and innovation.

This course provides a hands-on introduction to Design Thinking methodologies and encourages students to immediately put them into practice. Students will gain an understanding of the core principles of Design Thinking and be able to put them to use within their own organizations. Design Thinking is a systematic, iterative, human-centered approach to solving tough, real-world problems that are often ill-defined and stubbornly immune to traditional problem solving approaches. Design Thinking is a methodology for generating innovative solutions that are at the intersection of people’s needs, technological feasibility, and business viability. You don’t have to be a designer to be a design thinker. Design Thinking tools allow people who are not trained as designers to creatively tackle a wide range of challenges.

Covers the essential principles of the risks and rewards associated with Private Equity and Venture Capital. Financial analysis of a business and risk/return characteristics, business valuation methods, and the financing sources are covered to better understand the required returns to risk investors. Other topics include: fundraising, early stage, middle stage, and ultimately late stage investments; buyouts and exit strategies; the structuring of the “deal”; the creation of term sheets, negotiation strategies, and human capital and resources.