Exposes students to the concepts and techniques of management. Topics include marketing, strategy, finance, operations, organizational structure, and human relations. Guest lecturers describe aspects of actual organizations. Lectures and discussions.
(Fall Only)

An examination of the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical product industries: what they are, how they function, whence they originate, and various perspectives on why some succeed and others fail. Pathways from lab-bench to marketplace are described as are the pervasive influences of the FDA, patent office, and courts. Extensive reading; emphasis on oral presentation. Primarily intended for students planning a career in biomedical industry.
(Spring only)

This course will use a combination of lectures and case discussions to prepare students to make decisions, both as entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, regarding the financing of rapidly growing firms. The course will focus on the following five areas:
1. Business valuation
2. Financing
3. Venture Capital Industry
4. Employment
5. Exit
(Fall only)

Technologies have shaped human life since tools were sticks and flints to today’s hydrocarbon powered, silicon managed era. Some spread throughout society; bread, cell phones, airlines, but most never do; personal jet packs, Apple Newton, freeze dried ice cream. Space Tourism, the Segway, electric cars: Can we predict which ones will cross the chasm to broad application? Can we help them to by combining design, engineering, marketing, communications, education, art, and business strategies? Student teams identify potential new products, conceptualize, package, and define their business mode. By plotting their course across the chasm, we confront the cross-disciplinary barriers to realizing benefits from technology.

Five decades of human activity in space has provided the world community with benefits including instant global communications and positioning, human and robotic exploration of the moon, planets and sun, and a perspective of earth which continues to inform and influence our relationship with our environment. Unlike other technical revolutions of the 20th century space has not transitioned to a commercial, consumer market commodity. Rather its users and applications remain primarily large and institutional. To experience the challenges of engineering design and of changing an industrial paradigm, we will work in one or several groups to identify a use of space, and a plan for its implementation, that could help transition space from its status as a niche technology. Through the process of design, we will confront the technical, economic, societal and political barriers to obtaining increased benefits from technologies in general, and space in particular, and to making new technologies beneficial to a wider range of users.

Designstudio is a course open to students interested in learning through making. Working in a studio environment, we will iteratively design, build, and test projects, as we imaginatively frame design problems, and develop novel strategies for addressing those problems. We will explore design thinking, creative collaboration, exploratory play, ideation, iteration, woodworking, prototyping, CNC milling and laser cutting – in addition to other strategies that enhance our creative processes – as we establish a technical and conceptual foundation for the design and fabrication of objects and experiences. Enrollment limited to 16. Instructor permission required.
(Spring only)

“Sweet are the uses of Adversity,” said William Shakespeare. But then again, Shakespeare never had his ventures explode on him. Companies get into trouble all the time – they make the wrong products for the market, their sales fail to meet quota, their factories go on strike. But this course is not about the day-to-day problems that companies run into. It examines what action items a venture must do when its very existence is at stake. This is the situation where time is the critical element – there isn’t enough time to hire consultants, do research, hire new employees – it is when Top Management must make decisions often with insufficient data and a series of alternative options – all of which seem ‘sub-optimal.’ But one must be chosen.
(Fall only)

Nothing happens until a sale is made. That simple point underlines the critical importance of sales. Almost every business plan “assumes” a certain amount of sales but that assumption is the tipping point. Without sales the entire business model is an exercise in frustration. The CEO, CFO and the General Manager must not only understand the sales process but also embrace the fact that the ability to sell is the single most critical success factor of any enterprise, whether new or ongoing.

A critical element of entrepreneurship, and indeed all new business development, is to be able to undertake insightful market research, including developing an ‘understanding’ of the customers of potential new products and services. This requires qualitative research methods, and in this course participants learn to utilize the most recent and effective methods. A feature of the course is that the curriculum also explores the academic origins of the methods, developed from the fields of sociology, anthropology, management, and industrial design. Participants undertake a meaningful market research project in teams or as individuals.

The primary objective of the course is to train students on tools, skills, and behaviors required for effective management of complex engineering, research, and business development projects. Although the course will be framed in the context of early-stage technology companies, the skills and principles will be applicable to businesses of any size and maturity. The course is organized around three actionable themes: project management, team management, and decision making.

Over the past decade, new international datasets have demonstrated a stark and surprising reality: a distinctive pattern of economic inequality marks the female population of every nation, each with the same mechanisms standing behind the disadvantages. Everywhere, the barriers to women’s economic engagement reach beyond work and salary to encompass property ownership, capital, credit, and markets. When considered as a whole, these barriers constitute economic exclusion, not just economic inequality. The data also shows that countries with high gender equality—across economic, educational, health, and political measures—are more stable, prosperous, and safe, while countries with low gender equality are impoverished and constantly embroiled in conflict. Further analysis has strongly suggested that gender equality, especially economic equality, is a driving factor in determining the fate of nations.

This course will explore two main questions: how poor women connect to markets and how philosophical ideas about gender have influenced ideas about gender and justice and consequently, gender, justice, and markets. These questions help us explore how justice, gender, and markets interact and create conditions that keep millions of women trapped in poverty. They help us then develop policies and programs that might help women escape entrenched poverty.
(Spring only)

This course brings design thinking into conversation with qualitative research methods, examining the elements of a comprehensive perspective of context. It introduces students to design research methods, ethnographic research methods, and how they work together. Students will learn how to use these methods to identify and engage in “deep hanging out” with the problem, gap or inefficiency in question. They will then move on to patient contextualized opportunity identification for meaningful innovation. By the end of the course, students will have developed a process for effective, through innovation context analysis. Relevant for designers of products, services, organizations , and experience.
(Spring only)

A community of practitioners and their eponymous annual gathering, EPIC promotes the use and value of ethnography in industry. EPIC people work to ensure that innovation, strategies, processes and products address business opportunities that are anchored in what matters to people in their everyday lives today and over time. This course explores the tools and resources used by ethnographers in industry. We will study the EPIC community as a tribe of ethnographers working in a particular context with its own language, practices and beliefs regarding the use of ethnographic skills.

Real estate development is the ongoing configuration of the built environment for society’s needs. The improved spaces in which we live, work, and play all started as ideas initiated and brought to fruition. Every real estate project, whether it’s making use of unused land or redeveloping existing properties, is in essence a separate business undertaking employing the three factors of production – land, labor, and capital – to create a new or changed product. These factors are coordinated by entrepreneurial management and delivered by teams.

Visual artists don’t have agents or managers–you have to do it all yourself. This class covers business basics including tracking inventory and preparing invoices; taking legal precautions like registering a copyright and drafting consignment forms; using promotional tools; and making decisions such as choosing the right venue for your work. Grants, residencies, and relationships with galleries & nonprofit institutions will be discussed in depth. Work will emphasize community the practical, skills to thrive as a visual artist.
(Spring only)