Babson College

EXP7501 Make Your Internship Matter

(Online)

As freshly hired graduate interns, you have an opportunity to test your chosen field of work and apply what you’ve learned from the first year of your Babson program. In this wholly on-line, asynchronous course, you will go through modules themed around critical career topics like networking, negotiating, and personal branding, while reflecting on your real-time internship experience. By the end of the semester, you will be equipped with strategies that empower you take ownership of your career development for a lifetime.

International students using their CPT to work in the US are required to take this course.

EXP7502 Make Your Internship Matter II

(Online)

In this second iteration of “Beyond the Classroom,” you will be given a space to conduct comparisons between your two consecutive internships. By now you have acquired the foundational skills for self-managed career development, a lifelong skill. During your second internship you will be asked to intentionally apply this framework in order to navigate the final year (or semester) and beyond.

International students using their CPT to work in the US are required to take this course.

EXP7503 Make Your Internship Matter III

(Online)

In this third iteration of “Beyond the Classroom,” you will continue to reflect on your internship experience with a focus on successes, challenges, and opportunities on the job. By now you have acquired the foundational skills for self-managed career development, a lifelong skill. During your third internship you will be asked to intentionally apply this framework in order to navigate the final year (or semester) and beyond.

International students using their CPT to work in the US are required to take this course.

MBA7400 Startup Foundations

0.5 Credits

The Startup Foundations SLE will focus on Entrepreneurial Thought and Action, team building, and technology. In addition to sessions on Ideas and Barriers to Innovation, students will participate in a competitive, computer-based simulation (Techmark), develop processes that will support virtual and in-person teamwork, take their first classes in Entrepreneurship and Leadership, and attend a variety of networking events.

MBA7401 Disruptive Change and Enterprise Transformation
(Formerly Business Model Innovation)
1.5 Credits

Industry: Rapid changes in science and technology, a great rebalancing if not fundamental resetting of the global social and economic order, the blurring of traditional boundaries between industry sectors, shifting attitudes towards business and globalization, and greater concern for the environment, to name but a few of the major forces disrupting the world around us, are unleashing major tectonic shifts in multiple industries such as agriculture, clothing and apparel, education, energy, finance, healthcare, manufacturing, media and entertainment, mining and excavation, retailing, telecommunications, transportation, utilities, and even government and nonprofits. During the multi-decade span of one’s career, a business manager and leader can very reasonably expect to be in the throes of such tectonic shifts at least once if not multiple times and must be prepared not just to survive but energetically thrive. During this 3-day interactive, executive-style workshop, students will learn to make sense of the bigger forces and narrower trends driving ecosystem-wide change, envision alternative scenarios for the future, identify implied strategic imperatives for an incumbent enterprise of their choice, and explore necessary transformations in the enterprise. Student learning will be facilitated by an hand-on, integrative approach that seamlessly weaves together concepts and tools from the MBA core curriculum as well the disciplines of entrepreneurship, innovation, technology, finance, marketing, operations, leadership, strategy, social concern, and sustainability. By way of context for student work and learning, students will be able to choose from any of the following five settings: agriculture, currency and payment systems, fashion and apparel, healthcare, and media.

MBA7402 Capstone: Corporate Entrepreneurship

6 Credits

The Corporate Entrepreneurship capstone course has three learning objectives:
-Integrate and apply accumulated learning experiences since the beginning of the Blended Learning MBA program
-Explore creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship in greater depth—in corporate and in greenfield settings
-Develop a penetrating understanding of the process required to create something of significant value out of almost nothing

Students form teams and develop a business plan based on either a project identified within their companies or a greenfield project.

MBA7501 Doing Business Globally: Highways and Landmines
1.5 Elective Credits

Doing Business Globally: Highways and Landmines (DGB) is a 1.5 credit course that combines Accounting, Economics, Entrepreneurship, Finance, and other disciplines. This course will focus on identifying opportunities, assessing and navigating risks, harvesting rewards, and understanding the economic environment of export countries. It has been developed with the AACSB’s following statement in mind: _The shift toward more experiential learning and business engagement will mean that business schools may be seen increasingly as learning laboratories rather than as the traditional classroom learning environment.” (AACSB, A Collective Vision for Business Education (https://www.aacsb.edu/vision, 2016) p. 9.)

Among the disciplines and topics for this course will be:
-Accounting: Accounting will focus on allocating income streams, foreign exchange transactions, positions, and exposures, and international tax issues (i.e., both income tax, VAT, and U.S. sales tax),
-Entrepreneurship: Entrepreneurship will focus on assessing risks, choosing the right export market, common mistakes, competitor analysis, creating and reinforcing value networks, customer support, distributor relationships, financing, focusing on your core, identifying opportunities, logistics, prepping before going global, supplier relationships, supply chain issues, understanding the complexities, customer loyalty, and working capital concerns,
-Economics: International macroeconomics will focus on reading the economic and financial pulse beat of export markets. It will explain the interrelationship among the nation’s or currency area’s credit market, goods and services market, and foreign exchange market. Among the major macroeconomic performance indicators are real gross domestic product, inflation, unemployment, interest rates, exchange rates, balance of payments, stock market, banking system, government budget balances, foreign direct investment, and environmental quality.
-Finance: Finance will focus on hedging global risks, such as foreign exchange, interest rate, and counterparty exposures.
-Other: Among the other areas we intend to cover are cultural issues, customs’ duties and international trade document, e-commerce strategies, insurance, law, legal obstacles, marketing, pricing, regulation, and compliance

Prerequisites: None

MBA7512 Storytelling/Communication with Data

3 Credits

In 2020, businesses are highly dependent on a data-driven decision-making model.  The data explosion seen in the past few years makes managing and understanding data extremely difficult.  Hence, there is a dire need to make sense and visualize the data effectively to solve problems.  This course will introduce data visualization using Tableau for beginners.  Students will learn best practices for data visualization and storytelling.  Students will develop the expertise to generate powerful reports and dashboards to help businesses make decisions based on their data. They will create high-impact visualizations based on common data analysis, predictive analytics to improve business decisions.  At the end of the course, students will be well prepared to take the level 3 tableau exam.

MBA7546 Wealth Management
3 Blended Credits

Wealth management does not necessarily have as much to do with how much asset value you now have or how you accumulated that wealth. But wealth management is more about how you manage the wealth you have. There is an accumulation stage and a distribution stage. Wealth management does not involve just investing. Investing is an important element but good management also involves income taxes, estate taxes, how to fund education for children, how to fund a retirement, and how to protect your assets from creditors.

There are 6 pillars of wealth management. This course examines tax planning, estate planning, investment planning, retirement planning, education planning, and risk management including asset protection and insurance, from an individual planning perspective. The course is designed for students who have already accumulated wealth or are in the process of doing so. This could be the successful entrepreneur (or in the process of becoming successful) but also includes students who expect to inherit wealth and those that are interested in helping parents manage their wealth. Also students who have interest in the financial services industry – financial advisors, insurance advisors, bankers, mutual fund managers, etc. will find the course of interest.

The course will use a combination of cases, readings, power point presentations, spread sheet models, and discussions amongst students. Since many of the topics change quickly (for example expiration of the Bush tax cuts and the fiscal cliff legislation known as The American Tax Relief Act of 2012) there will also be cutting edge updates (for example the Affordable Care Act) to planning techniques.

The course is offered in a blended learning format. Thus the course is about 7 weeks long with two face to face sessions. The text will be supplemented with numerous articles which are very practical in nature. Although not a guarantee past students have learned how to save on income and estate taxes!

Prerequisites: None

MBA9502 Customer Acquisition and Persuasion
(Formerly Selling Ideas, Products and Services to Executives)

1.5 Credits

The growth of business revenue depends directly on a firm's ability to create additional value for
current and potential customers. This course will focus on the professional selling process, to include identifying opportunities, gaining access to and engaging decision makers, asking high gain questions, building long term relationships with decision makers and influencers, presenting winning proposals, handling resistance and objections, completing the sale or obtaining commitments and following up. The course will use the value creation methodology to identify solution options aimed at creating value and enhancing the other party's (e.g., customers) competitiveness. The course will use a number of inputs to share current academic thinking and best practice. Course participants will also be challenged to apply the learning to potential opportunities. The art and science of ethically and effectively convincing another party about self, ideas, solutions, products, services, etc., is an imperative for everyone, whether in family or social settings, profit or not-for-profit ventures. It's a life skill. This course is therefore for everyone.

Prerequisites: None

MFE7500 Management Consulting Field Experience (MCFE)
3 Credits

**THIS COURSE REQUIRES ACCEPTANCE INTO THE MCFE PROGRAM. Registration is Manual for students who have been accepted into the program**

The MCFE Program is designed to link the business and investment community with Babson College students through a consulting team project. Graduate Students work in teams of three to five people, supported by a faculty advisor with the objective of examining an actual business or investment situation. The assignments take place in a variety of business environments which have included Fortune 500 companies, growth companies, venture capital firms, hedge funds and large and small investment companies. The team projects cover approximately 14 weeks during the fall or spring semester, with students earning three credits. At the conclusion of the project, the MCFE team's findings and recommendations are presented to the sponsoring company in a detailed, written report and oral presentation.

The program provides students with an opportunity to apply their classroom-based learning to real-world business issues and investment situations where they and their partnering companies gain value as well as exposure to new opportunities, innovative solutions and resources. It also provides a unique perspective for anyone interested in either the investment (investment banking, traditional asset management or hedge fund, venture capital/private equity and private wealth management), corporate finance or consulting area.

Prerequisites: Permission from the Graduate Office of Experiential Learning

MOB7512 Leading and Managing Project Teams

(Formerly MFE7510)

3 Credits

This experiential learning course integrates class work as a project leader and hands-on management experience at the same time. As a project leader you will be in charge of a team of four to six undergraduate students working on a Management Consulting Field Experience (MCFE) project for an organization. MBA students will be responsible for managing the entire consulting experience, which will require them to use a variety of skill sets (e.g. project management, coaching, emotional intelligence, team building, performance management, planning) that will vary based on your team's needs and the deliverables required by the company. While you will not be an active team member performing the day-to-day tasks, your responsibility will be to manage the team towards final delivery of the project to the client. This course will provide valuable hands-on leadership experience that cannot be acquired in a classroom setting alone.

Prerequisites: Babson Consulting Experience (MBA 7800), OR ½ way through your MBA Program.  Part time students who have not completed BCE and are ½ way through their program may be enrolled with permission from the Office of Experiential Learning.  Please contact Elissa Kempisty (ekempisty2@babson.edu) or Arline MacCormack (amaccormack@babson.edu) with questions.

MSA6600 Personal Project
6 Credits (MSAEL Core)

This course bridges key MSAEL Program learnings into demonstrated application, by delivering real Project impact, while enhancing the ability to mobilize others to drive organizational growth and renewal. With Faculty coaching each student will identify, in alignment with their work stakeholders, a specific challenge or opportunity at their organization. Clear Learning Plan frameworks, built on Project Management under Uncertainty principles, will be used to frame their project considering stakeholder needs, potential resistance to change, benefits of implementation and leadership challenges (self, others, organization). Their Entrepreneurial Leadership Project Action Plan, with relevant Analytics, will be reviewed for progress through ongoing check-points with Faculty, and key stakeholders inside their organization. By the end of this Capstone course, the student successfully implements a measurable pilot solution and a plan for further actions.

MSB6300 Business Analytics Field Project
3 Blended Credits

The course will provide students with the opportunity to reinforce as many as possible of the program’s learning goals by guiding and coaching them through the performance of analytical tasks that they can expect to encounter in the workplace following graduation. The course will consist of two principal components:

1. A formal curriculum, delivered in a blended format, that will teach students critical skills needed to plan and execute analytical projects, and then to communicate their results effectively to senior management and other stakeholders; and
2. A consulting project, coached by a faculty member, in which teams of students will perform an analytical task for an outside organization and present their work to executives from that organization.

MSB6310 Storytelling/Communication with Data

3 Credits (MSBA Core)

In 2020, businesses are highly dependent on a data-driven decision-making model.  The data explosion seen in the past few years makes managing and understanding data extremely difficult.  Hence, there is a dire need to make sense and visualize the data effectively to solve problems.  This course will introduce data visualization using Tableau for beginners.  Students will learn best practices for data visualization and storytelling.  Students will develop the expertise to generate powerful reports and dashboards to help businesses make decisions based on their data. They will create high-impact visualizations based on common data analysis, predictive analytics to improve business decisions.  At the end of the course, students will be well prepared to take the level 3 tableau exam.

Prerequisites: MBA students will be required to review approximately 2 hours of pre-work videos

MSM6101 LEAP

MSEL Course

4.5 Credits

LEAP is a yearlong experiential course and serves as the foundation for the MSM program. The course is designed as an integrated learning experience that integrates design, entrepreneurship, and organizational behavior. The course is structured as a project-based course in which students will work in small, independent groups as they identify, design, develop, and prepare to launch a new opportunity. Students will develop a deep understanding of the intersection between design principles and fundamentals of entrepreneurship. Students also will learn how to work effectively in a group and organization, critical to the success of any new opportunity. Cocurricular resource sessions will provide students with essential awareness of legal issues that might impact the implementation of their projects.

OLN7500 Engineering for Humanity: Helping Elders Age in Place Through Partnerships For Healthy Living (Olin College Spring 2013 Course, specially aimed at 3-College students)

Olin College: Engr 2141/AHSE 2141
Instructors: Caitrin Lynch and Ela Ben-Ur
Day/Time: Mondays and Thursdays, 12:30-3 [time can be shifted slightly to accommodate
commute time and lunch; contact the profs]

Do you want to make a positive difference in the lives of older adults in the local
community? We’re looking for students with passion to help others and with diverse
backgrounds in arts, humanities, social sciences, business, and/or technical fields. This
innovative, intergenerational course is a partnership between college/graduate students
and local senior citizens. It is co-taught by two Olin College professors with experience in anthropology, design, and mechanical engineering, and will take place at Olin College and in the local communities (home visits and fieldtrips). We will partner Wellesley-Babson-Olin student teams with local senior citizen volunteers, and ultimately the students will design real, implemented solutions to specific everyday problems.

Projects will be customized to meet the needs of the senior citizen partners. Possible projects: students might design a device to help someone who has difficulty reaching up to change a light bulb, something to help hold a newspaper steady with shaky hands, or something to enable someone to get clothes out of a dryer that is difficult to stoop down to reach. The class meets 2x/week; some sessions are devoted to co-design with the client population or to team meetings, other sessions involve guest speakers and fieldtrips, others are for discussion of topics relevant to aging and/or design. No prerequisites; a sense of adventure highly recommended.

More info? See http://e4h.olin.edu/spring2013.html
Questions? Contact Caitrin Lynch clynch@olin.edu

Prerequisites: None