MOB7570 Leader Development: Enabling Transformational Change in Yourself and Others

(Formerly Leadership)
3 Credits

The focus of this course will be on leader development. This course is appropriate for those who are or want to become leaders, and for students who want to understand leadership whether they aspire to a leadership role or not. The course assumes from the start the following. (1) Leaders develop themselves and do so primarily through and within their life experiences. Therefore, much of leader development is also personal development. (2) Learning to be a leader is an iterative process of reflection, assessment, planning, experimentation and practice, application of what we know, and developing supportive relationships. (3) Knowing (from theory and research) what other leaders have done, how they did it, and why, greatly informs the process of developing leader capacity. (4) You learn best when you understand and build on your current capability. (5) Openness to and wise use of feedback is essential as a basis for growth and development and ultimately effective leadership. With these assumptions, the course has the following objectives to help students develop as a leader: (1) explore the nature of leadership theory, principles, and practice and apply them to improve thinking, problem solving, and decision making; (2) better understand what constitutes effective leadership and what does not; (3) appreciate why leaders are needed at all levels in organizations and how they effectively influence, regardless of their position in the organization; (4) create a plan for your personal leader development as an initial step in developing your own leader capability; (5) increase your confidence and your impact and influence as a leader in whatever you decide to pursue. These objectives are achieved through readings, cases, experiential activities, practice in developmental coaching, receiving feedback, and putting into practice a model for sustainable leader development and change.

Prerequisites: None

SEN1336 Plant Your Stake: Leadership for the 21st Century and Beyond

(Student Instructor: Ryan Wilson) We often measure the success of a business in terms of value to shareholders, but in this course, we'll look at business in terms of stakeholders. Who is a stakeholder, and what role do they play in the outcomes of business and government policy? How can leaders consider various communities of stakeholders in order to make conscious decisions? Students in "Plant Your Stake" will consider the human nature of business operations, including being exposed to the conversation around food systems, environmental impact, and human rights. An emphasis will be placed on systems thinking. Students will walk away with practical tools to use in their future experiences engaging in capitalism.

Wednesdays 6:30 - 9:00 pm

MOB7512 Leading and Managing Project Teams

(Formerly MFE7510)

3 CreditsThis 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.

MOB7552 Leading Business Turnarounds

3 CreditsHow (and why) does one catch a falling knife? The Leading Business Turnarounds course will address the strategic, financial, operational and organizational issues confronting senior executives managing a turnaround situation. It is intended to: impart the practical knowledge needed to assess the business and financial severity of a turnaround candidate; develop an action plan to address the immediate crisis conditions facing the organization; define how to evaluate and build the necessary management team to implement the mid-term stabilization plan; define the exit strategy options (sale, bankruptcy, shutdown, or revitalization) to be pursued; and create a communication plan for the critical stakeholders affected by corporate distress. Turnaround leadership styles and actions will be investigated. Students will develop familiarity with the management and organizational assessment tools used in turnaround situations. They also will understand the financial and managerial actions necessary for developing and implementing sound turnaround strategies. Importantly, organizational implications of these plans will be probed and discussed, with focus given on how people are affected by management's actions. Finally, students will learn situational turnaround leadership techniques for use in different turnaround situations.

For more information: http://www.kaltura.com/tiny/ntrbiPrerequisites: FIN7200 or FIN7800 and MOB7202 or MOB7801

STR7552 Leading Business Turnarounds

(Formerly MOB7552)

MOB3514 Leading in a Connected World
(Formerly Managing the High-Performing Or ORGANIZATION)
4 General Credits

This course will help you learn how to manage collaboration and networks for organizational performance and personal success. It will focus on ways in which successful leaders think about, analyze, and develop collaboration networks that help drive strategic advantage, innovation, and well-being in organizations. The course will also equip you with a range of network tools and frameworks that not only can make you a more effective leader and team member but give you a competitive advantage in the job market.

In this course we will specifically address:

- STRATEGY: Deriving strategic advantage in a knowledge economy. The ability to innovate and leverage expertise has become central to wealth creation for organizations and entire economies. The first 25% of this course will focus on how leaders can best define and develop networks that drive both organizational and personal success. In addition, we will review practices and unique technologies that high performing organizations employ to better leverage and share employee experience and expertise.

- ORGANIZATION: Attaining critical efficiencies and innovation through networks. In order to develop innovative products and services, leaders need to develop innovative organizations through new and better ways of collaborating. The middle 50% of this course will teach a specific process leaders can use for systematically assessing, improving and supporting collaboration inside organizations (especially in informal networks).

- EXECUTION: Driving performance through team and individual level learning and execution. The bulk of work done in organizations occurs in teams or other collaborative relationships. The last 25% of this class will address unique ways to drive performance through teams by helping them more effectively work through networks. In addition, specific focus will be paid to key things YOU need to think about in managing your own career and networks as you enter the work force.

Prerequisites: FME

MOB9527 Leading in a Connected World
1.5 Intensive Elective CreditsMeeting Dates TBD

The collaborative intensity of work has snowballed over the past decade as companies have transitioned to flatter or matrix-based structures, layered on collaborative technologies, adopted agile methodologies, deployed increasingly complex products and services, and integrated operations across the globe. Collaborative time demands have risen more than 50% in this time frame with most people spending 85% or more time in a given week on email, in meetings, and on the phone. There are positive outcomes of this new way of working: Companies more seamlessly serve demanding clients, and individuals are able to craft jobs with meaning. But a significant (and unmanaged) consequence of this new landscape is the un-abating collaborative work load, which is hurting company performance and employee effectiveness and well-being.

In this new world of work, networks of collaboration have become central to both organizational effectiveness and personal success. Yet despite the centrality of networks to performance, most leaders do not manage this asset well and often have no transparency into the main thing people do all day long: collaborate with others. Leading in a Connected World addresses organizational, team and individual collaborative drivers of effectiveness in today's networked economy. The course is thoroughly evidence-based, drawing on more than two decades of research in over 300 organizations. At each step, it will focus not only on drivers of effectiveness but also on equipping you with analytic tools (e.g., Organizational Network Analysis) and best practice guides (e.g., Team Agility, Personal Effectiveness) that you can deploy immediately in your organization or as a differentiating skill in interviews.

Prerequisites: None

MBA9525 Leading Innovation at Gorillas, Chimps & Monkeys
(Formerly MOB9525)
1.5 Intensive Elective CreditsThere are only two ways to grow: M&A and Organic. Organic Growth is much much much more difficult than M&A. Growth is the only common thing that all types of firms -- start-ups, small, medium, large, family-businesses, non-profits -- have in common. However, how they go about achieving growth could be very very different. This course focuses on how innovation is a mechanism for growth in a variety of firms and situations.

If you are going to work for a Gorilla / Chimp (Large / Medium Business):
M&A, incremental innovation, risk management and bureaucracy building are all skills and capabilities that are in abundance inside large enterprises. However, organic growth, radical innovation, uncertainty navigation, and entrepreneurial leadership skills and capabilities are all scarcities within large enterprises. Hence, many medium- and large-sized enterprises are creating internal innovation leaders who are able to drive organic growth by building innovation sandboxes and creating and nurturing a culture of innovation.

If you are going to start or work at a Monkey (Startup / Small Business):
Large firms routinely don't want to cater to certain markets and certain customers. They are very picky in terms of what margins they want and will protect. So, large enterprises do not pursue many opportunities. These spurned opportunities are precisely the ones that start-ups and small businesses should go after. Having a clear understanding of how large firms make their decisions in terms of markets and margins will improve the opportunities for start-ups and small businesses. Also, start-ups and small firms are notoriously lacking in resources. Creativity and Innovation is the primary weapon of the entrepreneur to compete against the Gorillas & Chimps. This course will provide several strategies for start-ups and small businesses to compete against the larger enterprises.

If you are from / going-to-join a family business:
All family business leaders have to comprehend that Strategy, Innovation and Leadership cannot be discussed independently and in isolation. They are all highly intertwined. At the heart of this triangle sits an even more difficult concept called "Culture." Depending on the generational, technological and socio-economic changes that are underway in their countries / industries / businesses, family business leaders have to navigate VUCAH (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity & hyperconnectedness) through a careful combination of multi-dexterous skills in terms of Strategy, Innovation, Leadership & Culture. This course will help you gain those multi-dexterous skills.

OIM4520 Leading Innovation: At Gorillas, Chimps and Monkeys

(Formerly Innovation Dynamics & Disruption)
2 Advanced Management Credits

IBM was the largest firm (a Gorilla) in the mainframe computer industry. However, a startup (a Monkey) called Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) came and displaced IBM in the next generation of products called mini-computers. Then, another Monkey called Apple created an entirely new personal computer industry. IBM, the Gorilla, was fast becoming obsolete. Yet, IBM avoided disruption by also entering the PC industry in 1981 and then dominating it. However, by the early 1990s, many more Monkeys and Gorillas - Compaq, Dell, HP, and others - entered the PC industry with lower prices and more profitable business models. In 1993, IBM posted the then-biggest loss in history of corporate America - $8 billion. The game between Gorillas, Chimps and Monkeys is never ending and the dynamics of competition and innovation between them changes the world that we live in. This course goes deep into: (1) How Monkeys can beat Gorillas. (2) How Gorillas will fight back. (3) How Chimps can succeed in the middle. (4) How entrepreneurial leaders navigate uncertainty and lead change. (5) How innovation can change the dynamics of competition.

Prerequisites: None

OIM7522 Leading Sustainable Innovation
3 Elective Credits

The era of corporations integrating sustainable practices is being surpassed by a new age of corporations actively transforming the market to make it more sustainable. Enterprise integration is geared toward present-day measures of success; market transformation will help companies create tomorrow's measures. This course prepares entrepreneurial leaders to create systemic transformation and apply practical decision-making with the purpose of socio-ecological and economic value. In this course you will learn different approaches including systems thinking to design, develop and implement sustainability-oriented innovations. After completing this course, you will be able to

(1) Critically examine the relationship between business practices and socio-ecological system,
(2) Understand and apply the concepts of sustainability thinking and practice (externalities, process thinking, and systems and design thinking) to design, develop and implement sustainability-oriented innovations with socio-ecological systemic impacts,
(3) Understand how to operationalize the four elements of sustainability thinking and practice (purpose and strategic intent, stakeholder involvement, metrics, design and implementation of innovations)
(4) Develop knowledge and skillset to take lead in formulating an effective sustainability strategy for the transformation of a conventional organization