EPS4510 Entrepreneurial Finance

(Formerly EPS3511)
4 General CreditsHow much money should I raise? Who should I raise it from and how? What do I do with the money once I have it? This course focuses on the various aspects of funding and managing entrepreneurial ventures through the various stages of business growth. The class will utilize videos, cases, simulation and experiential learning techniques to explain how to finance the entrepreneurial firm, investment analysis and decision making, and managing company finances through growth, crisis and harvesting. Frequent guests ranging from entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, banking and legal professionals will bring the entrepreneurial experience to life in this course which utilizes the "flipped classroom" methodology of teaching.

Prerequisites: (SME2001 and SME2002 and SME2011 and SME2012 and SME2021 and SME2031) or (ACC2002 and OIM2001 and MKT2000 and OIM2000 and FIN2000 and ECN2002)

MBA7507 Leading Enterprise Change: Entrepreneurial Leadership and Innovation
3 Credits

This course will go deep into the principles of innovation - disruptive, product (Agile), process (Lean), customer experience (Design Thinking), and business model innovations. Participants will learn how key tools like Agile, Lean and Design Thinking become the corner stone of innovation projects and processes that help teams to become more effective and help executives to build an innovation culture. Today, even the most conservative of industries are being pushed to transform themselves towards digital excellence. We will see several examples of firms that have gone through this transformation. Strategy, Innovation, and Culture are inseparable and they are the three key weapons of every entrepreneurial leader confronting ever increasing VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) environments. This course provides the participants a set of strong principles and common language for leading their teams and their enterprises through uncharted terrains. When this course is offered exclusively for firms in the healthcare industry, the case studies and the assignments will be chosen appropriately.

EPS1220 Entrepreneurial Leadership Field Studies
4 Free Elective Credits

This course is designed specifically for Arthur M. Blank School of Entrepreneurial Leadership Scholars (AMBSEL Scholars) and for other Scholars (e.g., Weisman, Presidential, Posse, etc.) by instructor consent.

Entrepreneurial leadership theories and frameworks, considered to be distinct from other forms of leadership, are still at the nascent stage of development. Babson Professor Scott Taylor and his colleagues are currently developing an entrepreneurial leadership model that includes the following constructs: "leader internal clarity", "leader opportunity seeking behavior", "leader outward focus", "follower motivation effect", and "recognizing and exploiting entrepreneurial opportunities". Each of these constructs will be explored by students through discussions of assigned readings and qualitative research in the form of entrepreneur interviews and a case research project which includes a written case and teaching note. Students will develop qualitative research skills (e.g., interview techniques) through in class lectures and asynchronous videos that have already been produced by Professor Shay. The learning-focused activities and assignments, especially the field-based entrepreneur interview and case research project, are designed to enhance student (and the field's) understanding of the unique nature of entrepreneurial leadership and to develop the student's own entrepreneurial leadership skills. Student course deliverables (entrepreneur interview and case study) will provide insights to advance our understanding of entrepreneurial leadership as well as teaching materials for classroom use. The entrepreneur interviews and case studies will be submitted for inclusion in Babson's case resources and possibly for publication in peer-reviewed journals such as Case Research Journal.

EPS3543: Entrepreneurial Opportunities in AI

4 advanced managements credits

This experiential seminar explores the rapidly evolving field of artificial intelligence (AI) and its potential for creating new business opportunities. Students will learn about cutting-edge technologies in AI, such as machine learning, computer vision, neural networks, and natural language processing. We will also cover recent developments in the AI industry and the impact of venture capital investment on AI startups. Throughout the course, students will have the opportunity to experiment with AI technologies and develop their own innovative projects. By the end of the course, students will have a deep understanding of the current state of AI and the potential for new business opportunities in this field. This course is ideal for students interested in the intersection of entrepreneurship and technology.

EPS7800 Entrepreneurship
2 Credits (Core MBA)If you have taken and passed EPS7200, you cannot register for EPS7800, as these two courses are equivalent

Through the Entrepreneurship components of the course, you will explore and practice the concepts of creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship, and how these three concepts come together to create the future. You will examine the importance of creativity in this process, and how it fosters an innovative and entrepreneurial approach to identifying, solving and acting on management challenges. You will build an ET&A toolkit to create and evaluate entrepreneurial opportunities, marshal resources, and form teams driven by creativity, leadership, and smart action. You will explore questions about value exploration and value appropriation - for yourself and for others in society. In sum, this course is a journey through the fuzzy front-end of early-stage entrepreneurial activity. This course is not intended to be a complete overview of entrepreneurship. It makes no effort to deal with all the complex issues of entrepreneurial practice. Topics such as managing growth, franchising, entrepreneurial finance, corporate entrepreneurship, family entrepreneurship, or buying businesses are not covered in the course. Other courses offered during your MBA program go into greater depth in many of these issues. This course is an immersion experience for finding, creating, and evaluating early-stage opportunities for value creation. It also expands your horizons about how to determine what is valuable not only for yourself, but for others across people, organizations, and society in new and creative ways.

EPS3501 Entrepreneurship and Opportunity
4 General CreditsEPS3501, EPS3502, EPS3503, EPS3530, EPS3508 and EPS4520 are all equivalent courses. Students can take only ONE of these courses.

Before spending time and money on launching a new venture, it is important to understand if you should launch that particular venture. In fact, some of the main causes of new venture failure are the lack of product-market fit and cash flow problems resulting from underestimating the costs of the venture. This course concentrates on identifying and evaluating opportunities for new business to ensure that the venture has the potential to meet the individual entrepreneur's goals. Students will work on venture ideas to learn how to determine if there is a sufficient market, what that market requires to be willing to pay for a solution and what it will take for the entrepreneur to deliver that solution. Students will gain first-hand experience with market and customer research as well as a better understanding of what they need to do to determine if an idea represents a true opportunity for them. Students will leave the class being better able to understand their own personal entrepreneurial capacity and the process and tools that they can use for evaluating any venture idea that they may have in the future. Student teams will conduct both primary and secondary research on a venture idea of their choice.

Prerequisites: (SME2021 or FIN2000) and (SME2011 or MKT2000) and (SME2031 or ECN2002)

EPS7200 Entrepreneurship & Opportunity

2 CreditsEntrepreneurship & Opportunity (E&O) - This course provides an overview of the entrepreneurship method that will enable you to create, identify, assess, shape, and act on opportunities in a variety of contexts and organizations. The method, called Entrepreneurial Thought & Action (ETA), is teachable and learnable, but is not predictable. This is a results-oriented course that emphasizes early action in order to test and refine new venture concepts.

EPS3513 Entrepreneurship in Fashion
4 CreditsEntrepreneurship in fashion explores the challenges to entrepreneurs in the fashion industry with a view toward understanding opportunities, the changing nature of design to distribution technologies and processes, and the resources required to successfully launch and grow new ventures and corporate innovations. This course will examine past, current, and leading-edge business models while building entrepreneurial thought and action skills in the fashion context to create economic and social value. Students will focus on areas of interest in the fashion industry and design business models around opportunity spaces. The course examines current business cases. Speakers from the fashion industry will be invited to converse with students about experience and opportunities in fashion.

Prerequisites: FME1001

EPS3509 Entrepreneurship New Ventures in Fashion
4 Elective Abroad CreditsEntrepreneurial leaders in Fashion excel in being innovative and resourceful with respect to creating new designs that capturing customer attention, attracting high quality human and financial capital, and building business partnerships that ensure their products get to market in a timely way. The Fashion business cycle demands that ventures gather timely customer information, make the most of limited resources, and manage uncertainty in changing market conditions. In this course, students will have the opportunity to apply their classroom knowledge and past professional experiences to practice these facets of entrepreneurial leadership in London, England. The course is built around a Design Challenge - including preparation, research and thought about opportunities and the fashion industry and an intense, one-week exercise that invites students to create a solution to address an underserved customer/market niche while visiting leading British companies and cultural attractions.

As a part of the field work associated with the Design Challenge, students will participate in local excursions to leading businesses, start-ups, incubators, design companies, and cultural destinations. You will meet British and Global entrepreneurs, managers, Full-Circle Economy/Environmental leaders, and other experts in fashion design and production. You will also interact with different facets of everyday life in London as you collect information, develop an opportunity, rapidly prototype solutions, and validate your findings. The goal is to provide ample opportunities for you to immerse yourselves in the dynamic London fashion culture and expose yourselves to the design- friendly ways pioneered by British companies and leaders. At the end of the week, student teams will present their solutions to a panel of Fashion Faculty. The course is designed for students who have a strong interest in entrepreneurship, fashion, innovation, fashion technology, or design and wish to participate in a dynamic cross-cultural learning experience.

EPS6300 Entrepreneurship, Analytics, and Strategy of the Firm
3 Blended CreditsThis course provides an overview of the entrepreneurship method that will enable students to create, identify, assess, shape, and act on opportunities in a variety of contexts and organizations, while also introducing students to the use of analytics throughout the lifecycle of business applications. The method, called Entrepreneurial Thought and Action (ET&A), is teachable and learnable, but is not predictable. This is a results-oriented course that emphasizes early action in order to test and refine new venture concepts. Topics will include: innovation uncertainty in the corporate environment, Design Thinking, Shareholder Value and EVA//Multi Business Strategy in Large Corporations, Industry Analysis, Ecosystems and Competitive Positioning and How Big Companies Make Decisions.

Prerequisites: Admission in to the MSBA program. CAM students should contact Graduate Academic Services to pursue enrollment in this course.