EPS9508: Building a Corporate Innovation Capability: Strategy and Tactics

(Previously Corporate Innovation as a Profession: Designing Innovation Roles)

Corporate Intrapreneurs get by through breaking rules and seeking protection by senior leaders. It doesn't need to be this way. Companies are undertaking much more systematic approaches. To build a capability for truly Strategic Innovation that helps a company disrupt itself before others do, a new set of competencies and supporting management system must be instituted. In this course we will examine the elements of that management system and focus on two aspects that are most pressing in today's companies. The first is strategic, that is, Senior leadership's role in setting direction for and governing Strategic Innovation Initiatives, by defining and committing to Domains of Innovation Intent for the organization. The second is more tactical, and that is the issue of talent management. Leading edge companies are working to design innovation functions that require clearly defined innovation roles. We'll examine emerging roles for the corporate innovator, possible career paths, and newly designed tools for their selection and development.

EPS7545 The Entrepreneurial Extension: Buying a Small Business

1.5 CreditsThis course will delve deeply into the challenges, process, and risks of buying a small business. Students will explore the intricacies of planning, evaluating and negotiating to buy a small business from a family-controlled or privately-owned enterprise. All aspects of financing and equity structure alternatives plus the industry peculiarities of acquiring a small business will be explored via cases, discussion, and an individual research paper.

This course is geared specifically to buying a small business and links with EPS7530 (M&A for Entrepreneurs) which focuses on a broad understanding of middle-market company M&A and is geared to students looking to buy a business in the future or students entering the corporate or advisory world.

Prerequisites: None

**It is recommended that students also take EPS7530 (M&A for Entrepreneurs) in order to develop a deep understanding of the M&A process**

EPS7546 Buying a Small Business: The Search Experience

1.5 CreditsThis course compliments EPS 7545 (Buying a Small Business) and EPS 7530 (M&A for Entrepreneurs) by allowing students interested in buying a business the opportunity to conduct a live search under the supervision of their Professor. Enrollment in or successful completion of either of the courses listed above is a prerequisite for this course.

The latter stage of the MBA program is an excellent time to conduct a business search. Students can learn from their experiences, share lessons with fellow students and actually find a serious business acquisition opportunity within a three-month semester.

The course will include group seminars and private sessions with the Professor for planning and review of the individual search plan. Students are expected to spend 30-40 hours during the semester conducting a serious search.

Group seminars will cover the following areas:
- Self Assessment
- Definition of the Search Objectives
- Preparation of a Business Plan for the Search
- Preparation of a Communications and Target Plan
- Opportunity Risk and Opportunity Process
- Strategies for Information, Due Diligence & Negotiations
- Keeping the Deal Alive
- The Closing Process

Prerequisites: Students who enroll in this course must be currently enrolled in EPS7530 or EPS7545 or have completed one of these courses in a prior semester AND also have completed EPS7200 or equivalent core

EPS6601 Corporate Entrepreneurship

3 Credits (MSAEL Core)Corporations caught up in the web of commoditization and stagnation have come to realize that they need entrepreneurial capabilities to create new platforms of business that will be the promise of the future. Yet overall, these efforts have produced uneven success. Although entrepreneurs in organizations can benefit from the resources, experience, financial assets and networks of the large company, they are constrained by its bureaucratic practices. Recent evidence points to corporate leaders' renewed attention to developing management systems that work with, rather than against intrapreneurs. In this course we will examine various approaches companies have taken to build this organizational capability. We examine five different approaches and consider the shortcomings or each. We will build the rationale for why innovation must become an organizational function if a company truly wishes to compete for the Future. We focus at the organizational level rather than the individual project level, seeking insights about how organizations can institutionalize structures and processes for entrepreneurship, even within a dominant culture of operational excellence that, of necessity, pervades most large established firms.

Prerequisites: MOB6600 and EPS6600

EPS7507 Corporate Entrepreneurship

3 Credits Corporations caught up in the web of commoditization and stagnation have come to realize that they need entrepreneurial capabilities to create new platforms of business that will be the promise of the future. Yet overall, these efforts have produced uneven success. Although entrepreneurs in organizations can benefit from the resources, experience, financial assets and networks of the large company, they are constrained by its bureaucratic practices. Recent evidence points to corporate leaders' renewed attention to developing management systems that work with, rather than against intrapreneurs. In this course we will examine various approaches companies have taken to build this organizational capability. We examine five different approaches and consider the shortcomings or each. We will build the rationale for why innovation must become an organizational function if a company truly wishes to compete for the Future. We focus at the organizational level rather than the individual project level, seeking insights about how organizations can institutionalize structures and processes for entrepreneurship, even within a dominant culture of operational excellence that, of necessity, pervades most large established firms.

EPS7503 Creating Epic Organizations
3 Elective CreditsThis course welcomes students who seek an intellectual and professional "sandbox" to pursue "EPIC" opportunities for themselves or for their companies. EPIC opportunities empower you and others to pursue big, bold initiatives, pioneer new technologies, markets, or business models, inspire new solutions to address the UN Global Goals, and require courage to tackle different problems. You will wrestle with managerial and societal issues that call for entrepreneurial leaders to take a stand and chart a new path with EPIC initiatives.

In this course, you will study historical and contemporary examples, role models, and scenarios of EPIC opportunities and pursuits. You will examine both academic research and practical resources to understand the core principles of operating with an EPIC mindset. You will learn a set of EPIC tools to apply immediately in your own ventures, workplace, or careers. You will create an action plan that outlines how you intend to pursue an EPIC opportunity - now or in the future.

EPS9551 Critical Questions Facing Business Families: A Coaching Retreat
1.5 Intensive Elective CreditsHow do I move from a parent-child to a professional-peer relationship with my parents?

Topics include, how to build relationship capital in the family, living with your family history, understanding the goals for effective communication, developing next stage communication skills, learning to have hard conversations, how to stop acting like a child, how to get your parents to start acting like a peer, giving and taking feedback in the family, creating a self-coaching family team, creating sibling unity, having successful family meetings, and many more.

EPS8573 Entrepreneurship Intensity Track (EIT)
Regular Speaker: Craig Benson

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

Students selected for the EIT: Entrepreneurship Intensity Track course will engage in an academically rigorous and reality-based curriculum that includes both classroom and outside class activity. Students will also work with an outside mentor. EIT is focused on developing and enhancing the student's knowledge and experience in order to maximize their prospects for starting a successful business soon after completing their MBA program. The course combines readings, discussions, lectures, conceptual tools, and guest speakers, all with an emphasis on the practical steps that students need to take to get their business up and running and keep it that way. Students should be those who can stand on their own and have the will to make it happen in a challenging environment. While EIT is focused on developing and enhancing a student's knowledge and experience, students should keep in mind that the business they are developing is theirs and its success is completely dependent on what they make of it.

Prerequisites: Completion of one of the following courses: EPS7500 or EPS7530 or EPS7545 or EPS7546

EPS6600 Entrepreneurship
1.5 Credits (MSAEL Course)This course introduces you to a methodology that we practice at Babson, called Entrepreneurial Thought & Action? (ET&A). You will have several opportunities to practice the skills associated with this method, such as the ability to effectively pitch your ideas, enrolling others on to your entrepreneurial journey, and managing risk through a process of trial-and-error learning. You will also examine the importance of creativity and lateral thinking in this process, and develop your abilities as they relate to entrepreneurship. Through this process, you will become more adept at both recognizing and acting upon entrepreneurial opportunities. Lastly, you will integrate these skills to define, iterate, and communicate the feasibility of an early stage business concept.

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.