EPS9504 Health and Biotech Venture Ecosystems

1.5 Intensive Elective Credits

Health and Biotech Venture Ecosystems is an intensive 2-day course which prepares life science entrepreneurs for patient driven collaboration in the development of new life science products and services.

Boston is considered the leading life science cluster in the world. Much of this can be attributed to an ecosystem strategy where industry, academia, and government share the same combined interest to advance patient advocacy. There is also a philanthropic ecosystem of altruism which fuels early-stage innovation which includes patient advocacy organizations, high-net worth individuals, and common patients and families which can help to validate and supercharge a new venture.

In this course students explore an opportunity space and ideate a new product or service using a patient driven business development process that socializes their innovation in the innovation ecosystem. Guest speakers from leading life science organizations will help students to learn how to generate trust within the communities they serve by collaborating with the leading patient advocates within their ecosystem. Students will learn how to explore the business drivers for their specific venture idea by working with stakeholders such as hospitals, health plans, key opinion leaders, and advocacy organizations. They will learn first-hand from industry leaders who will share the best practices associated with patient driven business development. Students will also learn from other global health ecosystems to understand how they collaborate with other ecosystems to promote success.

The students will be expected to interact with outside organizations to make progress. Students will connect with alumni or other experts as they need additional project support. Student are assessed based on their resourcefulness, project progress, and completion of course readings and activities. Students will have the opportunity to share their projects with the broader global health community through the Healey Center for Global Healthcare Entrepreneurship at Babson.

Day 1 will include classroom instruction of entrepreneurship fundamentals, group design thinking, and early-stage business ideation. Students will have a minimum of one-week to explore their opportunity space. Day 2 will include business iteration, marketing and sales strategy, and the culmination of the course is a presentation to an early-stage investor or corporate innovation manager.

Prerequisites: EPS7800 or equivalent

EPS7580 Independent Research

1.5-3 CreditsIndependent research is available for all academic divisions. Registration is manual for students through Graduate Programs and Office of Graduate Academic Services.

Independent Research provides an opportunity to conduct in-depth research in areas of a student's own specific interest. Students may undertake Independent Research for academic credit with the approval of a student-selected faculty advisor, the appropriate division chair, and Graduate Academic Services. Please note that a student is responsible for recruiting a faculty advisor through the student's own initiative and obtain the advisor's prior consent/commitment before applying for an independent research project. The research project normally carries 1.5 or 3 credits.

For more information and a proposal outline please visit: http://www.babson.edu/Academics/graduate/mba/Pages/independent-research.aspx

EPS 7508: Initiation of Corporate ventures

3 elective credits

The course focuses on ways to profitably exploit business opportunities (as opposed to what opportunity to pursue). It will allow you to acquire the skill set necessary for crafting a winning business model for your venture - developing and writing a concise, coherent, effective, and complete business development plan and prepare you to gain support within a mature corporation for your plan.

Prerequsites: EPS 9501

EPS6603 Innovation Roles
1.5 Credits (MSAEL Core)It's no secret that disruptive innovation is extremely challenging for large mature companies. In this short course we'll examine one crucial reason for the lack of progress in companies toward building a capability for breakthrough innovation, and that is talent management.

Companies rely on champions to break rules in order to make breakthroughs happen. But for every champion that made it, scores of others saw fantastic opportunity for their companies but couldn't execute on it effectively. This course considers a different approach. The argument we'll make is that innovation must become a business function in its own right, with its own management system, capabilities and expertise. In order to make that happen, innovation roles need to be defined and instituted, so that when a champion cannot get it done alone, a team of innovation experts is there to make sure the breakthrough doesn't get buried. A framework of innovation roles is developed, along with selection, development and retention practices. A self-diagnostic tool is offered for students to assess their fit with various roles within Strategic Innovation.

EPS6602 Innovation Roles
1.5 Credits (MSAEL Core)

It's no secret that disruptive innovation is extremely challenging for large mature companies. In this short course we'll examine one crucial reason for the lack of progress in companies toward building a capability for breakthrough innovation, and that is talent management.

Companies rely on champions to break rules in order to make breakthroughs happen. But for every champion that made it, scores of others saw fantastic opportunity for their companies but couldn't execute on it effectively. This course considers a different approach. The argument we'll make is that innovation must become a business function in its own right, with its own management system, capabilities and expertise. In order to make that happen, innovation roles need to be defined and instituted, so that when a champion cannot get it done alone, a team of innovation experts is there to make sure the breakthrough doesn't get buried. A framework of innovation roles is developed, along with selection, development and retention practices. A self-diagnostic tool is offered for students to assess their fit with various roles within Strategic Innovation.

Prerequisites: MOB6600 and EPS6600

EPS7530 M & A for Entrepreneurs
3 CreditsThis course focuses on the strategies and process entrepreneurs and business leaders employ in various types of acquisitions or divestitures (leveraged buyouts, management buyouts, ESOPs, etc.). The course is centered around $10-500 Million revenue companies and its content is applicable for students pursuing either entrepreneurial opportunities or corporate positions where they may be called upon to acquire or divest a division or product line.

We take a strategic view throughout the course discussing and evaluating all phases of the acquisition process: Acquisition planning and targeting, Valuation alternatives, Leveraged Buyouts, ESOPs/Partnerships, Financing buyouts, Tax, legal and accounting issues, Letters of Intent, Due Diligence, Negotiating an agreement, International markets, Lessons to be learned from failed acquisitions, Managing the leveraged company.

Prerequisites: Basic knowledge of accounting and finance will be helpful in understanding valuation, income statements and balance sheet issues

EPS7520 Managing Growing Businesses

3 CreditsThis case-based course is designed to provide insight into the challenges and opportunities accompanying growing an entrepreneurial company. The course provides the concepts and framework necessary to enable entrepreneurial management in organizations of all sizes and types. It is intended for individuals interested in managing growth in their own companies as well as those growing an existing company by creating value through innovation and opportunity capture. The course focuses on the decisions entrepreneurs must make to recognize and capture opportunities, obtain and allocate resources, challenge and direct personnel, and adapt personal goals and corporate strategies to a changing business environment. In this process, the course examines management challenges commonly encountered at different stages in the life-cycle of an entrepreneurial business, including start-up, growth, change of direction, and harvest.

EPS7500 New Venture Creation

(Formerly Entrepreneurship)

3 CreditsThis course integrates many of the concepts, tools and practices of entrepreneurship. Students will learn to be superior opportunity assessors and shapers, to understand the integration of people and process in entrepreneurship, to write, articulate and present a new venture execution plan, understand the alternatives and trade-offs in financing, starting and operating a venture, and gain a better understanding of their personal entrepreneurial capabilities. Students will engage in feasibility assessment, venture viability analysis and resource acquisition. Students will learn how to conduct rigorous business-planning, and also how to network for resources and to be able to communicate about a new venture in a confident, articulate and effective manner. The course builds on foundation concepts from the Opportunity and Entrepreneurship courses, and is designed for students seriously considering launching a new venture in a variety of contexts (e.g. corporate, family, organization, franchise) or students planning to work in an early-stage venture.

Prerequisites: EPS7200 or EPS7800

EPS7553 On Becoming Entrepreneurial: Context-based Entrepreneurial Action
3 Elective Credits

This course drives students to uncover, develop, and put into practice Entrepreneurial Thought & Action (ET&A) regardless of the type of organization they are in. The tenets of the course are applicable in all organization but there is an emphasis on becoming and being entrepreneurial inside a large existing organization. Students will assess and develop their own entrepreneurial skills and learn how to apply them in their particular organizational setting (corporate, non-profit, government, etc.). The focus is on how to apply the concepts of ET&A and other frameworks in order to affect entrepreneurial outcomes in any organizational setting. Students will benchmark from existing research within Fortune 500 companies, popular press books, case studies, mini-cases, videos, experiential exercises, business press articles, and other relevant material.

Prerequisites: None

EPS7578 Raising Money-venture Capital and Private Equity

3 Credits

By the end of this course, students will be able:

This class concentrates on developing knowledge of the private investor markets: focusing primarily on early-stage venture capital investing (both venture capital funds and angel investors) and later stage private equity investing (buyout funds). We will examine the evolution of private investing and the development of alternative asset classes. Most of the class is taught from the entrepreneur's perspective, but we will learn the dynamics of establishing and operating an institutional VC or private equity fund. A key to successfully raising money from private investors is to understand THEIR business model and structural dynamics. Course materials provide future entrepreneurs with a detailed understanding of how private investors analyze, think and behave so that the entrepreneurs can understand the founding, fund raising and strategic assessment process of the investing entities.

The course will be taught in a BLENDED format, comprised of readings, lectures, case discussions as well as outside guest speakers (both entrepreneurs and investors). There will be weekly asynchronous assignments, two full days of face-to-face instruction and optional weekly synchronous online sessions.

Prerequisites: None