EPS3503 New Technology Ventures
4 General CreditsEPS3501, EPS3502 and EPS3503 are all equivalent courses. Students can take only ONE of these courses.

Creating a new venture that has technology as a basis for its products or services presents special challenges. On one hand is the _push_ of new technology, as evidenced by the plethora of scientific invention and technological innovation. On the other hand is the _pull_ of the market as it presents new entrepreneurial opportunities. Other key challenges present themselves in areas of intellectual property protection, team building and funding opportunities. In this course we will explore entrepreneurship in technology industries in depth with the hope of penetrating the popular veneer, and uncovering the guts of starting a growing new technology ventures. Of course, there is a lot about new technology venturing that is common to all new venture creation, and also the qualities entrepreneurs demonstrate are valuable in a wide spectrum of life's activities.

A unique aspect of this course is its desire to include students from both Babson as well as the F.W. Olin College of Engineering. Particular value from this intermingling will be evidenced in the true interdisciplinary nature of the course field project teams that are formed, and the ability for students to begin to develop networks of relationships outside their individual domains of business or engineering.

Primary Course Objectives:
1. To investigate the components, tools, and practices of technology entrepreneurship: identifying new venture opportunities, evaluating the viability of a new business concept, calibrating risk of successful technology development, protecting intellectual property, building a team that possesses the attributes necessary for success, obtaining appropriate financing, writing a business plan, and developing an investor presentation, creating an entrepreneurial culture that increases the odds of success, and creating liquidity for shareholders.
2. To identify and exercise entrepreneurial skills through classrooms debate and assignments.
3. To introduce students to a variety of technology entrepreneurs. Case studies are used as tools for discussion, and are augmented with readings and guest speakers.

The core project for this course will be the development of a technology based business plan. Students will form teams to explore a business opportunity, and develop a business plan and investor presentation.

For more information view this video.

Prerequisites: SME

OIM3503 Operations for Entrepreneurs
(Formerly MOB3503)
4 Advanced Management Credits

**Students who took this as MOB3503 cannot register for this course**

This elective course will examine the real-world operational challenges and execution risks associated with getting a venture started and building a start-up operation from scratch. The class will include case-discussions, a semester-long project and guest speakers. The course will provide students with a set of practical frameworks, decision-making techniques and business management tools that can be used in developing their operational processes and managing their operational resources in a start-up. During each session, the students will be exposed to a different operations-related concept which they will apply to their own start-up venture or to the operation of an existing local start-up in the semester-long project.

We will consider the operational challenges experienced by start-up ventures in a variety of industries. Case studies and class discussions will explore operations topics which are unique to start-ups including: Operational Business Models; Start-up Operation Metrics; How to Find a Supplier/Operations Partner; Product/Service Outsourcing Mistakes; Challenges in Achieving Product/Service Quality Control; How to select a Product/Service Distribution Channel; Managing Start-up Inventory; Challenges in meeting Product/Service Demand; Handling Market Uncertainty and Supply Uncertainty; Importance of Operational Flexibility; Bootstrapping Operational Costs; Operational Scalability.

Local entrepreneurs will serve as frequent guest speakers who can provide real-world insights on their own operational challenges, failures and success as they developed their ventures.

This course is an approved elective for the Operations management concentration.

Prerequisites: (SME2001 and SME2002) or permission of the instructor.

The sophomore management experience MAC and TOM module (SME) integrates two subject streams: Technology and Operations Management (3 credits) and Managerial Accounting (3 credits). This module focuses on the internal organization and processes required for entrepreneurial leaders and managers to successfully test and execute business strategies. To be effective, entrepreneurs and managers must design operations, model the expected performance of operational designs, make decisions that strategically manage costs, and take actions that achieve desired results in an ethical manner. The two streams in this module will help build the skills you need to become ethical entrepreneurial leaders and managers. You will experience how the design of operations impacts measured performance, and how modeling expected results before action is taken leads to improved operational decisions. SME will also provide learning experiences that demonstrate the interconnections between the streams.

SME2002 Managing Operations

3 Intermediate Management CreditsManaging operations is vital to every type of organization, for it is only through effective and efficient utilization of resources that an organization can be successful in the long run. This is especially true today, when we see that significant competitive advantages accrue to those firms that manage their operations effectively. We define operations in the broadest sense, not confining the focus within a set of walls but defining the scope to the thoughts and activities necessary to supply goods and services from their conception to their consumption. This course introduces you to the operational challenges that entrepreneurs and managers face and provides a set of tools to aid you in designing, evaluating and managing business processes to meet your organization's objectives. Throughout the semester we will explore interconnections between operational actions and management accounting analyses.

Prerequisites: FME1001 or equivalent

OIM3640 Problem Solving & Software Design
4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits

Students who took this as MIS3640 cannot take this course

Teaches students assorted techniques and strategies to identify, approach and solve problems in business and personal areas. Students learn how to write computer programs to offer efficient solutions for certain types of problems using a computer programming language of the instructor's choice (currently Python). Students complete a capstone project to demonstrate their learning, create something of value, and add to their personal portfolio. This course emphasizes hands-on computer skill development in a computer lab setting. The examples and problems used in this course are drawn from diverse areas such as text processing, webpage scraping, web development and data analytics.

Prerequisites: (QTM1000 or AQM1000) and (SME2012 or OIM2000)

Students are expected to be able to open command prompt window or terminal window, edit a text file, download and install software, and understand basic programming concepts.

OIM3509 Project Management
(Formerly MOB3509)
4 General Credits

Students who took this as MOB3509 cannot register for this course

According to the Project Management Institute (PMI), there are nearly 250,000 open project management jobs each year across seven project-intensive industries: business services, construction, finance and insurance, information services, manufacturing, oil and gas, and utilities. As more work becomes project-based, projects grow in complexity, and clients demand accountability and efficiency, graduates with project management skills will be in increasingly high demand. In this course, you will learn critical skills for leading cross functional teams using up-to-date PM best practices, methodologies, and tools. This course is applicable across career paths such as consulting, information technology, entrepreneurship, new product development and many others. Students will be exposed to both the technical and behavioral skills required to effectively lead project teams -- whether as an official "Project Manager" or an unofficial leader temporarily charged with leading a project implementation. The course will be taught primarily via case study discussion, with a significant "hands-on" component that includes the authoring of key project plan documents and a solid exposure to Microsoft Project. At the conclusion of this course, students will have satisfied PMI's educational requirements to apply for the Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) exam. This course is an approved elective for the Operations Management concentration.

Prerequisites: (SME2001 or ACC2002) and (SME2002 or OIM2001) and (SME2011 or MKT2000) and SME2012 or OIM2000) or permission of the instructor.

EPS3540 Raising Money - VC and Private Equity
4 General Credits

Students must be Sophomores, Juniors or Seniors to take this course

This class concentrates on developing a knowledge of the asset classes available for early stage and acquisition funding (both equity and debt). These include money from family and friends, angels (both individual and angel groups), VC funds, private equity, and debt from venture debt funds and special commercial banks. Much of the class is taught from the entrepreneur's perspective, but it will also cover the dynamics of starting and running a VC fund since many of the investor classes rely heavily on the VC when making investment decisions. Case material, lectures, frequent exercises/presentations and guest speakers will provide future entrepreneurs with a detailed understanding of how investors think, analyze and behave.

This understanding is critical so that entrepreneurs can understand the deals they make with investors and how to manage the process to a mutually beneficial conclusion.

Prerequisites: Sophomores, Juniors or Seniors Class standing

OIM3536 Scaling Lean Ventures
4 Advanced Management Credits

Students who took this as MOB3536 cannot take this course

How do you enable an organization to overcome the constraints and risks posed by the nascent & uncertain operating environment found in an entrepreneurial venture? Scaling Lean Ventures is a capstone course for Operations concentrators and elective course for others targeted to 3rd and 4th year undergraduate students with an interest in strategic operations in small to medium sized organizations.

The approach to the course is driven by Lean Principles of Management including "learn by doing". The well-studied Toyota Production System serves us as the root file for many of these principles. Students will be assigned to a high priority project with an organization and will be expected to conceive & implement Lean Start-up principles to relieve the organization of a deeply embedded operating constraint on growth. This is not a consulting experience, but a learn-by-doing partnership for fourteen weeks. The students will be expected to be on site with the partner organizations regularly to make implementation progress.

In addition to their on-site time, the course will have an in-class component. During each in-class session, the students will be exposed to a new TPS concept and discuss how to implement it at their project. The students will also provide and receive feedback from their peers, instructors, and guest lecturers to gain insights on their implementation attempts to-date, thus better understanding their assigned problem and charting a path forward to success.

The partner organizations are from a wide variety of industries, including technology, consumer products, food, legal services, and socially-oriented manufacturing and service companies.

Prerequisites: FME and SME ; Juniors and Seniors status

EPS3534 Scholar in Action Experience
2 General CreditsThis two-credit course is designed to help individual students in the Bernon Scholar Program research, draft, and plan, execute, and evaluate a programmatic response to social or community need or concern for which the student is passionate.

This course is accomplished in five parts: exploration of issue, benchmarking and research of existing responses, planning of student's response, execution of that response and the student reflection on efficiency and effectiveness.

Enrollment by Permission Only

OIM3519 Simulation Modeling in Operations Management
(Formerly MOB3519)
4 Advanced Management Credits

Students who took this as MOB3519 cannot register for this course

This course exposes students to simulation modeling techniques of various operational challenges. Simulations imitate realistic business environment and enable participants to explore the impact of their operational decisions. Decision making in simulation models enables decision makers to evaluate alternative decisions, before the changes are implemented in actual operations and prevents potentially costly mistakes. The real value of simulations is actually revealed after the decision is made, which is the critical component of this course.

In this course, students will first identify a problem, collect or analyze the data, formulate and validate the simulation model, and finally simulate alternative outcomes to recommend the appropriate decision. Once the decision is implemented in the model, the future condition of the business environment is randomly changed, and impact of the decision is analyzed and re-assessed. The analysis will use simulation model to evaluate and predict impact of the decision making on profit, society and environment, combined with regulatory and ethical considerations.

The course is composed of four independent simulation building modules, and a final project. Students will work in groups and individually to create four guided simulation models. Final project is a semester-long activity where students will have the opportunity to build simulation model in the field of their interest or chose from a list of topics proposed by Babson community. During the semester, students will spend approximately equal amount of time on advanced data analytics and operations management topics. The underlying principle of the course is to learn by experience, learn practical model building skills, and emphasis on the analysis of the simulation results, and the impact of various decision alternatives.

Prerequisites: (QTM1000 or AQM1000) and (SME2002 or OIM2001)

OIM3504 Social Innovation Design Studio: Innovating for the Future of Business and Society

4 Advanced Management Credits

This experiential studio course offers students a unique opportunity to integrate entrepreneurial leadership with social design and learn by doing as they create and implement solutions to some of the world's pressing challenges - in partnership with innovative client sponsors. Students work collaboratively in teams supported by faculty, mentors, lecturers and their own self-initiated research. Three sections guide learners through the process of self-discovery, understanding the landscape and potential of social design in business, and hands-on application of the process to a real-world challenge. The mindsets, skillsets and processes mastered will serve students in creating the future they want throughout their lives.

Prerequisites: (FME 1000 and FME1001) or (EPS1000 and MOB1010)