COURSE
NUMBER: MBA 292N.3
COURSE
TITLE: Technology Breakthroughs for Combating Global Poverty
UNITS OF
CREDIT: 2
INSTRUCTOR:
Shashi Buluswar
E-MAIL
ADDRESS: buluswar@haas.berkeley.edu
CLASS WEB
PAGE LOCATION:
PREREQUISITE(S):
None
CLASS FORMAT
(Will there be lectures, cases, or a mixture?): Mix of lectures & cases
REQUIRED
READINGS: “50 most critical
technological breakthroughs required for global development”
BASIS FOR
FINAL GRADE: Project (90%) and class participation (10%)
ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND
OBJECTIVES:
Most technology innovations to combat
global poverty, fail to live up to their promise, media hype. Even many true technological breakthroughs
fail to reach sustainable scale. Yet,
every year dozens of seemingly innovative technologies and technology-related
businesses emerge on the horizon. All of
them promise large-scale impact; many of them are hyped up in the media; some
receive large amounts of funding; a few win major awards.
Why
don’t innovative technologies succeed more often?
·
They are not based on a deep understanding of
the issues, and of what specific technological breakthroughs are really
required to achieve large-scale impact. “Cool” technologies and social
businesses can become hammers looking for nails, and their creators fall victim
to excessive positivity bias.
·
A compelling narrative usually takes the place
of rigorous due diligence, because most funders lack the technical and market
expertise to really separate good investments from bad ones.
·
Most emerging markets are still very tough to build
social businesses in, and even a very promising innovation—with substantial
funding and a robust business plan—is sometimes not enough.
In the above context, this course
prepares aspiring innovators, social entrepreneurs, and social impact investors
to understand what it takes to achieve large-scale social change through
technology. In this course, students
will:
The course will be taught by Dr. Shashi Buluswar, who heads the Institute for Transformative
Technologies (ITT). ITT’s mission is to
discover, develop and deploy the next generation of breakthrough technologies
to combat global poverty. The material
is based on the recently published study “The 50 most critical science and
technology breakthroughs required for sustainable global development”, which
was written by Dr. Buluswar and his colleagues at
ITT.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:
Shashi Buluswar is the CEO of the Institute for Transformative
Technologies (ITT). ITT aims to bring to life, breakthrough technological
solutions for addressing global poverty and related social ills through
advanced research, user-centric product engineering, innovative business
models, and a global network of partnerships. ITT works on range of topics
including water security, energy, and health. ITT recently released a
groundbreaking study to identify the “50 most important technology
breakthroughs required to combat global poverty”.
Prior to ITT,
Shashi was a Partner at Dalberg Global Development Advisors, a mission-driven
strategy consulting firm which serves international NGOs, foundations, governments,
social entrepreneurs, and UN. Prior to joining Dalberg, he was an Associate
Partner at McKinsey & Company and a Visiting Professor at Northwestern
University. He holds a PhD from the
University of Massachusetts in Robotics, and an MBA from Northwestern
University’s Kellogg School of Management.
Beyond his professional interests, Shashi spent a decade competing on
the Indian national rowing team, and made a critically acclaimed documentary
film about the India-Pakistan conflict and “cricket diplomacy”. Shashi was born
and raised in India.