COURSE
NUMBER: MBA295A.1
This is a first-year gateway course
and is not available for second-year bidding. Second-years must wait until the
add/drop process begins in January to add this class.
COURSE
TITLE: Entrepreneurship
UNITS
OF CREDIT: 3 Units
INSTRUCTOR:
Toby Stuart
E-MAIL
ADDRESS: tstuart@haas.berkeley.edu
CLASS
WEB PAGE LOCATION: https://bspace.berkeley.edu/portal
MEETING
DAY(S)/TIME: Mondays and Wednesdays, 11:00am-12:30pm
PREREQUISITE(S):
MBA Core
CLASS
FORMAT: Primarily case-based with frequent guest speakers and lectures.
REQUIRED
READINGS: Course Packet; no textbook
BASIS
FOR FINAL GRADE: Because this is a case-based course, a substantial portion of
the grade will be class participation. The other major component of the grade
is a final exam.
ABSTRACT
OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES:
This course teaches the approach entrepreneurs use to
identify attractive opportunities and to design and build new ventures. The
pedagogy in the course includes case studies, vigorous classroom debate, video,
and in-class visits from case protagonists. In addition to conveying frameworks
for opportunity identification, business model development, raising financing,
building founding teams, and growing nascent ventures, one of the major
objectives of this course is to model the work life of a variety of
entrepreneurs so that you will have the chance to personally reflect on your
desire to pursue this type of career. Throughout the course, the cases and our
discussions will have as their focal point the entrepreneur who, in the face of
great uncertainty, must make decisions and take action.
The course focuses on the entrepreneur as a leader. In
practice this means that in every case there is a person who must make and
implement decisions. The issues facing the entrepreneur are typically
multi-faceted and require an integrative perspective. You should come to class
every day prepared to think and act like the protagonist in the case. You will
need to present the analysis that leads you to make a particular decision and
to explain the plan you have for implementing your decision. Your goal should
be to persuade your classmates that this is the appropriate plan and decision
for the situation at hand. Entrepreneurs have a bias to take action, and this
course is intended to help you develop this attitude.
BIOGRAPHICAL
SKETCH:
Toby E. Stuart is the Helzel Chair
in Entrepreneurship, Strategy, and Innovation, and the Faculty Director at the Lester Center for
Entrepreneurship. Previously he was the
Charles Edward Wilson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business
School and . Previously he was the Arthur J. Samberg
Professor of Organizations and& Strategy and Academic Director of the
Eugene M. Lang Entrepreneurship Center at Columbia Business School. He was also
course head for Strategy Formulation. From 1995 to 2003, he was on the faculty
at the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business, where he was the
Fred G. Steingraber-A.T. Kearney Professor of
Organizations & Strategy. He received his Ph.D. from the Graduate School of
Business, Stanford University. He holds an A.B., summa cum laude, in economics
from Carleton College. Prior to earning his Ph.D., Dr. Stuart was a Research
Associate at the Harvard Business School. Professor Stuart is the recipient of
the 2007 Kauffman Prize Medal for Distinguished Research in Entrepreneurship,
which is granted every other year to recognize one individual’s contributions
to entrepreneurship research. He has also received the Administrative Science
Quarterly’s Scholarly Contribution (best paper) award, as well as the Columbia
Business School’s Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence.