Essential MOOCs In Business for February

On Strategy: What Managers Can Learn from Philosophy – Part 2

School: Ecole Centrale Paris

Platform: Coursera

Registration Link: On Strategy: What Managers Can Learn from Philosophy – Part 2

Start Date: February 16, 2015 (3 Weeks Long)

Workload: 2-3 Hours Per Week

Instructor: Luc de Brabandère

Credentials: de Brabandère teaches at Ecole Centrale Paris and the Louvain School of Management. Before earning a degree in philosophy, he served as the Chairman of the National Geographic Institute and the General Manager of the Brussels Stock Exchange. In addition, de Brabandère is a senior advisor to the Paris branch of the Boston Consulting Group. He has authored or co-authored nine books, including The Forgotten Half of Change and Achieving Greater Productivity Through Changes in Perception.

Graded: Not Available

Description: Philosophy is often considered a process or journey as much as a result. And it requires its practitioners to be analytical and systematic, to challenge assumptions, identify bias, establish priorities, and establishing holistic frameworks. Sounds a bit like business decision-making, huh? In this course, de Brabandère applies philosophical models to give students fresh perspectives on change management and technological innovation. As before, the course will be taught using video, though a graded paper will replace a final exam.

Review (Part 1): “Interesting and useful knowledge. Not just for managers, but everyone with an interested in perspectives explained in terms of thinkers, philosophers, writers, poets and scientists.

I find quite a few of his ideas original. With that I mean the way he uses well known philosophical concepts to explain or view daily phenomenon. Which include quite a few phenomena from the business world.

Every week you are asked to do a peer assessed write-up related to the lectures of the past week. Not just to show you’ve watched the video’s but also to express some of you own knowledge and creativity using the methods just taught.” For additional reviews, click here.

Additional Note: de Brabandère also recommends that students read his latest book – Thinking in New Boxes: A New Paradigm for Business Creativity (2013) – along with The Forgotten Half of Change (2007) – as part of the course. He also suggests that students participate in the first part of this course before starting the second part. Here is a link to Part 1.