Favorite MBA Courses Of The Class Of 2019

“It’s a tie between Investing in Social Ventures and the Impact Investing Seminar, both taught by Bruce Usher. My main impetus for coming to business school was to learn how to most effectively use the tools of business to empower marginalized communities. Traditionally, there has been a tension between social impact and business, and the prevailing narrative has been that the two are fundamentally at odds. However, in his classes, Usher doesn’t shy away from that tension. Instead, he pokes, prods, and questions the assumptions behind that narrative. In the process, he helps students craft a better framework for thinking about the intersections of business and social impact.”

Briana Saddler, Columbia Business School

“My first favorite would be Managing a Growing Business with Professor Edward Marram, a former entrepreneur and one of the most experienced and loved professors at Babson. In his class, we learned so much about how to manage and grow a company, but I particularly loved how he designed his classes. We would first discuss a case on a company in depth and then get to hear and discuss it with the actual entrepreneurs of the company; occasionally we wouldn’t even know that the actual entrepreneur was in the room with us while we were dissecting (or criticizing!) their past strategies. It was such a live, engaging and interesting way to run a class that we all took away so many practical insights, from how to pick the right advisory board and management to how to maintain your culture and vision as you grow.”

Asini Wijewardane, Babson College (Olin)

“Design, Foresight, and Innovation taught by Alexander Manu. Manu’s way of teaching feels loose and unstructured; it is a mix of philosophy and big-picture ideas, punctuated with examples of present-day technology that will entirely shape the behaviors, systems, and markets of tomorrow. The class made me realize that designing for the future and designing in the future are very different and true innovators focus on the latter. Manu’s course gave me the tools to track and predict where trends in technology may take us and to imagine how impending disruptions will impact society via future scenarios.”

Arundhati (Aruna) Sriraman, University of Toronto (Rotman)

“Entrepreneurial Selling with Craig Wortmann. Coming from a startup background, I understand the value of selling, but nonetheless find it extremely difficult to achieve consistent results in an entrepreneurial environment. This class not only gives future entrepreneurs a set of tools to optimize their early sales process but also the confidence to handle the toughest questions from potential customers. Aside from a well-designed curriculum, it’s full of life wisdom and valuable startup advice. My biggest insight from this class is that it is important to always measure the right things to maintain a healthy customer relationship.”

Richie Huang, Northwestern University (Kellogg)

“I really enjoyed Professor Michael Jacob’s Corporate Governance course. We learned best practices for a functioning board of directors in the public and private sectors, and we explored important topics such as diversity, integrity, sustainability and other relevant issues in business. The course brought to light the imperativeness of sound governance practices through studying cases such as the financial crisis and corruption in Enron. Professor Jacobs equipped us the knowledge of how we as future investors, shareholders, and leaders can influence Board member selections and decisions. He is outstanding at challenging students to think differently about how and why leadership makes the decisions they do, and he engaged the class in very interesting discussions.”

Taylor Henning, University of North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler)

“My favorite MBA Course was Cases in Business Strategy taught by Hernan Saenz, Visiting Senior Lecturer, who is also a partner at Bain & Company. Hernan brought many best practices to life in the classroom through real-world examples. The biggest insight I gained about business was the importance of the “sponsorship spine,” which is the coalition of sponsors required at every level of the business when leading change. Without tending to the sponsorship spine, most companies fail to achieve change management goals, with only 12 percent succeeding today.”

Christina Chan, Cornell University (Johnson)

“Evolution and Innovation in the Global Mobile Industry. This course was taught by Professor Terry Kramer and it was the first technology management course I enrolled in at UCLA Anderson. What was most valuable for me was learning about how to identify current and future disruptors in an industry and to then analyze critical components of a business model or emerging technology to make strategic decisions that will advance an organization and ensure its longevity. It was a fascinating and very applicable course with challenging case discussions and a global outlook on the mobile industry.”

Jorge Santana, UCLA (Anderson)

“Strategic Leadership Across All Sectors is the best class at Yale SOM. You learn directly from sitting CEOs and policy-makers about how they make decisions and how they look at the world. I realized that no matter how technical the business model or how convoluted the financing, long-term success in business hinges on how well you treat your people (just like in the Army).”

Vito Errico, Yale SOM

“Leadership. I suspect that a decade from now when my ability to calculate Beta or WACC has withered away, many of the lessons from the leadership course will still resonate. Leadership was one of the earliest courses that I took at IESE, and it was a powerful introduction to the MBA and the first time that I fully comprehended the diversity of experiences, backgrounds, and philosophies represented in our class. Unlike Financial Accounting or Capital Markets, every member of our class had leadership experience and brought with them a distinct perspective on how to be an effective leader. Everyone’s approach to leadership is an amalgamation of so many different factors – personality traits, cultural and industry background, education and training, lived experiences – and no one person has the same point of view. The debates in this course, be they over how to effectively motivate someone, how to manage cross-cultural teams, or when it’s appropriate to fire someone, were some of the most stimulating and thought-provoking that I have had in the entire MBA. The course provided me an opportunity to consciously reflect on and refine my own leadership philosophy and its lessons have echoed throughout the rest of my time in the MBA, and surely will beyond.”

Tom Kittredge, IESE Business School

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