Elective Courses | Tuck School of Busine

Elective Courses | Tuck School of Business
Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth
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Elective Courses
Core
Elective
Tuck continuously evolves its elective curriculum to offer courses that cover a broad range of timely and ground‑breaking topics.
This list is representative of the nature and number of electives offered each year.
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136 courses found
Fall
(37)
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(47)
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(51)
Summer
(1)
Advanced Management Communication (AMC)
Communication
Faculty:
Julie B Lang
Courtney H Pierson
Subject Areas:
Communication
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
As part of the Core at Tuck, Management Communication (ManComm) was designed to provide Tuck students with immediately applicable skills for professional communication. For students seeking to deepen their communication skills, Advanced Management Communication (AMC) expands beyond ManComm, shifting from a passive audience to an active one. In this minicourse, we’ll ask you to not only anticipate audience needs, but to actively manage questions from them. You’ll practice leading a dynamic discussion to reach a common set of objectives: soliciting audience input, asking for and answering questions and managing dissent. Similar to ManComm, we’ll follow the same prepare – present – reflect pedagogy and in-class time will be dedicated to presentations and feedback.

Our learning environment will be in-person, although we will incorporate remote discussions into the term. You’ll have a chance to practice leading stand-up, around-the-table, remote, and hybrid discussions. Overall, best practices for giving in-person presentations hold in a remote world. The skills you practice in this class will help you navigate a variety of work situations.

Post-Tuck, you’ll regularly be engaged in discussions rather than pure presentations. AMC is designed to give you more agility in working with each unique situation you face.
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Building and Managing Growth-Stage Ventures Sprint (SP029)
Entrepreneurship
Faculty:
Peter J Levine
Subject Areas:
Entrepreneurship
Course Type:
Sprint Course
This course is designed for students who aspire to lead or invest in high-growth technology companies. It focuses on the critical organizational, strategic, and go-to-market decisions that shape a company’s trajectory after early fundraising. Through case discussions and guest lectures from leading technology executives, students will gain practical insights into how ventures transition from startup to scale.

The course emphasizes three core pillars of venture management:
- Building Culture and Teams. Creating the right culture, defining values, and developing organizational practices to attract, retain, and empower top talent.
- Strategic Product Planning. Using market analysis, goal-setting frameworks, and strategic roadmaps to make key product and business decisions under uncertainty.
- Go-to-Market Execution. Designing an early-stage sales organization, learning from customer interactions, and scaling toward a repeatable and sustainable revenue model.

By the end of the course, students will be equipped with frameworks and real-world perspectives on how to align people, product, and go-to-market strategy in the critical years following a company’s initial growth phase.
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Cooperation and Competition in the 21st Century Global Economy (CCCGE)
Economics
Faculty:
Emily J Blanchard
Subject Areas:
Economics
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
The 21st century global economy will be defined by how government and business leaders respond to today’s complex policy challenges. This mini-course centers on a handful of critical economic policy issues, organized around the central theme of cooperation and competition. Topics include the rise of global value chains, national security, and the innovation race; rising market power and international data security; the deterioration of global governance rules and norms; and the challenges of sustainable and inclusive globalization, including the coming battles over carbon taxes. The course will leverage economic tools and data to inform and refine our understanding of market outcomes, market failures, and the scope for policy. These economic principles will be balanced with an emphasis on the interplay between firms, governments, and international institutions and agreements in practice.
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Crisis Management (SP010)
Communication
Faculty:
Amy E Florentino
Subject Areas:
Communication
Course Type:
Sprint Course
During an emergency, the demand on an organization’s management team is tremendous. Crises and disaster situations require you to be high functioning despite time constraints, stress, inadequate information, and the requirement to complete vital tasks far beyond normal day-to-day duties. In a world that is increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA); traditional planning and strategic decision making may no longer be effective on its own. This sprint course draws on frameworks developed for use in both the public and private sector and will help students build skills needed to thrive instead of survive during a crisis.
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ESG Investment Practicum (PRESG)
Finance
Faculty:
Jose R Lecuona Torras
Subject Areas:
Finance
Course Type:
Practicum
Please note: While 1.5 credits are earned in the spring term, this practicum spans the full academic year. Enrollment is selected based on an application process; students may apply in the spring of their first year.
This practicum was developed to ‘formalize’ academic work around Tuck’s ESG Fund (TESGF). This is a co-curricular activity that provides students with a hands-on experience in managing and executing real world ESG-oriented investments, by exposing students to incorporating non-financial factors related to ESG into investment analysis. Student Directors of the fund are responsible for developing the Fund’s investment thesis, evaluating investment opportunities, presenting proposals to committee, executing investments, and actively managing the fund’s existing portfolio.
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Early Stage Venture Capital Workshop Practicum (PRVC2)
Finance
Faculty:
James M P Feuille
Subject Areas:
Finance
Course Type:
Practicum
The goal of the Early Stage Venture Capital Workshop Practicum is to engage students in an in-depth, hands-on, team-oriented exploration of real-world early stage venture capital (VC) deal making, first by giving students an intensive grounding in the core elements of early stage venture capital—venture capital fund portfolio construction, deal sourcing, deal screening and selection, due diligence, valuation of early stage companies, convertible notes, capitalization tables, term sheets, the elements of an investment memorandum and negotiations with entrepreneurs—then by engaging students in a series of “deal workshops” whereby students will work on analyzing and conducting “due diligence” on nine “live” venture capital deals, three at a time, meeting with the founders or CEOs of companies that are then active in the marketplace raising Seed, Series A and Series B rounds of venture capital to hear their pitches and ask due diligence questions, and selecting three of those deals (one per set of three) to recommend to their “partnership”, consisting of practicing venture capitalists from around the US, by writing a full investment memorandum for each of the three deals and presenting and defending the investment thesis for the deal in a meeting with the venture capital partners. Unlike interns or associates in venture capital firms, who support the partners in their work, in this workshop, students will take on the role of the partners in a venture capital firm who are leading deals for their firms. In the final week, the deals phase of the workshop concludes with mock negotiation sessions where the teams will negotiate an investment term sheet with three of the nine entrepreneurs, one per team.
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Early Stage Venture Capital Workshop Practicum (PRVCW)
Finance
Faculty:
James M P Feuille
Subject Areas:
Finance
Course Type:
Practicum
The goal of the Early Stage Venture Capital Workshop Practicum is to engage students in an in-depth, hands-on, team-oriented exploration of real-world early stage venture capital (VC) deal making, first by giving students an intensive grounding in the core elements of early stage venture capital—venture capital fund portfolio construction, deal sourcing, deal screening and selection, due diligence, valuation of early stage companies, convertible notes, capitalization tables, term sheets, the elements of an investment memorandum and negotiations with entrepreneurs—then by engaging students in a series of “deal workshops” whereby students will work on analyzing and conducting “due diligence” on nine “live” venture capital deals, three at a time, meeting with the founders or CEOs of companies that are then active in the marketplace raising Seed, Series A and Series B rounds of venture capital to hear their pitches and ask due diligence questions, and selecting three of those deals (one per set of three) to recommend to their “partnership”, consisting of practicing venture capitalists from around the US, by writing a full investment memorandum for each of the three deals and presenting and defending the investment thesis for the deal in a meeting with the venture capital partners. Unlike interns or associates in venture capital firms, who support the partners in their work, in this workshop, students will take on the role of the partners in a venture capital firm who are leading deals for their firms. In the final week, the deals phase of the workshop concludes with mock negotiation sessions where the teams will negotiate an investment term sheet with three of the nine entrepreneurs, one per team.
Field Studies in Venture Capital (FSVC) is a prerequisite for this Practicum. No exceptions.
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Ecosystem Strategy (ES)
Strategy
Faculty:
Ron Adner
Subject Areas:
Strategy
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
Over the past 20 years, the notion of business “ecosystems” has become pervasive in discussions of strategy, both scholarly and applied. Its rise has mirrored an increasing interest and concern with interdependence across organizations and activities.

In this course we will develop a perspective on the challenges of innovation and competition with a particular focus on the context of ecosystems – settings where value creation depends on aligning multiple parties in novel ways.
How should we approach the challenge of picking the right opportunity, aligning the right partners, and targeting the right market and, perhaps most importantly, setting the right expectations for a new venture?
How should an ecosystem context affect competitive strategy, both offense and defense?
What new management challenges arise when value creation and capture no longer depend just on satisfying customers and beating rivals, but also on our ability to identify, align, and maintain critical partners and partnerships?

We will explore these questions using a set of analytic lenses that will help us assess the potential of new opportunities and to strategize about how to best exploit them. We will apply these tools using a combination of cases, exercises, and reflection essays.
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Empirical Evidence in Finance: Asset Pricing and Factor Investing (RTPEF)
Finance
Faculty:
Kenneth R. French
Subject Areas:
Finance
Course Type:
Research to Practice Seminar
Finance is fundamentally about moving resources through time. Because the future value of the resources is rarely known, uncertainty is central to most financial decisions. Fortunately, most finance problems are quantifiable and we usually have access to much relevant data, so there are many opportunities for intelligent data analysis. Unfortunately, there seem to be even more opportunities for bad data analysis.

Academics have been analyzing large collections of financial data since at least the early 1960s. The modern fields of asset pricing and corporate finance are based on the results of that work. Researchers who study the ever-expanding databases available today continue to improve our understanding of financial markets and corporate behavior. The papers they produce provide a great opportunity for us to study data analysis and statistical inference – and to learn some finance along the way.

I’m passionate about doing empirical research and teaching finance. This course allows me to do both. My goal is to help you make better financial decisions by improving your empirical skills, both your ability to produce and analyze your own research and perhaps more important, your ability to analyze evidence produced by others. We will spend much of the course considering the empirical procedures and evidence in academic papers. We will typically focus on the decisions the researchers make, why they make them, and how their decisions affect the conclusions. But we will also talk about the finance – what we learn from a paper, how the information fits in a broader framework, how it is useful, and where it might be wrong. I helped write many of the papers we will read, some long ago and some more recently. In fact, one or two may not be finished yet. The papers we will consider are in the general area of asset pricing.

This is a highly interactive, discussion-based course. I expect you to prepare for every class and to participate in every discussion. I will lead the discussions in the first part of the course which will cover a variety of topics, such as the advantage of a Bayesian perspective, the central role of volatility in financial analysis, the temptation to overfit, the importance of accurately estimated standard errors, the value of a well-framed model, and techniques for interpreting other people’s research. In the second part of the course, a team of two students will present the papers and lead the class discussions each week.

Preparation for some of the classes will include a challenging research problem. Homework assignments in some courses read like cookbooks, with a step-by-step recipe to follow. Few real research problems come with such recipes. In fact, one of the biggest and most important challenges in research is figuring out the best procedure. Thus, my assignments do not have recipes. After you have thought deeply about possible approaches for an assignment, I will be happy to discuss your ideas with you. We will also have detailed discussions in class about the different approaches you and your colleagues developed and the conclusions you reached. Some students will be frustrated by the open-ended nature of these assignments, but I think it is the best way for you to develop a real understanding of the research process in finance and the importance of the decisions a researcher makes.

The success of this course will depend on a high level of engagement from all students. Obviously, preparing for and leading your week of classes is a big commitment. You must also prepare for and participate in the discussions in every other class. Attendance is mandatory. If you expect to miss one or more classes, please don’t take the course. If an emergency prevents you from attending class during the quarter, please let me know immediately.

Your grade in the course will be determined by your preparation for and execution in the classes you lead, your preparation for classes more generally (including the assignments), and your overall contribution to class discussions.
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Energy Economics (EECON)
Economics
Faculty:
Erin T Mansur
Subject Areas:
Economics
Course Type:
Full-Term Elective
This course explores a managerial perspective on the economics of energy markets, including crude oil, refined products, natural gas, and electricity. The class will study drivers of supply and demand, imperfect competition, economic regulation, environmental regulation, and various other public policy issues. Students will compete in competitive strategy games by making decisions for countries in OPEC and for firms in the California electricity market.
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Fundamentals of Web Programming (FWP)
Operations and Management Science
Faculty:
Devin Balkcom
Subject Areas:
Operations and Management Science
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
This hands-on minicourse will teach the basics of web programming (Javascript, HTML, and CSS). During the course, you will build a web-based e-commerce site from scratch. By the end of the course you will be able to reason effectively about designs for and potential capabilities of web applications. We'll also explore automated AI coding tools -- both their strengths, and their limitations. There are no prerequisites for the course.
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Global Insight Expedition (GIX)
Experiential
Faculty:
Hanne P Larsen
Scott D Anthony
, Douglas A. Irwin,
William C Martin
Gordon M Phillips
Kirsten H Detrick
Daniella L Reichstetter
Subject Areas:
Experiential
Course Type:
Experiential Course
Global Insight Expeditions (GIXs) are immersive, faculty led courses designed for MBA students to deepen their ability to lead and make decisions in complex global business environments.

The main goal of this course is to help students deepen their understanding of how they can achieve excellence in their professional domain. There are three ways in which the course helps students accomplish this goal. First, it helps them develop a more nuanced understanding of what deliberate practice means in their professional context. While this is a central topic of EXPRT, moving from reasoning about the concrete implications of deliberate practice to actually applying it will reveal challenges and opportunities that would be hard to foresee otherwise. Second, the application effort, properly guided, helps sharpen students’ understanding of the components of deliberate practice and the relationships among them. Third and most importantly, it helps students deepen their internalization of the modus operandi associated with deliberate practice, ideally to the point where it becomes second nature in guiding their pursuit of excellence going forward.
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Introduction to B2B Marketing / Customer Growth Strategies and Tactics (SP020)
Marketing
Faculty:
Mark B Hosbein
Subject Areas:
Marketing
Course Type:
Sprint Course
Over three sessions the course will provide foundational knowledge of B2B marketing, both as a standalone practice and relative to consumer marketing. The material will be drawn from academics, thought leadership organizations, global consultancies, industry think tanks, and case studies. The course will provide the frameworks, tools and levers used by B2B marketers. We will bring all of that to life via case studies. And the instructor will draw on 25+ of B2B experience to support the insights and provide context.

The class is ideal for aspiring marketers as well as students who will go into finance, consulting or product leadership in an enterprise. Students planning on entering consumer marketing should know the basics (and differences) between consumer and enterprise marketing. The course will also serve the needs of future leaders in consulting, banking, private equity and technology by showcasing innovative growth strategies, internal team management and alignment, and M&A strategies to support growth. The ability to build and orchestrate customer driven growth is a core skill in all fields. Assignments will simulate real life issues and be based on actual tasks required in leadership roles.
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Investing in Early Stage Social Ventures (PRTSV)
Finance
Faculty:
Jose R Lecuona Torras
Subject Areas:
Finance
Course Type:
Practicum
Please note: While 1.5 credits are earned in the spring term, this practicum spans the full academic year. Enrollment is selected based on an application process; students may apply in the spring of their first year.
This practicum provides students with technical and applied knowledge to assess the potential of early-stage ventures with social impact. More specifically, this practicum helps students:

The fusion of technological, global, and social forces continues to create immense business and economic opportunities—and yet serious pressures and anxieties as well. Perhaps most prominent among these anxieties is the fading belief among many people in many countries in the dynamic forces of globalization and innovation. Much of this ambivalence and related anxiety stems from workers and their families not seeing sufficient growth in their income, wealth, and sense of opportunity: sufficient relative to earlier decades, relative to those at the top, and relative to their hopes and expectations. We live in a time where many nations are fractious and less trusting, with far less consensus about the proper balance among for-profit businesses, sovereign governments, and civil society.

Several business-policy questions await the rest of 2026 and beyond. LGE provides us a chance to engage with some of the contemporary business and policy questions that are top of mind in C-suites, boardrooms, and halls of government power—for aspiring unicorns and for generations-old companies alike.
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Leading Diverse Organizations (LDO)
Organizational Behavior
Faculty:
Sonya Mishra
Subject Areas:
Organizational Behavior, Ethics and Social Responsibility
Course Type:
Full-Term Elective
Using insights from cutting-edge behavioral science and psychological research, this course provides students with skills to identify and address issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) within organizations. In the first half of the course, students will develop an understanding of the barriers to DEI, such as systems of inequality, denial of privilege, biases that hinder support for DEI, and the many biases facing marginalized groups. Through lectures, in-class role-play exercises, and case discussions, students will also learn about how organizational characteristics (e.g., power and status hierarchies, workplace cultures) impact the efficacy of DEI interventions. In the second half of the course, students will learn how to improve organizational DEI at the individual level (e.g., addressing bias, recruiting allies, creating psychological safety, advocating for oneself in the face of bias) and at the organizational level (e.g., hiring practices and workplace policies that measurably improve DEI). By the end of this course, students will be adept at identifying and addressing sources of inequity, having difficult conversations, mitigating problems associated with stereotypes, and managing diverse, equitable, and inclusive environments. Importantly, this class teaches students how to advocate for DEI issues in organizational settings, equipping them with the necessary research, persuasion tactics, and analytical skills needed to be advocates, even in the face of resistance.

This course fulfills the Ethics and Social Responsibility (ESR) requirement.
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Marketing Strategy in the Digital Economy (MSDE)
Marketing
Faculty:
Tami Kim
Subject Areas:
Marketing
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
This course is grounded in the idea that acquiring and retaining customers through superior experiences is central to business success—and that digital technologies provide powerful new ways to achieve this. Building on core marketing frameworks, we will examine how foundational marketing principles must be rethought and adapted in digital contexts.

You will explore how firms leverage digital tools to design business models, set pricing strategies, and execute promotional approaches, drawing on examples of both successful and unsuccessful implementations. We will also examine how firms navigate strategic trade-offs when managing digital platforms, which often bring together multiple stakeholders with competing objectives. Throughout the course, the focus will be on developing a strategic lens for understanding how digital transformation reshapes marketing decisions.
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Medical Care & the Corporation (MCC)
Health Care
Faculty:
Paul B Gardent
Michael Zubkoff
Subject Areas:
Health Care
Course Type:
Full-Term Elective
Employer-sponsored healthcare is one of the largest—and least understood—drivers of corporate cost, workforce strategy, and competitive advantage in the United States. For many firms, healthcare spending is the second largest cost and significantly impacts margins, talent acquisition, and employee productivity.

In this course, students examine healthcare not as a policy issue, but as a core strategic business challenge. MCC equips future leaders to evaluate how companies design, finance, and manage healthcare benefits in a rapidly evolving ecosystem shaped by rising costs, regulatory shifts, and disruptive innovation.

Students will develop a practical understanding of:
• The structure and economics of the employer-sponsored healthcare system
• How leading companies make strategic decisions about health benefits, vendors, and risk
• The role of insurers, consultants, and emerging market entrants
• How digital health, AI, and new care models are reshaping employer strategies

Through case discussions and guest speakers from industry, consulting, and startups, students will analyze real-world decisions faced by executives and advisors. The course emphasizes actionable frameworks and market insight relevant to careers in consulting, corporate strategy, healthcare, private equity, and entrepreneurship.

By the end of the course, students will be able to assess healthcare strategies as a source of both cost control and competitive advantage—and engage confidently in one of the most complex and consequential issues facing modern organizations.
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Multichannel Route-to-Market Strategy Mini (MRTMM)
Marketing
Faculty:
Kusum L Ailawadi
Subject Areas:
Marketing
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
The distribution channel is the route through which suppliers’ products reach end-customers in the market. Channel members provide many essential services to end-customers without which the supplier would fail, and which the supplier often cannot efficiently provide itself. But channel members are customers in their own right and have their own needs. Further, they usually market not only the supplier’s products but also competitors’ products and their own private labels. Their motivations and objectives are typically not aligned with those of the supplier, hence the challenge of “coordinating the channel”. Managing the distribution channel or route-to-market was never easy but it has never been more challenging than it is today. At the same time as suppliers of products ranging from packaged goods and sporting goods to hotels and cars are bypassing retailers to go directly to end customers, other middlemen are inserting themselves to perform narrow functions and take slices from an-often shrinking profit pie.

The objective of this course is to help students appreciate the complexities involved in being a part of today’s route-to-market and internalize the frameworks, metrics, and tools needed to manage the complexities. We will take the perspective of suppliers, retailers, and other intermediaries because an effective channel partnership can be sustained only if one understands the value added by each channel member, as well as the constraints and alternatives they face.

Course materials include the book titled Getting Multi-Channel Distribution Right, cases, and some related articles/notes. In-depth classroom discussion of these materials and their application to graded individual assignments and a team project will be the primary vehicles for learning. The frameworks presented in the readings and in class sessions will serve as a bridge between the specifics in each case we analyze and the situations you will encounter in your careers. I expect you to explicitly draw on them as we discuss full-length cases and other examples in class and also in your individual assignments and project.

Students who intend to work in marketing, product management, start-ups, or consulting should take this course. The relevance of this subject to the first three career paths is obvious, but the last is worth noting. The internet and mobile technology, the availability of extensive customer data, the growth of digital intermediaries and of large retailers in multiple formats, and now AI search, have put issues of distribution front and center in business. Several consulting companies now have special practices in this field, so a good understanding of route-to-market is important for students interested in marketing or strategy consulting.
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NLP, Machine Learning, and AI in Finance (RTPNL)
Finance
Faculty:
Gordon M Phillips
Subject Areas:
Finance
Course Type:
Research to Practice Seminar
We will study finance applications of new big data textual methods, including Natural Language Processing (NLP)/ Machine Learning (ML), and Textual Artificial Intelligence (AI). We will examine how this broad area has applications in finance with tools that include simple text processing to more advanced tools such as machine learning and predictive AI. Areas that we will study that are using NLP include merger prediction and performance, profitability prediction, stock return prediction, evaluation of venture capital business plans, innovation and patenting, banking, and other finance topics. Our study materials will be academic articles in finance and economics, not computer science. Students will be responsible for reading and presenting the materials in these articles, as well as doing a final research project that would involve analysis of textual data using some of the methods covered in this course. There will be active learning in this course as students will help lead the discussion of various topic areas, and we will have some Python exercises that have been developed with accompanying videos. Knowledge of Python is not required as we will guide students through some basic exercises in textual analysis applied to financial documents, including 10-Ks and earnings calls.
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Negotiations (NEGO)
Organizational Behavior
Faculty:
Aram Mourad Donigian
Subject Areas:
Organizational Behavior
Course Type:
Full-Term Elective
Negotiation is the art and science of securing agreements between two or more interdependent parties. This course focuses on the theory and processes of negotiation as it is practiced in a variety of settings. It is designed to complement the technical and diagnostic skills learned in other Tuck courses. A basic premise of the course is that while wise, decisive leaders need strong analytical skills to better the world through business, negotiation skills are essential for today’s business leader to ensure adoption and implementation of proposals. This course will highlight the components of an effective negotiation and teach you to analyze your own behavior in negotiations. The course will be largely experiential, providing you with an opportunity to develop your skills by participating in role-play simulations and integrating your experiences with the principles presented in the lectures, course discussions, and assigned readings.

Students may not take both Negotiations and the Negotiations Accelerated (NEGOX) minicourse course for credit.
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Niche Strategies in Culture Industries: The Case of Wine (SP026)
Strategy
Faculty:
Danielle Callegari,
Sydney Finkelstein
Subject Areas:
Strategy
Course Type:
Sprint Course
Wine connoisseurship—knowing about, enjoying, and collecting wine—has long been seen as a marker of good taste and a sound investment practice. But the qualities that make wine valuable culturally and those that make it a valuable asset are rarely the same. More than this, they are often in contradiction: wine’s scarcity, longevity, and brand equity are often seen as the three key strategic drivers of financial performance, yet it is the ephemerality, variability, and conviviality derived from its consumption that make wine culturally compelling. This Sprint will examine what accounts for this unique product's deep cultural significance in communities around the world against the means by which it is appraised commercially, and interrogate how those two systems intersect in an effort to identify the contours of an asset class whose performance is profoundly influenced by the intangible.

There are three key elements to this Sprint that are both interesting and unique.

First, most coursework on strategy focuses on fundamental strategic frameworks – core competencies, resource management, competitive positioning, strategic leadership, M&A, and others. These tools are learned and employed in many contexts, though much less often in culture industries where the rules of engagement differ in important ways. For example, for every LVMH and Gallo, there are tens of thousands of small wineries operating around the world. Surviving, let alone thriving, in such a global business environment often means developing sustainable niche strategies. Students will be challenged to use more traditional strategy frameworks to inform their thinking on competition in the wine industry, and to develop a deeper understanding of the niche strategies that enable survival, and even growth, for the preponderance of smaller players in the industry.

Along with this strategic framing of the Sprint, the second interesting and unique element is the wine industry itself, a global industry with cultural resonance and with roots that go back literally thousands of years. The market was valued at over $330 billion in 2023 and is projected to double by 2033, but it is wine’s ability to forge deep ties to individual identity and to set the boundaries of communities that give it an intangible and often incalculable value to its consumers. Even if some lovers of cars and watches consider their attention to those products quasi-religious, few would argue that they can wield the same celebrated power as wine, nor is it possible to imagine another agricultural product raised to the exalted heights of wine, not despite but because of its connection to nature.

Finally, from a pedagogical point of view, students will have a chance to engage in a mini “CEO Challenge” in each of the three sessions. Like the CEO Challenge in Tuck Launch, we will have a wine industry CEO present a real-time challenge he or she is working on right now and challenge students to tackle that challenge during each class session.

The Sprint will examine specific questions like:
● What niche strategies are more effective under which circumstances in the wine industry?
● What are the primary sources of value creation in the wine business?
● How is the wine industry similar, or different, to other cultural industries, like fashion, art, and entertainment?
● How is the market for wine changing and how are producers responding given that their product cannot quickly respond to market shifts in real time?
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Personal Strategies for Achieving Wellbeing in Your Career (SP018)
Other
Faculty:
D Grant Freeland
Subject Areas:
Other
Course Type:
Sprint Course
Much of your studies at Tuck are focused on content -- strategy, operations, finance, people management, and more. And while these topics are critically important, a lot of your success in careers and life is actually driven by other things. Over the past decade or so, there has been an explosion in understanding these success factors and this Sprint is an MBA oriented version of a highly successful course being taught at the Harvard Kennedy School. The Sprint is structured into three themes: knowing yourself and what drives wellbeing (e.g., aspirations, motivations, values, purpose, happiness, grit, role of money); where are you going and how are you getting there (e.g., career satisfaction, career optionality, working across boundaries, networks, sponsorship); and building resilience (e.g., wellness, stress, mental health, work and family.) Because of the shortness of this Sprint, we mostly focus on the science and academics around these themes. Having said that, the course has a practical bent, and some self-reflection is required. Plus, students will be asked to experiment with some form of a wellbeing exercise.
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Social Entrepreneurship (SESHP)
Ethics and Social Responsibility
Faculty:
Mark R DesJardine
Subject Areas:
Entrepreneurship, Ethics and Social Responsibility, Strategy
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
Business is the most powerful tool we have for improving the state of the world. It moves faster than policy, scales further than philanthropy, and reaches deeper than protest. And yet most businesses focus almost entirely on profit. That’s not a flaw in business, but a failure of imagination.

The world is filled with problems for which business is the answer. Not business as usual, but business redesigned so that social change is part of the equation from the start. Ventures that prove doing good and building something financially sustainable are not in tension.

In this course, you’ll identify a real social or environmental problem, design a venture around it, and develop a plan that holds up in front of investors, customers, and the communities you aim to serve. The work is hands-on and experiential. You’ll learn to build impact models, stress-test your mission against market realities, and articulate a value proposition that makes both financial and moral sense.

Whether or not you plan to launch your own venture or work in an adjacent field (e.g., impact investing, philanthropy, or consulting), this course will reshape how you think about what business can do and what you can do with it.

This course meets the Ethics & Social Responsibility (ESR) requirement.
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Strategic Sales Management (SSM)
Marketing
Faculty:
Jon W Kerbs
Subject Areas:
Marketing
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
This is a strategic sales management course set in a business-to-business (B2B) context. In B2B firms (technology, healthcare, investment banking, industrials, manufacturing, management consulting, retail, private equity, to name a few), direct personal selling is the predominant go-to-market channel.

This course will provide the fundamental tools to 1) apply personal selling tactics in pursuit of selling the firm’s products and/or services, 2) manage effectively key drivers in the firm's sales strategy and 3) execute sales plans aligned to the firm’s business strategies.

It will benefit those who will work in Business Development (either in direct sales or managing salespeople roles), Product Management, Brand Management, Product Marketing, and roles in the Professional Services sector (management consulting and most finance-related positions). Next, the course will be beneficial to students who see themselves running a business or managing an organization at some point in their career (General Manager). Finally, in a broad sense, being able to “sell your idea” is a critical skill component of all successful leaders.
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Sustainable Business Dynamics (SBD)
Ethics and Social Responsibility
Faculty:
Ken P Pucker
Subject Areas:
Ethics and Social Responsibility, Other
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
Advances in technology, emergent social issues and pressing environment challenges are elevating the importance of corporate sustainability. Independent of the chosen designation (CSR, corporate responsibility, ESG…) an array of stakeholders (including NGOs, employees, consumers, communities, investors, and the planet) are pushing the boundaries of responsibility and elevating expectations for corporations. This course is designed to provide students with an understanding of the nomenclature, frameworks, and analytical tools needed to effectively integrate sustainability and responsibility into the management of a corporation.
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Taxes and Business Strategy (TBS)
Accounting
Faculty:
Pete Lisowsky
Subject Areas:
Accounting
Course Type:
Full-Term Elective
This course has two objectives:
First,
you will gain exposure to key areas where taxes play a role in implementing business strategy. Business strategy broadly refers to a firm’s working plan for achieving its vision, prioritizing objectives, competing successfully, and optimizing financial performance. Taxes affect many strategic business decisions such as forming a new business and raising capital, investment strategies, financing projects, compensating employees, making shareholder distributions, expanding through acquisition, divesting lines of business, or expanding internationally. There are trade-offs in meeting organizational objectives at the lowest tax cost.
Second,
this course will introduce you to a framework for thinking about tax strategy. A tax code is a living set of regulations that are constantly changing and adapting in response to politics, perceived abuse, and business innovation. It is this ebb and flow that creates both challenges and opportunities for taxpayers, advisors, and governments. The details of tax law are quite nuanced (and will often require advice from a tax lawyer). However, there is a thematic approach to effective tax planning that can guide decision-making even as specific laws and governments change.
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The Art Market (SP023)
Other
Faculty:
Chad Elias
Subject Areas:
Other
Course Type:
Sprint Course
This Sprint course analyzes the commercial, social, and legal mechanisms of the global art market, encompassing auction houses, private galleries, art fairs, and art advisors. We study how commercial value is produced and negotiated in these spheres, exploring the processes through which artworks are priced, authenticated, and marketed. Through case studies, critical readings, and guest speakers, the course examines key factors influencing the art market, including historical precedents, cultural trends, and the role of collectors, institutions, and investors. Special attention is given to the intersections of art, law, and business, addressing issues such as provenance, copyright, contracts, tax considerations, and the regulation of cross-border transactions.
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The Future of Capitalism (FOC)
Economics
Faculty:
Russell Muirhead,
Charles J Wheelan
Subject Areas:
Economics
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
In 1989, the Berlin Wall came down and Communism in Eastern Europe imploded from within, followed two years later by the collapse of the Soviet Union. These events made liberalism – democracy and free markets – look triumphant. Francis Fukuyama called it “the end of history,” since history seemed to have reached its goal. The debate over political and economic systems was over: we had figured out the best way to organize a society’s politics and the economy.

Things look different now. Many today look at growing inequality, environmental catastrophes, and political polarization, and are more likely to say they do not endorse democracy or free markets. For many, the promise of socialism is more satisfying than the reality of capitalism. Even capitalism’s strongest proponents often feel that it is due for an overhaul. Meanwhile, the world is experiencing the most significant backlash against trade and globalization since the 1930s. This course aims to give you a sense for the current debate over capitalism and its alternatives, weighing the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches.

This course will examine the following core questions:

1. What is capitalism?
2. What are the alternatives (and how have they worked)?
3. How do markets work and when do they fail?
4. Should businesses be run solely to maximize profit?
5. Are tariffs good for American workers?
6. Is capitalism exploitative?
7. Do markets promote freedom or oppression?
8. Is capitalism fair? Does it reward merit?
9. Does capitalism make us happy?
10. How can we make capitalism work better?
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The Lions of Africa: Where Are the Next Emerging Markets (SP028)
Other
Faculty:
Erica J. Barks Ruggles
Subject Areas:
Other
Course Type:
Sprint Course
Sub-Saharan Africa is extraordinarily wealthy in terms of natural resources, power potential and labor. Five of the top oil producing countries in the world are in Africa, five of the top seven diamond producers are in Africa accounting for 45% of total global production, and Africa holds 48% of global cobalt reserves, 47% of manganese reserves, and 21% of graphite reserves. With 70% of Africans under 30 and a median age of 19, Africa will account for half of global population growth in the next 25 years.

Understanding the risks, challenges, and opportunities in emerging markets can be one of the most rewarding and confusing aspects of investment for American businesses. What is the regulatory and legal environment? Who are the key players in a particular industry and in the government? What logistic and infrastructure hurdles need to be taken into account? Is the country stable and are there political security issues that need to be taken into account? How does an investor evaluate and mitigate risks? What skill sets are available in the workforce, and which will have to be taught? All of these issues can make or break an investment.

Managing development and investments in sub-Saharan Africa requires leaders to understand the opportunities, the risks, and the competition as they analyze and make decisions. This sprint class will acquaint students with an overview of the opportunities, risks and great power competition surrounding economic development and investments in sub-Saharan Africa. It will assist students in understanding policies that may increase or decrease risk and opportunities and provide students the opportunity to explore how global challenges such as shifting demographics, growing inequality, climate change, and emerging technology will affect Africa and its investment environment in the decade to come.
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The Private Sector in International Climate Negotiations Practicum (PRCOP)
Other
Faculty:
Tracy L Bach
Subject Areas:
Other
Course Type:
Practicum
This practicum seeks to deepen understanding of how non-party stakeholders like businesses, banks, and investors engage on climate change under the Paris Agreement. It provides applied learning for Tuck students as they work with external project partners on the climate change Conference of Parties (COP) negotiations each year. The practicum explores how private sector voluntary pledges toward the Paris Agreement's 1.5C temperature goal complement the mandatory international commitments made by countries. These pledges began when the Paris Agreement was adopted in 2015 and have grown to more than 30,000 – with almost half from the private sector. As future business leaders, this practicum gives Tuck students an experiential learning opportunity in private sector climate action at the international level.
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Tools for Improving Operations (TFIO)
Operations and Management Science
Faculty:
Joseph M Hall
Brian T Tomlin
Subject Areas:
Operations and Management Science
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
This minicourse covers frameworks and tools designed to enhance operations performance. (The definition of operations used in this course is very broad: operations is fundamentally about execution in all types of contexts, from launching a new product to managing an evolving emergency situation.) The objectives are to equip future general managers, consultants, and operations managers with the perspectives and skills to effectively use operations as a competitive weapon and to develop facility with simple technical tools and frameworks which apply directly to operational decisions and can be useful in adding value to manufacturing and service organizations.
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Tuck Integrative Experiential Learning (INTEL)
Experiential
Faculty:
Praveen K Kopalle
Subject Areas:
Experiential
Course Type:
Intensive Mini
Tuck-INTEL (Integrative Experiential Learning)
is Tuck’s signature, fast-paced capstone experience—an immersive experience designed to bring your entire first-year MBA toolkit to life. In this intensive four-day minicourse, you won’t just revisit core concepts—you’ll apply them in real time, making complex, high-impact decisions under pressure in a fully integrated business environment.

Working in teams, you will take the helm of a startup competing in the next-generation wind turbine industry. Over multiple decision periods, your team will navigate a dynamic, competitive marketplace where every decision matters. From strategy and operations to finance, marketing, analytics, communications, and leadership, you will be responsible for running your company end-to-end—balancing growth, managing risk, securing funding, and presenting to a board of directors.

Each decision cycle challenges you to think holistically: how do marketing decisions affect capacity? How do financing choices shape strategy? How do competitors respond? Success depends not only on your team’s decisions, but also on how effectively you anticipate and react to others in a rapidly evolving environment.

Tuck-INTEL is more than a course—it’s a
live-fire test of your first year MBA training
, pushing you to connect the dots, lead under pressure, and perform as an integrated management team.
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Venture Capital and Private Equity Advanced (VCPEA)
Finance
Faculty:
Gordon M Phillips
Subject Areas:
Finance
Course Type:
Full-Term Elective
In-depth study of venture capital and private equity for those with either investment banking, consulting (including summer internship experience), or previous finance and PE experience, and those first-year students who have placed out of the finance core fall class. The course will explore topics in the VC/PE landscape through the lens of general partners, limited partners, and portfolio companies. Specific topics will include portfolio management, deal origination, in-depth due diligence and financial modeling, transaction structuring and financing, value creation, and performance measurement. As compared to a forthcoming Spring overview course, we will go over more detailed models used in private equity and have several more in-depth cases. Guest speakers will be an integral part of the course when we have cases.

Students may take only Basics or Advanced - these courses cannot both be taken for credit.
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Venture Capital and Private Equity Basics (VCPEB)
Finance
Faculty:
Gordon M Phillips
Subject Areas:
Finance
Course Type:
Full-Term Elective
The course covers the entire private equity sector (including venture capital, growth equity, and buyouts as well as institutional investors in the sector) of the economy. The course is still quantitative with multiple cases, but is geared for students with less experience in finance and/or investing. The course will study VC/PE industry participants and explore their various perspectives, models, strategies, objectives, and challenges. Through cases and quantitative exercises, we will introduce the basic analysis and quantitative and qualitative factors involved in venture capital investing, growth equity financing, and leveraged buyout (LBO) transactions. The class will incorporate quantitative exercises, cases, and models; however, there will be fewer cases than in the regular session of VCPE, and we will examine them in greater depth over multiple class periods. We will also have more in-class exercises. Guest speakers will be an integral part of the course when we have cases.

Students may take only Basics or Advanced - these courses cannot both be taken for credit.
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AI-Driven Analytics and Society (RTPAS)
Operations and Management Science
Faculty:
James Siderius
Subject Areas:
Ethics and Social Responsibility, Operations and Management Science
Course Type:
Research to Practice Seminar
The past decade has seen extraordinary advances in AI and data-driven decision-making. These tools now shape, and often govern, nearly every dimension of how businesses and individuals operate. Yet alongside their promise, they have revealed themselves to be a mixed blessing, at best: algorithms interact with society in subtle ways that generate feedback loops, amplify bias, and create unintended consequences.

This seminar dives headfirst into these challenges. We’ll grapple with how firms can make sense of machine-learning predictions and act on them responsibly, what it really takes to keep data fair and unbiased, and how generative AI and large language models are transforming how organizations create value and compete. We’ll unpack why misinformation races ahead of truth on social media, driven by algorithms built to maximize engagement and amplify outrage. We’ll also examine the societal tradeoffs of automation, the human-technology interface, the emerging governance challenges around compute regulation and global AI supply chains, and the use of AI in the public sphere (policing, courts, and government services), where algorithms can shape civic life as powerfully as they shape markets.

The course is designed as an interactive forum: students will lead discussions, analyze case studies, and connect academic research to real-world practice. Like all Research-to-Practice seminars, the emphasis is on developing analytical rigor and critical perspective managers need to navigate the increasingly complex intersection of AI and society.

This course meets the Ethics and Social Responsibility (ESR) requirement.
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Advanced Management Communication (AMC)
Communication
Faculty:
Amy E Florentino
Courtney H Pierson
Subject Areas:
Communication
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
As part of the Core at Tuck, Management Communication (ManComm) was designed to provide Tuck students with immediately applicable skills for professional communication. For students seeking to deepen their communication skills, Advanced Management Communication (AMC) expands beyond ManComm, shifting from a passive audience to an active one. In this minicourse, we’ll ask you to not only anticipate audience needs, but to actively manage questions from them. You’ll practice leading a dynamic discussion to reach a common set of objectives: soliciting audience input, asking for and answering questions and managing dissent. Similar to ManComm, we’ll follow the same prepare – present – reflect pedagogy and in-class time will be dedicated to presentations and feedback.

Post-Tuck, you’ll regularly be engaged in discussions rather than pure presentations. AMC is designed to give you more agility in working with each unique situation you face.
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Advancing Entrepreneurship Collaboration Practicum (PRAEC)
Entrepreneurship
Faculty:
Caroline C. Cannon,
Daniella L Reichstetter
Subject Areas:
Entrepreneurship
Course Type:
Practicum
This practicum allows Tuck students to deeply understand the intersection of diversity, entrepreneurship, and company growth. This practicum partners with Tuck’s Executive Education’s 40-year-old program for advancing entrepreneurs from a wide variety of backgrounds. Students will:
1. Be matched with an entrepreneur from Exec. Ed. to work on a discrete business challenge or opportunity.
2. Participate in weekly class discussions with the following objectives:
To engage in conversation around the assigned readings with the following learning goals:
To understand the complexity, complications, and hurdles specific to small business owners and underrepresented entrepreneurs.
To learn about the levers that can be pulled to address the aforementioned.
To understand how said levers can be applied for action-based outcomes with tangible impact.
To apply the learnings from the readings and class discussions to the matched entrepreneurs and articulate recommendations to address their business challenge/opportunity.
To build understanding and empathy for people with different backgrounds, needs, experiences, and approaches, particularly as they relate to conducting business.
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Client Project Management (CPM)
Other
Faculty:
Amy E Florentino
Subject Areas:
Other
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
Client Project Management is a minicourse designed to provide Tuck students with immediately applicable tools for team problem solving situations. The course is designed for students considering a career in a project-oriented field including consulting, strategy, general management, marketing, M&A, business development. The course is also highly recommended for first year students who are interested in leading their team's First Year Project during the Spring term.

The frameworks and tools learned in the course will enable you to:

1. Define a problem clearly
2. Structure the problem-solving process
3. Collect and synthesize relevant quantitative and qualitative data
4. Design valuable recommendations and an implementation plan
5. Present effectively

Course methodology will include discussions, in-class exercises, outside guests, and a single case (based on an actual client engagement) that spans the length of the course. All homework and the final client discussion will be completed in self-selected pairs. This course draws on frameworks and skills that have been developed by top-tier firms in the business of delivering practical solutions to complex issues. Developing these skills to analyze and resolve business problems is a valuable leadership capability.
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Communicating with Presence (CWP)
Communication
Faculty:
James G Rice
Subject Areas:
Communication
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
Theater is heightened communication. Since the beginning of human culture, theater as an art form has been a crucial element in intellectual, emotional, and spiritual cultures worldwide. Theater communicates great ideas and inspires action. The actor is the instrument through which the message of the play is communicated. Therefore, it is the actor’s communication skills—developed through arduous training in use of the voice, body and expressive language—that determine whether the message of the play actually reaches and affects the audience. The task of the actor is to be present, and with that unique ability, to capture the heart, mind, ears and eyes of the audience through galvanizing communication. The leader whose responsibility it is to persuade, inspire and motivate must possess similar abilities. The difference between the two pursuits is that actors dedicate themselves to the acquisition of those skills; leaders all too often do not have that opportunity.

This minicourse will be an active examination of what it is that comprises “presence” in communication. It will utilize a practice of certain actor-skills and behaviors to facilitate an ability to walk on the “stage” of everyday academic or business life with a strong communication capacity that projects energy, confidence, clarity of thought, and physical and vocal expressiveness. Each session will build on a progression of physical and vocal techniques incorporated in weekly spoken exercises intended to establish and reinforce the qualities of the leader as an energetic, active communicator.
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Comparative Models of Leadership (CLDSH)
Organizational Behavior
Faculty:
Elizabeth J Winslow
Subject Areas:
Organizational Behavior
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
Tuck strives to teach students to become better leaders; yet leadership is a multi-facet and often controversial topic. The purpose of this minicourse is to give students a better understanding of leadership from multiple angles and perspectives. We will examine proven leaders like Margaret Thatcher, Orit Gadiesh, Coach Bobby Knight, Charlotte Beers, and the famed artic explorer Ernest Shackleton. The course will explore the different ways leadership has been studied and defined over the last century, the similarities and differences between the most common leadership theories, and the way leadership has been demonstrated in business, military and, athletic sectors. Students will read about leadership theory, read cases portraying leaders who exemplify these theories, benefit from visitors who are proven leaders, and explore through case studies, class discussions, written assignments, and role-plays the relevance of leadership theory to the work they will do as business leaders

The first three class sessions will be devoted to a review of the history of leadership theory. Through case studies examining actual leaders, students will learn about the progression from Trait, Skill and Style Theories to Situational and Contingency Theory, to the more current theories that define leadership as a relationship. Two classes will be devoted to the study and discussion of leaders in the military and athletic arena. By reading about and discussing such leaders, students will gain an appreciation for the lessons they can learn that can be applied to leadership in a business or professional organization. Three classes will then cover a set of leadership tasks frequently encountered by all leaders. We will examine and discuss cases where individuals have to lead change efforts, manage employee performance, and deal with conflict. Students will analyze the actions of leaders in these situations, and pose and defend possible solutions.

The last class will be devoted to a discussion of the leadership accomplishments of Earnest Shackleton. We will examine the ways in which Shackleton did (or did not) lead effectively using the theories developed throughout the course.
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Corporate Communication (CC)
Communication
Faculty:
Paul A Argenti
Subject Areas:
Communication
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
This minicourse focuses on the changing environment for business and using corporate communication to execute strategy. Building on the first-year curriculum, it covers, in greater detail, the changing environment for business, media relations, financial communications, corporate advertising, reputation management, social media and crisis communication. Students also work on further developing their communications skills through case analyses, experiential exercises, and presentations.
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Corporate Restructuring and Shareholder Activism (CRSA)
Finance
Faculty:
Bjorn Espen Eckbo
Subject Areas:
Finance
Course Type:
Full-Term Elective
This course discusses core financial restructuring decisions and shareholder activism. It develops an understanding of what activists do and why, how boards respond, and how financial restructurings work both in and out of bankruptcy. The course highlights out of court restructurings such as acquisitions, divestitures, spinoffs and splitoffs, the use of leverage recapitalizations to limit agency costs of free cash flow and, finally financial restructurings including "loan-to-own” strategies in bankruptcy. Results of empirical research are intertwined with specific case discussions. Class discussions typically open with a brief presentation of an activist case brought to class by a student team.
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Corporate Takeovers (CT)
Finance
Faculty:
Bjorn Espen Eckbo
Subject Areas:
Finance
Course Type:
Full-Term Elective
This course is relevant for students expecting to work with M&As – some of the largest transactions in the corporate lifecycle. It shows how takeover transactions are structured both legally and economically, how target deal resistance affects bid outcomes, and how public policy plays a role in affecting takeover activity. Deal structuring includes deal initiation by strategic v. financial (PE) buyers, target toehold acquisition, deal financing (cash v. bidder shares), and optimal bidding (markup pricing, bid jumps). We discuss examples where target resistance strategies are 'disproportional’ and violate director fiduciary duties. Discussions of public policy debates of relevance for aggregate takeover activity include antitrust and the U.S. 'international listing gap’ controversy. Class discussions typically open with a brief presentation of a 'M&A of the day’ brought to class by a student team.
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Countries and Companies in the International Economy (CACIE)
Economics
Faculty:
Andrew B Bernard
Subject Areas:
Economics
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
This minicourse focuses on the interaction between countries and firms in the arenas of international trade, investment, and finance by applying and extending the tools acquired in the Global Economics for Managers core course. The ultimate objective is to help you and your organization make decisions in today’s global economy. Two broad themes recur throughout the term. One emphasizes the analysis of decision-making at the country level with emphasis on the constraints implied for individual enterprises. We visit a number of countries around the world that are at various stages of economic and market development and thus that face issues of monetary union, currency crisis, trade liberalization, and economic integration. In each case we consider how these events provide opportunities and constraints for companies. The second main theme of the course concentrates on the decisions faced by companies themselves as they participate in the international economy. Across a range of countries we look at issues surrounding production location, market entry, cross-border pricing, exchange-rate risk, hedging, and integrating the supply chain.
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Creating Winning New Products and Services (CWNPS)
Marketing
Faculty:
Peter N Golder
Subject Areas:
Marketing
Course Type:
Full-Term Elective
New products and services are vital to companies’ success. In fact, creativity and innovation are the key drivers of market success and shareholder value for most of today’s leading companies. Indeed, a culture of creativity, innovation, and design is commonly recognized as the only persistent competitive advantage. To win (and hopefully dominate) markets, companies must often create entire new markets and move beyond a product’s functional capabilities to connect with customers on an emotional and relational basis. However, innovation is risky and most new products fail. This course teaches a process for identifying market opportunities, creating new product/service ideas, and turning those ideas into valuable new products and services. We focus on the tools and techniques for analyzing market opportunities, creative thinking for generating new ideas, and then designing, testing, and launching new products and services. Both quantitative and qualitative approaches are covered. More specifically, this course covers the new product development process, including idea generation, concept testing, product design and development, mapping customer perceptions, product positioning, market sizing, and market entry strategies. The course emphasizes how to incorporate customers and competitors into all aspects of new product development. Students will solidify their learning by putting these tools and techniques into practice by forming teams to conceive and develop a new market offering and then present their idea to classmates and external judges. The goal of each presentation is to convince others that your idea satisfies criteria for winning in the marketplace. For your individual project, you will select a creative genius who you admire, research their creative process, and prepare a brief write-up reflecting on their process, your own creative process, and the creativity processes discussed during the course. The course is intended for students who are interested in creating and developing innovations, both in entrepreneurial firms and in established companies; and for students interested in enhancing their creativity more broadly. The course structure is flexible in terms of choosing case write-ups and selecting group and individual projects, so you can tailor the course to meet your personal goals.
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Current Issues in the Global Food System (CIGFS)
Other
Faculty:
Jose B Alvarez
Subject Areas:
Other
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
The global food system consists of a multitude of players connected through local and global networks. The ability of these networks to feed the planet are under threat from a variety of challenges. The population of the planet will likely reach 10 billion by 2050, an increase of almost 30% from current numbers. Agriculture contributes at least 15% of all global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) annually at a time when the catastrophic impacts of climate change are starting to be realized in agricultural production. Drought, water scarcity, and war in key growing areas are exacerbating the problems at hand. These are enormous challenges that require innovative management practices, new technologies, and visionary public policies. This course will provide insight into the challenges faced by the food system globally and argue the merits of some potential solutions. Students will be exposed to the language, concepts, and tools industry players use to deal with these issues.
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Customer Analytics (CA)
Marketing
Faculty:
Bryan K Bollinger
Subject Areas:
Marketing
Course Type:
Full-Term Elective
This course introduces students to the concepts and methods of customer analytics – leveraging customer data to increase marketing productivity. Methods covered include lifetime value of the customer (CLV), predictive modeling (using regression, logistic regression, matching, neural nets, and random forests), and experimentation/testing. Students will work on real applications and databases. Applications include customer acquisition, acquisition and retention management, cross-selling, up-selling, churn management, targeting online advertising, loyalty program evaluation, marketing attribution, and multichannel customer management. We will also discuss current related topics such as the use of AI agents, healthcare analytics, privacy regulations, etc. This will require spreadsheet analyses and using R programs to estimate predictive models using real company data. We will use the Radiant browser-based interface for RStudio, which is now being used in Analytics II.
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Digital Operations (DOP)
Operations and Management Science
Faculty:
Lauren Xiaoyuan Lu
Subject Areas:
Operations and Management Science
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
This course explores the transformative impact of digital technologies on operations management across various industries. Students will delve into the strategies, tools, and frameworks essential for implementing and managing digital operations. Key topics include digital operating model frameworks, digital platforms, automation and digital manufacturing, digital twin, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence and machine learning in operations. Through real-world case studies and practical applications, students will gain insights into how digital technologies and digital transformation can enhance operational efficiency, improve customer experience, and drive competitive advantage. The course will culminate in project presentations, allowing students to apply their knowledge to real-world scenarios and receive feedback from peers and the instructor. The course is roughly 70% qualitative and 30% quantitative. Simple linear regressions are needed for completing some assignments and can be implemented in Excel.

Note: This course was formerly titled “Data-Driven Analytics for Innovative Operating Models (DDA).” Students who have already completed that course should not enroll in Digital Operations, as there is considerable overlap in content.
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Disruption Through History (SP030)
Other
Faculty:
Scott D Anthony
Subject Areas:
Strategy
Course Type:
Sprint Course
In 1995, Joseph L. Bower and Clayton M. Christensen published “Disruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave” in the Harvard Business Review. The article introduced a framework that described why leading companies struggled to respond to entrants armed with seemingly trivial technologies that disrupted and redefined industry performance.

The concept resonated, connecting with emerging developments around the commercialization of the Internet. A 1999 Forbes magazine cover story featuring Christensen and then Intel CEO Andy Grove (“Intel’s Big Thinker”) further fanned disruptive fervor. The concept attracted dissenters. In early 2006, The Journal of Product Innovation Management featured five scholarly criticisms of the work. In 2014, Harvard historian Jill LePore penned a scathing 6,000-word criticism of Christensen’s research and his acolytes in The New Yorker. Nonetheless, in 2022, Harvard Business Review named disruption one of four business concepts that had transformed the world.
What once was largely isolated to fast-moving technology industries is now a widespread phenomenon, with leaders of just about every industry contemplating the impact of ongoing disruptions such as additive manufacturing, artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, cleantech, cryptocurrencies, drones, lab-grown meat, mixed reality, robotics, and smart health.

This course will interrogate the past, present, and future of disruptive innovation. It serves as a companion to “Leading Disruptive Change,” which focuses on strategy and leadership tools and frameworks for navigating disruptive change. “Disruption Through History” takes a historical and analytical approach to understanding how the concept of disruptive innovation emerged, evolved, and spread across industries over the past three decades. The courses stand alone; neither is a prerequisite for the other.

Zooming into the idea of disruptive innovation and historical and ongoing examples of disruption also allows students to learn more broadly about how to shape ideas, and how ideas shape the world.
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Early Stage Venture Capital Workshop Practicum (PRVC2)
Finance
Faculty:
James M P Feuille
Subject Areas:
Finance
Course Type:
Practicum
The goal of the Early Stage Venture Capital Workshop Practicum is to engage students in an in-depth, hands-on, team-oriented exploration of real-world early stage venture capital (VC) deal making, first by giving students an intensive grounding in the core elements of early stage venture capital—venture capital fund portfolio construction, deal sourcing, deal screening and selection, due diligence, valuation of early stage companies, convertible notes, capitalization tables, term sheets, the elements of an investment memorandum and negotiations with entrepreneurs—then by engaging students in a series of “deal workshops” whereby students will work on analyzing and conducting “due diligence” on nine “live” venture capital deals, three at a time, meeting with the founders or CEOs of companies that are then active in the marketplace raising Seed, Series A and Series B rounds of venture capital to hear their pitches and ask due diligence questions, and selecting three of those deals (one per set of three) to recommend to their “partnership”, consisting of practicing venture capitalists from around the US, by writing a full investment memorandum for each of the three deals and presenting and defending the investment thesis for the deal in a meeting with the venture capital partners. Unlike interns or associates in venture capital firms, who support the partners in their work, in this workshop, students will take on the role of the partners in a venture capital firm who are leading deals for their firms. In the final week, the deals phase of the workshop concludes with mock negotiation sessions where the teams will negotiate an investment term sheet with three of the nine entrepreneurs, one per team.
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Entrepreneurial Finance (ENTFN)
Finance
Faculty:
Morten Sorensen
Subject Areas:
Entrepreneurship, Finance
Course Type:
Full-Term Elective
This course is about the corporate finance of private companies, starting out with a focus on the financing issues and decisions that arise in an entrepreneurial context. We first cover the three fundamental topics in entrepreneurial finance: (1) start-up valuation, (2) deal terms and term sheets, and (3) staged investing, growth options, and potential scale of ventures. We then apply those tools to questions about how to structure an investment in a start-up and determine an appropriate valuation, how much capital to raise and from whom, the mechanics of term sheets and capitalization tables, economics of milestones, subsequent financing rounds and exits. Finally, as time permits, we may also cover more advanced topics in the corporate finance of private companies, such as exits through SPACs, regulatory issues, structure of levered buyouts, and the organization of venture capital, private equity, and private debt funds and firms. The course is taught through a combination of lectures and case studies.
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Entrepreneurial Thinking (ETHNK)
Entrepreneurship
Faculty:
Lindsay N Hyde
Daniella L Reichstetter
Subject Areas:
Entrepreneurship
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
This first-half winter mini course is an introduction to entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial thinking. Taught by two experienced entrepreneurs, this course exposes students to proven entrepreneurial approaches and methodologies including: Hypothesis-Driven Entrepreneurship, Stakeholder Discovery, Design Thinking, Rapid Protoyping, and Lean Startup Methodology. This course takes the perspective of undertaking a new startup project, but provides a foundation for students interested in launching, joining, or investing in startups and early-stage ventures after graduation. The primary deliverable is a new venture idea created by student teams. The course prepares students to launch their own startup, qualify for an entrepreneurial First-Year Project (eFYP), apply to the Tuck Venture Learning Lab, and/or prepare for an early-stage company career.
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Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA)
Entrepreneurship
Faculty:
Mark Anderegg
Subject Areas:
Entrepreneurship
Course Type:
Full-Term Mini
Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (“ETA”) is an increasingly popular career path to general management via small business ownership. The discipline is distinct from customary interpretations of entrepreneurship insofar as the company is not started from the ground up. Rather, in ETA the entrepreneur purchases a business as a going concern – typically at a stage in its evolution when consistent positive cash flow is already being generated – and assumes the CEO role immediately after the acquisition is consummated. The most common manifestation of ETA is a search fund, although many variants of that model are becoming similarly prominent.

This course provides an introduction to the various pathways to ETA, as well as a detailed exploration of the various phases of an entrepreneur’s journey. The first half of the course covers background about different ETA models, raising investor capital, conducting a search for a suitable company and closing a private equity buyout transaction. The second half addresses relevant topics pertinent to being a first-time CEO and considerations related to operating a microcap company. Industry participants will join the majority of sessions to bolster the content and add unique personal perspective to the discussion. Background reading will often include case studies wherein these practitioners are the case protagonists.
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Financial Reporting and Statement Analysis (FRSA)
Accounting
Faculty:
Phillip C Stocken
Subject Areas:
Accounting
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
Financial Reporting and Statement Analysis (FRSA) is designed to prepare you to analyze, interpret and use financial statements effectively, both from a general manager and investor perspective. The primary focus will be on developing your ability to engage in accounting analysis, which is the process of assessing how the financial metrics reflect the firm’s underlying economic constructs, as well as your ability to use financial data to gain insight into a firm’s business strategy, economic performance, and outlook.
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Financing the Clean Energy Economy (FCEE)
Economics
Faculty:
Charlie Donovan
Subject Areas:
Economics
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
This minicourse explores the critical role of finance in accelerating the transition to a clean energy economy. With demand for energy rising, technologies that enable mass electrification, decarbonized fuels, and improved energy efficiency have become essential for sustaining the global economy. The course examines how financial markets, investment flows, and innovative business models can either enable or hinder the widespread adoption of clean energy solutions.

By the end of the course, students will be able to:
Map key investment flows shaping the clean energy economy.
Evaluate leading business models and strategies for scaling renewable energy and efficiency technologies.
Build and apply models to assess clean energy opportunities and guide investment decisions.
Understand the financial mechanisms that support the development, deployment, and long-term viability of clean energy initiatives across a range of countries and regions.
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Global Insight Expedition (GIX)
Experiential
Faculty:
Scott D Anthony
Nicholas S Russell
Jose R Lecuona Torras
Subject Areas:
Experiential
Course Type:
Experiential Course
Global Insight Expeditions (GIXs) are immersive, faculty led courses designed for MBA students to deepen their ability to lead and make decisions in complex global business environments.

Combining rigorous on campus preparation with international field experience, GIXs challenge students to apply classroom frameworks in real time. Through structured reflection and direct engagement with executives, entrepreneurs, policymakers, community leaders, and local stakeholders, students build cultural intelligence, strategic perspective, and the adaptability required to operate across markets. Each course begins at Tuck, then transitions to travel with one or two faculty members, offering firsthand insight into how leadership, organizations, and markets function around the world.
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Health Care Analytics & Society (HCAS)
Health Care
Faculty:
Lindsey J Leininger
Subject Areas:
Health Care
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
This course is about health analytics in action. With epidemiology as our key tour guide, we will introduce and apply timeless scientific concepts to timely case studies. Examples include the commercialization of patient data; the unintended consequences of tying physician payments to statistical algorithms; and the promise and perils of digital disease detection. Students will be provided with a series of practical data diligence tools speaking to descriptive, predictive, and evaluative applications of health analytics. By the end of the course students will be able to recognize and apply key frameworks critical for wise, data-driven leadership across the health sector.
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Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC)
Marketing
Faculty:
Elizabeth A Keenan
Subject Areas:
Marketing
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
Integrated marketing communications (IMC), or marcom, is a strategic process that involves the use of coordinated, persuasive and measurable communications with the goal of generating short-term financial returns and long-term shareholder value. This course will provide an overview of IMC, its role in the marketing process, and the channels and tools through which companies communicate with a market, including traditional advertising, sales promotions, digital media, social media, and public relations. The course will simultaneously address consumer response to these coordinated communications and the ever-evolving landscape through which marketers must compete to reach their target market. Course content, classes and assignments will be guided by a framework that mimics the broad steps involved in marketing communications planning: 1) Identifying Your Customer, 2) Setting Clear Objectives, 3) Crafting Your Campaign, 4) Measuring Your Success, and 5) Refining and Repeating. In addition to readings and individual assignments, the course will culminate with a small group project in which students will apply course concepts by auditing and suggesting improvements to an existing company’s IMC program.
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International Development and Public Finance (SP032)
Economics
Faculty:
Andrew N Vorkink
Subject Areas:
Economics
Course Type:
Sprint Course
This Sprint will look at the role which international institutions play in financing development in less developed countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The main focus will be on public international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and regional development banks and institutions like the International Finance Corporation, which seeks to mobilize funds to the private sector. Comparison will also be made to large bilateral programs such as China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which with the demise of the United States Agency of International Development, is by far the largest non-multilateral international program active in the developing world. As this is a large topic, the main focus will be on the main financing techniques used by multilateral international financial institutions.

A key objective of this course is to give students the skills and tools to analyze the major challenges which developing countries face in getting access to public finance and the steps which international agencies, business, government and civil society can take to help developing countries grow their economies. The past year has brought unprecedented questioning of the role of international public institutions by countries like the United States, including in peacekeeping, trade, health and human welfare and in financing development which may affect the ability of developing countries to access needed finance. Skills and knowledge acquired in the course will assist students to develop strategies for dealing with or investing in developing markets in a turbulent global economy where growth is a prerequisite to poverty reduction and business activity.
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Investing in Early Stage Social Ventures (PRTSV)
Finance
Faculty:
Jose R Lecuona Torras
Subject Areas:
Finance
Course Type:
Practicum
Please note: While 1.5 credits are earned in the spring term, this practicum spans the full academic year. Enrollment is selected based on an application process; students may apply in the spring of their first year.
This practicum provides students with technical and applied knowledge to assess the potential of early-stage ventures with social impact. More specifically, this practicum helps students:

Resting at the unique intersection of the disciplines of strategy, innovation, leadership, behavioral psychology, and systems psychodynamics, Leading Disruptive Change integrates academic research and practitioner-oriented tools and frameworks to give students practical ways to act wisely and decisively through the fog of disruptive change. We will go through seven core tenets:
1. You need to lead through fog
2. You need to understand the particular nature of adaptive challenges
3. Technical solutions are necessary but not sufficient to solve adaptive challenges
4. Solving adaptive challenges requires intentionally inducing and managing discomfort.
5. Go deep to find the real problem.
6. Both/and it with a paradox mindset.
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Management of Service Operations (SOPS)
Operations and Management Science
Faculty:
Michelle A Kinch
Subject Areas:
Operations and Management Science
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
In today's dynamic business landscape, the effective management of service operations is crucial for sustainable success. Building upon foundational knowledge from the first-year MBA operations management course, this elective explores some of the unique challenges inherent to service-based industries which connects operational performance to marketing and human resource frameworks. We will use an operational lens to understand how companies achieve and sustain service excellence discussing key topics such as customer behavior, change management, employee engagement, and cultivating a learning culture. We will use the case method to examine real-world challenges, discuss current events and directly observe local service businesses to enhance learning. Students will develop critical skills to improve delivery processes, enhance customer satisfaction, and drive operational excellence in service-driven environments.
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Managerial Accounting (MA)
Accounting
Faculty:
Richard C Sansing
Subject Areas:
Accounting
Course Type:
Full-Term Elective
This course provides a comprehensive, graduate level exploration of managerial accounting. The course focuses on the use of accounting data in the management of an organization. Naturally, what accounting data are interesting and how they might be used depend on what the manager is seeking to accomplish and what other information is available. This course uses the concepts of opportunity cost and organizational architecture as a framework for the study of managerial accounting. Opportunity cost is the conceptual foundation underlying decision-making; organizational architecture is the conceptual foundation underlying the use of accounting as part of the firm’s control system. We examine these issues using both a textbook and case discussions.

Students may not take Managerial Accounting (MA) and Managerial Accounting Mini (MAM), or Managerial Accounting (MA) and Cost and Control (CNC) for credit.
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Mentorship in a Changing World: Human Connections & AI Collaborations (SP031)
Organizational Behavior
Faculty:
Stacy D Blake-Beard
Subject Areas:
Organizational Behavior
Course Type:
Sprint Course
In an era of rapid technological transformation and evolving workplace norms, the way we mentor—and are mentored—is being redefined. This course invites students to examine mentoring relationships across diverse settings, from traditional face-to-face interactions to emerging AI-integrated models. Through article discussions, interactive activities, cross-disciplinary insights, and dialogue with subject matter experts, participants will investigate the strengths, challenges, and nuances of human connection alongside technology-enhanced approaches.

Building on these explorations, students will reimagine career support systems with an emphasis on flexibility, cultural intelligence, and innovation. They will evaluate hybrid mentoring frameworks, consider conditions that promote inclusive and psychologically safe environments, and navigate the ethical dimensions of AI in leadership development. Ultimately, students will leave with actionable strategies and conceptual tools to integrate mentoring principles into their own professional contexts—ready to influence the future of workplace learning and support.
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Moral Reasoning: From Machiavelli to The Bomb to AI (MORE)
Ethics and Social Responsibility
Faculty:
Joshua Lewis
Subject Areas:
Ethics and Social Responsibility
Course Type:
Full-Term Mini
How did President Harry Truman decide to drop The Bomb and did he get it right? Machiavelli’s
The Prince
is among the most influential leadership tracts ever written, but is it a handbook for leaders or a rationalization of thuggery? How did Katharine Graham, Publisher of the Washington Post, think about the business risks and ethical dilemmas involved in defying a lawless President? Do AI deployment decisions have moral elements?

This course introduces students to the tools required to grapple with complex dilemmas with moral dimensions, and to lead an organization through them. It is both abstract, in that it explores complex questions and philosophical frameworks, and quite practical, in that it deals with the types of challenges that business leaders actually face. MORE’s objective is to enable students to better navigate the challenges of the business world and the complexities of life as it is actually lived. Course content includes renowned fiction, autobiography, journalism, moral philosophy, history, and film.
MORE is a humanities course designed for a business school. In addition to the business-oriented objectives noted above it is designed to provide tools for critical thinking, for finding the right questions, and for challenging assumptions and conventional wisdom – all required to grapple with complex problems. It is not a course in what to know – more an exercise in ways to think. While success in business requires both hard skills and soft skills, over a 30+ year career in venture capital and private equity I found that this third type of skills, which the study of humanities can provide so effectively, was often more valuable.
Students wishing to know more are encouraged to review
this long-form course description
or to listen to
this podcast
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Negotiations (NEGO)
Organizational Behavior
Faculty:
Daniel C Feiler
Subject Areas:
Organizational Behavior
Course Type:
Full-Term Elective
Negotiation is the art and science of securing agreements between two or more interdependent parties. This course focuses on the theory and processes of negotiation as it is practiced in a variety of settings. It is designed to complement the technical and diagnostic skills learned in other Tuck courses. A basic premise of the course is that while wise, decisive leaders need strong analytical skills to better the world through business, negotiation skills are essential for today’s business leader to ensure adoption and implementation of proposals. This course will highlight the components of an effective negotiation and teach you to analyze your own behavior in negotiations. The course will be largely experiential, providing you with an opportunity to develop your skills by participating in role-play simulations and integrating your experiences with the principles presented in the lectures, course discussions, and assigned readings.

Students may not take both Negotiations and the Negotiations Accelerated (NEGOX) minicourse course for credit.
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Optimization Modeling for Prescriptive Analytics (OMPA)
Operations and Management Science
Faculty:
James Siderius
Subject Areas:
Operations and Management Science
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
This mini course expands on the core Analytics sequence through a deeper dive into the art of modeling, centered around essential tools in optimization. The goal of course is to move beyond predictive analytics and build richer prescriptive models for optimizing business operations in a wide range of contexts. We will focus on modeling decision problems so they can be stated simply, solved efficiently, and, most importantly, translated into clear managerial insights.

Every class will be entirely “hands on,” with an emphasis on active problem solving and case-based learning. Each of the first three weeks will center on a core optimization technique, with the first session devoted to modeling skills and the second applying those skills to a data-driven case. We begin with linear programming, expanding from the types of problems introduced in core Analytics to richer models of strategic planning and control. From there, we turn to optimization with logical and binary constraints, emphasizing applications like investment planning, ride-hailing services, and compute scheduling. We then conclude with non-linear models and heuristic solution methods, which allow us to analyze problems in revenue management, election analytics, and system design. Throughout, we will balance classical management settings with contemporary challenges. Cases and examples will draw from diverse areas such as cloud resource allocation, prescriptive policing, data mining, personalized advertising, and product design in consumer markets.

The final three sessions shift from theory to practice, bringing optimization to life through real-world cases led by industry experts and the instructor. Each class will feature a guest speaker who shares their perspective on designing and implementing optimization in high-stakes settings, highlighting both the opportunities and pitfalls of operationalizing these methods. Students will be expected to actively engage, applying the modeling tools and analytical skills developed in the first three weeks to interpret, challenge, and extend the insights raised in these practitioner-led discussions. By the end of the course, students will not only have deepened their command of optimization modeling, but will also have built the skill to communicate the insights of their models in ways that influence managerial action.
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Policy, Politics, and Business (PPB)
Economics
Faculty:
Charles J Wheelan
Subject Areas:
Economics
Course Type:
Full-Term Elective
This course will probe the boundaries between the public and private sectors and serve as an anchor class for students involved in the Center for Business, Government, and Society. The goal is to deepen students’ understanding of markets and explore how and why public policy creates institutions that support a robust private sector.

The class will explain why many contemporary public policy problems cannot be addressed by the private sector alone. At the same time, we will discuss how private firms can play a more creative and robust role in addressing social challenges. One throughline of the course will be an exploration of the interplay between business, policy, and politics. Much of the focus will be on the American system, though the concepts are broadly applicable and students will be urged to apply lessons to other countries.

All policy discussions in the class will be filtered through a political economy lens: Why does our political system produce the outcomes that it does? And what factors make a substantively attractive policy more or less politically viable. A handful of guests will share their experiences at the intersection of policy and politics.
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Pricing Strategy and Analytics (PSA)
Marketing
Faculty:
Samuel Engel
Subject Areas:
Marketing
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
In this course, we will study pricing strategies and approaches to achieve profitability, including questions such as: How do I measure what my product should be worth to customers? Should I invest in product improvements or advertising to raise prices? How can I expand into price-sensitive markets without diluting existing high-value sales? How do I avoid a price war?

We will build a toolkit of analytical methods to manage pricing decisions in B2B and B2C environments. You will learn how to: 1.) Estimate and apply relevant costs for pricing decisions; 2.) Measure, structure and communicate value for customers; and 3.) Assess and manage competitor behavior in a way that supports stable and profitable industry pricing. The tools are intended for use by marketing managers in the field, addressing realistic business pressures, such as discounts by front-line salespeople and gaps in information about true market selling prices.

During the course, you will practice through casework, exercises and simulations in a wide range industries, including manufacturing, SAAS, automotive, travel and consumer goods. Examples touch markets and cultures in the US and overseas, immersing you in the environment of the pricing manager. This course is valuable to anyone who will be directly or indirectly involved in pricing decisions; it will be especially relevant for those who intend to work in general management, marketing, and consulting.
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Product Management in Technology (PM)
Marketing
Faculty:
Jamie M Alders
Subject Areas:
Marketing
Course Type:
Full-Term Mini
A Product Manager is obsessed with the problem their product tries to solve and works to both define the product’s functional requirements and lead cross-functional teams to develop, launch, and improve their product over time. Taught by a product executive with experience in both hardware and software Product Management at Bose and a venture-backed technology startup, this minicourse aims to provide an introduction to Product Management in Tech and exposes students to key product development and growth strategies so they can build, optimize, and scale products following graduation.
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Quantitative Investing with Python (QIP)
Finance
Faculty:
Juhani T Linnainmaa
Subject Areas:
Finance
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
The purpose of this course is to provide an introduction to quantitative investing using Python. Although no prior knowledge of Python is required, some familiarity (or comfort) with coding may be useful. We will work with Jupyter notebooks that you can run and edit. Even if you have never coded in Python, you can execute the code, see what happens, and modify the code to understand what the code does. The assignments are modifications and extensions of the code used in lectures, that is, they do not require you to code up from scratch anything you do not see in the classroom notebooks.
Quantitative investing
in the context of this course means making systematic investment decisions informed by data. That is, there is little or no room for subjective judgments. We will introduce the basic Python libraries (e.g., NumPy, Pandas, scikit-learn, and statsmodels) that we need for acquiring and analyzing data and for completing financial computations such as creating trading strategies and evaluating returns. We start from constructing academic factors (such as value and momentum) and briefly discuss the principles of machine learning and the use (and the associated caveats) of ML techniques for predicting returns. The objective of the course is to give an overview of the methods used in quantitative investing.
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Quantitative Investing: Cryptocurrencies, Futures, and Options (QICFO)
Finance
Faculty:
Juhani T Linnainmaa
Subject Areas:
Finance
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
Derivatives markets are some of the largest in the world and an essential feature of the modern global financial system. The goal of this course is to understand how these markets function, what opportunities and risks they afford, and how derivatives and other instruments are used for risk management. The core material will cover how and why firms and investors trade derivatives, the pricing of derivatives using the concept of no-arbitrage

The applications part of the course focuses on cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies have emerged as a new asset class, with many large asset managers now recommending 1-5% allocations for diversification. Importantly, most institutional investors do not hold the assets directly, but rather gain exposure through ETFs, futures, or perpetual futures. This makes derivatives central to understanding how crypto markets function in practice. Stablecoins, which aim to maintain a fixed value, provide a clear, real-world example of the no-arbitrage principles that also underpin futures and options pricing.
This course significantly expands upon the futures and options material covered in the Capital Markets class. It gives the tools necessary to price a broad range of derivatives and understanding of the measurement of risks and hedging.
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Quantitative Private Equity (RTPQP)
Finance
Faculty:
Morten Sorensen
Subject Areas:
Finance
Course Type:
Research to Practice Seminar
The seminar covers recent academic studies of private equity investments, although the material applies broadly to other alternative assets organized in similar fund structures (e.g., venture capital, growth equity, mezzanine, infrastructure, private debt and real estate funds). The material is divided into two parts: The first part covers the relationship between private equity funds and their portfolio companies. This part covers topics such as the impact of private equity on corporate governance and operations as well as the consequences for employees and other stakeholders in the portfolio companies. The second part takes the perspective of the limited partners (LPs) that provide capital to private equity funds. Topics include the organization and economics of the private equity partnership, risk and return and performance evaluation of private equity funds, and portfolio considerations when allocating capital to private equity funds.

The course is technical. The material consists primarily of recent research papers, with a focus on the empirical and statistical analysis in these papers. There will not be much discussion of private equity deal structures and specific transactions. The material is mostly presented in student led presentations, which require substantial preparation and insight into the technical aspects of the papers. A substantial part of the course is two empirical projects where the students will do a statistical analysis of actual private equity data and present their findings to the class. Some familiarity with statistical software, such as R or Stata, is recommended, although it is also possible to do the analysis in Excel.
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Real Estate (RE)
Finance
Faculty:
Brian T Melzer
Subject Areas:
Finance
Course Type:
Full-Term Elective
This course provides an overview of the real estate industry and the basic analytic techniques used for investing in this $20 trillion asset class. Students will take a hands-on approach, building a practical knowledge of real estate through case studies, and class discussions. The study of multi-faceted real estate projects allows students to: 1) enhance their understanding of valuation, financing and portfolio management; and 2) analyze a broader set of management problems, such as how to recognize and describe value creation opportunities, how to evaluate and manage risk, how to structure partnerships and business contracts, and how to use real estate optimally within an operating business. A highlight of the course is the opportunity to interact with industry leaders and learn about the latest techniques and trends in the industry.
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Small Buyouts - Private Equity Practicum (PRPEP)
Finance
Faculty:
Nicholas S Russell
Subject Areas:
Finance
Course Type:
Practicum
Small Buyouts Private Equity Practicum (“PEP”) will engage Tuck students in a hands-on learning experience to develop their private markets investment fluency, pattern recognition and investment judgement applied in the real-world context of small and middle market buyout acquisitions and investment thesis development.

The learning objective of the class is to enhance the students’ effectiveness in the private investment industry, whether that future involvement comes through becoming an investor, becoming a manager of a private institutionally owned business, buying a small business as an investor or operator, or as one of the many other participants (consultants, bankers, lenders, etc.) in the industry, through relevant, actionable, “real-world” exposure to the small company buyout underwriting process.

The class is delivered through two curricular elements: a) the Deal Review Lab: the review, preparation, presentation and group discussion/evaluation of a series of current and/or recent, real small market buyout opportunity “cases” led by students and facilitated by the instructor to simulate a private equity buyout investment committee setting and b) the Investment Thesis: individual student research into an industry sub-segment or other theme to develop and deliver components of a potentially actionable private equity investment targeting thesis.
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Strategy in Innovation Ecosystems (RTPSE)
Strategy
Faculty:
Ron Adner
Subject Areas:
Strategy
Course Type:
Research to Practice Seminar
Entrepreneurship and Innovation Strategy (EIS) or Ecosystem Strategy (ES) is a prerequisite for this RTP. No exceptions.
In this seminar we will continue to develop the theme of ecosystems that we covered in ES, and explore whether and how strategy making needs to change when value creation requires multiple participants to interact.

The course itself will be an exercise in joint value creation (with all the risks that that entails). The session formats will vary. Some sessions will be devoted to discussing academic articles. Others will focus on deep-dive analyses of selected topics and contexts. Depending on student interest and speaker availability, we may also engage with external visitors (think of these more as interviews than presentations).

A subset of topics to be covered includes:
• Changes in industry structure
• Changes in the competitive landscape
• Approaches to technological change
• Managing internal and external collaborations
• Implications for corporate leadership

The course structure is subject to real time adaptation and will respond to opportunities and interests that arise.

Student deep dive projects will be the focus of the closing session.
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Structure, Organization and Economics of the Healthcare Industry (SOE)
Health Care
Faculty:
Paul B Gardent
Michael Zubkoff
Subject Areas:
Health Care
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
At almost 20% of the US economy health care represents the largest and most dynamic industry in the US. It plays a key role in many sectors of the economy. By introducing the structure, organization, and financing of health care in relationship to business and the economy, this course provides students with a fundamental understanding of the health care industry and critical issues in health care today. SOE will provide an industry-wide view from the differing perspectives within the health care value chain, including providers, suppliers, payers, and consumers, and examine the market dynamics among these players. It will include an international health comparison. The course will be presented through cases, lectures, invited presentations, and in-session discussion.

This course is appropriate for students who are contemplating careers in companies serving the health care industry such as consulting, private equity, or banking, or who have an interest in careers in health care (pharma, medical devices, biotech, or health delivery), or who just have an interest in understanding the health care industry.
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Technology-Enabled Disruption in Health Care Delivery (SP016)
Health Care
Faculty:
Reena L Pande, Liam S Donohue,
Lindsey J Leininger
Subject Areas:
Health Care
Course Type:
Sprint Course
The $4 trillion US health care system is in the early stages of changing from a system that focuses on caring for people when they get sick to a system that endeavors to keep people healthy. Along this long arc of disruption, there will be enormous opportunities for entrepreneurial, technology-enabled (“digital health”) companies to be built. These companies will be founded and led by people from inside and outside the health care industry and will create a once-in-a-lifetime career and wealth creation opportunity for executives who pursue the right opportunities.

This course will provide students with 1) a high-level understanding of how changing incentive systems and technology are forever altering the US health care system; (2) where the best opportunities are likely to be found, and 3) insights about evaluating professional opportunities in the sector, referred to as “opportunity narrowing” in investing circles.

At the conclusion of this course, we hope that each student will be able to describe the emerging dynamics of the rapidly changing health care system and the leading role that technology is playing in the industry’s transformation.
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The Global Battle Over Regulating Digital Business (SP021)
Other
Faculty:
Andrew N Vorkink
Subject Areas:
Economics
Course Type:
Sprint Course
This Tuck Sprint course will examine how governments, increasingly aggressively, have adopted and applied regulations over digital activities of companies operating across international borders and how businesses can comply with a rapidly changing business environment. The course objective is to focus on the three main areas of growing regulatory activity – digital content, data and customer privacy, and anticompetitive behavior in digital markets. This is a highly dynamic and shifting area where governments, particularly the US and the EU, but also Brazil, China, India and Indonesia, are in effect playing regulatory catch-up over digital businesses including social media which have expanded in recent years in what has largely been an unregulated environment. The course will examine the differences among governments on policies and rules, what managers need to know about such differences and how management can comply with conflicting rules. Understanding the risks of non-compliance is critical for companies in the digital marketplace to safely operate internationally, for managers to make sound decisions and to avoid business-altering decisions by government and judicial authorities.
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Women, Gender and Leadership in the New Workplace (WGLNW)
Organizational Behavior
Faculty:
Stacy D Blake-Beard
Subject Areas:
Organizational Behavior, Ethics and Social Responsibility
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
Over the past decades, women have steadily moved into higher levels of management and leadership where they now occupy key positions in the public and private sectors and have established themselves as a force in most workplaces. However, there are still challenges that they are facing. The work place experiences of women are informed by societal expectations that are deeply ingrained in how we show up – gender norms. In this course, we will focus on how gender norms have impacted women’s careers, as well as the ways that gender norms affect work, leadership, and professional success in general. We will delve into issues that are commonly included in discussions on women, gender, and leadership (i.e. work-life balance, networking, and bias). We will expand to more recent dimensions of the new workplace (i.e. the influence of technology, the different career experiences of women across the globe). Through the course, we will have a forum to identify, at interpersonal and organizational levels, the challenges that women have faced—and the strategies they have utilized—on their career path. We will also diagnose gender and power dynamics in the workplace and evaluate alterative reactions/responses to enhance individual and group effectiveness. With each of the topics, you will be encouraged to think of your role as leaders and how you can use those competencies to create and/or contribute to workplaces that are sensitive to the importance of gender equity.

This course meets the Ethics & Social Responsibility (ESR) requirement.
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AI and Consultative Decision-Making (SP019)
Other
Faculty:
Scott D Anthony
Subject Areas:
Other
Course Type:
Sprint Course
Decisions. Scholars suggest individuals make 2,000 a day. Large organizations make exponentially more. Many of these decisions are low stakes, straightforward, day-to-day decisions that are safely made automatically. Some are high stakes, complex, once-in-a generation decisions. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos calls these Type 1 decisions, which he defines as “consequential and irreversible” decisions that “must be made methodically, carefully, slowly, with great deliberation and consultation.” Should we acquire our biggest rival? How much should we invest in an uncertain project? What is our return-to-office approach?

Significant research shows that a range of individual (e.g., narrative effect, uncertainty bias, loss aversion) and collective biases (e.g., planning fallacy, groupthink, hierarchy effect) inhibit the ability of organizations to handle these decisions well. It is no surprise, then, that organizations will often bring in consultants to help with Type 1 challenges. At their best, the unbiased, outside view provided by consultants helps clients to make good decisions. At their worst, consultants add their own biases to the mix and/or succumb to political dynamics, making the decision-making process even worse.

Today, consultants have a new tool—generative AI (GenAI) using large language models (LLMs)—to help their clients make effective decisions. GenAI is an emergent technology, whose use has the potential to radically reshape the decision-support industry. This sprint course will be a hands-on laboratory that blends the best thinking about decision-making and experiential activities to give students a robust set of tools to use generative AI to help the organizations they advise to make good decisions.
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AI for Managers (AIM)
Marketing
Faculty:
Dean P Alderucci
Subject Areas:
Marketing
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
In this minicourse, students will learn about a wide range of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Large Language Model (LLM) techniques and how they can be applied to the challenges and opportunities that firms face. AI is delivering impressive results across a growing number of industries and business functions, including marketing, strategy, operations, and finance. A firm’s competitive advantages increasingly rely on its ability to make superior decisions using AI technologies. This in turn requires managers to become conversant with a growing number of AI capabilities in order to assess and oversee the opportunities that AI provides.

This course provides broad exposure to how AI is used for different business tasks: marketing, product strategy, revenue management, operations, etc. We take the viewpoint of a manager or consultant who must understand and offer advice on a wide range of AI topics relevant to a variety of business needs. The course also describes the pitfalls and challenges firms face when attempting to introduce or scale AI technologies.

Basic programming experience is required. You should be able to understand simple programs and you should be comfortable writing simple programs in a language such as R or Python. If you have taken the Quantitative Digital Marketing course, you will have the comfort level needed.
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AI for the C-Suite: AI Adoption and Utilization (AIC)
Marketing
Faculty:
Dean P Alderucci
Subject Areas:
Marketing
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
CEOs and their consultants are confronting the critical moment of how best to adopt and utilize Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies. The correct approach to firm-wide AI utilization can offer significant competitive advantages and substantial returns. However, missteps in strategy or implementation can expose the firm to wasted opportunities, resource misallocation, reputational damage, and legal liabilities. Firms globally face the challenge of navigating this complex new AI landscape without the benefit of extensive experience and best practices. Many CEOs are hesitant to embrace a firm-wide AI strategy; their firms have not yet developed a consistent approach to AI adoption or decided how to integrate AI into the firm’s business model. This course will provide a framework and guidance for making these decisions.

Firms of the future are anticipated to have AI embedded throughout their divisions and functions, rather than isolated to the IT function. This mini course introduces students to the key issues and frameworks involved in enabling a firm to fully utilize AI’s potential. Most course content will take the perspective of top decision makers and their strategic consultants who must establish organization-wide processes. This perspective arms students with the insights and solutions that executives and consultants need to guide firms through their AI transformation.

This course is informed by the work performed by the heads of artificial intelligence at top consulting firms and by the instructor’s work on AI adoption in firms and government. AI experts will provide guest lectures to discuss with students the strategies that enable firms to thrive in the AI-powered workplace of the future.

Specific course objectives include:
Understanding the latest academic theory and practice on AI adoption in firms, particularly on executive decisions and the development of firm-wide policies and strategies.
Understanding what distinguishes AI transformation from other technology transformations.
Learning how to identify and overcome the common organizational impediments to adopting AI, scaling AI across the firm, and harnessing AI as an element of the firm’s business strategy.
Understanding and managing firm-wide AI issues such as workforce adjustments, AI governance, legal and ethical concerns, product development, and performance metrics.
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Advanced Management Communication (AMC)
Communication
Faculty:
Julie B Lang
Courtney H Pierson
Subject Areas:
Communication
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
As part of the Core at Tuck, Management Communication (ManComm) was designed to provide Tuck students with immediately applicable skills for professional communication. For students seeking to deepen their communication skills, Advanced Management Communication (AMC) expands beyond ManComm, shifting from a passive audience to an active one. In this minicourse, we’ll ask you to not only anticipate audience needs, but to actively manage questions from them. You’ll practice leading a dynamic discussion to reach a common set of objectives: soliciting audience input, asking for and answering questions and managing dissent. Similar to ManComm, we’ll follow the same prepare – present – reflect pedagogy and in-class time will be dedicated to presentations and feedback.

Post-Tuck, you’ll regularly be engaged in discussions rather than pure presentations. AMC is designed to give you more agility in working with each unique situation you face.
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Brand Strategy (BSTRT)
Marketing
Faculty:
Andres Cuneo Zuniga
Subject Areas:
Marketing
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
Developing and managing intangible assets has become one of the main sources of differentiation that firms use to compete. Among all intangible assets, the brand is considered one of the most important ones. Specifically, for companies, the brand represents a way to build differentiation, drive loyalty, and leverage growth. For consumers, the brand is a link with which to establish relationships and, more interestingly, to express their identity.

However, creating, developing, and managing brands to reach their full potential is more difficult than ever. Firms are facing a complex environment where differentiation is hard to build, products and services tend to be commoditized, product lifecycles are getting shorter every day, and consumers are not only more heterogenous, mobile, and well connected, but also skeptical about brands, and even about some marketing practices.

Digital technologies have opened a world of opportunities for brands, especially start-ups, but also have empowered consumers when evaluating, choosing, and recommending brands. Interestingly, consumers are being actively involved in co-creating brand meaning. Brand Managers today are not only required to design branding concepts and interact with consumers in significantly new ways, but also to deliver promises that are
relevant, credible, and consistent across geographies.

During this 5 week- mini elective we will discuss the core elements of brand strategy. We will pay special attention to the role of brands and brand managers in the new competitive and social context. Core learnings will focus on how brand strategy can be defined, crafted, developed, and managed in ways that create value for today’s consumers and firms. While the main focus of the course is strategic, we will also discuss how brand strategy speaks to execution.
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Building and Managing Growth-Stage Ventures (BMGSV)
Entrepreneurship
Faculty:
Peter J Levine
Subject Areas:
Entrepreneurship
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
This course is designed for students aspiring to lead technology startups as executives or CEOs, or to contribute to venture capital firms driving innovation. It offers a comprehensive, hands-on exploration of the critical milestones new ventures face following a successful Series A fundraising round. Students will gain the strategic, operational, and leadership skills necessary to navigate the complex journey from early growth to a successful exit, whether through an IPO, acquisition, or other pathways.
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Business Applications of Natural Language Processing (NLP)
Marketing
Faculty:
Dean P Alderucci
Subject Areas:
Marketing
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
Natural language processing (NLP) is the field of artificial intelligence that allows computers to understand human languages such as English. NLP has made astonishing strides in the past decade, and is increasingly used by businesses to extract and understand useful information from large amounts of unstructured text, found in sources such as customer correspondence, online product reviews, Twitter feeds, social media posts, press releases, SEC filings, news feeds, contract repositories, web pages, and organization document caches. NLP techniques allow businesses to gain insights into customers, competitors, and industries.

In this minicourse, students will gain knowledge of state-of-the-art NLP techniques, including large language models and associated tools. The course also describes how to apply those techniques to a range of marketing and other business problems. Students will become able to critically read the NLP literature, converse with NLP experts, and understand what new NLP capabilities are expected in the future. Students will also develop custom NLP software tools to solve concrete business problems, and will retain these tools to use after the course ends.

Basic programming experience is required. You should be able to understand simple programs and you should be comfortable writing simple programs in a language such as R or Python. If you have taken the Quantitative Digital Marketing course in the Winter term, you will have the comfort level needed. If not, resources will be made available for you to get to that comfort level.
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Business and Climate Change (BCC)
Ethics and Social Responsibility
Faculty:
Charlie Donovan
Subject Areas:
Ethics and Social Responsibility
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
This mini-course aims to help prepare aspiring leaders to navigate the business implications of climate change. Given the need to mobilize trillions of dollars of new investment from the private sector to avoid the most severe consequences of man-made global warming, we will seek to understand corporate climate action through the lens of investing. Tuck students will gain grounding in emerging tools for identifying, quantifying, and managing climate-related financial risks. Over the term, we will critically examine notable examples of firms seeking to capitalize on new investment opportunities and analyze how global capital markets are adapting to associated shifts in technology, government policy, and consumer preferences. The overall objective of the course is to provide managers with a solid grounding in the expected future consequences of climate change and help them get ahead of the curve in spotting strategic and financial implications in critical countries, sectors, and industries.

This course meets the Ethics & Social Responsibility (ESR) requirement.
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Communicating with Presence (CWP)
Communication
Faculty:
James G Rice
Subject Areas:
Communication
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
Theater is heightened communication. Since the beginning of human culture, theater as an art form has been a crucial element in intellectual, emotional, and spiritual cultures worldwide. Theater communicates great ideas and inspires action. The actor is the instrument through which the message of the play is communicated. Therefore, it is the actor’s communication skills—developed through arduous training in use of the voice, body and expressive language—that determine whether the message of the play actually reaches and affects the audience. The task of the actor is to be present, and with that unique ability, to capture the heart, mind, ears and eyes of the audience through galvanizing communication. The leader whose responsibility it is to persuade, inspire and motivate must possess similar abilities. The difference between the two pursuits is that actors dedicate themselves to the acquisition of those skills; leaders all too often do not have that opportunity.

To ensure managers and firms do not leave money on the table when making decisions, we provide the quantitative tools to rigorously derive economic fundamentals from market data, such as measuring true marginal costs on the supply side, estimating demand elasticities on the demand side, and accounting for the interactions of substitution and complementarity across a firm’s multi-product portfolio.

The course is split into two sections. The first section (Foundations of Market Power) takes a price-theoretical approach to managerial decisions, where we hold competitors actions fixed to focus on the main tradeoffs managers face when exercising market power in order to maximize profits. Core topics include demand and supply fundamentals, equilibrium and market power, optimal pricing, demand estimation, differentiation, multi-product pricing, price discrimination, and merger analysis. The second section (Game Theory) extends these tools to a game-theoretical approach, where managers' actions depend on their competitors' actions, and vice versa. Topics include collusion, algorithmic pricing, entry deterrence, killer/serial acquisitions, and platform competition.
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Consumer Insights (CI)
Marketing
Faculty:
Elizabeth A Keenan
Subject Areas:
Marketing
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
Consumer Insights (CI) focuses on developing a deep understanding of consumers. Understanding consumers, from what choices they will make in given situations to how to influence those choices, is a key component of business success. It is not enough to just develop great products or services. Marketers must also incorporate strategies that account for the biases and tendencies that affect consumers’ decision making. Acquiring CI allows companies to more deeply understand how and why consumers purchase the goods and services that they do so they can tailor their business approaches.

This course will expand upon some of the concepts covered in the core Marketing course, however, it will do so by taking a deep and decidedly psychological look at consumers and their behavior. Class sessions will be guided by following three questions to provide a comprehensive structure for learning about consumer insights:
1) Who are consumers?
2) How do consumers make decisions?
3) How do we influence consumers?

Within this structure, we will focus on both the internal (i.e., psychological) and external (i.e., social, cultural, environmental, situational) factors that influence consumer behavior and will examine consumer behavior insights generated by behavioral economics, cognitive science and social psychology. By using consumer psychology as a foundation and increasing familiarity with analytical and research tools used by marketers, students in this course will be able to predict what consumers might be expected to do versus what they will do in a variety of marketing settings. This course will involve a combination of case discussions, in-class exercises and assignments that will move students beyond using personal intuition about consumer behavior and equip them with concepts and tools to uncover, interpret, and apply consumer insights to drive strategic decision-making.
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Contemporary Issues in Biotechnology (CIB)
Health Care
Faculty:
Kirsten H Detrick
Subject Areas:
Health Care
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
In this course, students will explore biotechnology fundamentals, examining the strategic, operational, legal, scientific, and ethical drivers of this complex industry. We'll discuss how biotech leaders' decisions, influenced by science, market dynamics, governments, and global health challenges impact patient care and business strategy. This course emphasizes commercialization, manufacturing, marketing, and finance challenges in both start-up and corporate biotech contexts.
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Corporate Responsibility (CRSP)
Ethics and Social Responsibility
Faculty:
Paul A Argenti
Subject Areas:
Ethics and Social Responsibility
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
This minicourse starts with the premise that corporate social responsibility is good for business and focuses on how leaders can balance the needs of their organizations with responsibilities to key constituencies. Through cases focusing on the social, reputational, and environmental consequences of corporate activities, students will learn how to make difficult choices, promote responsible behavior within their organizations, and understand the role personal values play in developing effective leadership skills.

This course meets the Ethics & Social Responsibility (ESR) requirement.
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Corporate Valuation (CV)
Finance
Faculty:
Anant K Sundaram
Subject Areas:
Finance
Course Type:
Full-Term Elective
The goal of this course is to enable you to answer the question, "what is a real asset worth"? You will define, derive, and estimate cash flows, cost of capital, and continuing values to establish intrinsic values for projects, divisions, and firms domestically and across borders using well-known and widely-used valuation methods. In addition to discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis, you will examine alternative approaches such as real options valuation and relative valuation. The course will explore valuation approaches in such career-relevant settings as mature cash flow businesses, IPOs of rapidly-growing businesses, subscription revenue-based business models, LBOs, mergers & acquisitions (M&A), and project financing. We will also explore the links between corporate valuation and corporate financial decisions regarding capital structure, corporate performance evaluation, exchange rates, and country risk. The course will use a mixture of lectures, cases, projects, and guest speakers.
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Cost and Control (CNC)
Accounting
Faculty:
Joseph J Gerakos
Subject Areas:
Accounting
Course Type:
Full-Term Elective
This course focuses on the internal use of accounting information as opposed to the preparation and evaluation of financial statements for outside users. Internal uses of accounting information include decision making and the design and implementation of management control systems. The course framework is based on the concept of opportunity cost. The course's targeted audience includes students intending to become management consultants, financial analysts, entrepreneurs, brand managers, line managers, and non-profit managers. Topics covered include breakeven analysis, keep versus replace decisions, inventory accounting, overhead allocation, activity based costing, the opportunity cost of excess capacity, working capital management, performance evaluation, and internal controls.

Students cannot take both Cost and Control (CNC) and Managerial Accounting (MA), or Cost and Control (CNC) and Managerial Accounting Mini (MAM) for credit.
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Crisis Management (SP010)
Communication
Faculty:
Amy E Florentino
Subject Areas:
Communication
Course Type:
Sprint Course
During an emergency, the demand on an organization’s management team is tremendous. Crises and disaster situations require you to be high functioning despite time constraints, stress, inadequate information, and the requirement to complete vital tasks far beyond normal day-to-day duties. In a world that is increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA); traditional planning and strategic decision making may no longer be effective on its own. This sprint course draws on frameworks developed for use in both the public and private sector and will help students build skills needed to thrive instead of survive during a crisis.
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Data, Models, and Decisions (DMD)
Operations and Management Science
Faculty:
Raghav Singal
Subject Areas:
Operations and Management Science
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
DMD builds on the core Analytics courses and explores a mix of advanced analytics topics. Each class is centered around a practical data-driven case. In addition to discussing a new application, each case introduces one or two new analytics tools. The overall course philosophy is “data, models, and decisions,” where models cover both predictive and prescriptive aspects of analytics. The primary software is Excel, and our focus is to build data-driven models for the purposes of (1) extracting business insights and (2) developing some fundamental understanding behind such models. Analytics tools used in the course include logistic regression, optimization, Monte Carlo simulation, and data visualization. Applications include revenue management of an auto lender's portfolio, managing readmissions to a hospital, workforce scheduling for a ride-hailing service, insurance management in aviation, and portfolio optimization for fantasy sports. The intended audience focuses on MBA students who wish to deepen their knowledge of analytics tools and their applications in business contexts, with a particular emphasis on data-driven decision-making to address complex business challenges. While Excel is the main platform for implementation, we will optionally explore how to build these models using tools such as R and ChatGPT, particularly for students interested in extending their skills beyond spreadsheets.
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Digital and Social Media Marketing (DSMM)
Marketing
Faculty:
Lauren Sheila Grewal
Subject Areas:
Marketing
Course Type:
Full-Term Elective
Digital platforms, particularly various forms of social media, continue to dramatically change how business is done. These changes are pervasive and extend beyond changing how companies communicate with customers and how employees communicate with each other. For example, digital/social platforms have a role to play in how marketers generate demand for products, how product development teams create new innovations, how customer service is carried out, how risks are assessed, and how companies learn about competitors and market trends.

Digital/social platforms present firms with enormous opportunities for creating and enhancing value for both themselves and customers. How these technologies can – and should – be used for strategic value-generating purposes, however, is not straightforward. This course grapples with this challenge, with the primary aim being to help students understand how to unlock the value in digital/social platforms across a variety of business contexts and for several markedly different marketing-related purposes. Thus, students should leave the course knowing the basics of digital marketing jargon and with the underlying knowledge to become proficient in digital marketing. Within this course, students will learn how to developing appropriate digital marketing strategies, additionally understanding the tools necessary to analyze and guide strategy (e.g., current and future AI). An ancillary goal of this course is to gain practical experience in fielding digital marketing campaigns.
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ESG Investment Practicum (PRESG)
Finance
Faculty:
William C Martin
Jose R Lecuona Torras
Subject Areas:
Finance
Course Type:
Practicum
Please note: While 1.5 credits are earned in the spring term, this practicum spans the full academic year. Enrollment is selected based on an application process; students may apply in the spring of their first year.
This practicum was developed to ‘formalize’ academic work around Tuck’s ESG Fund (TESGF). This is a co-curricular activity that provides students with a hands-on experience in managing and executing real world ESG-oriented investments, by exposing students to incorporating non-financial factors related to ESG into investment analysis. Student Directors of the fund are responsible for developing the Fund’s investment thesis, evaluating investment opportunities, presenting proposals to committee, executing investments, and actively managing the fund’s existing portfolio.
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Field Studies in Venture Capital (FSVC)
Finance
Faculty:
James M P Feuille
Subject Areas:
Finance
Course Type:
Full-Term Elective
This course is designed to provide a practitioner’s perspective on the challenges and opportunities of venture capital investing in private, entrepreneurial companies (or for entrepreneurs seeking such investment). While there is no substitute for hands-on investing experience, the course is designed to introduce you to venture capital best-practice frameworks and the challenges of applying them using real world examples. The first portion of the course will focus on evaluating and structuring early-stage investments, using a combination of case discussion, classroom exercises, and “live” deals. The remainder of the course will feature guest speakers, case discussions and readings that expose students to venture capital practitioners and the practical challenges they encounter, including working with portfolio companies and boards post-investment through to the exit. Throughout the term, the course will emphasize active discussion and experiential learning. Note that the readings and situations discussed in class will focus on venture capital investing, but many of the concepts covered are also generally relevant to private equity investing in private companies. Field Studies in Venture Capital (FSVC) is required for any first year students desiring to apply for and participate in the Early Stage Venture Capital Workshop Practicum (PRVCW) during their second year Fall or Winter terms as the PRVCW will pick up where FSVC leaves off.
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Growth Economics (GE)
Economics
Faculty:
Han Ping Davin Chor
Subject Areas:
Economics
Course Type:
Full-Term Elective
In this elective course, we study the phenomenon of economic growth. In the past half-century, the world has witnessed remarkable shifts in the economic fortunes (and misfortunes) of countries. While Western Europe and North America have maintained high standards of living, their pace of growth has slowed and even stalled. On the other hand, we have witnessed the growth miracles of the East Asian tigers and the rise to prominence of the BRICS emerging economies. Even still, many developing countries remain seemingly stuck at low levels of income per capita.

We will take a deep dive in this class to explore the fundamental drivers of countries’ growth performance over the medium- to long-term. A solid understanding of these drivers of growth is invaluable. For policy makers and the consultants they hire, this will inform the recommendations that they make over strategies to promote growth. For the managers of firms, a keen appreciation of these forces can be vital for identifying opportunities and navigating business decisions.

The course will adopt a two-pronged approach. On one level, we will pursue the economic theories that seek to explain differences in growth outcomes across countries, and explore the empirical evidence marshaled for or against these theories. At the same time, we will ground our discussion in the real world through selected country case studies. These will draw out the relevance of the theories and speak to their more practical implications.
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Health Care Economics and Policy (HCEP)
Economics
Faculty:
Charles J Wheelan
Lindsey J Leininger
Subject Areas:
Health Care, Economics
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
Health Care Economics and Policy is meant to be a foundational course that introduces the key economic concepts necessary to understand why health care is different than other goods and services in the economy: asymmetry of information; consumption shocks; risk pooling; moral hazard; behavioral economics; and so on.

The course will explore how different health systems, in the U.S. and around the world, attempt to manage these unique challenges. It will probe the tradeoffs associated with different systems and explore innovations in health care delivery. The class will enumerate the various stakeholders involved in American health care and explore options for reform.
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Housing (HOUSE)
Finance
Faculty:
Brian T Melzer
Subject Areas:
Finance
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
Households allocate nearly one-quarter of their assets to owner-occupied housing and spend more on housing services than on any other expenditure category. Over the last decade, housing transactions have been the focus of many innovative firms that use technology to transform old ways of doing business. This course examines the housing market from occupants’, investors’, entrepreneurs’ and policymakers’ perspectives. The course is divided into four modules. The first module explores the economics of owning vs. renting, asset valuation and supply-demand dynamics. The second module focuses on the housing search process, with a particular emphasis on fintech innovations that disintermediate real estate brokerage. The third module delves into home financing decisions. The fourth and final module studies investments in rental housing, including vacation and other short-term rentals facilitated by person-to-person rental platforms.
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Human Behavior in Operations Management (RTPHB)
Operations and Management Science
Faculty:
Michelle A Kinch
Subject Areas:
Operations and Management Science
Course Type:
Research to Practice Seminar
Operations management is an academic discipline that studies the design, management and improvement of the business processes governing both the transformation of raw materials into finished goods and services - and the delivery of those goods and services to customers. In OM, we aim for both efficiency (minimal waste of resources) and effectiveness (meeting customer requirements). Although people have always been a critical component of any operating system, historically, the field has focused on manufacturing environments. Like other traditionally quantitative, model-driven fields that have come to adopt behavioral perspectives, such as economics and finance, the study of behavioral operations has developed in the last 20 years.

Today, with the service sector accounting for 76% of GDP and 85% of employment, understanding the myriad ways that human psychology and behavior affects the efficiency and effectiveness of operating systems is more important than ever before. In this course, we will review papers that use experimental methods to investigate a topic in operations management. We will discuss the operational challenge, why understanding human behaviors are important to the efficiency or effectiveness goals, how the researchers approached the study and how business leaders might incorporate the research findings into managerial practice. In addition, students will have the opportunity to consider ways that they might design and test their own theories through experimentation in their future managerial practice.
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Implementing Strategy (IMPST)
Strategy
Faculty:
Vijay Govindarajan
Subject Areas:
Strategy
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
The central focus of this course is strategy implementation. The importance of the subject matter covered in this course is captured in the widely accepted “truism” that over 90 percent of businesses founder on the rocks of implementation. However laudable strategic intentions may be, if they do not become a reality, they usually are not worth the paper on which they are written. Conversely, high-performing companies excel at execution. This course is about “contemporary execution models”: How to innovate in areas such as organization structure, incentive systems, decision-making autonomy, talent acquisition, and so on. We’ll especially focus on the management models that are pre-requisite for success in the digital era.
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International Strategy (INTST)
Strategy
Faculty:
Thomas C Lawton
Subject Areas:
Strategy
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
International strategy shares many of the same principles and practices as corporate strategy. But we need to recognize that there are fundamental points of divergence. When a company’s activities and interests’ cross national borders, disruption, volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity, and diversity (D-VUCAD) increase exponentially. Managers and leaders can struggle to make balanced and informed strategic choices as they encounter new stakeholders and multifarious issues and influences. As companies internationalize, management encounter factors that introduce new strategic tradeoffs and fresh strategic choices. The three overarching factors[1] are heterogeneity across markets (countries are fundamentally different), the scale and complexity of global operations (you need to comprehend and manage a lot more), and the unpredictability of economic and political conditions between countries (the volatility of geopolitics and exogenous global events). Each factor has profound implications, both for the type of competitive advantage or scope economy that justifies geographical expansion, and for critical decisions concerning how the company is configured and positioned to compete internationally. The crux of this elective is to understand how to proactively develop and deliver foreign market entry strategies that effectively anticipate and respond to these overarching influences.
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Introduction to Family Enterprise (SP025)
Other
Faculty:
Val Hollingsworth,
Jose R Lecuona Torras
Subject Areas:
Other
Course Type:
Sprint Course
This course is designed to help students gain a deeper understanding of the unique challenges associated with leading, owning, or working with family businesses. Why do some family enterprises thrive across generations while others struggle or fail? How do certain families maintain both the health of their organizations and their family relationships over time? We will explore these questions and key principles that contribute to the long-term competitive advantage of family enterprises.

For students whose families own a business, we will delve into the career considerations and decision-making processes involved in joining the family enterprise, whether as an employee, board member, or steward of the family legacy. For those whose families do not own a business but who are pursuing careers that involve significant interactions with family enterprises—such as in consulting, investment banking, or private equity—we will explore key topics that will enhance their understanding and ability to effectively work with family businesses, equipping them with the tools to navigate the unique dynamics of these organizations.
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Investing in Early Stage Social Ventures (PRTSV)
Finance
Faculty:
Jose R Lecuona Torras
Subject Areas:
Finance
Course Type:
Practicum
Please note: While 1.5 credits are earned in the spring term, this practicum spans the full academic year. Enrollment is selected based on an application process; students may apply in the spring of their first year.
This practicum provides students with technical and applied knowledge to assess the potential of early-stage ventures with social impact. More specifically, this practicum helps students:

• Understand the complexities and tradeoffs faced by ventures that pursue a ‘double bottom-line’: economic profits and social impact.
• Understand the complexity of defining and measuring intentional social impact.
• Understand the motives of different stakeholders around social ventures, such as investors and entrepreneurs.
• Manage complex relationships and communication demands with such stakeholders.
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Leadership Development: Self-Awareness, Skills and Strategies (LDSAS)
Organizational Behavior
Faculty:
Pino G Audia
Subject Areas:
Organizational Behavior
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
This course will help you develop an action plan on how to elevate your leadership effectiveness in the short term. We will focus on developing a customized action plan that you will implement either during your summer internship or in the first six months of your job after Tuck. We will rely on the evaluations of people who have had extensive interactions with you - prior coworkers and/or Tuck students and staff who know you well – to help your form more accurate assessments of how you lead. The 360 tool we use is the Inventory of Leadership Styles (ILS). ILS is generally regarded as the tool appropriate for people leading teams, business units, and up to C-level positions. In formulating the action plan, you will learn about skills and strategies to maximize your chances of achieving personal change. Students will discuss cases and will take part in structured role-play exercises that identify effective behavioral approaches to leading others. In addition, to create an environment conducive to learning and personal growth, we will use peer coaching for the analysis of 360-degree feedback and for action planning.
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Leadership Out of the Box (LOB)
Organizational Behavior
Faculty:
Ella L Bell
Subject Areas:
Organizational Behavior
Course Type:
Full-Term Elective
Exceeding performance expectations is not enough in today's business climate if an executive is to succeed. Executives must find ways for developing their employees in order to get the very best productivity. Wise leaders recognize that people are a source of corporate wealth. A potent leader co-creates with his or her people to push the company ahead of the competition. But before a leader can assume this role and responsibility, they must be willing to engage in their own developmental journey. In this course, we take leadership out of the box by studying the lives of extraordinary leaders while engaging in our own self-exploration. Our intent is to appreciate the strengths and frailties all leaders possess, and to understand the learning edges we all experience. This course creates the space to study, reflect on and discuss principles of leadership, such as self-awareness, identity, faith, vision, courage, passion, mindfulness, and commitment. By studying the lives of others, we learn how the context shapes the experiences and choices of leaders over the course of their lives. We also recognize the power of the historical moment that enables certain men and women to come to the forefront at critical times.
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Management of Healthcare Organizations (MHCO)
Health Care
Faculty:
Paul B Gardent
Subject Areas:
Health Care
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
This minicourse provides students with knowledge and understanding of key leadership and strategic challenges within health services organizations. It covers important functions of health services management, including strategy, finance, and operations and introduces students to leadership issues in performance improvement, change management, organizational leadership and strategic alliances. Class sessions will include health executives who will share their leadership experiences and learnings.

This course is focused on the health services sector of the health industry. It will be relevant to those interested in health services leadership and management, and will be particularly valuable to anyone who will be working in companies serving health care service organizations including consulting, banking, and medical products. Some basic knowledge of the healthcare industry will be helpful. Contact Professor Gardent with questions relating to the course and course topics.
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Managerial Writing (SP022)
Communication
Faculty:
Paul A Argenti
Subject Areas:
Communication
Course Type:
Sprint Course
This sprint seeks to expand and improve your understanding of how to write for a business audience. Unfortunately, most of you learned to write in an English class of some sort where the climax typically happens in Act 3. In business, we start with the idea that “the butler did it, here is why.” During the course, students will learn how to write more effectively in a business setting by focusing on composing efficiently, by using macrowriting (including document design and transitions) techniques, and microwriting (including brevity, style, and a bit of grammar) techniques.
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Managers and the Law (ML)
Other
Faculty:
Jeffrey R Howard
Subject Areas:
Other
Course Type:
Full-Term Elective
This course is designed to help students manage legal risk and take advantage of the business opportunities that law provides. The course will introduce students to areas of law that directly affect business operations such as contract, agency, torts, employment, intellectual property, corporate governance, and securities. Students will undertake in-depth analysis of select legal problems that regularly challenge business leaders such as trade secret protection, insider trading, and compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The class has a hands-on, interactive atmosphere, and several topics are led by distinguished speakers who have attained top positions in their fields and acquired extensive specialized knowledge and experience.
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Managing for Social Impact (MSI)
Ethics and Social Responsibility
Faculty:
Robert A Searle
Subject Areas:
Ethics and Social Responsibility
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
Twenty years ago, few people except social scientists evaluating the results of large-scale development programs talked about social impact. Google the term now, and millions of hits pop up—an explosion of interest that is both promising and problematic.

On the one hand, its currency attests to the growing number of organizations and individuals who recognize—and want to help remedy—the enormous social, economic, and environmental problems facing our planet. On the other hand, it’s hard to know what the term actually means other than doing something good for society.

If social impact were simply a buzzword this sort of broad generalization wouldn’t matter. But social impact is a real phenomenon. And while there are undoubtedly people who’ve seized on the term simply because it’s the new-new thing, most of those who are talking about it do so with genuinely good intentions. The problem, in the words of inventor Thomas A. Edison, is that “a good intention, with a bad approach, often leads to poor results.”

MSI’s overarching goal is to help you appreciate what it takes to turn good intentions into good results for society. To this end, the class will require you to consider a number of fundamental questions, including:
What is social impact?
Who defines it?
What role do various sectors – private, public, nonprofit – play in delivering social impact?
What are the challenges and tradeoffs of managing for it?
How can it be measured and assessed?
What behaviors promote impact, and which subvert it?
What are the implications for how I/my organization operate in the world?

These questions are particularly pointed for the charitable nonprofits, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and philanthropic foundations that constitute the nonprofit (or social) sector. Why? Because these are the only organizations that exist solely for the purpose of bettering society. If they are unable to deliver on the statement of purpose (or mission) that is their reason for being, it doesn’t matter how big, or well-known, or well-intentioned they are: they have failed. So, using them as a primary lens for discussing these questions allows us to explore the challenges of managing for social impact in their most demanding form.

That said, every organization has a social impact (as does every individual), even if its decision makers choose not to acknowledge that, let alone manage for it. This is why we will also use our time together to consider where questions of social impact might appear in the context of business decisions or government policies, and what some of the key trade-offs in these contexts might involve. You will also have time and space to develop your own perspective on social impact and to reflect on how it might affect your decisions and choices going forward. Guests who have wrestled with these issues themselves will share their experiences and lessons learned, as will your professor.

As MBAs. your skills will be in high demand. MSI will be useful whether you decide to apply them professionally or privately. This course will be particularly relevant if you are currently serving on the board of a nonprofit or NGO or plan on joining one hereafter.

This course meets the Ethics & Social Responsibility (ESR) requirement.
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Negotiations (NEGO)
Organizational Behavior
Faculty:
Aram Mourad Donigian
Subject Areas:
Organizational Behavior
Course Type:
Full-Term Elective
Negotiation is the art and science of securing agreements between two or more interdependent parties. This course focuses on the theory and processes of negotiation as it is practiced in a variety of settings. It is designed to complement the technical and diagnostic skills learned in other Tuck courses. A basic premise of the course is that while wise, decisive leaders need strong analytical skills to better the world through business, negotiation skills are essential for today’s business leader to ensure adoption and implementation of proposals. This course will highlight the components of an effective negotiation and teach you to analyze your own behavior in negotiations. The course will be largely experiential, providing you with an opportunity to develop your skills by participating in role-play simulations and integrating your experiences with the principles presented in the lectures, course discussions, and assigned readings.

There are three key elements to this Sprint that are both interesting and unique.

The Sprint will examine specific questions like:
● What niche strategies are more effective under which circumstances in the wine industry?
● What are the primary sources of value creation in the wine business?
● How is the wine industry similar, or different, to other cultural industries, like fashion, art, and entertainment?
● How is the market for wine changing and how are producers responding given that their product cannot quickly respond to market shifts in real time?
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Personal Financial Decision-Making (SP035)
Finance
Faculty:
Felipe Severino
Subject Areas:
Finance
Course Type:
Sprint Course
This sprint introduces personal financial decision-making through the analytical lens of household finance. The organizing framework is a household balance sheet view, embedded in a life-cycle model of consumption, saving, borrowing, portfolio choice, and insurance. Students will evaluate major decisions - including debt use, precautionary saving, investing, housing, retirement, and insurance - as interrelated capital-allocation and risk-management problems under uncertainty. The goal is to help students build a coherent decision rule for managing resources over time rather than treating financial choices as isolated transactions.
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Power and Influence (PWINF)
Organizational Behavior
Faculty:
Pino G Audia
Subject Areas:
Organizational Behavior
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
The purpose of this elective is to give students a head start on building the power skills essential for a successful career. Managers who do not understand political dynamics in their organization will often fail, regardless of the quality of their initiatives. Indeed, many human resource professionals and talent officers inside companies say that power and influence issues are important causes of career derailment. Effective managers therefore need to be able to correctly diagnose the political landscape of the organizations in which they work and to develop and manage their own power.

This course is designed so that students will learn concepts useful for understanding power and ways of analyzing power dynamics in organizations. Even more importantly, the course encourages students to think about and develop their own personal path to power. In addition to case discussions and role-plays, students will learn about how power concepts apply to their personal development through self-reflections and sharing of experiences with other students attending the course.

After taking this course, students will be able to: (1) diagnose the distribution of power in organizations, (2) identify strategies for building sources of power, (3) develop techniques for influencing others, (4) understand the role of power in building cooperation and leading change in organizations, and (5) identify the particular approach to power and influence that represents the strongest fit for them.
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Prototyping with AI: From Idea to Demo in Days (SP034)
Entrepreneurship
Faculty:
Laura A Ridlehoover
Subject Areas:
Entrepreneurship, Marketing
Course Type:
Sprint Course
This two-session sprint course explores how AI is transforming the practice of prototyping. In today’s innovation environment, business leaders must validate ideas quickly, cheaply, and persuasively in order to stay competitive and operate at the velocity customers expect. While prototyping is not new, AI-enabled tools fundamentally shift the speed, accessibility, and fidelity of what can be created by non-technical leaders, freeing up technical capacity and accelerating the overall product development process.

The course builds foundational knowledge of prototyping as a leadership and alignment tool, then demonstrates how generative AI (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude, Midjourney) and AI-enabled no-code platforms (e.g., Lovable, Replit, Figma, Bolt) allow leaders to create working demos in days. Students will emerge with skills to:
• Lead teams through ideation and prototyping under accelerated timelines.
• Gain comfort getting hands on with new tools and embodying the role of “builder”
• Understand the strategic and ethical implications of AI-generated prototypes.
• Communicate and pitch ideas through demo-driven storytelling vs. static PowerPoint decks or narrative documents.

This course demystifies how to “speak AI” with engineers, and offers students a unique opportunity to get hands-on with current tools they are likely to be expected to use in many future workplaces. The course equips students with skills they can use immediately in internships. The course complements existing Tuck offerings in Design Thinking, Innovation, and Product Management by focusing specifically on AI as the new prototyping medium. It is recommended that students take the “Creating Winning New Products and Services” course and/or the “Product Management” course at Tuck prior to taking this course. The course “AI and Consultative Decision-Making will have some overlapping content with this course, so students may not want to take both.
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Spirituality, Values, and Leadership (SP033)
Other
Faculty:
Devin P. Singh
Subject Areas:
Other
Course Type:
Sprint Course
This course invites students to step back from the external demands of performance and consider
the inner life of leadership
. Drawing on ancient and contemporary wisdom traditions, modern research in values-based and ethical leadership, and embodied reflective practice, the course explores how spirituality and values shape meaning, moral decision-making, and organizational culture. Participants will engage in guided reflection, mindfulness, and group dialogue to examine the relationship of spirituality to leadership and management, clarify their values, examine the negotiation of personal and organizational commitments, and expand their vision of leadership for the common good. The course creates space for stillness, introspection, and authentic conversation, with attention to purpose and moral imagination.
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Startup Strategizing (START)
Strategy
Faculty:
Hart E Posen
Subject Areas:
Entrepreneurship, Strategy
Course Type:
Full-Term Elective
Do you want to be an entrepreneur—now or later in your career? Are you planning to work at a startup, interested in venture capital, or simply aiming to become a better strategist? If any of these apply, this course is for you. It picks up where Core Strategy leaves off by developing an approach to strategy tailored to startups, a setting defined by extreme uncertainty and tight resource constraints.

When most people think about startups, they focus on the market opportunity, the customer, and the product. But a product is not a strategy, and a great opportunity is necessary but not sufficient. Startups fail when founders misdiagnose the core obstacle that prevents a promising idea from becoming a viable business.

The course is organized around a single unifying idea—the Problem of Value (PoV)—which focuses attention on that core obstacle. It pushes beyond “getting the product right” to examine how startups create a meaningful wedge between revenues and costs, become profitable, and endure competition. In each class, you step into the role of an entrepreneur and confront a central strategic question: What is the most important solvable problem I must address right now to make this venture succeed?

Cases span multiple industries and stages of development, highlighting strategic challenges that apply well beyond startup contexts.
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Strategic Leadership (SLEAD)
Strategy
Faculty:
Sydney Finkelstein
Subject Areas:
Strategy
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
This minicourse focuses on senior executives and how they choose to run their organizations. That means the good stuff they do, and the not so good. How CEOs, boards, and other top managers make decisions, guide strategy, and even get their jobs in the first place are all core topics in the minicourse. Course topics include: executive selection and succession, executive leadership, top management team composition and dynamics, and board-management relations. Though the course will be helpful for students who wish to strengthen their managerial talents, it is more focused on improving students’ ability to diagnose, critically evaluate, and enhance executive capabilities in organizations.
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Strategy in Emerging Markets (SEM)
Strategy
Faculty:
Jose R Lecuona Torras
Subject Areas:
Strategy
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
Why take a course on strategy in emerging markets if you’ve already taken core strategy?
Consider Rodrigo and Ramon: identical twins who took the same core strategy course at a top U.S. business school. Rodrigo went on to found a company in a highly developed market and still praises the course as brilliant. Ramon became an entrepreneur in an emerging market and is convinced his strategy course was written for a different planet.

We will travel the world, studying companies in large emerging markets such as Brazil and India, as well as in countries that are currently drawing significant attention, like Venezuela. We will also examine emerging markets that serve as regional beachheads, such as Kenya, Uruguay, and the UAE. We will spend time on China, an economy that has clearly emerged in many ways, yet remains emerging in others. Finally, you will see that emerging markets are not confined to national borders: they also exist within highly developed economies like the U.S., as illustrated by our case on Miami, Florida.

Emerging markets break many of the assumptions embedded in core strategy frameworks. Institutions and the rule of law are often weak, so contracts between firms, buyers, and suppliers cannot always be taken for granted. Macroeconomic conditions are more volatile, turning prices and costs into moving targets. And a large share of economic activity takes place in the informal sector, where transactions are shaped more by relationships than market-based bargaining. In short, the relatively frictionless world assumed by core strategy often does not exist in emerging markets.

Strategists in emerging markets also face a distinct set of problems when it comes to creating value. They must contend with income constraints:
what can you do when customers are willing to pay but lack the capacity to do so?
They must navigate productivity constraints:
what happens when suppliers are willing to sell but are not productive enough? And they must address missing complements: how do you move forward when essential partners want to work with you but face severe capability limitations?
The first part of the course is theoretical: it extends core strategy frameworks to account for the defining features of emerging markets. The second part is applied, using real-world cases to introduce you to the strategists who are pushing the frontier and creating real impact in these contexts. In that sense, this course is for the Ramons of Tuck, those operating in worlds that the core strategy class barely acknowledges, and who are interested in the space where theory meets practice.
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Structuring Mergers and Acquisitions (SMA)
Finance
Faculty:
Robert G Hedlund
Subject Areas:
Finance
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
This is a minicourse on corporate mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Students will develop the skills necessary to structure a deal or form an opinion about a proposed transaction. Topics include value creation in mergers; choice of payment method; valuation of contingent payments; deal protection devices; incentive effects of deal financing; merger arbitrage; bidding strategies; hostile takeovers; and defensive tactics. We also touch on key elements of the legal and regulatory framework for takeovers, such as filing requirements, fiduciary duties of the target board of directors, and antitrust regulation. The course relies primarily on case analysis, providing ample opportunity to perform merger analysis and practice various corporate valuation techniques.
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Supply Chain Management (SCHM)
Operations and Management Science
Faculty:
Lauren Xiaoyuan Lu
Subject Areas:
Operations and Management Science
Course Type:
Full-Term Elective
A supply chain is comprised of all parties involved, directly or indirectly, in fulfilling a customer demand. The integrated management of this network is a critical determinant of success in today’s competitive environment. Companies like Amazon, Inditex, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, Lenovo, and Walmart are proof that excellence in supply chain management is a must for financial strength and industry leadership.

With increasing competition around the globe, supply chain management is both a challenge and an opportunity for companies. Hence a strong understanding of supply chain management concepts and the ability to recommend improvements should be in the toolbox of all managers. The objective of this course is to introduce you to the key concepts and techniques that will allow you to analyze, manage and improve supply chain processes for different industries and markets. At completion of this course, you will have the skills to assess supply chain performance and make recommendations to increase supply chain competitiveness.

The course covers a wide range of supply chain topics including supply chain network design, inventory management, strategic sourcing, supply chain contracting, and supply chain disruptions. Each topic will be discussed using a combination of models, case discussions, and readings. We will use a data-driven approach where tools and analysis start with realistic data.
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Sustainability and Marketing (SUSMK)
Ethics and Social Responsibility
Faculty:
Bryan K Bollinger
Subject Areas:
Ethics and Social Responsibility, Marketing
Course Type:
Full-Term Elective
The global economic system in 20th century had operated on a throughput take-make-waste model. As economic growth stretches global resources, however, consumers are becoming more and more conscious of the importance of sustainability practices.”

Marketing has a vital and unique role to play in creating a more sustainable society as most of consumers’ material needs and many of our psychological needs are met through marketing systems. Sustainable Marketing is the process of creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers in such a way that both environment and human capital are preserved or enhanced throughout.

This course aims to provide a broad range of tools and frameworks for understanding how business can interact with issues related to sustainability, taking a marketing perspective. In particular, we examine how traditional marketing strategies can be incorporated into and/or modified in domains in which sustainability is critical. We will also examine how sustainability can serve to augment, but not replace, the firm’s value proposition. By necessity, it will be essential to not only account for the role of firms and customers, but of government, non-profit organizations, employees, and other stakeholders.

This course will draw upon cases, guest speakers, academic and industry research, and recent articles and events. The final course deliverable will be a marketing plan focused on a firm strategy that can increase the sustainability of the firm’s actions while also creating stakeholder value.
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The Art Market (SP023)
Other
Faculty:
Chad Elias
Subject Areas:
Other
Course Type:
Sprint Course
This Sprint course analyzes the commercial, social, and legal mechanisms of the global art market, encompassing auction houses, private galleries, art fairs, and art advisors. We study how commercial value is produced and negotiated in these spheres, exploring the processes through which artworks are priced, authenticated, and marketed. Through case studies, critical readings, and guest speakers, the course examines key factors influencing the art market, including historical precedents, cultural trends, and the role of collectors, institutions, and investors. Special attention is given to the intersections of art, law, and business, addressing issues such as provenance, copyright, contracts, tax considerations, and the regulation of cross-border transactions.
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The First-Time Manager (SP024)
Organizational Behavior
Faculty:
Mark Anderegg
Subject Areas:
Other
Course Type:
Sprint Course
Nobody is born instinctively knowing how to manage people. Regardless of the first-time leader’s natural gifts or professional experiences, it is unreasonable to expect them to know what to do with their first direct report, much less their first team.

This sprint course is designed for the executive who is transitioning from an individual contributor role into a manager of people. The course is intended to provide those who find themselves at this once-in-a-career inflection point with practical tools and skills to gracefully climb the managerial learning curve.
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Understanding China's Economy (UCE)
Economics
Faculty:
Ming Li
Subject Areas:
Economics
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
This minicourse examines how China has grown into the second largest economy in the world, and the challenges and opportunities along the way. It delineates the complexity of contemporary China with respect to economic, technological, political, environmental, and social issues and how it influences corporations in a wide range of industries. Based on in-depth discussions of empirical studies and business cases, it aims to provide students with analytical frameworks to navigate in the China business environment and address the challenges and threats.

Topics include the roles of government and state-owned enterprises in the economy system and the implications for multinational corporations and entrepreneurial firms, the liberalization of the factor and output markets, the driving forces and the consequences of China’s technology advancement, the environmental degradation and unprecedented regulatory changes in recent years, the protection of intellectual property rights, culture factors embedded in business practices, and China-US economic tension.
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VBA Programming (VBAP)
Operations and Management Science
Faculty:
Robert A Burnham
Subject Areas:
Operations and Management Science
Course Type:
Half-Term Mini
This minicourse teaches the fundamentals of computer programming using MS Excel's macro language, Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), as the language of instruction. The course starts by teaching students to simplify and extend code generated by Excel's macro recorder, and then builds on that base toward developing applications that analyze information and enhance decision making. Special attention will be given to mastering good programming style and building a solid base to continue learning.
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Wicked Societal Challenges (WICKD)
Organizational Behavior
Faculty:
Ella L Bell
Subject Areas:
Organizational Behavior
Course Type:
Full-Term Mini
Much like the times when Dickens wrote of the French Revolution, today in America we live in a time where we are faced with great societal challenges and extreme contrasts and contradictions. These problems have new urgency. We have extreme poverty and extreme prosperity, leading to social injustice, environmental changes that are borne more heavily by some, human rights issues, bipartisan differences and the struggle against terrorism, to name just a few. As future leaders, you must not only understand such complex problems, but also be able to steer both your companies and communities through an ever changing and complicated landscape. They must understand the roots of wicked problems, the powerful ways their companies are impacted by these problems, and the ways their stakeholders are affected. For example, where individuals choose to work, where consumers choose to spend their money, and where investors choose to deploy their capital illustrate the interconnectedness between wicked challenges and every day organizational life.

In organizational studies, these issues are often described as complex, messy, grand challenges, or wicked problems. They are multifaceted, long term and deeply rooted in history, requiring systemic, multi-pronged, and interdisciplinary approaches to address effectively. I chose the word 'wicked' to describe this course because it reflects the harm these issues inflict on society and highlights their morally troubling nature. Wicked problems share several commonalities. First, there is an interconnectedness between these problems -- they do not stand alone. These issues cross borders, ethnicities, races, genders, historical periods, and organizational boundaries, thus impacting the well-being of humankind. Second, there are no easy fixes for resolving wicked problems. Such problems act as chameleons changing and evolving over time, taking on new characteristics while creating deeper obstacles. Indeed, when it comes to wicked problems, change is a slow and drawn-out process.

This course will focus on three wicked problems all centered here in the United States, including: (1) Social Injustice and Inequity; (2) Aging; and (3) Climate Change.
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Field Study in Business (FSB)
Experiential
Faculty:
Hanne P Larsen
William C Martin
Subject Areas:
Experiential
The purpose of this course is to provide students with an opportunity to integrate key learnings from Tuck’s core curriculum and their own personal experiences off campus. FSB trains students to reflect upon their time working with and observing others in order to continuously improve their personal leadership toolkit. As an experiential course, FSB requires students to spend time outside the classroom, engaging multiple senses, experiencing new environments, and reflecting deeply on those experiences.

Your success as a future leader will depend on your ability to continually improve and refine your leadership skills as you work with others to solve problems and achieve goals. This course is designed to help position you for that success.
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Independent Study
Independent studies give second-year Tuck students the opportunity to research an established field of management.
Research to Practice Seminars
In these small-scale seminars, Tuck students hone their critical-thinking skills and learn how new knowledge is created.
Global Insight Expeditions
Learn to navigate diverse business environments on an immersive faculty-led Global Insight Expedition.
Term Exchange
Second-year students spend a term abroad studying at a partner institution.
Required Curriculum
Core courses providing coverage of key functional areas and disciplines.
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