Entrepreneurial Strategy Course

Description

Every business can benefit from entrepreneurial strategy… Indeed, with the rapid advancements in technology and artificial intelligence (AI), entrepreneurial thinking is perhaps more important for the average person today than at any point in history.

This course offers a model for using the principles of entrepreneurship to grow and evolve. This is a course for business leaders and aspiring entrepreneurs looking for new and bigger opportunities in a changing world.

This course is a series of conversations between two accomplished entrepreneurs, Brian Hayden, co-founder of HeatSpring, and Bob Caspe, his mentor. Bob is a former professor in the MBA program at Babson College, and Brian is a professor of entrepreneurship at the University of Michigan.

Each lesson contains an actionable truth and is paired with a corresponding story. The true value of the course lies in the interaction we can all have with each other; Bob & Brian will participate on the course discussion board, and in monthly live Q&A sessions.

Bob has an amazing ability to get people ‘unstuck’ and anybody in the course that wants to have that experience will get it. Bob’s model for entrepreneurship optimizes for two things:

1. Have the most fun and learn and grow
2. Invest in relationships with people who you like working with

This course was built to help clean energy companies innovate more quickly, and to help more companies grow sustainably by applying entrepreneurial strategy and adapting to changes in the market with entrepreneurial solutions.

Learning Objectives for The Entrepreneurial Strategy Course

• See the world as a place full of opportunity to create and grow a business
• Maintain a focus on learning from customers and using their feedback to set priorities, and ignoring the well-meaning noise from others
• Develop an approach to business where you stay alive long enough to get lucky
• Understand how to separate activities that are important from activities that are not important

Instructors:

Bob Caspe: Currently, Bob offers consulting and educational services in the fields of innovation and entrepreneurship.

Formerly, Bob founded and served as the CEO of the IEC where he focused on entrepreneurship education and on bringing non-US technology companies into the US market.

Before that, Bob taught “Marketing for Entrepreneurs” at Babson’s MBA Graduate Entrepreneurship program and doing some consulting for small high-tech startups.

Bob has started 3 high-tech companies. The first was in the medical instrumentation business where his company built array processors and nuclear medicine systems. The second, Leaf Systems, Inc. was in the newspaper imaging business and also built one of the world’s first digital cameras for professional use. Bob’s third company was in the consumer imaging business where he sold a variety of digital cameras and accessories through retail channels and through infomercial direct marketing.

Bob has been exposed to a variety of B2B and B2C marketing channels. As well he understands how to source product in Asia, and is familiar with many of the issues that challenge small companies.

Brian Hayden: Co-founder and Partner at HeatSpring. Brian also teaches “Finding Your Venture” at the the University of Michigan’s Center for Entrepreneurship. Brian has business degrees from the University of Michigan (BBA) and Babson College (MBA). He loves renewable energy, entrepreneurship, and hearing and telling great stories.