Field Course: Social Innovation Lab
Description
This course provides students an opportunity to address a social enterprise topic with the discipline of business tools and techniques. Students will work in teams, choosing among three types of projects: a) developing a business plan for your own social enterprise; b) solving a strategic problem for a client organization; c) analyzing and developing policy or strategy guidelines for an industry or a group of organizations/companies.
The course emphasizes learning by doing, supported by intensive faculty coaching and field work. A small number of formal class sessions will provide structure to the course, but with a focus on collaborative problem solving. Each student team will work primarily with one faculty member.
Examples of past projects include: advising on impact measurement for a global impact investor and a philanthropic foundation, identifying a sustainable revenue strategy for an educational organization, developing a national scaling strategy for an urban youth services organization, and exploring multiple business models for a startup social enterprise in healthcare.