MBA Experience

MBA Experience

Curriculum

Curriculum

Required Curriculum (1st Year) Cases

Environmental opportunities and challenges are embedded in most Required Curriculum courses so that all students understand the importance of the natural environment to their roles as managers and are equipped to make business decisions involving sustainability issues. Cases are set in a variety of industry contexts, including energy, agriculture, transportation, chemicals, and investment. Some of the environment-related cases recently taught (Fall 2022 and Spring 2023) in the required curriculum include:
Your First Year

Business, Government and the International Economy

Bangladesh: Into the Maelstrom

Key concepts: Climate Change, Adaptation, Climate Justice, Business and Government Relations

Germany, Europe, and Green Industrial Revolution

Singapore: "From Third World to First"

Thailand: Red Shirts, Yellow Shirts, and a Green Revolution

“A Win for the Planet”? The Return of Lula

Finance I

Project Helios: Harvesting the Sun

Key concepts: Return on Investment, Financial Management, Financial Planning, Solar Energy
Aware of the impact that modern society was having on the environment, Ashley Telkes had always tried to be cognizant of her own impact on the environment and to take reasonable steps to mitigate her own effects. Having already implemented a number of passive measures to minimize her “carbon footprint,” Telkes must now confront the bigger decision of whether or not to invest in solar panels to generate electricity for her home. Although pre-disposed to pursue environmentally friendly alternatives, the project entailed significant up-front expenses and Telkes could not afford to make a poor financial decision. Telkes must assess the financial merits of the project, as well as understand the regulatory and technological risks associated with going forward or choosing to delay.

Finance II

Tesla Solar City

Key concepts: M＆A; M＆A Valuation; Investing; Equities; Equity; Valuation; Mergers and Acquisitions; Auto Industry; Energy Industry; United States
In 2016, electric car manufacturer Tesla announced that it was making an offer to acquire solar panel manufacturer SolarCity in an all-stock offer worth $2.6 billion in Tesla stock. Tesla’s co-founder and CEO, Elon Musk, believed that the merger would generate significant cost and revenue synergies, based on his vision of the future of transportation, energy storage, and a “green” economy. However, most Wall Street analysts were highly skeptical of the deal, voicing concerns that the merger would burden Tesla with excessive debt and that Musk was using the deal to advance his personal interests (at the expense of public shareholders) and bail out Tesla. Concerns were raised over possible conflicts of interest, given that Musk owned over 20% of the stock, and sat on the board of directors of both companies. The viability of the merger was also questioned given that neither Tesla nor SolarCity had ever been profitable.

Financial Reporting and Control

Driving Decarbonization at BMW

Key concepts: Accounting, Environmental Analysis, Environmental Sustainability, Innovation, Strategy, Supply Chain Management
The case describes BMW's electrification and decarbonization strategy, and how the company measured carbon emissions throughout the life cycle of its vehicles and used tools like carbon abatement cost curves to evaluate decarbonization opportunities.

JetBlue: Relevant Sustainability Leadership

Key concepts: Core purpose, Environmental sustainability, Mission statement, Financial accounting, Innovation, Leadership, Change management, Metrics, Sustainability
In 2017, JetBlue, the airline founded on the mission to "bring humanity back to air travel", became one of the first companies to report performance according to the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) standards and was first among airlines to adopt the recommendations of the Task Force for Climate-related Financial Disclosures. Despite operating as a smaller player in an industry dominated by few legacy competitors, JetBlue saw themselves as a driver of industry progress. However, was JetBlue's leadership "relevant sustainability leadership"? Moreover, how could developing metrics and improved performance on material sustainability issues be used as an instrument for change management? JetBlue wanted to achieve best-in-class performance on SASB metrics, as they believed sustainability was more than simply a risk mitigation tool. Was it? If so, how could JetBlue receive credit from investors, and competitors, for their sustainability leadership?

Rio Tinto vs. the Securities and Exchange Commission

Key concepts: Business and Government Relations, Business Ethics, Corporate Governance

Leadership and Corporate Accountability

Battle for the Soul of Capitalism: Unilever and the Kraft Heinz Takeover Bid (A)

Key concepts: Decision Making, International Business, Mergers and Acquisitions, Value Creation
Under Polman's leadership, Unilever focused on long-term shareholder value accretion with a multi-stakeholder approach that emphasized global growth in revenues and earnings through deep penetration in rapidly growing emerging markets and creation of competitive advantage through sustainability. In Polman's eight years at the helm, Unilever had delivered a 190% return to its shareholders. The case presents Polman's dilemma: a takeover of Unilever by KHC/3G could erode the company's commitment to sustainability and a multi-stakeholder model, and the 18% premium of KHC/3G's offer undervalued Unilever and its long-term value creation strategy.

Engine No.1: An Impact Investing Firm Engages with ExxonMobil

Key concepts: Impact Investing; ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance

Patagonia: "Earth Is Now Our Only Shareholder"

Key concepts: Business and Society, Business Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility, Entrepreneurship, Leadership
Patagonia's change of ownership from a privately held company to a perpetual purpose trust and 501(c)(4) nonprofit in order to use the company's profit to fight the environmental crisis and be a model for future businesses.

TXU (A): Powering the Largest Leveraged Buyout in History

Key concepts: Corporate strategy
This case is designed to support a lively discussion about the relative merits of shareholder vs. stakeholder perspectives in the context of a company that provides a vital public service that has important environmental implications.

Strategy

Babban Gona: Great Farm

Key concepts: Agricultural Development, Strategy, Nigeria

Iberdrola: Leading the Energy Revolution

Tesla Motors in 2023: Competition Revs Up

What IKEA Do We Want?

Key concepts: Business models, Customer relationship management, Disruptive innovation, Mission statements, Marketing
In 2018, Swedish furniture maker IKEA was undergoing a significant transformation. Challenged by the rise of online shopping and changing consumer behavior, and mourning the death of its founder, the Company's top executives knew they had to step out of their comfort zones and embrace new strategic initiatives to stay relevant. But which initiatives, executed where, when and how, would enable IKEA to achieve its goals in a way that was profitable while creating an IKEA they would want to pass on to the next generation of co-workers and customers?

The Entrepreneurial Manager

Ofo

Key concepts: Infrastructure, Bicycles, Transportation, Ride Share
Dai Wei and his co-founders grew Beijing-based ofo from a school-based startup to a bike-share behemoth in a matter of months, topped an all-out market-share battle fueled with almost $1 billion in venture capital, provided 2 billion bicycle rides, soaked up the majority of the bike manufacturing capacity in all of China, and then, in July of 2017, hit pause. The proximate reason for halting their purchase of new bicycles was a supply imbalance: ofo had many more bikes on their way than they did the smart-locks that allowed their customers to unlock them with their cell-phones. But the breather would also give ofo's leaders a chance to re-assess their plans for the rest of the year. For how long, to what end, and at what cost, to wage their market-share battle with main rival, Mobike? How aggressively to pursue their international expansion and what adjustments, if any, to make from their model in dozens of Chinese cities? And what to do about the concerns from government officials that ofo's dockless bikes and those of dozens of competitors were creating hazards on city streets? Wei and four schoolmates at Peking University had launched ofo on their campus with 1000 bikes in fall 2015. Since then, they had deployed 6.5 million. The question now was how many more?

Technology and Operations Management

Indigo Agriculture: Harnessing Nature

Key concepts: Environmental Sustainability, Operations, Social Entrepreneurship, Distribution Channels, Product Development, Platforms, Climate Change, Supply Chain Management, Strategy, Green Business, Agriculture, Technology, Agribusiness
Indigo Agriculture used a digital-enabled research and development (R&D) process to launch its initial product, microbial coatings for agricultural seeds, which increase crop yields while reducing the need for fertilizers. In doing so, the company developed direct relationships with farmers, in contrast to typical agricultural supply chains that use intermediaries. The company then launched a marketplace platform to link growers directly to crop buyers, again disintermediating the market. Indigo Agriculture is now considering launching an initiative to incentivize farmers to engage in regenerative agricultural practices by setting up a carbon market that could pay them for sequestering carbon into their soils. If scaled globally, the idea could sequester as much as one trillion tons (a teraton) of carbon dioxide from the earth's atmosphere into agricultural soils, but pursing the idea has many risks.

Sian Flowers: Fresher by Sea?

The setting for this case is the Sian Flowers, a company headquartered in Kitengela, Kenya that exports roses to predominantly Europe. Because cut flowers have a limited shelf life and consumers want them to retain their appearance for as long as possible, Sian or its distributors used international air cargo to transport them to Amsterdam, where they were sold at auction or trucked to markets across Europe. The Covid-19 pandemic caused huge increases in the cost of shipping, so Sian launched experiments to ship roses by ocean using refrigerated containers. Chris Kulei, the Executive Director, was interested in not only the potential costs savings, but whether he could also market the reduced carbon footprint.

Elective Curriculum (2nd Year) Courses

In the Elective Curriculum, students may choose from a number of courses that explore the integration of environmental issues and management practices or that address broader issues of sustainable markets.

In their second year, students choose elective courses, many of which focus on or support the understanding of environmental issues as they relate to business. Here are the offerings for 2023-2024.

Your Second Year

Core Business & Environment Courses

Agribusiness (Fall 2023)

David Bell
The course will provide a survey of the global food and agribusiness system. The primary focus is on understanding the business model and practices of farmers, processors and traders in traditional agriculture, both grain and protein. The course includes discussion of topics like human nutrition, GMOs, climate change and industry efforts to improve sustainability. For the full listing, click here.

Cities, Structures, and Climate Shocks (Spring 2024)

John Macomber
This course prepares students to invest in, advise, or lead organizations in the context of increasing pressures of global urbanization, resource scarcity, and perils relating to climate change. The course takes a finance and real assets point of view focusing on houses, buildings, infrastructure, and cities as individuals, businesses, and global society make choices about who and what to protect. There are perils and also extensive opportunities in the analysis of situations and the deployment of tools, data science, and capital leading to success even in the face of these tensions. For the full listing, click here.

Energy (Fall 2023)

Dustin Tingley
This class is intended for students with a wide variety of interests, who are seeking a better understanding of the role of energy in business and society. It will examine the energy transition in a time of surging global energy demand and in the era of climate change. The course aims to drive an understanding of energy from both the supply side and demand side and will unlock smarter perspectives in other domains, such as finance, real estate, and technology that all rely on energy. Students will learn about new technologies and choices impacting their financing, development, and deployment. Students will appreciate the interplay between market, regulatory, and societal influences on firm opportunities and choices. For the full listing, click here.

Entrepreneurial Solutions to World Problems (Fall 2023)

William Sahlman
The world has a seemingly infinite supply of problems, from climate change to pandemics. The basic premise of this course is that entrepreneurs view problems as opportunities. If burning fossil fuels creates damaging greenhouse gases, then there are opportunities to find new, cleaner ways to produce energy or mitigate its negative impact. The course will focus on entrepreneurial efforts in healthcare, education, and the environment. For the full listing, click here.

Global Climate Change (Spring 2024)

Gunnar Trumbull
This course explores the causes and consequences of climate change for business and society. It evaluates the impact of climate change on geopolitics and the global economy. It addresses the stakes for firms confronting the challenges of climate change, and introduces the tools and concepts that firms and policymakers use to evaluate and address climate change. Students will explore the role of business in global decarbonization, and the challenges and opportunities this transition will create for society and for markets. For the full listing, click here.

IFC: Denmark and Netherlands; Decarbonization and Sustainable Production (January 2024)

Willy Shih & Mike Toffel
This EC Field Course offering a unique educational experience, where students will get to observe and interact with business leaders engaged in decarbonization including renewable energy production and storage, and sustainable production of industrial and consumer goods. For the full listing, click here.

IFC: India; Development While Decarbonizing: India’s Path to Net Zero (January 2024)

Vikram Gandhi
IFC India presents an opportunity for students to advance their knowledge of decarbonization and net zero in the context of a broader development agenda. The course will address and unpack the fundamentals of decarbonization, the science and impact of net zero, and the need and ways to build a sustainable future. Students will explore the balance of maintaining basic development goals, such as improving energy access and providing safe and quality transport services, water, food security, education, and healthcare —while prioritizing decarbonization and net zero initiatives. For the full listing, click here.

Purpose-Driven Marketing (Spring 2024)

Elizabeth A. Keenan
In the face of global challenges from widening inequality to a climate in crisis, it is becoming increasingly clear that many consumers want the values of brands they engage with to align with their own, and business is responding. What was once a niche differentiation strategy is now a nearly ubiquitous manifestation of Corporate Social Responsibility or CSR. However, it is no longer enough for a business to simply align its image, products, or services with a particular cause. Instead, businesses are expected to be purpose-driven, and committed to incorporating beliefs and causes into the core of their brands and supporting long-term initiatives for the sake of an equitable, sustainable and prosperous world. In return, purpose-driven businesses have been shown to experience faster growth and increased customer satisfaction. For the full listing, click here.

Reimagining Capitalism: Business and Big Problems (Fall 2023)

Ethan Rouen
Reimagining Capitalism (ReCap) examines the role that business does and can play in addressing big social and environmental challenges. Students will examine the forces that are leading Capitalism to evolve to address these challenges, how to overcome impediments that hamper businesses’ efforts to profitably address these challenges, the skills that managers, entrepreneurs, and investors rely on to balance impact and profit, and how to scale solutions that address societal and environmental issues. For the full listing, click here.

Risks, Opportunities, And Investments In The Era Of Climate Change (ROICC) (Fall 2023)

George Serafeim
The MBA course on "Risks, Opportunities, and Investments in an Era of Climate Change" offers a unique and comprehensive curriculum aimed at preparing the next generation of entrepreneurs, leaders, and investors to succeed in a rapidly changing economic landscape. This course is ideal for students who aspire to become entrepreneurs by starting their own company or joining a start-up that is driving innovation and solving challenges posed by climate change. Additionally, the course will benefit those who wish to lead or advise firms on transitioning their operations and business models to become more sustainable and innovative. Finally, the course will be beneficial to students seeking to understand the full spectrum of climate opportunities pursuing a career in venture capital, private equity, or public markets investing. For the full listing, click here.

Risks, Opportunities, and Investments in the Era of Climate Change (ROICC): Solutions Lab (By Application Only) (Spring 2024)

George Serafeim
This course is offered to students working actively on creating or joining a climate solutions start up or on a research project that could create a management tool or framework for climate solutions. Having attended the Risks, Opportunities, and Investments in the Era of Climate Change (ROICC) course in the fall term is a requirement for taking the Lab version of the course. Admission to the course is subject to approval by the instructor. For the full listing, click here.

Sustainable Investing (Spring 2024)

Shawn A. Cole & Vikram S. Gandhi
This is an investing/finance course, designed to build on skills introduced in the RC finance course, but with an emphasis on how and whether investors should incorporate what have traditionally been considered “non-financial” criteria in their decisions: for example, climate risk, environmental sustainability, minority representation on boards, and even the potential to create social good. This course will be differentiated from other excellent offerings at HBS by focusing on the intersection of investing/finance and key global challenges, guided for example by the Sustainable Development Goals, including climate, gender equality, and poverty reduction. For the full listing, click here.

Tough Tech Venture Labs (Spring 2024)

Jim Matheson & Joshua Lev Krieger
TTV Labs is a 3.0 credit field course in which students immerse in the strategic and commercialization challenges of real world, early-stage "tough tech" ventures. Tough tech ventures (TTVs) apply cutting-edge science and technology to tackle difficult and significant societal problems such as climate change, autonomous transportation, space exploration and next generation computing including AI/ML and quantum computing. For the full listing, click here.

Tough Tech Ventures (Spring 2024)

Joshua Lev Krieger & Jim Matheson
While tough technology has the potential to transform incumbent industries and tackle our most pressing societal issues, the tough tech ventures which design and deploy these solutions confront a number of challenges that are distinct from those faced by more mainstream startups. This course has been built from the ground up to dig deeply into these challenges and to provide impactful and actionable frameworks which build on all the tools learned so far at HBS to overcome them in order to drive impact at scale. For the full listing, click here.

Other Related Courses

5 Technologies that Will Change the World (Spring 2024)

Shikhar Ghosh
This seminar will examine 5 recently developed ‘godlike technologies’ that have passed commercial viability and are on- track to change the foundations of business and society by 2032. It will do so in the context of 2 trends that have the same disruptive potential – climate change and demographic shifts. By the end of the seminar students should have a basic understanding of how these technologies work, how fast they are evolving, how they interact with each other and how they intersect with the problems of climate change and demographic shifts. For the full listing, click here.

Business at the Base of the Pyramid (Spring 2024)

Michael Chu
The course examines the opportunities and the challenges of the base of the pyramid markets and seeks to identify the key factors behind commercial success and failure. How is technology and the digital age changing this space? And when businesses generate strong financial returns, does it come at the expense of social impact --- can business play a significant role in addressing social issues? When is an enterprise generating high social value or destroying it? In the process, the course delves into the intersection of business, government, and civil society. For the full listing, click here.

Capitalism and the State (CATS) (Fall 2023)

Debora L. Spar
Capitalism today is under attack, criticized from many quarters as being the source of societal ills that range from inequality and systemic racism to climate change and labor market disruption. The goal of CATS is both to examine these criticisms and, more importantly, to interrogate the deep and fundamental connections between the market structures of capitalism and the political structures of the states that seek to support and nourish this system. For the full listing, click here.

Challenges and Opportunities in the Restaurant Industry (Spring 2024)

Michael S. Kaufman & Andy Pforzheimer
We will run the gamut from planning for the first restaurant to scaling to leadership of multinational chains, and evaluate opportunities inherent in typical restaurant business models as well as those created by disruptive changes affecting and shaping the industry. We hope to engage not only with students interested in the restaurant industry, but also those interested in food and sustainability, applications of technology and, given the labor-intense characteristic of restaurants, the complex interaction of food and labor costs with consumer value. For the full listing, click here.

Corporate Governance and Boards of Directors (Spring 2024)

Lynn Paine
Throughout the course, we will explore differing conceptions of “good governance” and what they mean in practical terms for boards, executives and companies. We will consider, for instance, the implications of departures from the long-standing norm of “one-share, one-vote” as seen in many recent IPOs such as the Snap, Inc., offering. We will also examine contemporary debates about shareholder activism, board diversity, board leadership, executive compensation, environmental and social factors in governance, hostile takeovers, and the market for corporate control. For the full listing, click here.

Creating Value in Business and Government (HKS-HBS Joint Degree Seminar) (Fall 2023)

Herman B. "Dutch" Leonard
The course features a series of integrative modules on specific topics. In each of the modules, pairs of faculty members, one from HBS and one from HKS, teach as a team, bringing their distinctive perspectives and analytical approaches to bear on a specific subject area. These subject areas may be defined by: policy realms (for example, finance, tax, health, education, environment, or national defense); methods (for example, decision making under uncertainty, project evaluation, performance measurement, or negotiation); or other topics (for example, international trade, technological innovation, economic development, infrastructure, insurance, management styles and processes, or risk management). For the full listing, click here.

Data for Impact (Previously Measuring and Managing Social Impact) (Spring 2024)

Benjamin N. Roth & Natalia Rigol
Data for Impact (DFI) is intended to train students to become informed and discriminating consumers of evidence so as to enable the more effective management of impact. The course aims to develop data literacy even amongst managers who never plan to implement statistical analyses themselves. DFI will be of core interest to students with aspirations in social entrepreneurship, socially responsible business, nonprofits, government, impact investing, and effective philanthropy.. For the full listing, click here.

Entrepreneurial Finance (Spring 2024)

Shai Bernstein & Jim Matheson (Spring Q3); Raymond Kluender (Spring Q3 & Q4)
Entrepreneurial Finance is primarily designed for students who plan to get involved with a new venture at some point in their career -- as a founder, early employee, advisor or investor. However, the course is also appropriate for students interested in gaining a broader view of the financing landscape for young firms, going beyond the basics of venture capital and angel financing to look at venture debt, bank finance, corporate venture capital and receivables financing. For the full listing, click here.

Entrepreneurship and Global Capitalism (Fall 2023)

Geoffrey Jones
EGC is best seen as a journey, which grows in complexity and depth as students debate contested and sensitive topics. The course challenges students to think of business not in a vacuum, but in a rich context considering competitive landscapes, information asymmetries, conflicting interests, institutional and legal gaps, geopolitics, and cultural differences across countries. For the full listing, click here.

Institutions, Macroeconomics, and the Global Economy

Vincent Pons
Most of the cases and class discussions focus on the country level, although several cases look at specific sectors (e.g., the retail industry in Chile, or the startup sector in Israel) or particular policies (inflation targeting in Brazil), and others span multiple countries (Chinese investments in Africa, or climate change). For the full listing, click here.

Investment Management and Capital Markets (Fall 2023)

Luis Viceira & Emil Siriwardane
Investment Management and Capital Markets is suitable for all students interested in gaining a broad perspective on investing and the asset management business. This includes both those targeting careers in asset management and those interested in learning how to manage effectively their personal wealth, current and future. For the full listing, click here.

Market Perspectives (previously Financial Capitalism) (Fall 2023)

Robin Greenwood & Richard Ruback
This case-based course applies market perspectives to contemporary issues. The cases explore concrete situations that highlight the challenges and tradeoffs of decision-makers. Issues explored include: education, urban development, illegal drugs, rent control, housing, drug pricing, racial references, corporate political action, social media, sea level rise, employment of people with disabilities, and the like. For example, instead of discussing general environmental challenges, we focus on how a small island community deals with the impact of sea level rise and related concerns, highlighting costs, benefits, property rights and the complexity of decision-making. For the full listing, click here.

Power and Influence for Positive Impact (Fall 2023)

Julie Battilana
Designed for individuals at any stage of their career, this course is meant to debunk the fallacies that we have about power and to explore the fundamentals of power in interpersonal relationships, in organizations, and in society. In doing so, it will lift the veil on power, revealing to you what it really is, and how it works, ultimately unleashing your potential to build and use power to effect change at home, at work, and in society. It is meant for those who want to make things happen, despite the obstacles that might stand in your way. This course is also intended to prepare you to use power responsibly, resist its corruptive perils, and exercise it to make the world a better place. As such, it will equip you to leverage power and influence not for personal gain, but to challenge the status quo in order to address some of the most pressing social and environmental problems of our time, from fighting racism to reducing economic inequalities, saving the planet, and protecting democracy. For the full listing, click here.

Pricing Strategy: Monetizing and Growing the Business (Fall 2023)

Elie Ofek
The purpose of any business is to add some value, in some way, to someone outside of itself. However, the business cannot survive—let alone thrive—unless it is also able to monetize some of that value – in order to generate sufficient funds to pursue future innovations, repay and reward investors, or support social and environmental initiatives. For the full listing, click here.

Private Equity Finance (Fall 2023)

Victoria Ivashina & Ted Berk
This is an advanced corporate finance course focused on private equity (PE) investing. The course offers a deep dive into growth equity and buyouts, also touching on closely related investing strategies such as distress and private debt. Students will examine a wide variety of investment settings: from lower middle market companies to mega-cap, from the United States to emerging markets, from buy-and-build situations to turnarounds to mature businesses, from “home-run” deals to troubled investments. For the full listing, click here.

Real Property (Fall 2023)

TBD
This course is intended for any student serious about a career in managing, developing, or investing in real estate. Due to its rigor, it will be more than sufficient for those thinking about real estate as a hobby or for those considering real estate for limited personal investing. The final module discusses important emerging trends in the industry including novel asset classes, Fintech, globalization and opportunities in emerging markets, sustainability and infrastructure. For the full listing, click here.

Social Entrepreneurship and Systems Change (Fall 2023)

Brian Trelstad
This course looks at social entrepreneurship through the lens of traditional entrepreneurship, but asks how people motivated by disrupting entrenched and often inequitable systems differ from traditional entrepreneurs: from their mindset and character, to their capacity for systems thinking and empathetic product design, to how they navigate diverse sources of capital to build either for-profit, nonprofit, or hybrid organizations. The course also looks at how systems change requires entrepreneurs to think beyond their own organizations to collaborate within their field and to motivate collective action, and to combine direct impact with the indirect effects of changing culture and shaping policy. For the full listing, click here.

Solving Society's Complex Challenges Using a Systems Approach (Spring 2024)

Kash Rangan & Gerald Chertavian
Despite the promise and potential of individual social enterprises, the scale and complexity of the world’s problems is often beyond the capacity of a single organization. The SSCC course, therefore, attempts to address the problem from the lens of a system. From the billions around the world who lack access to safe drinking water, power, affordable healthcare, and secure housing, to the millions in the United States who are underemployed, food or housing insecure and lack access to adequate healthcare or equitable financial services, this course will attempt to elicit best practices and frameworks that address such complex problems. For the full listing, click here.

The Role of Government in Market Economies (Spring 2024)

Matthew Weinzierl
This course is about one question: What is the proper role of the government in the market economy? We study the role of government as it plays out in the real world, using vivid case studies from many countries, decades, and policy angles. At the same time, we align these cases with a rigorous theoretical framework that clarifies the circumstances under which government intervention in the market can improve outcomes. Policy areas addressed here include antitrust regulation, environmental protection, education, health care, and fiscal and monetary policy. For the full listing, click here.

Cross Registration

In order to tailor their academic experience, MBA students, during their second year, may cross-register for courses in other select graduate programs. Joint degree programs exist with the Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard Law School, and Harvard Medical School. You can use the EC Sustainability Classes Infographic to help decide.

Independent Projects

Many HBS students extend their learning beyond the classroom through faculty-supervised Independent Projects (IPs). IPs take many forms—for example, students have advised companies on their sustainability strategies, written business plans for environmental ventures they would like to launch, and co-authored teaching cases with faculty.

Current students can find details on registering for Independent Projects here (login required). IP registration must be completed by 8:30 am on the first Thursday of the relevant term and is not part of EC preregistration. Students planning for fall may want to connect with a potential faculty supervisor before leaving campus for the summer; those planning for spring IPs may want to plan their projects before leaving for winter break. It’s up to the student or student team to scope and find a faculty supervisor. A few recent projects are summarized below.

Mitigating the Municipal Waste Management Crisis in Emerging Markets: A Cost-Benefit-Analysis of Enhanced Waste Management Interventions

The objective of this project was to build a cost-benefit-analysis of converting substandard landfills in emerging markets to sanitary landfills and establish a more compelling business case for municipalities and other key stakeholders to make this shift.

Project ReGeneration — Power Plant Repurposing

There are over 130 coal-fired power plants in the United States that are already or soon-to-be retired. While some plants may be suitable for conversion to natural gas-based generation, the preponderance will need be remediated and redeveloped as public parks, multi-family residential housing, and office space. This independent project, sponsored by Professor John Macomber, explored the market opportunity, site selection criteria, unit economics, and related issues, with an eye toward potential investment strategies and business formation possibilities.

Encouraging Water Conservation Among Consumers of Personal Care Products

This IP helped a large consumer goods company develop a consumer-facing platform to encourage people to save water while showering. The student worked with an internal team to research key success factors in sustainable messaging and social marketing, survey existing domestic water conservation messaging, examine consumer attitudes towards water use and conservation, and benchmark other companies’ approaches to encouraging sustainable water use. The company used insights from this work to develop content for their platform and promotional messaging tied to some of its relevant products. The faculty supervisor of the project was Nien-he Hsieh.

Foreign Investment and Economic Development in the Manufacturing Sector in Lesotho

Lesotho, a tiny country in southern Africa, presents a fascinating case of the confluence of global value chains, foreign trade policies, market niches, and economic development. There has been disagreement as to whether foreign trade policies such as the U.S.’s Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) has resulted in real economic development in Lesotho or whether it is simply an artificial and temporary boon that will lead to an eminent bust. Since the development of the 2006 “The Market and the Mountain Kingdom” case on Lesotho, it is high time that someone went back to understand what has happened in the past ten years. What does the industry look like today? Has Lesotho managed to diversify? Has technology transfer and local ownership taken root? Has foreign investment led to sustainable development? The faculty supervisor for the project was Sophus Reinert.

Cocoa Bean Sustainability and Value Chain

Over the course of one year, the project examined the cocoa bean industry at a high-level to assess stakeholders and determine how macro trends are affecting the economics of cocoa. The student spent ten days in Ecuador with different cocoa farmers to assess the cocoa bean value chain at a local level. A final paper made recommendations to the Ecuadorian government in order to prevent the decay of their cocoa industry. The faculty supervisor for the project was Rebecca Henderson.

Electric Boiler in China

On Nov 8th 2015, as the winter heating season just began, Shenyang, China recorded a historical high of particulate matter air pollution. Emissions from coal-fired boilers in the winter season had been identified as one of the main contributors to these high pollution levels. This project shed light on how to reduce emissions by focusing on retrofitting existing coal-fired boiler facilities with pulverized coal-fired boilers and integrating wind power to provide for the heating needs of people during the winter. The faculty supervisor for this project was Joseph Lassiter.

WWF Commodities Financing Project

This project looked at the capital structures of firms that work producing at least one of the commodities targeted by the World Wildlife Fund. This involved examining the equity structure and holders, as well as identifying the lenders and debt-holders for these firms. The end goal was to use this information towards determining the role of the finance community in promoting sustainable mandates within target commodity firms.

Short Intensive Programs

Short Intensive Programs (SIPs) (login required) are courses that offer a great opportunity to think about career choices, gain practical skills, and explore topics you might otherwise never get to study. These short courses (3-4 day) are offered in January and there are often business & environment SIPs.

FIELD

HBS students have traditionally been immersed in a case-study method that has encouraged them to think like leaders. Field Immersion Experiences for Leadership Development (FIELD) gives students meaningful opportunities to act like leaders, translating their ideas into practice.

Many FIELD Global Immersion projects frame environmental problems as business opportunities. For example, students recently worked with a Chinese solid waste recovery and recycling company to develop a service to encourage customers to recycle their cell phones and other electronics. Other students helped a Chinese agribusiness identify opportunities to support smallholder walnut farmers and grow their business. Still others helped a Moroccan company that converts used cooking oil into a cleaner form of biodiesel to start collecting oil from the catering, restaurant, and food manufacturing sectors.

Initiatives focus on societal challenges that are too complex for any one discipline or industry to solve alone.