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 (Spring and Fall 2024) in the required curriculum include:
Your First Year

Business, Government and the International Economy

Pakistan at 75: When Will the "Nazuk Mor" End?

Singapore: "From Third World to First"

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

Data Science for Managers

Arla Foods: Decarbonizing Dairy with Data

Arla implemented a data based price incentive systems to measure, track, and influence climate friendly changes to reduce CO2 emissions across the world's fourth largest dairy cooperative.

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.

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.

Harvard University and Urban Mining Industries: Decarbonizing the Supply Chain

The case describes Harvard University's consideration to decarbonize its supply chain by replacing cement with a low-carbon substitute called Pozzotive®.

Rio Tinto vs. the Securities and Exchange Commission

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

Leadership and Corporate Accountability

Aviva plc: Examining Net Zero

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

Invest or Build – or Steal? (A)

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.

Raya Partners: Profitability and Purpose

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.

The Role of ESG in Investment Strategy

Marketing

Aleph Farms: A New Culture of Meat

Aleph Farms, an Israeli food-tech start-up, was hoping to play a major role in disrupting the conventional meat sector. Compared to intensive agricultural practices, Aleph's cultured (or lab-grown) meat solution held the promise of considerably reducing greenhouse gas emissions, as well as the use of land and water, while providing a new source of food for a rapidly growing world population.

Strategy

Babban Gona: Great Farm

Key concepts: Agricultural Development, Strategy, Nigeria

Iberdrola: Leading the Energy Revolution

Tesla in 2024: Holding on to the EV Lead?

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?

Technology and Operations Management

Global Sourcing at Nike

This case explores the evolution of Nike's global product sourcing strategy, in particular ongoing efforts to improve working conditions at its suppliers' factories.

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.

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?

The Social Purpose of the Firm

Northvolt: Building Batteries to Fight Climate Change

In 2016, Swedish entrepreneurs Carl-Erik Lagercrantz and Peter Carlsson founded an electric battery company called Northvolt with the dual goals of creating a company to address climate change and bringing battery manufacture to Europe.

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 2024-2025.

Your Second Year

Core Business & Environment Courses

Cities, Structures, and Climate Shocks (Fall 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 2024)

Dustin Tingley
This course is about one of the largest industries in the world: energy. Not only will we cover energy sectors that have traditionally supplied economies across the globe, but we will also cover the energy transition needed to reduce climate change and its impacts. It will examine the economic, regulatory, and social contexts that provide the dynamic backdrop for how both new entrants and incumbent firms can navigate and drive the energy transition. For the full listing, click here.

IFC: Europe; Decarbonization and Sustainable Production (January 2025)

Willy Shih & Mike Toffel
This EC Field Course offers 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 2025)

Vikram Gandhi
IFC India presents an opportunity for students to advance their knowledge of sustainability efforts, 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 infrastructure, reducing poverty, energy access, housing, transport services, water, food security, education, and healthcare —while prioritizing decarbonization and net zero initiatives. For the full listing, click here.

Reimagining Capitalism: Business and Big Problems (Fall 2024)

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.

Reweaving Ourselves and the World: New Perspectives on Climate Change (Spring 2025)

Rebecca Henderson
Climate change (and all of the associated crises that make up the emerging polycrisis) are often addressed as technical, political and economic problems. It seems unlikely that we will avert disaster unless or until the world is swept by a massive cultural shift and a social movement that insists on urgent action at scale – but where is such a movement to come from? In this small, discussion-based seminar we will practice learning to hold all that is happening and nonetheless finding the courage and the skill to act.

Risks, Opportunities, And Investments In The Era Of Climate Change (ROICC) (Spring 2025)

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.

Sustainable Investing (Fall 2024)

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 Ventures (Spring 2025)

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

3 Technologies that Will Change the World in the Next Decade (Spring 2025)

Shikhar Ghosh
This course examines 3 recently developed ‘godlike technologies’ - artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain and synthetic biology- that have passed commercial viability and are on-track to change the foundations of business and society by 2035. These technologies predict behavior and increasingly create behavior. They learn and improve relentlessly. They make better decisions than humans in an increasing number of contexts. They are unconstrained by moral boundaries. Are these technologies different from other ground-breaking technologies such as electricity, nuclear power and computing? What commercial opportunities and risks will they create for business leaders? What ethical choices will they force business leaders to confront? For the full listing, click here.

Business at the Base of the Pyramid (Fall 2024, Spring 2025)

Natalia Rigol and Benjamin N. Roth
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 2024)

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.

Corporate Governance and Boards of Directors (Spring 2025)

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.

Entrepreneurial Finance (Fall 2024, Spring 2025)

Shai Bernstein (Fall) and Raymond Kluender (Spring)
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.

Market Perspectives (previously Financial Capitalism) (Fall 2024)

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 2024)

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.

Real Property (Fall 2024)

Boris Vallee
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.

Scaling Technology Ventures (Spring 2025)

Jeffrey Rayport
Scaling Technology Ventures (STV) is designed for students who aspire to found, join, or invest in growth-stage technology ventures. Students will learn how leadership teams address the challenges and opportunities ventures face after achieving profit-market fit – and how to activate and then manage exponential growth. For the full listing, click here.

Social Entrepreneurship and Systems Change (Fall 2024)

Gerald Chertavian and 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.

Strategies for Value Creation (Spring 2025)

Benjamin Esty
SVC should appeal to students who aspire to work in senior leadership positions (CEO, CFO, COO, or CMO) in both large and small companies; as strategy consultants or investment bankers who advise companies; or as private equity, public equity, venture capital, or hedge fund investors seeking to gain a better understanding of what creates value and why. For the full listing, click here.

Turnarounds and Transformation (Spring 2025)

Ranjay Gulati
The focus of this course is the leader as a strategist, architect, decision maker, and change agent in a turnaround or transformation environment. This course will present situations where you can analyze potential opportunity in turnaround situations and decide if there is a reasonable chance for the managers in the case to create value.

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.

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.

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.

Weekend Sprints

Weekend Sprints (login required) offer innovative, small-scale, large-impact academic programming alongside fun and engaging social opportunities for the community. Academic offerings include multiple course sessions, spanning many topics, to gain practical skills and/or explore topics you might otherwise never get to study.

Immersive Field Courses

Immersive Field Courses (IFCs) Immersive Field Courses are for-credit courses designed to offer second-year students an off-campus, experiential learning opportunity during the January term. A cornerstone of these courses is the expertise of faculty, who develop course content focused on teaching objectives achieved primarily through student-centered active learning exercises, which could include teams projects embedded with a company or a research topic identified by faculty. In both cases site visits and guest speakers will be an additional element of the course. As such, these courses provide students with an opportunity to apply first-hand the knowledge and skills gained from their on-campus MBA coursework in an off-campus setting. Courses kick off in the fall with several required on-campus sessions to set the context for January. These sessions vary and could include lectures, case discussions, and project work with your team and company if applicable.

FIELD Global Capstone

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 Capstone 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.