BGP-510Y: HKS-HBS Joint Degree First-Year Seminar

This is a required seminar for degree candidates in the first year of the MPP-MBA and MPA/ID-MBA joint programs. It focuses on business firms and other organizations navigating opportunity and challenge—in contexts where the public interest (and often government policy) looms especially large, alongside the pursuit of profit and investor return.  The course will be taught primarily via the case method, though several sessions will opt for non-case readings to delve more deeply into substantive content areas. A few of the sessions will be devoted to complementing students’ field activities, or to exploring topics that the students propose and agree upon. While most of the cases will feature private sector firms (from a variety of industries), others will spotlight nonprofits or governments drawing heavily on business tools and practices. Case themes will include vision, values, governance, leadership, management, strategy, organization, risk management, and performance metrics/success criteria.

There will be 16 two-hour course sessions distributed over the academic year, with eight sessions in the Fall and eight in the Spring. The first class session will be held on Wednesday, September 4^th, 6-8:30pm.  Thereafter, class sessions will be held on Thursdays, 4:30-6:30pm, only on thefollowing dates: 

Fall Semester: 9/12, 9/19, 9/26, 10/17, 10/31, 11/7, 11/21

Spring Semester: 2/6, 2/13, 2/20, 2/27, 3/6, 3/13, 3/27, 4/3

Required for first-year students in the joint HKS/HBS degrees, and not open to other students. Meets all year, see syllabus for dates. Please note, this is one half of a yearlong course. Students enrolled in the fall section will automatically be enrolled in the spring section.