Course Descriptions

Public and Nonprofit Required Course

AC840: Nonprofit Finance and Accounting

This course will introduce the fundamentals of accounting and finance associated with governmental and nonprofit organizations, including entities such as state and local governments, hospitals, schools, voluntary health and welfare organizations, and colleges and universities. It will emphasize the issues related to fund accounting, including general and special revenue funds, capital project funds, debt service funds, internal service funds, enterprise and fiduciary funds, long-term debt and fixed-asset accounting groups, and planning and control of cash and temporary investments. Other topics include budgeting, budgetary control, budgetary reporting, full accrual and modified-accrual accounting, cost determination, tax levies, auditing, preparation of financial statements, and other financial reporting principles and practices.

Public and Nonprofit Concentration Electives

FE882: Public Policy Analysis

This course explores the economics of the public sector and the impact government policy and programs have on society and business. The course provides students with tools to systematically examine the financing and measure the impact of government policies and regulations. It explores the rationale for government intervention, appropriate levels of intervention and how to measure the effectiveness of policies and regulations. This course is helpful to those who desire a deeper understanding of the central role government plays in the economy and how government impacts the business and nonprofit sectors.

IM852: Global Social Enterprise Field Seminar - Brazil

This intensive ten day seminar will provide students with a broad understanding of the ways in which business strategies can create value at the base of the economic pyramid. Students will gain first hand experience of how businesses, NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and government are using models of social enterprise to address social and economic issues in the fields of health, education and the environment in the context of an emerging market—in this case, Brazil.  This study program will include extensive site visits throughout the country to social enterprises, multi-national firms, NGO ventures and government organizations. Students will also hear from a wide variety of Latin American specialists in topic areas.   A broad range of topics will be covered including: renewable energy, sustainable development, eco-tourism, new models for providing health and education services to underserved populations, social enterprise, micro-enterprise, corporate social responsibility and public/private partnerships.

The course will consist of three pre-departure sessions focused on social enterprise, corporate social responsibility and emerging markets.  Students are also expected to select an individual research track of interest for the duration of the seminar.

 

MK867: Marketing Social Change

The course has two main and interdependent components. First, students will be exposed to the marketing concepts and principles that can be applied to change individuals’ attitudes and behaviors toward a variety of social issues, includinghealth, housing, environment, culture, education and poverty. The second component, which will be informed by the first, will be a semester-long field project in which student groups will address a specific management problem for a real social-cause organization and provide the organization with a set of actionable recommendations.

OB840: Management Consulting

The purpose of this course is to provide students with an in-depth understanding of the management consulting process and its practical application. The course simulates a small consulting firm where students are consultants. Students complete significant fieldwork outside of classroom time. Students explore dimensions of defining and understanding the consulting framework, engagements, work methodology, client relationship management, value creation, developing and delivering presentations and client follow-up. This course includes one primary deliverable: the initiation, scoping and completion of a consulting field project. This class is designed and best suited for second year students who have 3-5 years work experience in the public, private or nonprofit sectors.

OM845 Clean Technology Business Models

The clean technology industry is touching some of the largest sectors of the economy and yet still undergoing significant growth and attracting a plethora of new entrants. It has been characterized by a great deal of experimentation around new technologies and around business models in the face of regulatory and market place disruptions. The course uses a combination of cases, simulation and analytical exercises to review trends and their co-evolution within the clean technology/energy eco-system. It aims to build a skill set around risk and opportunity assessment, and allied implementation challenges.

SP829: Strategy for Nonprofits

Mangers of nonprofit organizations are faced with many of the same challenges as their for profit counterparts. Through case analysis, lectures and projects, students explore how traditional business frameworks apply in the nonprofit sector with a special emphasis on topics unique to nonprofits and NGOs.

SP837: Strategic Fundraising and Corporate Philanthropy

This course is designed for future civic, business and nonprofit leaders who will be in the position of raising funds or giving away funds for charitable purposes at some point in their career.  Whether for your child’s school, the local little league or symphony, or a cause you care deeply about, you will want to know the fundamentals of raising or giving away money. This course explores the topic of strategic fundraising and philanthropy in three modules. The first explores the history, trends and current topics in philanthropy using case studies and current events. The second module provides students with specific tools and lessons in strategic fundraising and gives students an opportunity to apply these skills within a nonprofit of their choice. Finally the course examines how corporations can use their philanthropic efforts to further the strategy and goals of the business.

SP844: Competitive Environmental Strategy

There is little disagreement that environmentalism affects corporate management, which alters profit and loss statements and influences both domestic and international strategy. Yet, while many within industry and government are vilifying environmentalism as a threat to economic growth, others are taking advantage of the economic opportunities it can reveal. This course will consider how cutting edge companies are beginning to see environmental protection as a strategic opportunity rather than as a threat.  While it focuses on environmental issues in particular, the course is of interest to anyone concerned with understanding how new social issues are moving onto the corporate agenda. Students will learn how to identity emerging issues, frame and sell them to others in the corporation, and manage their integration.

SP850: Social Entrepreneurship

Business plans integrate the marketing, financial, operational, and organizational activities required to realize an opportunity. This course offers students the opportunity to write a business plan for a mission-based venture (both for-profit and non-profit plans are welcome). This course offers an introduction to the theory and practice of social entrepreneurship in the private, public and nonprofit sectors. The course focuses both on the creation of an innovative mission-based organization and the establishment of an innovative program or activity within an existing organization to meet a societal need. Areas of social innovation as diverse as business, environment, education, human services and government are explored. Students gain practical knowledge about how to identify potential social opportunities; develop skills and competencies for creating, developing, and implementing social entrepreneurship ideas; and examine ways of measuring the success of social entrepreneurial activity.

SP868: Corporate Governance, Accountability, and Ethics

"As we move forward into the twenty-first century, the interest in corporate governance is at an all-time high." (Gillies) The failures associated with fraudulent activity of high profile companies in North America and Europe, the transformation of the world economy into one great market for goods and services, plus the transition in many countries of economies from a command to to a market form have led to calls for development of new and better forms of corporate governance. The lines between politics and markets are changing, affecting industries, organizations, and managerial practice. This seminar will focus on the reformation of corporate governance and its effects on business and nonprofit management practice. Topics will include the role of transparency, new forms of accountability, governance risk, and organizational strategies of response.  Course materials will include cases, readings, and discussions with guest speakers. Professor Post is the author of "Redefining the Corporation" (Stanford Press, 2002) and a new book on governance and accountability.

SP870: Government, Society and the New Entrepreneur

“Government, Society and International Entrepreneurship” (GSIE) exposes students to the challenges of managing in an international and global environment. The course is broad and far-reaching in its scope and topics, dealing with such varied issues as economic globalization, international entrepreneurship, and the interplay between democracy and capitalism. Students are asked to take a long perspective of the histories of countries and regions and to study the implications for modern business enterprise.

The first major substantive section of the course is a series of country cases that describe the cultural, social, political and economic context in which business enterprise is conducted. These cases, which were written for the BGIE course at Harvard, support dense and rich discussions of the economics of global enterprise and the challenges of operating in various country settings.

The second major section of the course deals with international institutions such as the WTO as well as major trends in the global economy such as the move toward outsourcing. The topics in this section cut across country boundaries and enrich the material in part one on competing in country environments.

The third major sections of the course address the challenges of managing enterprises in each of three major global sectors: food, health and energy. These industries were selected because of their foundational nature and importance to national security across many country environments. In each of the sectors, a case on a large, multinational enterprise is coupled with a case on a small entrepreneurial organization. The challenges of managing each type of organization – and the implications of competition between them -- become vivid by the contrast.

The overarching goal of this course is to provide students with the background to appreciate the complicated issues of stewarding business enterprise in diverse geographic and institutional environments.