Entrepreneurial Management – I

Entrepreneurial Management – I (EM-1) focuses on the fundamentals of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial management in large enterprises.

SUMMARY

Build a foundation for launching new ventures within large enterprises.

The Entrepreneurial Management – I (EM-1) course is an active learning course.

Active learning is “a method of learning in which students are actively or experientially involved in the learning process and where there are different levels of active learning, depending on student involvement.”

– Charles, C. B., & Eison, J. A. (1991). Active learning: creating excitement in the classroom. ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report, (1).

Course Description

This course is positioned as an entry point for students who want to develop an Entrepreneurial Mindset and become involved in impactful entrepreneurship (i.e. new business creation) in large enterprises (after graduation) but are uncertain how or where to begin.

From a business lifecycle perspective, any business can be located in one of two stages: Business Design and Business Model Execution.

During the Business Design stage, entrepreneurial managers are searching for a business model that enables the market success of a new product, service, or experience.

During the Business Model Execution stage, traditional managers are focused on execution.

An Ambidextrous Organization is one that can maintain a balance between successfully managing Business Model Execution for the business of today while also successfully managing Business Design for the business of tomorrow (which needs to be built, today). Prof. James March refers to organizational ambidexterity as the simultaneous “exploration of new possibilities and the exploitation of old certainties.”

To be effective in an Ambidextrous Organization, a 21st century General Manager needs to be able to “toggle” between using management techniques for Business Model Execution (exploitation) and Business Design (exploration). This is a challenge because what works for Business Model Execution will kill a new business in the Business Design stage before the business design team has a chance to find a business model that works….

If you want to join a large company and then help it build new businesses so it can compete for the future, EM-1 is an appropriate course for you. Also, if your goal is to get a job offer from a large company before you graduate, the topics discussed in the EM-1 course might be important for you to know before you start interviewing with prospective employers.

Specifically, the course is designed to help students develop a better understanding of how to

• distinguish between Entrepreneurial Management and Traditional Management;
• engage in business design with a focus on framing and re-framing problems;
• develop business acumen;
• evaluate business opportunities;
• engage in self-management
• shape organizational culture
• develop a global mindset
• make ethical decisions across borders
• perform negotiation analysis and engage in a negotiation supported by a strategy
• design a personal career strategy.

Learning Objectives

Primary Learning Objective

The primary learning objective of this course is to develop an entrepreneurial mindset while learning about topics related to Entrepreneurial Management as they apply to preparing to work in a large enterprise after graduation.

Additional Learning Objectives

Additional Learning Objectives for this course include developing Critical Thinking, Communication, Leadership, Teamwork, & Ethical Reasoning Skills.

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Instructor

Sean M. HACKETT, Ph.D.

Professor, Graduate School of Business, Aoyama Gakuin University

Dr. Hackett is a Professor at the Graduate School of Business, Aoyama Gakuin University (AGU). Before coming to AGU, Dr. Hackett served on the faculties at Waseda University in Tokyo, Drexel University in Pennsylvania (USA), and Vanderbilt University in Tennessee (USA). His teaching and research interests are at the intersection of cross-cultural management, innovation, negotiation, and entrepreneurship with a focus on how digitalization transforms existing businesses and makes new businesses possible.

Dr. Hackett has a B.A. in Government and International Studies from the University of Notre Dame (South Bend, IN); an M.A. in International Relations from Sophia University (Tokyo, Japan), and an M.S./Ph.D. in Management of Technology from Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN). As a Rotary Foundation Fellow, Dr. Hackett also spent nine months studying the Japanese language intensively at International Christian University (Tokyo, Japan).

The experiences of having studied in academic degree programs housed in Colleges of Arts and Letters (University of Notre Dame, Sophia University) as well as in a School of Engineering (Vanderbilt University) – and having taught primarily in Business Schools (Drexel University, Waseda University, and Aoyama Gakuin University) but also in a School of Engineering (Vanderbilt University) – have enabled Dr. Hackett to see the world from a variety of perspectives. He connects easily with students and professionals from all walks of life.