STANFORD

EXECUTIVE PROGRA M
Sample Course Descriptions
Alphabetized by faculty member

DESIGNING (FOR) HAPPINESS LEADING BY DESIGN

Jennifer Aaker William Barnett
General Atlantic Professor of Marketing Thomas M. Siebel Professor of Business
Leadership, Strategy, and Organizations
People often define “success” as being happy
in life. However, what we think drives our We will talk about the two essential functions of
happiness often doesn’t. So what does? Recent leadership, sense-making and direction. First,
behavioral research suggests that the meaning a leader must help her people make sense of
of happiness changes every 5-10 years, raising the question: the many, often confusing developments going on around
‘How might we build organizations and lives that cultivate them. A good leader can make sense of these changes. A great
happiness?’ Research also suggests it is better to aim for leader helps others make sense of these changes. Second, a
meaning. In Designing (for) Happiness, we explore how to leader must give her people direction, showing them a way
rethink purpose in work and life. Dr. Aaker’s research integrates forward. A good leader can be relied on to have a clear plan of
time, money, and happiness—these insights are captured in action. A great leader helps her people to create such a plan.
her co-authored award-winning book, The Dragonfly Effect.
ACCOUNTING FOR VALUATION AND CONTROL
PLATFORM COMPETITION IN
Anne Beyer
DIGITAL MARKETS
Associate Professor of Accounting; R. Michael
Susan Athey Shanahan Faculty Scholar for 2018-2019
The Economics of Technology Professor The objective of financial accounting is to
This class will analyze the economics of digital me asure e conomic ac tivit y for de cision
platforms and marketplaces. We will examine making. Financial statements are a key product
the role of scale economies and network effects of this measurement process and an important component of
in determining the dynamics of plat form firms’ financial reporting activities. Management control is the
competition and long-run industry structure. We will consider process whereby managers assure that resources are obtained
key strategic decisions for firms, including vertical integration and used effectively and efficiently in the accomplishment of
an d exclusive d e als, an d we will to u ch o n antitr us t an organization’s objectives. We will study the principles
considerations. The course will highlight examples of governing the measurement of income and financial position,
marketplaces and platforms, including Uber, AirBnb, and as well as the design of systems for management control. In
service marketplaces, platforms such as Google, Visa, and each case, the course will place emphasis on topics of recent
ApplePay, and many others. interest. We will focus on broad principles and minimize
detailed technique.

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BUILDING STRONGER BRANDS FINANCING INNOVATION AND MANAGING

Bart Bronnenberg FOR VALUE CREATION
Professor of Marketing Peter DeMarzo
How valuable is your brand? And why isn’t The Staehelin Family Professor of Finance;
brand value on the balance sheet? Firms spend Coulter Family Faculty Fellow for 2018-2019
many millions aiming for name recognition and M a n a g in g f o r s us t ain e d g r ow t h m e a n s
building a brand. In this session, we discuss investing resources in the next generation of
what is being created by these investments. You will exchange product innovations. But how can business
ideas about the value of brand recognition, about how brand leaders assess opportunities and ensure their long-term
preferences form, and when they act as barriers to entry for positive impact on firm value? How should scarce resources,
later entrants in an industry. You will also discuss the relevance like capital and talent, be allocated to maximize value creation?
of brand building in a world where information is cheap and And, once launched, how should projects be managed to
your prospective customers find it easy to obtain reviews about optimize their potential? To answer these questions and
your company’s performance and take them as a substitute for “manage for value creation” requires an understanding of the
reputation. financial drivers of firm value.

STRATEGIC CRISIS MANAGEMENT By the end of the course you will have the skills you need to
evaluate your own investment projects and convincingly
Steven Callander present your findings to others.
Herbert Hoover Professor of Public and Private
Regardless of your role in the firm, understanding the principles
Management; Professor of Political Economy
a n d dr i ve r s o f v alu atio n is im p o r t a n t in e f f e c ti ve l y
A crisis can strike an organization at any time communic ating acros s constituencie s and managing
and almost anywhere in the world. Although resources.
e a c h c r i s i s m a y, i n i s o l a t i o n , s e e m
unpredictable, the sheer frequency of events and the For those working in a finance role, we value hearing your
complexity of modern organizations make the outbreak of a experiences, and hope these sessions also provide you with
crisis inevitable. Responsibility for crisis response lies with some new ways of communicating these concepts to others.
management and it is up to them to be prepared when the next
crisis erupts. ECONOMICS OF INTERACTIVE DECISION
In these four sessions, we’ll dig deep into crisis to enable you to MAKING: PEOPLE, REASONING, AND BEHAVIOR
prepare for and manage crises effectively. We’ll examine the Yossi Feinberg
nature of crises and develop a deeper understanding of where
they come from, how they evolve, and what we can do about John G. McCoy–Banc One Corporation
them. Preparing for an unspecified threat requires a different Professor of Economics; Senior Associate Dean
state of mind to regular management as well as a different for Academic Affairs
toolbox. These sessions will begin to develop the tools and You may have distant memories of studying
frameworks to better equip you and your organization for when microeconomics at some point in your life. You
the next crisis breaks out. might remember graphs of supply and demand, theoretical
principles of pricing (e.g. marginal revenue equals marginal
cost), some production theory or externalities. Well, you are
not going to find these distant memories useful at all in our
sessions. Instead, we will be covering the cutting-edge tool
deployed by microeconomists for under standing and
predicting strategic behavior, namely Game Theory.

The objective of this modern microeconomics module is to

equip you with a new methodolog y for strategizing and
reasoning in an interactive setting with multiple decision
makers. The applications cover only a small sample designed
to share a way of thinking. The current state of the art way of
thinking deployed by leading economists and researchers uses
game theoretical thinking, be they labor economists, applied
microeconomists, managerial finance researchers, managerial
accounting researchers, and so on.

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S TA N F O R D E X E CUTI VE PROG RA M / S A M PL E COURSE DESC R IP TIONS

DECISION MAKING, MOTIVATION, ACTING WITH POWER

AND COMMUNICATION Deborah Gruenfeld
Francis Flynn Joseph McDonald Professor and Professor of
Paul E. Holden Professor of Organizational Behavior
Organizational Behavior Everyone feels powerless, but a leader has to
Decision Making, Motivation, and use power. What does it mean to use power
C ommunication is a five-session course well? In this session, we will explore the idea
designed for senior managers who serve as that leadership is a role, and to be successful, you have to know
enterprise-level leaders in their respective organizations. The how to play it. To use power well, it is not enough to worry about
goal of this course is to help these individuals improve and the power you don’t have. You need to own the power you do
enhance the impact of their ever yday communication, have, and try to use it responsibly, in a way that benefits others.
particularly which is done in the context of work collaboration. Some situations call for command-and-control, while others
How can you persuade your colleagues to go along with your call for respond-and-connect. Most people find one of these
ideas? How can you inspire your subordinates to work together approaches to using power comes more naturally than the
more cohesively? Beyond intelligence and technical skills, what other. A big role requires a bigger version of you. Not just more
separates leaders from average managers is the ability to move impressive, more authoritative, and more intimidating, but
people toward a common goal—to persuade them, to cajole more caring, more committed, more “all in.” Using power well
them, and to convince them that yours is the right course of is about expanding your authentic range and acting as a base
action. In each of the four class sessions for this course, the of security that brings out the best in everyone. This session
program faculty will highlight these critical communication offers tools and techniques from the world of professional
skills and provide ideas and tools for strengthening them. acting for managing self-doubt, getting in role, and bringing
out the most useful parts of yourself at the right moments.
Our time will be divided between in-class demonstrations,
lecture content, an assortment of experiential exercises, and WHAT EVERY LEADER SHOULD KNOW ABOUT
in-depth classroom discussion. Participants will be expected to
identify and share important insights gathered from their own
MACROECONOMICS
past experiences and connect them to the course concepts Charles Jones
introduced. Each of the sessions will involve engaging activities,
such as a face-to-face negotiation or feedback from a group The STANCO 25 Professor of Economics;
exercise. Charles and Melissa Froland Faculty Fellow
for 2018-2019

BUILDING NEW VENTURE GROWTH What is the current state of the macroeconomy,
and what changes can we expect over the
OPPORTUNITIES
short, medium, and long term going forward? This session will
George Foster consider macroeconomic performance in the U.S. and world
economies, including GDP growth, employment, and inflation.
Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Management Some highlights will include:
M a ny e x is tin g c o m p a ni e s a n d all n e w • Possible macro scenarios for the U.S., European, and other
companies aim to build new ventures that will major economies going forward, from a research perspective
provide substantive growth over an extended • Policies of the Federal Reser ve impacting U.S. macro
period. This set of two sessions examines the performance
various strategies of new ventures and how they can
fundamentally differ in both their opportunities and risks, and • Near-term and long-term implications of U.S. fiscal policy
their growth accelerators/growth inhibitors. The two sessions and the budget deficit
will draw on two World Economic Forum Reports that I led or • Key forces that underlie the long-term growth of the world’s
co-led. major economies, including China and India

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VALUE CHAIN INNOVATIONS AND DEVELOPING A BUSINESS MODEL AND

ENTREPRENEURSHIP BUSINESS MODEL INNOVATION
Hau Lee Haim Mendelson
Thoma Professor of Operations, Information The Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
and Technology Professor of Electronic Business and Commerce,
and Management
A s b usin e s s e s b e c om e m ore an d m ore
globalized, supply chains can be highly In this module of SEP we’ll discuss the
complex. The numbers of raw materials, structure and application of business models.
components, intermediate products, and finished goods are Business models are used both in the startup world, where the
increasing; there are more supply chain partners involved in key challenge is to discover a business model that works, and
the production of goods and services; and the geographical in the established company domain, where we execute and
spread of the supply network can be extensive. While such refine an existing business model, but also need to reinvent it
complexities can be challenging, they also give rise to from time to time. We’ll start by looking at the business model
opportunities for companies to develop capabilities and development process, using Airbnb as an example. We’ll then
competencies as supply chain orchestrators, therefore creating drill down on the business model of Uber. In our two final
values through the provision of orchestration services. Supply sessions, we’ll then look at how Amazon, one of the world’s
chain orchestration involves the re-engineering of information, leading business model innovators, is changing its business
material, and financial flows. model over time.

WHAT SHAPES OUR DECISIONS? GETTING (MORE OF) WHAT YOU WANT

Jonathan Levav Margaret Neale

Professor of Marketing Adams Distinguished Professor of Management

How do people judge value? How do employees Everyone negotiates. Yet many people often
in your company make decisions? How do your think of negotiation only as a relatively rare
intuitions help and hur t your judgments? event, involving an interaction between a buyer
During our time together, participants will an d a s elle r. Yet, in it s v ar io us for ms,
learn to: negotiation is a much more ubiquitous and routine process
used to resolve differences and allocate scarce resources with
• Identify factors that influence people’s decisions two or more parties. Even though we may negotiate almost
continuously, it is clear that we (and others) leave resources
• Understand what happens when people grow tired of making
“on-the-table,” agree to contracts and outcomes that are not in
choices
our best interest, and do little systematic assessment of either
• Determine the limits of influence that companies have on the quality of negotiated agreements or the appropriateness of
their employees’ choices our behavior.

LEADING IN CHAOS: WINNING THROUGH INNOVATION

THE BIG PICTURE SIMULATION Charles O’Reilly
Brian Lowery Frank E. Buck Professor of Management
The Walter Kenneth Kilpatrick Professor of Recently we have seen the demise of companies
Organizational Behavior; Senior Associate Dean like Blockbuster and Radio Shack and the
for Academic Affairs strug gles of firms like Kodak, Karstadt,
Kanebo, Blackberry, and Sears. Recognizing
In this session you will par ticipate in an
that the reasons why firms run into trouble are invariably
organizational simulation in which you will
complex, we will focus on one critical and often overlooked
grapple with some of the central challenges of leadership and
ingredient in this process—the role of culture in helping or
management. The simulation will provide you with a laboratory
hindering firms as they wrestle with incremental and
to test some of the strategies and techniques you have learned
discontinuous change. This session will develop a framework
in the program and your behavior will provide us with additional
for diagnosing and understanding both the statics and
data from which to derive lessons about the role of leadership
dynamics of organizational change. This framework will
an d o r g aniz atio n al s tr u c t ur e in p r o du cin g e f f e c ti ve
highlight the complementary (or contradictory) roles of formal
organizations.
and social control systems in generating innovation and
By the end of Big Picture, you will have gleaned insight through: change.
• Practicing organizational alignment to satisfy and delight
customers.
• Identifying ways to foster “horizontal” communication within
groups.
• Addressing the challenge of identifying a common vision and
implementing a single, unified strategy.
• Re in f o r cin g o r g a niz a ti o n al ali g n m e n t, c r o s s-t e a m
collaboration, and flexible thinking.

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BUILDING AND LIVING A MINDSET: STRATEGY BEYOND MARKETS

CONNECTING THE TALENT BRAND TO THE Kenneth Shotts
CUSTOMER BRAND
David S. and Ann M. Barlow Professor of
Hayagreeva Rao Political Economy

Atholl McBean Professor of Organizational Most business school classes focus on firms’
Behavior and Human Resources interactions with customers, competitors,
suppliers, and shareholders in the form of
People make organizations. If so, people are a mutually beneficial voluntary exchange transacted in markets.
critical source of competitive advantage for In contr ast, the se se ssions consider firms’ str ategic
startups. A building block of excellence is the interactions with comparably impor tant constituents,
mindset of employees. This session addresses the major ‘HR’ organizations, and institutions outside of markets. Strategy
or people decisions confronting leaders as they think about beyond markets is a central component of a company’s
what kind of mindset to build and how to make employees ‘live’ approach to achieving superior overall performance, and it
the mindset. The key is to connect the customer brand must be integrated with the company’s market strategy.
experience to the talent brand experience. We will discuss a
case and then use it to derive a simple but powerful framework. Examples of topics that we will discuss in these sessions include
activist pressures, political risk, regulation, judicial decisions,
legislation, and intellectual property enforcement, all of which
DESIGNING SOLUTIONS FOR ORGANIZATIONS substantially impact firms’ performance and profitability.
Baba Shiv
Sanwa Bank, Limited, Professor of Marketing WHAT IS STRATEGY?
Ever y org aniz ation today f ace s growing Jesper Sørensen
vulnerability of fading into irrelevance in terms The Robert A. and Elizabeth R. Jeffe Professor,
of designing and delivering value to various and Professor of Organizational Behavior; The
s t a k e h o l d e r s (c u s t o m e r s *, i n v e s t o r s , Katherine and David deWilde Faculty Fellow for
employees, etc.). Owing to this vulnerability, organizations 2018-2019
need ef fective solutions to be prepared for potential
opportunities and threats, both internal and external, and be Strategic leadership requires an ability to
acutely responsive to such opportunities and threats. Thus, the identify and evaluate strategic alternatives, as well as to
need for exemplary leadership has never been more important analyze and understand the firm’s competitive environment.
than it is today and this importance is only going to grow in the Despite the prevalence and widespread use of strategic
future. Leaders need to be better equipped at making decisions frameworks, many managers and firms struggle when it comes
and, more importantly, influencing others’ decisions by to conducting robust discussions about strategic alternatives
crafting superior value propositions for various stakeholders. and decisions. As a result, “strategy” is often left to the
Designing effective solutions for organizations, stakeholders, strategic planning department, and many managers struggle
and leaders requires a deeper understanding of human to understand how their actions do or do not reinforce the
behavior, leveraging the growing insights into the workings of firm’s strategy.
the human brain, with special emphasis on the emotional
In this session, we will discuss the nature of productive
brain. The reason for this special emphasis is that while the
strategic thinking and introduce a new framework for strategy
human brain is unique among species in its ability to strategize,
identification. This framework focuses on the distinction
conceptualize, hypothesize, memorize, etc., it is now
between creating value and capturing value, and on identifying
undeniable that most of human decisions, behaviors, and
your logic of success. It focuses your attention on the key
experiences are shaped non-consciously by basic emotional
problems that you as a strategic leader need to concentrate on
neural systems and processes (even in B2B contexts). Yet
to ensure your firm’s sustained success.
t r a diti o n al a p p r o a c h e s to d e si g nin g s o lu ti o n s h av e
predominantly focused on the cognitive rather than instinctual
or emotional underpinnings of behavior. Thus, constituting the
broad goals of the topics that will be covered in my sessions—it
behooves us to first unravel the workings of the emotional brain
and then leverage this understanding to design effective
solutions for the organization, for leaders within organizations,
and for key stakeholders, including customers.

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DESIGN THINKING BOOT CAMP THE INNOVATION PROCESS:

Sarah Soule PIVOT OR PERSEVERE
Morgridge Professor of Organizational Behavior; Stefanos Zenios
Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs The Investment Group of Santa Barbara Professor
Stanford is one of the principal educational of Entrepreneurship and Professor of Operations,
institutions driving the paradigm shift in the Information & Technology; Dhirubhai Ambani
design field today. This boot camp is designed Faculty Fellow in Entrepreneurship for 2018-2019
to teach you about design thinking—a human-centered, Innovation is not an event, it is a process. And a
prototype-driven process for innovation that can be applied to well-designed innovation process has four elements:
products, services, and experiences. We will approach design
thinking in this boot camp as a powerful problem-solving 1. Clear hypotheses about a customer problem, a solution, and
technique, which can also be used by leaders grappling with a business model of how value will be created and captured.
vexing organizational challenges (e.g., lack of coordination
between units, lack of diversity, lack time for creative thinking, 2. Experiments to test key elements of these hypotheses using
lack of trust between units, talent drain, lack of engagement, prototypes of increasingly higher resolution.
and so on). In the boot camp, you will not only learn about the 3. Pivot, persevere, or abandon decision moments in which the
power of design thinking to help you with creative problem hypotheses are refined based on the data collected from the
solving, you will also learn about its power to foster innovative experiments.
thinking among individuals practicing the process.
4. A n o r g a n i z a t i o n a l d e s i g n t h a t e n a b l e s l e a r n i n g ,
experimentation, and iteration.
STRATEGIC FINANCIAL DECISION MAKING
The pivot or persevere moment is a critical juncture in the
Ilya Strebulaev innovation process that is filled with tension and ambiguity. It
The David S. Lobel Professor of Private Equity is a moment that challenges leaders to put together a system
Professor of Finance that enables organizations to make difficult decisions and rally
behind them. We will begin our first session with a two vignettes
In this course we will learn a number of tools in which two entrepreneurs discuss a key pivot or persevere
and inisights from the field of finance and apply decision in the evolution of their ventures. These vignettes will
them to financial and investment decision- put you, the participants, in the shoes of these entrepreneurial
making. We will discuss the applied valuation principles used in leaders, and will help you explore the different elements of a
corporate finance and apply these insights to valuing and systems that enable entrepreneurial organizations to pivot.
funding large-scale projects. We will also apply these tools to
innovative projects and discuss venture capital and financing
innovation.

OPERATIONS AND RESPONSE TIME

MANAGEMENT
Seungjin Whang
Jagdeep and Roshni Singh Professor of
Operations, Information and Technology

This course offers an overview of operations. In

the first session we give an introduction to
operations by offering several key topics and
techniques in operations. The second session discusses agile
operations by using the example of Tamagoya. Tamagoya is in
the business of producing and delivering bento (Japanese
lunchbox) in the city of Tokyo. They apply an advanced
technique called dual response to deliver on time while
experiencing 0.06 % of excess stock and zero stock out. The
third and last session discusses response time management in
service operations. Building on the case of the Paramount
restaurant, we walk through bottleneck analysis.

6 Courses subject to change. gsb.stanford.edu/exed/sep