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This course provides you with a framework to understand the structure and dynamics of high-tech businesses, together with an approach for their effective strategic management. It is focused on domains in which systems are important, because either or both products are parts of larger and more complex systems, or they are comprised of systems. The domains covered include computing, communications (in particular the mobile and IP domains), consumer electronics, industrial networking, automotive, aerospace and medical devices. The course will be of particular interest to those interested in managing a business in which technology will likely play a major role, and also to those interested in investing in or providing counsel to these businesses. The emphasis throughout is on the development and application of ways of thinking or mental models that bring clarity to the complex co-evolution of technological innovation, the demand opportunity, systems architecture, business ecosystems, and decision-making and execution within the business.

This course clarifies key marketing concepts, methods, and strategic issues relevant for start-up and early-stage entrepreneurs. At this course, there are two major questions: 1. **Marketing Question:** What and how am I selling to whom? 2. **New Venture Question:** How do I best leverage my limited marketing recourses? Specifically, this course is designed to give students a broad and deep understanding of such topics as: 1. What are major strategic constraints and issues confronted by entrepreneurs today? 2. How can one identify and evaluate marketing opportunities? 3. How do entrepreneurs achieve competitive advantages given limited marketing resources? 4. What major marketing/sales tools are most useful in an entrepreneurial setting? Because there is no universal marketing solution applicable to all entrepreneurial ventures, this course is designed to help students develop a flexible way of thinking about marketing problems in general.

This five-day interactive and experiential workshop focuses on how leaders lead innovations that both promote social responsibility and produce business success. The workshop is organized around three main parts: observation, sense-making, and creating. During the observation phase, students spend a full day inside the Boston office of the design company IDEO and visit some of the most interesting proven innovators in corporate social responsibility such as Ben & Jerry’s, KLD, MBDC, Plug Power (fuel cell technology), PwC, Schlumberger, or core team members of the UN Global Compact. After returning from their company visits, students describe to one another what they saw and learned. In the final part of the Lab, students conceive and implement innovation projects that serve the needs of a local community. Each team presents its practical accomplishments on the final day of the Lab. Starting in 2004 this course will be renumbered as 15.975.