Stanford Executive Education: The Corporate Entrepreneur: Driving Innovation and New Ventures

Which innovative ideas are actually worth pursuing? How do you evaluate the true value and impact they bring? How do you identify and overcome challenges to change within established companies? The Corporate Entrepreneur: Driving Innovation and New Ventures teaches essential business skills and frameworks, combined with real-world project work to translate ideas into action. This comprehensive, two-module program spans two months, giving you a unique opportunity to formulate, evaluate, plan, and implement innovation within your organization.

Program Dates: August 28 – September 2 and
October 23 – 28, 2016 (this is a two-module program)

Application Deadline: July 18, 2016

Program Tuition: $23,000 USD

Program tuition includes private accommodations, all meals, and course materials.

Click here for more information on sending a team to the program.

Cancellation Policy

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OVERVIEW

Finance, strategy, and marketing. Design thinking, leadership, and culture. The Corporate Entrepreneur: Driving Innovation and New Ventures covers all that and more—moving from business model to business plan so you can successfully drive change and innovate from within. Experience two 1-week modules on campus filled with lectures, hands-on team projects, guest speakers, coaching sessions, and pitch presentations at the end. In between the modules, you can apply your newfound strategies and insights on the job and work to further develop your project with team members, supported by faculty during two team coaching sessions.

Every morning, you'll learn strategic frameworks based on cutting-edge research from Stanford's world-renowned Graduate School of Business faculty. Every afternoon you'll put theory into practice, working in small teams on an actual innovation project. You'll start at the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (d.School) where you'll learn the fundamentals of design thinking. You'll build a business model, develop project milestones, and create an action plan for implementation that addresses internal resistance. You'll work with communication coaches to hone your presentation skills and then pitch your team project to senior executives. This is learning by doing, this is innovation in action.

SAMPLE SCHEDULE

Faculty Director

Other Faculty

Yossi Feinberg

John G. McCoy-Banc One Corporation Professor of Economics; Director of The Corporate Entreprenuer: Driving Innovation and New Ventures Executive Program, works on the modeling of costly decision making, reasoning about unawareness, dynamic interactive decisions, and reasoning about high order uncertainties. His research centers on the analysis of information in strategic decision making

Jennifer L. Aaker

General Atlantic Professor of Marketing

William P. Barnett

Thomas M. Siebel Professor of Business Leadership, Strategy, and Organizations; Affiliated Faculty, Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford; Codirector of the Executive Program in Strategy and Organization

Peter M. DeMarzo

The Mizuho Financial Group Professor of Finance

Jonathan Levav

Associate Professor of Marketing; Citi Faculty Director, Behavioral Lab; Younger Family Faculty Scholar for 2014-2015

Charles A. O'Reilly III

Frank E. Buck Professor of Management; Director of the Leading Change and Organizational Renewal Executive Program

Carole Robin

Dorothy J. King Lecturer in Leadership; Director of the Interpersonal Dynamics for High-Performance Executive Program

Video Introduction

“The Corporate Entrepreneur helps you take an idea and develop it, evaluate it, communicate it, and finally have the tools to execute on it.” – Yossi Feinberg

Meet faculty director Yossi Feinberg and learn how this unique program delivers value for your company and helps you drive innovation in your organization.

KEY BENEFITS

The Corporate Entrepreneur program will help you:

Ideate, evaluate, and plan for implementation of new ventures within your division or company—from developing a new product or market to introducing a new distribution channel or making a strategic pivot
Gain a set of comprehensive, actionable tools to evaluate an idea, develop a business model, create a business plan, and deliver a formal pitch to your senior executive team—taught in lectures, and by working on a hands-on project during the program
Learn key skills and frameworks to execute on innovation—finance, marketing, design thinking, strategy, value chain, leadership, team dynamics, and culture
Identify and overcome the challenges established companies face when trying to innovate
Sell your idea within your organization and hone your pitch and presentation skills
Potentially develop your company's idea or business challenge (guaranteed if 4–6 participants from one company attend - click here for more information)
Build a strong network of peers with whom you can interact and exchange ideas

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

CORPORATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP
In these sessions you’ll study the most common and substantial barriers to entrepreneurship and innovation within large organizations. These include aspects such as internal organization challenges, restrictive decision-making processes, missing competencies (such as evaluating innovation), institutional and individual attitudes to risk, organizational politics, and more. You will then identify the set of tools required for overcoming these challenges.

COMPETITIVE STRATEGY FOR CORPORATE ENTREPRENEURS
A new venture reshapes the competitive landscape of an industry (or, in some cases, may create the industry to begin with). You will study the variety of competitive structures and forms of competitive advantages. These will translate to competitive strategies for the newly developing venture based on the current organization strategy, competitors, and potential new entrants.

HARNESSING STORIES FOR INNOVATION AND GROWTH
Successful innovation creates a new way of being for individuals or businesses. It disrupts industries and drives success. To innovate, you not only need a big idea, you also need people to create it and people to buy into it. Story fuels innovation. Stories have long held the power to transform the listener; to take them on a journey that changes how they think, feel, or act. In these sessions, you’ll discuss what it means to tell stories in business, what makes an effective story, and when to use them. You will focus on innovation, but also explore other applications.

STRATEGIC FINANCIAL DECISIONS
In these sessions, you’ll acquire finance tools that are essential for non-finance executives to make strategic decisions, and will apply them to innovation and entrepreneurship within large organizations.

Who Should Attend?

The Corporate Entrepreneur program is for doers, individuals who are charged and inspired to drive innovation within established companies. It's specifically designed for:

Executives with at least ten years of work experience, in roles that give them the ability and responsibility to start new projects or ventures within their company or division.
Examples of functions and titles may include VPs, managing director, development officer, director—from medium- to large-sized companies, any industry, and any country.
Individuals and multiple participants from one company. Teams of four or more are guaranteed to work on their own company project, advancing innovation and creating immediate value for their organization.
Click here for more information about multiple participants from one organization attending as a team

The Corporate Entrepreneur Program leverages the tremendous experience Stanford Graduate School of Business has in addressing entrepreneurial challenges. It provides executives with two sets of tools to drive a new venture: How to line up their organization internally, and how to be equipped for success in the marketplace. The program also allows participants to directly apply these tools in real projects during the program.

– Yossi Feinberg

Faculty Director
Stanford Graduate School of Business

Stanford’s approach to teaching is amazing – it’s very inviting and you learn a lot. The small breakout groups let you delve deeply into concepts, express your thoughts, and learn from others. The experience has been invaluable.

– Julie Arndt

Boeing Company

Facilities

Stanford University

The Stanford campus is world renowned for its natural beauty, Spanish mission-style architecture, and temperate climate. With more than 8,180 acres (3,310 hectares), Stanford's campus ranks as one of the largest in the United States. Participants in Stanford's Executive Programs become part of a quintessential university setting, residing together, walking or biking to classes, and enjoying access to Stanford University facilities.

The Knight Management Center

Opened in spring 2011, the Knight Management Center has transformed the Stanford Graduate School of Business into a vibrant and unified indoor-outdoor, living and learning community. Participants will take classes at this new state-of-the-art campus, which features tiered classrooms with extensive floor-to-ceiling glass, the latest in audiovisual technology, numerous breakout and study rooms, outdoor seating areas to encourage informal discussion, and an open collaboration lab that employs hands-on and design thinking techniques.

Schwab Residential Center

Designed by renowned Mexican architect, Ricardo Legorreta, the Schwab Residential Center gives residents ample privacy while promoting collegial interaction through shared lounges, outdoor meeting areas, a library, and an exercise room.

CONTACT

Beatrice Kemner

Associate Director, Program and Business Development

Phone: +1.650.736.6583
Email: bkemner@stanford.edu

The Stanford Difference

The Place: Immerse yourself in innovation.
The Experience: Transform your thinking, your career, your company.
The Approach: Challenge yourself with research-based learning and real-world experience.