Art and Science of Good Business

This experiential class will teach you how to apply a human centered, creative problem-solving process to tackle the most complex challenges of our fast changing world. This course will be a hands-on introduction to design thinking and other useful innovation frameworks. You will leave the course equipped with the valuable skills and creative confidence to you can apply to tackle complex problems in the real world — in both an entrepreneurial setting as well as a corporate innovation environment.

Most social entrepreneurship classes are built on the premise that a business can do both well (for profit) and good (for society). In this class, we go steps further: customers of a good business firm can feel good interacting with other users or stakeholders of the product or service, and employees of the firm can live happy lives through delivering meaningful work and customer experience. Using insights from psychology, marketing, behavioral economics, ethnographic interviewing methods, design thinking, system thinking, management, and ethical considerations for use of emerging technologies (i.e., artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics, etc) —the course will explore, define, and imagine how individuals and organizations can do "good" in a business context, and design a prototype of an innovative solution. This class will focus on a different challenge theme each term, and this quarter, we will be exploring the future of business platforms and social media apps, and innovative solutions that will help foster more meaningful experiences for people and prevent mass social level manipulation.

To successfully participate in this program students need a computer, and internet access that will enable you to participate in synchronous learning activities in Zoom class meetings. There will be no textbook required for purchase.