ONLINE
Stanford LEAD Certificate:
Corporate Innovation
Foundation Courses
FINANCING INNOVATION: THE CREATION OF VALUE STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP
Peter M. DeMarzo William P. Barnett
Mizuho Financial Group Professor of Finance Thomas M. Siebel Professor of Business Leadership,
Strategy, and Organizations; Affiliated Faculty,
Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford
Even the best and most innovative ideas will go nowhere unless Jesper B. Sørensen
we can convince others to commit the necessary resources. Robert A. and Elizabeth R. Jeffe Professor of
Doing so almost always requires that we make a compelling case Organizational Behavior; Professor of Sociology
that the value of the opportunity far outweighs the upfront costs. (by courtesy), School of Humanities and Sciences;
Faculty Director, Stanford Institute for Innovation
This course will cover the key techniques of financial valuation and
in Developing Economies
capital budgeting used by major corporations. Understanding
these techniques is critical for project sponsors to make sure their Why are some firms more competitive than others? To be
ideas get the attention—and funding—they deserve. successful, a manager must be able to diagnose the reasons
behind success and failure, and to be able to effectively improve
You will gain experience building an actual financial model to
performance in the future. This course helps managers learn to
assess a proposed new product launch. We will consider key
think strategically: how to identify opportunities and challenges,
financial metrics that are often applied, and learn which ones
how to develop a viable course of action, how to formulate a
are reliable (and which are not). We will also look at how we can
strategy, and how to execute strategy so that their employees
use the financial model to guide our attention as project
are guided and motivated to achieve success. Our goal in this
managers in order to maximize the impact of our efforts. Along
course is to hone your strategic thinking skills so that this
the way we will gain insight into how financial markets work and
thought process becomes second nature.
how investors evaluate stocks. Finally, we will learn how to use
these skills to understand the drivers of a company’s stock Key topics include:
price, or its value in an acquisition. • Improving your strategic thinking skills: your ability to
Key topics include: diagnose and evaluate a firm’s strategy
• Interpreting balance sheets and income statements • Enriching your ability to shape the context for strategic
execution through the levers of organizational design and
• The difference between earnings and cash flows
leadership
• Measuring value using NPV
• Strengthening your ability to lead through strategic change
• ROI & IRR: Uses and abuses
• Interest rates, risk, and the cost of capital
• DCF/WACC valuation models
• Building a financial model
We will use a combination of lectures, quizzes, and individual
and group exercises, together with a final team project, to
prepare you to build a valuation model for a hypothetical
business venture. At the conclusion of the course you will have
built your own financial model for a project or investment, as
well as for evaluating a company.
1 Courses subject to change. gsb.stanford.edu/exed/lead
S TA N F O R D L E A D C ERTI F I CATE: CORPORATE I N N OVATION / FOUNDATION C OUR SES
CRITICAL ANALYTICAL THINKING
Haim Mendelson
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Professor of Electronic
Business and Commerce, and Management
Critical Analytical Thinking is essentially the language of
strategy. It adds structure and transparency to the analysis
and formulation of strateg y and helps executives make
decisions in a collaborative, logical, and fact-driven fashion.
This course will help you develop and hone skills necessary to
analy ze c omplex proble ms, for m ulate well-re as on e d
arguments, and consider alternative points of view. It will help
you assess innovative business models, identify critical issues,
develop and present well-reasoned positions, and evaluate
evidence. You will apply those skills to address a variety of
management problems in both this and subsequent courses in
the LEAD Certificate program.
Key topics include:
• Foundations of logical reasoning
• Using and interpreting evidence
• Designing experiments
• Using analogies
We will use a combination of lectures and case studies to
prepare you to present written and video arguments for your
positions, and to critique and debate those of your peers.
2 Courses subject to change. gsb.stanford.edu/exed/lead
S TA N F O R D L E A D C ERTI F I CATE: CORPORATE I N N OVATION / ELEC TIVE C OUR SES
Elective Courses
BUILDING POWER TO LEAD BUSINESS MODEL ANALYSIS AND DESIGN
Jeffrey Pfeffer Haim Mendelson
Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Professor of Electronic
Business and Commerce, and Management
Innovation means doing new things, and doing some of the Just as you wouldn’t build a house without first creating a
same things differently. But, regardless of the benefits or blueprint, effective commercial innovation requires a blueprint
desirability of the change, many individuals and groups have a of the business that will be supported or generated by your
stake in the status quo. That is why getting things done— innovation. That blueprint is the business model, which
particularly new things—requires skill in building power and comprises three elements: the value creation model, which
exerting influence. This course will develop both your skill at sp e cif ie s h ow th e inn ov atio n will cre ate an d deliver
diagnosing organizational dynamics and also your ability to differentiated value to its customers, and who these customers
develop and use power to get things done. will be; the profit model, which specifies the sources of
revenue, the cost structure, and the drivers of profitability;
Key topics include:
and the logic of the business, which ties together the value
• Becoming comfortable with power creation and profit models and explains how the business will
meet its growth and profitability objectives.
• Developing the personal qualities that create power
• How to create valuable resources Iterating on business model development helps innovators
follow a structured process for planning and building new
• Attracting allies and supporters
businesses on a standalone basis or within established
• Speaking and acting with power enterprises. In this course, we’ll discuss the process of
• Handling opposition and conflict structuring business models, address the core elements of a
business model, and practice the design of innovative business
The course will employ short lecture videos, multimedia case
models for new and established companies from multiple
studies, and both synchronous and asynchronous exercises on
industries. We’ll do that by analyzing case studies, studying
which you will receive feedback from your classmates and the
innovative business models, discussing the topic with
teaching staff. The materials are designed to build your power
entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, and building our own
skills and willingness to use these skills to get things done.
business model.
Key topics include:
• Purpose of a business model
• Elements of business model design
• Adoption and business model development
• Business model archetypes and the associated logic
• Profit models and unit economics
• Platform-based business models
• Sharing economy models
• Business model transformation
• How new business models are transforming entire
industries such as retail and transportation
3 Courses subject to change. gsb.stanford.edu/exed/lead
S TA N F O R D L E A D C ERTI F I CATE: CORPORATE I N N OVATION / ELEC TIVE C OUR SES
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE DESIGN: DESIGNING ORGANIZATIONS FOR CREATIVITY
A NEUROSCIENCE PERSPECTIVE AND INNOVATION
Baba Shiv Sarah A. Soule
Sanwa Bank, Limited, Professor of Marketing Morgridge Professor of Organizational Behavior;
Professor of Sociology (by courtesy), School of
Humanities and Sciences
Janaki Kumar This course focuses on a framework for thinking about the
organizational ecosystem, and how we can use a human-
Vice President, Head of Design and Co-Innovation
centered design process to effectively diagnose the roots of
Center, SAP Labs Palo Alto
very common organizational problems (e.g., lack of coordination
and trust between units, shortage of time for creative thinking,
loss of top talent). We will study the interplay among formal
The current business landscape calls for a change in business structure, routines, informal networks, and culture in shaping
practice and mindset in order to gain a competitive advantage organizational performance, change, innovation, and employee
and be successful. We can already see changes taking place. engagement.
More and more companies are beginning to focus on the
Key topics include:
customer experience and to incorporate design into their
business strategy. Why are companies focusing on the customer • Visualizing organizational dynamics
experience? Why are more designers in the C-level in
• Understanding informal network structures
organizations?
• Driving employee engagement, satisfaction, and
In this course, we will explore customer experience design and performance
design thinking through the lens of neuroscience in order to
• Using a design approach to build an innovative culture
understand why focusing on the customer experience can
provide companies with strategic advantages. You will see many
examples of how focusing on the customer experience has led to
great insights and innovations. You will also practice applying
some basic neuroscience concepts to guide your design thinking
process.
This course will provide you with neuroscience frameworks and
design thinking tools and techniques that you will be able to
leverage to gain meaningful insights and create a culture of
innovation within your organization.
Key topics include:
• Neuroscience frameworks that describe instinctual human
behavior and can be used to influence behavior
• The sweet spot of innovation that includes a focus on
human values
• Framing and solving problems with an understanding of the
emotional brain
• Design thinking techniques that value both divergent and
convergent thinking
• Designing systems that engage customers and build a
competitive advantage
• Creating a culture of innovation within organizations
In this course, we will employ short lecture videos, real-life
examples, and projects to help you use neuroscience and design
thinking frameworks to gain insights and lead teams toward
transformative and sustainable innovation.
4 Courses subject to change. gsb.stanford.edu/exed/lead
S TA N F O R D L E A D C ERTI F I CATE: CORPORATE I N N OVATION / FOUNDATION C OUR SES
GETTING (MORE OF) WHAT YOU WANT: THE INNOVATION PLAYBOOK:
NEGOTIATING, COLLABORATIVE PROBLEM DESIGNING STORIES FOR IMPACT
SOLVING, AND VALUE CLAIMING
Jennifer Aaker
Margaret A. Neale General Atlantic Partners Professor of Marketing
Adams Distinguished Professor of Management
To lead is to be able to reimagine the future and to be able to
One of the most common associations that executives have tell stories about that vision in a way that resonate with your
when thinking about negotiations is a battle. Almost with the investors, stakeholders, and customers to accelerate buy-in
thought about negotiating, negotiators are already starting to and make the vision become a reality. In fact, one reason many
put on their armor, ready to do battle with their counterparts. innovations fail is not because of the idea or the core product —
The goal is to take from them resources that they do not wish but rather because the story behind it was not clear.
to share, and to keep them from taking resources that you do
not wish to share with them. While there are negotiations that And as a leader, you need to know how to tell powerful stories —
fit this description, most of our negotiations are not battles — both business and personal — to inspire and lead.
unless by expecting a battle, you create one.
Key topics include:
Negotiation is all about influence. In our daily lives, we rarely
• Give you the skills to build a clear and cohesive signature
have the opportunity for successful command and control.
story about your innovation
When we negotiate, you cannot command a solution.
Negotiating is an interdependent process; you cannot force • Demonstrate how leaders use personal stories to build high
the other side to agree. Rather, you need to create proposals performing teams and companies
that engage them as a willing partner in your solution. • Help you develop an Innovation Playbook — which is a
digital, dynamic, living sketch of your company’s future,
In this course, the objective is to develop negotiating fluency:
and the story of how you plan to get there
knowing when to prepare for battle and when to engage in
collaborative problem solving. However, not just any solution will To do that, we will star t with a live session focused on
do. Rather to get (more of) what you want, you are looking for a improvisational comedy. You’ll learn how to build a story on
particular type of solution — one that makes you better off than the fly, with a team, and with humor.
your status quo or your alternatives while, from your counterpart’s
Once that base is set, we’ll dive into insights from behavioral
perspective, keeps them whole or makes them better off.
research so you can design for purpose, empathy, and humor.
Relying on decades of empirical research, the purpose of this You apply these principles in a design thinking process to glean
course is to provide you with a set of tools and a theoretical insights from users — which you use to define your signature
understanding of the strategies and tactics that can improve story. Throughout the course, you’ll hear from CEOs and leaders
the quality of your negotiating outcomes and your ability to get from companies like Salesforce, Nike, Pixar, and Tory Burch
(more of) what you want. The course combines experiential, talking about how they harness story as an asset. You will also
hands-on negotiations with the development of empirically come along with me to go behind the scene at a successful
derived frameworks that can improve the quality of your global company to see how they do this on a daily basis.
negotiations — whether you are negotiating with your
Along the way, you will engage in personal coaching sessions
colleagues, your boss, your subordinates, friends, family
with experts in the fields of story, design thinking, and improv
members, and even strangers.
to (a) develop your Innovation Playbook and (b) hone your own
Key topics include: personal story for impact.
• Making the choice to negotiate By the end, you will have your own Innovation Playbook to
• The infrastructure of negotiation effectively align stakeholders behind your vision. You will also
participate in a “story-off” with fellow LEAD participants on the
• Creating value vs claiming value
last day of class. You’ll leave with the skills and experience, like
• Steps to effective preparation for negotiation all the best leaders, to curate, craft, and tell stories effectively
• How and when to walk away and to harness story to drive growth in a digital world.
• Power — how to get more when you have it, and when
you don’t
• When there is more than one person across the table:
teams and coalitions in negotiation
We will employ both self-paced video and hands-on negotiation
exercises to help you gain mastery of various negotiating tools
and to develop a strategic framework for getting (more of)
what you want in your negotiations.
5 Courses subject to change. gsb.stanford.edu/exed/lead
S TA N F O R D L E A D C ERTI F I CATE: CORPORATE I N N OVATION / FOUNDATION C OUR SES
THE INNOVATION PROCESS MOBILIZING FOR SUCCESSFUL CHANGE:
A TOOLKIT
Stefanos Zenios
Investment Group of Santa Barbara Professor of Hayagreeva Rao
Entrepreneurship and Professor of Operations, Atholl McBean Professor of Organizational Behavior and
Information and Technology; Director of the Center for Human Resources; Professor of Sociology (by courtesy),
Entrepreneurial Studies School of Humanities and Sciences; Academic Director,
Stanford Innovation and Entrepreneurship Certificate
Note: You can take the Testing and Implementation course
independently of the Design course. Many new initiatives fail and lead to a downward spiral of
disinterest and distrust. Yet, by employing a thoughtful
In these experiential project-based courses taken consecutively,
methodology to mobilize for change, you can avoid common
you will apply the concepts of design thinking and hypothesis-
pitfalls and navigate the challenges that often accompany
driven startup (also known as lean startup) to design and test
change initiatives.
new business concepts that address real-world customer needs.
Working in teams, you will identify an unmet user need; design This course provides an array of simple but powerful tools for
new products, services, or processes to meet that need; and managers to lead and implement change. It employs a
develop a business case that leverages your organization’s framework developed from four decades of social science
capabilities and resources to support the creation and launch of research identifying five subprocesses for change: Persuading,
this new product, service, or process. Each team will conceive, Recruiting Support, Energizing New Behavior, Staffing a
design, build, and field test critical aspects of both product/ Change Team, and Sequencing Change (PRESS). At the end,
service/process and its business case. Teams will interact you will understand each of these processes and apply them
directly with users and coaches to develop a deep understanding to your own change initiative via a 100-day plan.
of the challenges they face and to field test their proposed
services, processes, products, and business cases. Key topics include:
Key topics from The Innovation Process: Design include: • Overcoming change blindness
• Forming an effective team • Tools to undertake change readiness of different internal
• Identifying unmet customer needs constituencies
• Human-centered design • Persuading your organizational superiors, peers, and
• Needs finding subordinates
• Ideation • Recruiting support and overcoming resistance
• Interviewing and empathy-building techniques • Energizing new behavior through information, incentives,
• Prototyping and empowerment
• Staffing a change team
Key topics from The Innovation Process: Testing and
Implementation include: • Sequencing change
• Minimal Viable Products • Developing your 100-day change plan
• Understanding key risks in the launch of a new product/
We will use a combination of lectures and case studies to
service/process
develop your to olkit for change, an d th en provide a
• Defining key hypotheses and designing experiments to collaborative space for you to share and receive feedback on
stress-test critical risks your work.
• Business Model Canvas as a tool to establish the business
case for an innovative product/service or process
• Go-to-market strategies and unit economics as key steps to
assessing commercial viability
In these hands-on courses, we will employ a series of short
video lectures to guide you as you work in small, collaborative
teams to complete the exercises and deliverables. These
courses are based on the popular Startup Garage course
taught at Stanford GSB that helped launch such successful
companies as Trulia and Epocrates. The content has been
adapted to meet the specific needs of the intrapreneur: the
entrepreneurial corporate executive who aspires to develop
new products, services, or processes that meet previously
unidentified user needs. A user can be ex ternal to an
organization (customer, supplier, par tner) or internal
(employee) and the goal is to find common ground between
the needs of the user and the goals of the organization.
6 Courses subject to change. gsb.stanford.edu/exed/lead
