Creative Business Leadership (LEAD)

Leading the design and management of dynamic creative and cultural enterprises takes a thorough understanding of organizational processes and management techniques. Through a survey of historic organizational strategies, students are introduced to the innovative tools, necessary to develop their own enterprise or lead within an existing organization. Students focus on enterprise analysis, organizational structures, strategic planning, management techniques and incorporation.

Great minds have shaped the world we live in today. While exploring innovative methods of leadership throughout history, students learn the legacies created by the most prominent leaders of government, military, religion, art, business, design, science, philosophy and technology. Guided by knowledge gained in this course, students adapt and develop their own strategies of decision-making and direction as leaders.

Sustaining a competitive advantage and providing a superior financial return requires leaders to analyze business strategies using historical constructs, quantitative reasoning and risk mitigation. Students develop scenario-based financial projections through divergent and convergent design thinking principles while applying both analytics and intuition to design opportunities.

Transformative leaders have two common characteristics: resourcefulness and grit. In this course, students learn analytical thinking techniques and methods of managing complex, human-related problems through systems analysis tools to become positive leaders of business. Students also establish a deep understanding of emotional intelligence to develop their capabilities to manage and work in complex organizational structures. Informed by research, inquiry and discussion, students develop and execute strategies, and design high-performing organizations that deliver results.

Entrepreneurs in creative industries face unique economic opportunities and challenges. Through evaluation of business opportunities, understanding funding alternatives, navigating risk, effective negotiation and financial analyses, students explore key tenets of entrepreneurial finance. Students learn applied skills, enabling them to successfully conduct valuations, strategically select funding alternatives and generate financial information and returns required by investors or lenders.

In the highly competitive arena of new art and design ventures, effective application of marketing strategy is critical to generating and sustaining customer value and enterprise success. Students investigate the functions and foundations of marketing, learning to use market research, and consumer behavior analysis to guide development and implementation of marketing strategies. Students learn to develop marketing tactics and strategy as a key component of business decision making.

The unprecedented pace of innovation and entrepreneurial activity offers exceptional opportunities for students to design their own enterprises. Students develop a new venture idea, assess their concept’s viability, manage its evolution and strategically plan for its execution. Emphasis is placed on students’ application of emerging entrepreneurial thought and state-of-the-art strategy tools.

From idea generation to low-fidelity prototypes, students generate innovative business models based on analysis of market opportunities in their chosen sector. Through the development of a clear hypothesis and strategic plan, students develop their business ideas while learning how to test products in the market place embracing the characteristics of superior leaders: agility, resilience and vision.

Students in this course undertake a field assignment under the supervision of a faculty member.

Students in this course undertake a teaching assignment under the supervision of a faculty member.