Special Topics in Entrepreneurship: Ventures to Address Global Challenges, Fall 2008
EGR 495 Special Topics in Entrepreneurship: Ventures to Address Global Challenges, Fall 2008
How can we confront huge global challenges like poverty, nutrition, healthcare, water, housing, the digital divide or climate change? Take an interdisciplinary look from an entrepreneur's perspective -- designing sustainable venture solutions that can turn these and other selected problems into opportunities -- rather than that of a policy maker, advocate, researcher or field service worker. We'll examine whether and how entrepreneurial initiatives can complement other, more traditional, efforts like government programs, private philanthropy and corporate social responsibility. We'll showcase promising examples of entrepreneurs converting global challenges into viable businesses around the world, and examine the hurdles and rewards they encounter in doing so.
Following an introductory class session to orient you to the overall course and its objectives and structure, we will have several OVERVIEW classes on these global challenges and the landscape of entrepreneurship. Then we will move to the heart of the course: a series of FOCUS class sessions which will address particular global challenges (housing, water, healthcare, energy, etc.), examining their characteristics, exploring technologies and other possible solutions, and showcasing promising examples of how entrepreneurs are converting those challenges into viable business opportunities. Ideally, these are ventures whose financial sustainability does not depend on government grants, private philanthropy or corporate altruism. Some of the global challenges we will focus on are poverty-related; others are not. These sessions will be interspersed with several POSSIBILITIES classes examining entrepreneurial business models, potential technologies, firsthand accounts of what it takes to launch a venture in these markets, and a look ahead at the prospects for Ventures to Address Global Challenges (V2AGC).
This course will highlight some of the most promising global challenge-related research, technologies and insights emerging around the Princeton campus, and involve relevant faculty as expert guides as the class moves its focus across disciplines. Although our primary geographical focus is on the developing world, we will periodically discuss examples of American entrepreneurs who tackled challenges similar to those presented by these global issues. The course can be a type of "academic passport" across our campus to understand how exciting research and technology developed here - regardless of department - could support new venture creation elsewhere in the world. Throughout the semester, we will also have the chance to meet entrepreneurs involved in ventures around the globe. Depending on student interest and guest speaker availability, we may also be able to schedule optional conversations in other settings with additional participants in the V2AGC marketplace.
John Danner, the lead instructor, is the Dean's Visiting Professor in Entrepreneurship this semester from the University of California Berkeley. He is Senior Fellow of The Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business, where he teaches the core MBA course on entrepreneurship, as well as other graduate courses on business model innovation and strategies for startups. He also launched UC's campus-wide undergraduate course on entrepreneurship and global poverty. He began his entrepreneurial career as an undergraduate at Harvard, and has since been involved in startups of various types as entrepreneur, advisor and investor. In addition, he has worked as a management consultant, lawyer or senior executive in the private, nonprofit and public sectors in fields from education and healthcare to telecommunications and energy. A frequent speaker at conferences and seminars around the world, he is also senior moderator with The Aspen Institute's executive and global leadership programs. He received his J.D., M.P.H. and M.A.Ed. degrees from UC Berkeley.