Student Stories

I am applying concepts from the Business Analytics course in my current venture. From designing surveys to hypothesis testing, every aspect of data collection and analysis informs our customer validation process.

Emilie Billaud

Emilie Billaud, Research Associate at Harvard Business School

The program gave me a framework and a great toolbox for the cases that I am currently developing.

Marcus Melo

Electrical Engineering student at the University of Brasilia

Taking Entrepreneurship Essentials was an incredible opportunity to learn from the best and to be in a class full of great minds.

Yefei Jin

An entrepreneur improving education for English language learners

By recognizing that every student brought with her or him a wealth of lived experiences, HBS Online empowered me to learn much more from peers than I had imagined.

Michelle Headrick

Business Analyst and Multidisciplinary Studies Student

"I found myself constantly considering ways that my own company could immediately adapt and adopt some of those practices [from CORe]."

Sohaib Imtiaz

"The program was exhilarating due to the enticing case studies, the energy of the professors, and the euphoria of feeling like you're actually in a Harvard Business School classroom. Having such a diverse group of participants bringing such unique ideas to the discussion was very enjoyable."

Abby Katz

Abby Katz is a Senior Marketing Manager at Mavrck, a Boston-based influencer marketing software company.

"I found the content of the course to be extremely informative and applicable to the real challenges of being a leader. I loved the frameworks and the case study model of the course, and I thought the course was very manageable on top of a full-time job."

Ivan Seah

Third year undergraduate medical student from Singapore

At the end of the day, hospitals still have to be sustainable businesses. I am confident that CORe will impart the necessary fundamentals to understand and analyze such concepts.

Manoj Purohit

Product Manager at Thermax Limited, an energy and environmental solution provider

[Economics for Managers] has unveiled powerful tools to me which are very useful in my current role.

J. Holden Gibbons

Meet Holden, a CORe‬ participant who took the program to help with the transition from military to civilian life.

Esra Ugurlu

Business Development Manager at Sanita Farma Healthcare Logistics

My certificate gives me a competitive advantage and the opportunity to contribute to the success of my company in a unique way. Moreover, a Harvard certificate opens news doors wherever I choose to work in the world.

Praveen Jayakumar

Doctor, Medical Director & Co-Chief Medical Officer

Leading with Finance offered the perfect opportunity to refresh my core finance skills and interact with a global group of colleagues in an online format was ideal for my schedule.

Ryan Dumlao

Electrical Engineer in Pharmaceuticals, pursuing an MBA in the fall of 2016

I had never experienced such an immersive platform online, and could argue that it was more effective at building and solidifying knowledge than some of the in-class courses I took in college.

Aranzazú Martínez Galeana

Aranzazú Martínez Galeana is a Senior Project Coordinator at ERM, a provider of environmental, health, safety, risk, and social consulting services.

"I got promoted to a Senior Project Coordinator role just weeks after finishing the course, so I have had the chance to apply many of the topics covered."

Peter LaBerge

Undergrad in creative writing who took CORe to help grow his poetry journal

I entered the CORe program with the assumption that business was binary in its reliance on creativity and science, on ideas and numbers. In reality, it’s simply not. There are numbers behind the most successful marketing campaigns, brand directions, and management decisions.

Anindita Ravikumar

Working for a consulting firm to help design business models that serve low-income populations

Another aspect of CORe that greatly added to my learning was the diverse cohort I was able to interact with - the stories and instances from their lives added more color to each topic we learned.

Anna Ngarachu

Data analyst for an economic research firm in Johannesburg, South Africa

I think what I took from CORe or what I enjoyed was how it shaped me to think and apply all concepts simultaneously.

Rarely does a day go by where I don't see a business leader or company wrestling with the same issues that we discussed in class on the front-page of the Wall Street Journal. These issues are more relevant than ever and top of mind for many of the companies I work for as a consultant. They continue to inform my own personal worldview of capitalism, and my own role in shaping society as a future business leader.

Liz Taylor

An advertising account director in NYC applying CORe to better serve her clients

I honestly use something from CORe nearly every day. In general, I have a much better appreciation for my client's business.

Willemijn van Woerkom

Amsterdam native Willemijn discusses the inviting and addictive nature of the CORe online course platform and how the business skills she's learned in the program are applicable to people of all backgrounds.

Daily, I use the accounting principles succinctly enumerated by Professor Narayanan. I especially use what I learned in the volunteer work that I do as a board member for two nonprofit organizations.

I use my CORe training every day. Whether at work on in my private life, CORe was a paradigm-shifting event for me.

Jackie Lender

Senior at Harvard University

I think that CORe is bridging the gap between what I learned in liberal arts, which is how to identify major problems in the world and be a global citizen, with hard-skill knowledge such as analyzing a business problem.

Tyler Sonsalla

PhD candidate studying molecular sciences and nanotechnology and interested in learning about utilizing sustainability within a business model

"I enjoyed hearing from top executives of large firms and their sustainable initiatives. Additionally, speaking with individuals that lived in different countries was very enlightening. Lastly, I enjoyed the ability to complete at my own pace because I liked to step away and think about each question."

Melyssa Wolf

I can't say enough about the energy and motivation I gained from taking this course. I felt a renewed commitment to my life-long pursuits and left each class with introspective thoughts and ideas for my future.

Sam Gant

Pursuing a career in International Development

I think CORe may be the extra push I need to connect with jobs that really interest me.

I now have a better understanding of sustainability and which companies are doing it right. I’m armed with talking points proving that sustainability is good for business, the environment and its people.

Mayank Dubey

Marketing and communications professional looking to learn about sustainable business practices

"The course has completely changed me today. I feel like a new person, with a new thought process, driven by purpose, committed to doing the right thing."

Christopher Munro

Operations Analyst who took CORe to further a career in business

CORe proved to be so rewarding. I went in with the mindset of something to set my resume apart from others and came out with a broad and detailed understanding of the fundamentals of business.

…at the end of four weeks you essentially feel like you have taken a graduate course, but have had some fun along the way

The collaborative environment encourages you to help your peers learn and will help you become engaged in the material. It's not an easy program, but every ounce of effort you put into CORe will yield results in your understanding of the complex world of business.

Aravind Sivashankara

One of the most insightful components of this course was the detailed case studies on other companies that had similar challenges... The diverse perspectives that I got from my peers, which the learning platform enables, were very similar to those I get with my work environment.

I feel like now I can speak more high-level about where we want to take the company and what strategic initiatives we want to put in place….It has given me an entirely new set of tools.

Danielle Dutervil Mubarak

A lawyer in NYC using her CORe knowledge to better serve her clients.

What really impressed me were my classmates - people from all over the world and from all backgrounds that were invested in helping each other.

...it's beyond the value I could have ever expected for such a small investment, life changing

Emer Moloney

Emer Moloney, Research Associate at the Harvard Business School European Research Center

I now feel that I have a broad overview of finance and can approach topics with a strong, integrated framework instead of approaching them in isolation.

Nupur Kohli

A doctor and healthcare entrepreneur from the Netherlands

I have also applied what I learned in setting up my own health company, LeadInShape. CORe helped me in interpreting data, researching different markets, and how to do my finances. Also, when I have to make decisions in my work or in business, I think of what I have learned in CORe.

Sophie Pan

Senior Analyst at a media group

CORe will challenge you to stretch yourself. But if you put in the hours and the hard work, it will prove to be an extraordinarily rewarding experience.

Professor David Garvin is so sentient and poignant in his discussions of process and decision-making. The case studies of significant historical events are like looking back through a time machine. People lost their lives because of faulty processes. I know this is a dubious feeling, but I can't get the thought out of my head that with more and more case studies, you could swell your brain with a better recipe for living as well as running a company. So if you are on the fence about taking this course, get off on the correct side. Take the course so we can talk about it.

Sheneka Balogun

Meet Sheneka, a CORe participant who took the program in order to advance her career and to begin an Ed.D. in Entrepreneurial Leadership.

Randy Nguyen

My favorite part of Entrepreneurship Essentials was the financing and equity module. It taught me the basics of how to look at spreadsheets and make sense of them—one of the most vital things for any company or start-up to understand.

Sara Simon Pioger

Business Owner and Teacher

I am using some of the negotiation preparation techniques from the course in different aspects of my job. Overall I feel more confident in situations that might have once felt intimidating.

Chirag Gandhi

Risk Analyst at Credit Suisse

"The best part of CORe was its case-based approach to learning and retaining business fundamentals. No chapter in the entire curriculum had raw theory...It helped in challenging conventional wisdom with strong and practical, real life examples.”

I'm using regression analysis and other statistical concepts from Business Analytics to build predictive models, analyze trends, and conduct surveys and hypothesis testing. Business Analytics has helped me pursue a career in data analytics and land a job as a Business Intelligence Analyst at Ministry of Justice New Zealand. I'm leading a few modelling and reporting projects across the Ministry using the knowledge I gained from the course.

Trevor Tan

Commercial disputes lawyer working in London, U.K.

Already, knowing the fundamentals of business has deepened my understanding of the context and consequences of the commercial disputes I manage daily.

Jackie Lender

Jackie is a student at Harvard University studying Government and Slavic Studies. She explains how CORe helped her develop an interdisciplinary skill set and build upon her liberal arts education to become a more effective leader.

Neeti Mathur

Assistant Professor of Management and Assistant Registrar (Placement) at National Law University in Jodhpur, India

The program is beautifully designed and has so much to offer. Professor Desai explains the concepts effortlessly and it’s easy to grasp and absorb them.

The course shifted my worldview: what the most pressing problems are, who comes up with solutions, and how we get there. Professor Henderson pushed hard for us to think deeply about systemic change when it's easy to be satisfied with small wins. Though the course is focused on the private sector, in my public sector job, I often reference the learnings when considering how best to work with businesses so we can leave the world better than we received it.

Economics for Managers gave me a new lens to look at the business world using common economics concepts, such as demand-supply curves, elasticity, equilibrium, markets, and pricing.