Student Stories

Jacqueline Lewy

Liberal arts student seeking a practical business education

So far, it has been pretty great to be able to pick up a newspaper and understand what it means when financial terms are used.

Brooks Wallace

Public relations professional looking to learn about sustainable business practices

"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."

Mirza Mahmood ul Hasan

Chief Financial Officer at Alsulaiman Group

The course, through its excellent design, has given me an approach and the confidence to deal with disruption either as an opportunity or a business risk.

HBS Online was an invaluable and essential education. The information provided, the quality of the presentation, and the high-level engagement among students surpassed my expectations.

Dustin Brown

Working in real estate in Indiana while applying to MBA programs

I loved being able to learn the material through real examples and have found that this sort of learning makes the content stick much better in my memory.

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.

Through CORe, I have uncovered a love for analytics, made valuable connections with people in several countries, and gained a strong foundation that will serve me well in MBA or PhD studies, which I am considering for the future.

Daniela Fierro Touché

Daniela Fierro Touché is an Administration and Registration Analyst at the FEMSA Collection in Monterrey, Mexico, a Latin American art collection comprising of pieces from the 20th and 21st centuries.

"I've been able to understand the macroeconomic policies that are being implemented by, and imposed to, my country, and the implications they have on our lives. This has equipped me with more tools to make overall better decisions. The course has been tremendously useful and eye-opening."

Jocelyn Johnson

Working in Marketing/Social Media for an edtech startup in NYC

But in the few years I have been out of school, I have found that being able to understand key business principles is essential, especially in the startup world.

Marc Zavarella

A US Army Veteran studying at Columbia University and hoping to pursue a career in medicine/healthcare

The principles I learned in CORe are fundamentally important to a successful business, and taking this program ensured that I mastered these concrete pieces of the puzzle.

The platform was engaging, innovative, and allowed me to interact with the material in a way I never expected from an online course.

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.

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.

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.

The highlight of the program was the content. From the videos with guest business executives to the interactive elements to the way we're continually tested via cold calls, CORe keeps you engaged through and through.

The People, Opportunity, Context, and Deal framework is now in the back of my mind. Also, I have learned how to quickly assess and network with other companies and panelists at the hundreds of meetup events I've attended.

Yashvardhan Gusani

"The personal interaction I had with the professor and other participants was the best part. It was informative, transformational, and rejuvenating!"

Armin Rezaiean-Asel

Computer engineering student using CORe to enhance his software initiatives

I enjoyed being able to interact with motivated, ambitious students from all over the world. Furthermore, the course content and platform were extremely engaging, combining the best of pedagogy and technology.

Dave Nelson

Meet Dave, a Disruptive Strategy participant who took the course to improve his decision making.

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.

Sergio Sanchez

Manager in the Brazilian auto industry who took CORe to advance his career

I believe all of the courses prepare people for the business world, but more than that, they put the student in the boss's chair, offering concepts and examples, but also demanding quick and deep answers and solutions along the way.

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.

Alberto de la Rivaherrera

Alberto de la Rivaherrera is an Acquisition Officer in the US Air Force, who is currently working in the biotech sector.

"Without a doubt, these courses have helped vector my focus on what I want to pursue with my grad school and career goals."

If you have no formal education in business, this program will dramatically change the way you think…The combination of subjects covered will give you the fundamental knowledge to think deeper about what it takes to run a successful business, how to win in the marketplace, and how to make decisions as a manager.

This was an awesome way to get your feet wet in the world of business. I think that the courses were well-designed so as to maximize the impact they have on your real-world outlook.

…the CORe program will help me transition from being a liberal arts student with a humanities major to being a successful consultant…

Dave Nelson

Head of Sales at WegoWise

I feel like I have an unfair advantage now knowing what I've learned from this course. It has given me confidence and clarity in my decisions, and I can already see the material impact of applying this model and mindset to our business and our culture.

Farsh Askari

Community Manager and Disruptive Strategy Participant

​Learning about disruption theories has proven not only applicable within a business context, but broadly as a predictive prescription toward challenges in life as a whole.

Paige Peterson

Sales Manager, Western US at Coravin, Inc.

I have already applied so much of what I have learned. My strategy and message for my team and how we communicate with our customers has begun to shift.

I could not be a bigger proponent for online learning following my CORe experience. The ability to pause, rewind, and repeat what your instructor has to say was very helpful in learning business concepts. The course increased my confidence in the world of business and helped me formalize my career path.

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.

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.

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

Athenahealth

Executives from athenahealth reflect on their experiences in Disruptive Strategy, an online course taught by Harvard Business School professor Clayton M. Christensen.

I thought I knew the subject relatively well and it would be a refresher. I was in for a surprise. After the first module, I realized that I did many things wrong. The most chilling thought was about missed opportunities. The course is giving me a good structure to understand organizational behavior.

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."

The framework of Disruptive Strategy helps you to make strategic thinking something that you do every day, as opposed to an exercise to get a strategic plan put together.

Professor Sahlman’s careful observation of the best and brightest entrepreneurs over the last 30 years has given him a perspective and insightfulness that few others can rival. He keeps his students eager to dissect and analyze the situation and range of solutions.

Lauren Hall

Part-time MBA student and working in energy efficiency in Chicago, IL

A year after finishing CORe, all three classes have been invaluable in my first two quarters in school. I am able to get more out of class because I already have the fundamentals.

Professor Sahlman’s careful observation of the best and brightest entrepreneurs over the last 30 years has given him a perspective and an insightfulness that few others can rival. He keeps his students leaned in and eager to dissect and analyze the situation and range of solutions.

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.

So much of the business world is about working with others to accomplish a common goal; knowing that your peers were rating your participation and reading your contributions was truly compelling.

Peggy Dau

Founder & Managing Partner at MAD Perspectives LLC

I am paying more attention to how my clients perceive the value of my services. I find myself rephrasing their statements to confirm their true needs.

Harvard Business School Online is one of the best things I've ever been a part of. Proud to be an alumni of two HBS Online programs, and looking forward to more. HBS really got it right with this.

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.

This was absolutely the quality I would expect from a Harvard Business School Online experience—I loved everything about it. The technology was amazing—love the different camera angles, the option to raise your hand, etc.

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.

Kyle Rosenmeyer

Boise State University Graduate, Engineer, and Photographer

"For me, that connection from textbook to reality made the courses memorable, enjoyable, and interesting. Case studies were absolutely my favorite part of the program."

Sheneka Balogun

A higher ed professional from Nashville, TN

CORe has provided me a dynamic understanding of how to measure and understand those outcomes. I can now confidently translate statistical data into a graphical presentation or employ different statistical techniques to help me better understand the pulse of student progress.