Student Stories
Find out what it's like to take an HBS Online course from current and past learners.
Find out what it's like to take an HBS Online course from current and past learners.
Strategy Execution provides learners with tools and frameworks based on real-life business situations. This directly affects the value of the course, as the takeaways are applicable—not just theories you can learn in other courses.
As someone who’s worked in a large company for the past 20-plus years, it gave me the foundation and vocabulary to engage more confidently in the venture capital and startup community.
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.
I found myself constantly considering ways that my own company could immediately adapt and adopt some of those practices [from CORe].
The CORe program will help me to better understand the world around me…and to hit the ground running in any job after graduation.
I am applying what I learned in CORe every day!
Don't lose hope. These courses helped change my career trajectory, and I hope they do wonders in your life as well. In the end, it'll be all worth it.
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.
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.
Hear what students are saying about the Credential of Readiness (CORe).
…the CORe program will help me transition from being a liberal arts student with a humanities major to being a successful consultant…
I will be starting my career this summer in the fin-tech industry and I felt that this course would give me a competitive edge, and help me to better understand some of the decisions and practices that I may need on the job to better gauge my clients’ needs
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.
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.
No matter the size, depth, or reach of any organization or your role in that organization, a foundational understanding of the finances that drive performance is essential. Mihir’s style is one that is inviting, energetic, and thought-enhancing. He really instills the fundamental belief that in our careers we are really only there to complete one task and that is ‘think.’ He makes you ‘think’ about what we are viewing, turn it over, and makes you ‘think’ about what falls apart and how to put it back together.
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.
The course content is well designed and helps investors get a basic understanding of what sustainable finance is, its challenges, the path forward, and its key players.
The rich variety in content differentiated this course as a uniquely high-quality, fully engaging learning experience.
Learning about concepts through real-life cases was my favorite part of the program. The cases really helped transform abstract concepts into observable situations one could learn from.
This course was impactful especially using case studies of real-life situations to solve complex and confusing problems. The results of this will help improve my managerial decisions within and outside the organizations to minimize risks and increase profits
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.
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.
The excel I learned from Business Analytics has become useful as I started working as a data analyst for an economic research firm, BMI Research. The techniques I learned make it easier to comprehend the more complex functions. In addition, the integrated learning I took from the case studies allows me to apply “total analysis” in my everyday work and assessments, which is in fact the core business of my company.
The course masterfully interwove design thinking theory as a process with helpful tools and outstanding examples from practitioners and companies.
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.
As a classically trained scientist with limited business experience, I believe CORe is a fantastic way to invest in myself and help bridge the gap between being the scientist I am right now and the consultant I need to be in September.
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.
I got motivated and more optimistic about the success of giving life to my nonprofit organization.
Being able to break down real-life scenarios, and look at the management processes within each—what worked and what didn't—provided a unique method of learning, and incomparable to other course offerings available.
I am early in my career and am looking for a path to becoming a chief sustainability officer or sustainability manager with a company I can align my values with. This class seemed like the perfect opportunity to give me the right tools to learn more about this field.
Participating in the student discussions and answering cold calls was empowering. It ignited a drive within me to learn and absorb as much as I could.
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 believe anyone looking to better understand business strategy would gain a lot from this course.
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 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.
I loved the mixture of academic teaching, case-based review, interaction with peers who had their own experiences to recount, and application in my place of work. To me, it was a complete package.
I've taken a lot of paid online courses, but the HBS Online experience was close to that of the classroom and highly immersive.
Learning from Professor Wheeler is a once in a lifetime opportunity. A superb teacher, he shows students how to become masterful negotiators.
HBS Online doesn't teach you knowledge or prescribe to any cookie-cutter solutions to problems. Rather, it teaches you how to think about business problems and arrive at a solution yourself.
It’s an eye-opening course that enlightens the path for future founders, joiners, or investors.
As always, the case studies are eye-opening. The content is superb, and the presentation of the case is superb as well.
Taking Entrepreneurship Essentials was an incredible opportunity to learn from the best and to be in a class full of great minds.
In my opinion, the true value of CORe is the ability to interact and network with fellow CORe members.
Meet Dave, a Disruptive Strategy participant who took the course to improve his decision making.
The way Business Analytics blended numbers with the impact on business forecasting and improvement of business processes was simply amazing. The real-life cases from different spheres made the learning more insightful. The subject further helped affirm the power of data/numbers in analyzing and forecasting about a particular business initiative.
My goals also include applying the knowledge learned in this program to my professional life, really soaking it in, and learning from the experiences and perspectives of my peers in the course.
Meet Doug, a Leading with Finance participant who took the course to advance his career and deepen his understanding of essential financial concepts.
Sustainable Business Strategy should be required learning for everyone, regardless of their sector or beliefs about business. Professor Henderson’s approach empowered me with a fundamental understanding of economic systems, in the U.S. and abroad, in order to make it possible for me to question the assumptions upon which they are built and challenge me to rethink how we construct entities—public and private—to ensure long-term success.
I'm applying things I learned from the courses every single day.
If you're looking for more information on how Harvard Business School Online programs can teach you the essential skills you need for success, request more information today.