Harvard Business School Online is launching two new courses that will enable you to make an impact on society: Power and Influence for Positive Impact and Sustainable Investing. Whether you’re interested in building and exercising power responsibly or aligning your investments with your values to promote public good, these courses can help you hone your decision-making to create change.
Power and Influence for Positive Impact
Power is often considered reserved for the most senior executives in an organization. Yet, individuals at any stage of their career can influence change and make an impact. HBS Online created a course, Power and Influence for Positive Impact, to address just that.
The course, taught by Julie Battilana—the Joseph C. Wilson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and the Alan L. Gleitsman Professor of Social Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School, where she's also the founder and faculty chair of the Social Innovation and Change Initiative—provides professionals with the techniques and tools to understand how power really works and cultivate it to challenge the status quo and drive change.
In this course, you’ll learn how to:
- Avoid the pitfalls of power
- Build networks as a source of power
- Assess your organization’s political landscape
- Develop influence skills to shift power dynamics
- Exercise power ethically and responsibly
- Hold the powerful accountable
You’ll experience firsthand how industry leaders navigate power dynamics and exercise power responsibly through examples of individuals from various sectors, including media, nonprofits, consulting, fashion, and agricultural technology.
Applications for this six-week course will be accepted until May 9, 2022, and the first offering starts May 18, 2022.
Sustainable Investing
Sustainable investing is one of the fastest-growing fields in finance today. As of March 2021, assets in U.S. sustainable funds totaled nearly $266 billion—a 123 percent increase year over year.
HBS Online has created a new course, Sustainable Investing, to help investment professionals and those in related fields capitalize on this growing market and make a difference while generating a financial return for their customers and shareholders.
The course is taught by Harvard Business School Professors Shawn Cole, the John G. McLean Professor of Business Administration, and Vikram Gandhi, Senior Lecturer of Business Administration. It teaches participants how to select and align investments with their values to promote public good and address pressing issues, such as climate change, social equality, and community development.
In this course, you’ll learn how to:
- Incorporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors into investment decisions and define and manage their success
- Evaluate, select, measure, and monitor investments
- Develop financial models to mitigate inherent climate risk
- Implement strategies and techniques that best serve clients’ goals
Participants will learn from real challenges faced by prominent investing organizations, such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and the Ford Foundation.
Applications for this six-week course will be accepted until May 2, 2022, and the first offering starts May 11, 2022.
Experiencing the HBS Online Learning Model
“We’re fortunate to be able to offer these two new courses to our participants,” says HBS Online Executive Director Patrick Mullane. “Julie Battilana is an expert on social innovation and social change, and Shawn Cole and Vikram Gandhi are experts on impact investing. With these prominent faculty leading the courses, our learners are guaranteed an outstanding educational experience that will help them acquire new expertise and advance their careers.”
In both Power and Influence for Positive Impact and Sustainable Investing, you’ll immerse yourself in a unique learning model, which encourages debate and collaboration with hundreds of participants from around the world. Together, learners solve real business problems and engage in an ongoing series of interactive exercises, including polls, quizzes, and short written reflections.
Are you interested in learning more? Explore our two new six-week courses, Sustainable Investing and Power and Influence for Positive Impact, to take the next step in your career.