Student Stories

This was a class where you could contribute your opinion and hear from two participants who were on opposite sides of the debate, as well as the globe.

T. Gerald O'Daniel

Plastic Surgeon, T. Gerald O'Daniel, MD, FACS, PLLC and Medical Director and Founder at Louisville Surgery Center

This part of the course was exceptionally entertaining, and by putting this human element in place, it enhanced the real life importance of understanding finance at a high level.

Jonathan Rossi

Undergraduate admissions representative eager to pursue a PhD or MBA

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.

Raj Desai

Tech entrepreneur developing mass-scale wifi solutions in India

It's like you're looking through the world with a completely different perspective altogether, yet it's so obvious. The dots were always there, and CORe made me realize the connections.

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.

The academic rigor was thrilling. What made it extra special was the people I met through the experience. That community stays with me every day.

Martina Panchella

Senior Manager at Deutsche Lufthansa AG

I learned new things that I can apply to my work today. With 28 years of business experience, that doesn't happen often to this extent.

I believe that CORe helped prove to prospective employers, as well as myself, that I understand the fundamentals of business.

Saad Hashmi

Associate Corporate Relationship Manager at HSBC Bank Middle East Limited

In an ever fast-changing world, it is important to keep abreast with how people around the world tackle finance-related issues and the experiences they go through.

CORe was much more than a tripod of rigorous courses. The sense of community that developed from all the various social platforms that were unique to Harvard Business School Online that provided me the platform to interact with other students from all over the world in various industries were instrumental in my application and understanding of the concepts.

Laura Wingate

Strategy Execution Participant

I’ve found HBS Online's courses to be immediately applicable to my work, and they’ve made me a more productive member of our strategic team.

This program debunked many myths about management. I highly recommend anyone with or without managerial experience take this course. It is much more than just about managing the people.

Kaushal Khodifad

Senior Systems Engineer at Infosys

The virtual, interactive platform was unique. I was continuously engaged with the course's material and learned a lot from my peers.

Stephanie Laguna

Health Care Strategy & Innovation Leader

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.

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.

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.

Daniella Patrick

Meet Daniella, a Disruptive Strategy participant who took the course to become a disruptor and innovator.

…it was a great experience being able to interact with so many intelligent students all over the world…it's a perfect combination of teaching from the professors and help from all of your classmates.

Yashvardhan Gusani

Design Thinking and Innovation Participant

I’ve taken many courses from HBS Online because they’re either directly applicable to my career (like this course) or can help me get to where I want to be. This particular course has been the best among them all.

Jennifer Moret

Jennifer Moret is a Financial Analyst working in the trust industry in Switzerland.

The course has given me the confidence to know that my suggestions have a solid business basis.

Abhilash Sharma

Student and entrepreneur from India using CORe to learn about the business world

Each course provided distinguished knowledge and presented that in a beautiful manner.

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.

Swamy Boggarapu

Social Innovator, Sustainability and Enterprise Reporting & Analytics Solution Architect

I got motivated and more optimistic about the success of giving life to my nonprofit organization.

This was by far the most interactive course I have ever taken. I loved that the modules and field work put me in real-life situations, and the meetings with my professor and classmates tied it all together. It was a privilege to be part of it.

Amy Wallens Green

Senior Manager at WGBH Educational Foundation

I'd never taken any official coursework in negotiation. I was drawn to learning to master a skill that would help me in both my personal and professional life.

Shovna Panigrahi

Vice President of Asset Management at RMZ Corp

Getting the perspective of a problem from various departments brought more solutions to the forefront that could be explored.

Bethany Larsen

An aspiring MBA student planning for a career in social entrepreneurship

Those skills are all very useful, but I think my biggest takeaway from CORe is a new perspective on complex business challenges. This lens has given me a more balanced perspective on sensitive topics like LIFO reserves, minimum wage, and drug pricing that will make me a more informed citizen and wiser leader.

Danilo Salazar

Entrepreneur researching education and solar energy technology in Ecuador

Now I see how to take control of the financial part of my business and also how I can apply strategy when I enter into a new market.

Elizabeth Malkin

Working at a tech startup in Cambridge, MA

I spent much of my college career fervently annotating novels and loved every minute of it but knew that my focus post college was going to be business.

Mihir Desai was able to bring a relatively dry and inscrutable page of numbers to life in a highly engaging and interactive way. He has a great teaching style: clear, sharp, entertaining, and challenging. Mihir was able to truly engage our leaders of all levels of financial experience on the key levers of performance and how this applies to their own businesses.

Juliana Casale

Juliana Casale is the Head of Marketing at Crazy Egg, a SaaS company that builds website optimization tools.

I'm now more mindful of how my colleagues are experiencing me, and less averse to having difficult conversations.

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.

Exceptional. It's about as good as online learning can get.

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.

Kali Pfaff

Healthcare business operations professional and current MBA student

While I originally enrolled in CORe to determine if I wanted to pursue an MBA, I ended up using the knowledge I gained from CORe to interview for and land my current job.

Bernardo Tortolero

Design Thinking and Innovation Participant

Dean Datar’s pedagogy was an absolute pleasure. The way he considered all aspects of innovation through a unified process with actionable tools and concepts was simply brilliant.

William Tran

Educator interested in improving student outcomes and promoting college access

The business skills and concepts I learned through CORe will be invaluable in helping me assess the Chinese market, the demand and pricing of our service, and how to differentiate ourselves from our competitors.

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.

Enrique Garcia-Rivera

Pursuing a PhD in Chemical Biology in Boston

By learning these essential business skills, I now feel more prepared to advance scientific discoveries; raising capital, leading a team, developing strategic partnerships with established pharmaceuticals, and other crucial activities are now even clearer to me because of CORe.

Thank you for explaining concepts that I thought were impossible for me to ever grasp in such simple terms. The examples that Professor Desai chose to illustrate these concepts and the industry experts who give their thoughts and opinions has me eagerly looking forward to the time I spend on the course every day.

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.

Leslie Pico

A small business owner and tech entrepreneur from Arizona

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 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.

Fabian Ibekwe

Founder, Angelus Consulting and Research Limited

I'm applying things I learned from the courses every single day.

David Bergin

Chief Technology Officer at Nantucket Technology Partners

As a consultant running a boutique management and technology consulting practice, I have already started applying what I have learned in Disruptive Strategy towards my own business.

Kevia Croft

Current undergrad ready to begin her next chapter in the fin-tech industry with a competitive edge from CORe

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

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.

A few weeks into the course, accounting terminology came alive as I realized why accounting is the language of business. I can now talk confidently with clients and understand the business aspect of their problems.

Sam Campbell

College student and manager of The Bitter Student

We are at a time in history where we need leaders now more than ever. Someone who has CORe on his or her resume is a leader, in my mind.

Barka Bassi

Business Strategy Participant

The idea that value can be scaled and influenced in a myriad of ways puts this course ahead, both in strategy formulation and implementation, as well as management development and learning.