Student Stories

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.

Eric Black

Director, Production & Technical Operation at Scholastic Entertainment and Co-Owner of Lyla Tov Monsters

In my job at a publicly traded corporation, I have been able to change my viewpoint of daily goals and accomplishments. Instead of just completing tasks to achieve an end goal, I now look at that end goal and consider how it affects the company as a whole and if there are financial goals and benefits that will increase the value of the company.

I immediately applied the concepts…I highly recommend the program to students who always had an interest in business and economics but never had the time to devote to course material in their traditional academic curriculum!

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.

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.

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.

J. Holden Gibbons

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

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."

I found the overall CORe experience to be…challenging, enjoyable, eye-opening.

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.

Allie O'Hanley

Founder and Director of Rxhibition, a new nonprofit organization that curates, designs, and installs art exhibitions in chemotherapy treatment areas

I expected CORe to be much more of an overview. I never was expecting the depth that it truly delivered. I received a strong foundation to be confident enough to build my own startup.

Adriel Tjokrosaputro

A Global Masters in Management student at London Business School and Fudan School of Management

In no time, not only will you build fundamental knowledge of the business world, but also be a part of a community that you can fully trust.

Jamila Whyte

Recent grad using CORe to jumpstart her career in consulting

Whether working with Business Analytics, Financial Accounting, or Economics for Managers, I value the fact that we can apply concepts learned in the course to solving real issues encountered in and out of the workplace.

Jenna Pollack

Dance professional armed with business knowledge to complement her career as a performance artist.

The notion that economic stability is mutually exclusive from creativity, from non-profits at large, is something I have recently committed myself to debunking. I took CORe to arm myself with the tools and language of business for this reason, to move my art forward responsibly.

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.

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."

Athenahealth

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

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.

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 was worried that the courses would move too quickly for me to master each concept, but the instructors, the materials, real-world case studies and the class interaction allowed me to truly understand the fundamentals of each…

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.

Dave Nelson

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

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.

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.

Maggie Oh

An animator with dreams of starting her own company

I feel that I am no longer wary of entering into business conversations; my confidence has gone way up with regards to accounting, economics, and analytics.

Doug Kinsey

Meet Doug, a Leading with Finance participant who took the course to advance his career and deepen his understanding of essential financial concepts.

I was able to use Business Analytics when a project on truck optimization for my site came up while I was enrolled in the course. I was able to apply the statistical concepts that I learned during the course to create an optimizer tool for truck usage and scheduling at the mine. This tool resulted in significant cost savings, which was highly valued by the site management team.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

Being an entrepreneur, every concept I learned in CORe was immediately applicable to my company. My understanding of how business works got much stronger. For me, the change CORe brings about in you is extremely subtle. It's like you're looking through the world with a completely different perspective altogether, yet it's so obvious.

Eoghan Martin

Computer engineering student in Ireland seeking to develop a tech startup

I loved the regular use of visuals and videos to fully build up the user's understanding of a new concept.

The CORe program will help me to better understand the world around me…and to hit the ground running in any job after graduation.

Desirée Kaplan

Writer looking to pursue a career as a chief sustainability officer

"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."

Data Science Principles applies to many aspects of our daily lives. The course helps guide people in everyday life through decision making and process thinking.

CORe is something completely different from any online course. It captures the key components of a live classroom and makes it possible for classmates to interact and help one another.

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.

Richard Pitts

Richard is a California-based Chief Medical Officer who is improving healthcare with CORe

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

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."

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.

Julian Tan

Recently completed my PhD and starting work at The Boston Consulting Group in London

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.

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.

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.

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.

Jessica Shaffer

Disruptive Strategy participant Jessica Shaffer talks about the direct impact the course has had on her work at Leader Bank.

Colin Meagle

CEO of Continuum Group, a Global Digital Agency

From the moment I started studying I knew there were theories and methodologies that I could apply to the Continuum Group. From a macro scale, it helps me understand where the different elements of the group sit in their respective markets and how they interact, grow, compete, disrupt, and really nail the job to be done for our customers.

Dan Grünstein

Co-founder of a tech startup in Strasbourg, France

Recently, I realized that I did not have the business “toolbox” and that is why, while I am still involved in this amazing project, I am reaching out to new horizons.

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.