Collaborate on MBA
Stanford’s Business Student Collaborate on MBA Topics
As part of Stanford’s Professional & Personal Development class BUS 217 — Accelerate Your Startup Idea, class instructor Bret Waters, a great Silicon Valley Investor and Mentor, encouraged Stanford’s students to enjoy a coffee with each other in an optional discussion session on Sunday mornings.
On Sunday October 24th, the event was hosted by Dr. Emari and great discussions by the participants led to forming a Community of Practice for MBA professionals and other enthusiasts on subjects such as Startups and Joint Ventures to create new small businesses and partnerships.
The meetings will evolve and continue based on Bret’s teachings and mentorship. He has founded three venture-funded startup companies, built teams, and run the companies through successful exit through his consulting company 4thly.com. He is a former member of Stanford’s Graduate School of Education Advisory Council. Bret works with social entrepreneurs from around the world at the Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship. You can learn more about him on LinkedIn and read his articles on Medium.
What is the BUS 217 course about?
This fast-paced entrepreneurship course is designed to be a highly collaborative experience in which the class works together to refine startup ideas and make them launch-ready in just eight weeks. Based on the Lean Startup methodology developed by Eric Ries and Steve Blank, the course will look at such startup issues as product/market fit and developing a minimum viable product that can be rapidly iterated upon for success. We’ll also dive deeply into the operational details of the entire startup process, from legal structures to financial models, along with financing options such as venture capital, angel capital, and impact capital. The course will culminate with “pitch night,” when students will have the opportunity to present to Silicon Valley executives and investors who will give feedback and offer coaching. Whether your idea is still only a “sketch on a napkin” or already attracts customers, or whether you are working on a tech startup, a family business, or a social venture, the goal is for you to leave the course with an actionable business plan for a sustainable enterprise. You can see the syllabus here and register for the class here.
Community of Practice
A community of practice is a group of people who “share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly”. The concept was first proposed by cognitive anthropologist Jean Lave and educational theorist Etienne Wenger in their 1991 book Situated Learning. Wikipedia
Collaborate on MBA
Based on the successful experience of Dr. Emari’s Community of Practice on Construction Quality Management, CQM.us, it was suggested and agreed that networking is the best way of growing our businesses and improving them by sharing and collaborating on best practices received from like-minded people.
Topics Discussed
In our October 24th meeting, we discussed the benefits of an MBA degree and related certifications and credentials. We talked about Elon Musk’s latest comment on University Degrees and MBA Program. We shared some of our own experiences and understandings on the benefit and agreed that both education and experience work hand in hand for a successful future. Then we shared our tools and techniques to “sharpen our saw” by reading books, listening to audiobooks, and other resources such as Bret’s articles and posts on Medium and LinkedIn. Dr. Emari introduced Blinkist for listening to entire books in 20 minutes and Notability App on iPad for reading PDF and ebooks. Then we discussed our last course subject on Lean Startup as a Study Group and what we have learned on how to apply it for our small businesses. Finally, the participants enjoyed the discussions so much that we agreed to form a group on Clubhouse to continue our discussions would be the best way forward to keep in touch with our network and expand.
How to join CMBA?
If you’d like to participate in our future events and learn more about how you could contribute and participate in establishing and building the CMBA Community of Practice; please don’t hesitate to fill this form or drop a line at emari@stanford.edu
Looking forward to meeting you soon…
Maguel, Harri, and Kevin
Interested in a startup to help investors by providing apps for real estate development partnerships
Fabio & Jagadish
A recent graduate from Business School, Fabio is currently in Italy and explored the benefits of an MBA with Jagadish, an experienced businessman from India.
Adeline Li
She is interested in creating a startup for finding educated nannies for the upper class.