Delivering a world-class business education in less than a year requires flawless execution. We hit the ground running and expect the same from our students. Our one-year MBA curriculum is tightly integrated with each case, exercise and simulation building on the last.
| Pre-MatJune-August | Boot Camp ILast week of August | Fall SemesterSeptember-December | Spring SemesterJanuary-April | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Integrative Courses | Notes on the Case Method | Corporate Profitability Simulation | The Entrepreneurial Journey Course | Opportunity Course Launch Course Growth Course Harvest Course |
| Tools Courses | Books & CD-ROMs on Counting & Operations | Tools Session on Cash & Valuation and Operations | Customers Course Cash & Valuation Operations & Costs Course |
Raising Money Course People Course |
| Life of Meaning | Books and notes on Life of Meaning | Stars & Stepping- stones Project | Life of Meaning Course Thursday Industry Speakers |
LOM Workshops |
Prematriculation
Twelve weeks before classes start, you will receive an extensive package of materials, including our set of "great books on business and life," computer simulations, accounting and quantitative exercises, and tutorials on the case method. From June to August, students spend 20 hours a week on pre-matriculation materials.
Weeks of intensive preparation and testing ensure that you are prepared for Boot Camp the last week of August.
Boot Camp
A rigorous one-week Boot Camp introduces you to your classmates and prepares you for the first semester of case discussions. Demonstrations of the case-study method, team-building exercises, quantitative sessions and Life of Meaning exercises round out an intense first week.
The Fall Semester
The first semester includes our flagship course, The Entrepreneurial Journey, the Life of Meaning course, and three Tools courses, Customers, Operations & Costs, and Cash and Valuation.
| Time | Monday / Wednesday | Tuesday / Thursday | Friday |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8:00a.m.-9:20a.m | Life of Meaning | Customers | Customers Lab |
| 9:30a.m.-10:50a.m. | Cash & Valuation | Operations & Costs | Sales Challenge, Operations Simulations |
| 11:00a.m.-12:20p.m | The Entrepreneurial Journey | Thursday speaker series | Factory Tours |
The four tools courses - Customers, Customers Lab, Operations and Costs, and Cash & Valuation - deliver the tools, skills, and frameworks you need to sell products, make and deliver them, and count the profits.
Customers
"How do I sell it?"
In Customers, you will learn how to sell, recruit, motivate, manage a sales force, set prices, and segment a market.
Sales Challenge - Customers Lab: Understanding sales is one of the most critical skills for any entrepreneur, yet no other MBA program in the world teaches you how to sell. In the Sales Challenge, you and your classmates will be assigned a geographic territory where you will sell a real product to real customers. You will learn firsthand what it takes to design and deliver a sales plan, meet a sales quota under competitive pressure, and work under a demanding sales manager.
Operations & Costs
"How do I make and deliver it?"
Operations & Costs teaches you to design, operate, and optimize an assembly line or service process; to analyze tradeoffs among customization, batch, and continuous-delivery systems; and to calculate throughput, cycle times, and the costs of bottlenecks. By the end of the course, you will be able to break any business into a series of discrete steps and understand what it costs to make and deliver what your customer wants.
Manufacturing Simulation
You will spend two weeks designing an assembly line for the Shad Exercise, a hands-on operations simulation used only by Acton and the Harvard Business School. You will see firsthand what it takes to plan, build and run a manufacturing process as your team competes to make and deliver products of the highest quality of the lowest cost.
Call-Center Simulation
The Waterloo Project is Acton's version of the Shad Exercise for a service business. The call center simulation replicates three different types of call centers-car rental, flight status, flight reservation-each with different handling processes and process times. You and your classmates must design a call center with the goal of maximizing the net income of the call center.
Plant Tours
You will get to see a variety of operations in action. Classes visit companies like Dell Computer, Jardine's (a food products company), Taylor/Texwood Furniture Co., and Inflow Data Center.
Cash & Valuation
"How do I measure it?"
In Cash & Valuation you will learn to coordinate, control, and fund the sales and operations of a business. By the end of the course, you will know how to write a strategic plan, craft a budget, design responsibility centers for an organization, and understand how different incentive systems affect behavior.
Entrepreneurial Journey Our Flagship Course
The Messiness of Real Life from the Start
The Entrepreneurial Journey course takes you through the entire life cycle of a business: from Opportunity Analysis to Gathering Resources to Launch, and then from Growth to Harvest. In each case you will stand in the shoes of a real entrepreneur facing difficult decisions that require you to draw on skills in sales, operations, finance, and accounting. You will learn to make real decisions under extreme pressure.
Life of Meaning
"Find Your Calling"
The Life of Meaning course teaches you how to balance the demands of family, career, and community. In the course, you will plumb to the depths of your soul, facing some of the most difficult moral dilemmas imaginable. Life of Meaning helps you discover a "calling" in business by using your valuable gifts to serve others.
Thursday Sessions
Special lunch sessions, on Thursdays, feature conversations with world-renowned industry experts and entrepreneurs.
The Spring Semester
During the second semester, four courses dig more deeply into each phase of business covered in The Entrepreneurial Journey course: Opportunity Analysis, Gathering Resources and Launch, Growth, and Harvest. A fifth course, Raising Money, delivers valuation, money-raising, and financial skills needed to fund your business. The People Management course arms you with the tools to effectively manage people and create a company mission and vision.
Opportunity Analysis
"Is this an attractive idea?"
Opportunity Analysis teaches you how to evaluate a business opportunity. You will learn to attract customers, efficiently make and deliver products, deter competition, and determine the overall risk and reward of an opportunity.
Gathering Resources and Launch
"How do I get started?"
This class is about turning a good idea into a thriving company - how to gather the resources, find the right people, craft deals, and survive the first year of an entrepreneurial start-up.
Growth
"How do I grow profitably?"
Growth teaches you how to identify and execute a profitable growth strategy, including how to attract new customers and suppliers and raise money on attractive terms.
Harvest
"When and how do I sell my business?"
In Harvest you study all aspects of selling a business: attracting the right buyer, valuing your company, negotiating the right price, and closing the deal.
Raising Money
"How do I raise the money?"
Raising Money teaches you how raise the right amount of money, at the right price, from the right people. You will learn to calculate how much money your company needs, who is the perfect investor, and how to craft a deal that adds value for everyone.
People
"How do I manage people? Am I a good manager?"
People are the hardest part of any business. In the People course you'll learn how to attract, select, hire, coach and communicate with your team.
