Lead Practitioners: Chuck James ’78, marketing & sales executive for Xerox, IBM, HP, HPE, Secretary & Treasurer Benjamin Mays Black Alumni Society and Ann Clark Tucker ’78, MBA, Adjunct Professor International Business, consultant, corporate communications and brand management executive.

This course will cover business strategy, product development, marketing, sustainability and how businesses make decisions. Using the case method, students will work in-class on rapid business problem solving.  Taught by two Bates alumni, with four decades in the corporate world, students will also learn how to look for a job, what marks a “winning” candidate, and how to navigate the workplace after Bates.  The final team-based project will be a formal business plan for the launch of a new product or service.

Topics covered

• Systems thinking
• Leadership and ethics
• Business communications
• Business problem solving
• Team structure
• Rapid product/service ideation

As a result of taking this course, students will:

1.  Read and critically review business news and data in the media and assess trusted information/misinformation
2.  Work productively in a business team to optimize collective skills and talents and resolve challenges
3.  Understand systems thinking and its application to business strategy and decision making
4.  Engage in MashUp Innovation to rapid-develop prototypes of products or services; pitch a business or implementation plan for the prototype
5. Gain job interview practice, resume, job search, and networking skills and write a hiring elevator pitch