Student Stories
Find out what it's like to take an HBS Online course from current and past learners.
Find out what it's like to take an HBS Online course from current and past learners.
I feel like now I can speak more high-level about where we want to take the company and what strategic initiatives we want to put in place….It has given me an entirely new set of tools.
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.
I can't say enough about the energy and motivation I gained from taking this course. I felt a renewed commitment to my life-long pursuits and left each class with introspective thoughts and ideas for my future.
The course, through its excellent design, has given me an approach and the confidence to deal with disruption either as an opportunity or a business risk.
[Economics for Managers] has unveiled powerful tools to me which are very useful in my current role.
Our employees at Fortive have gained tremendous value through our work with HBS Online. They help us deliver on our L&D promise: Accessible Learning, Accelerated Growth. HBS Online offers courses with a range of topics and time commitments. We have had employees participate from over 35 countries!
Strategy Execution provides learners with tools and frameworks based on real-life business situations. This directly affects the value of the course, as the takeaways are applicable—not just theories you can learn in other courses.
The program offers a perfect blend of three fundamental courses.
I enjoyed being able to interact with motivated, ambitious students from all over the world. Furthermore, the course content and platform were extremely engaging, combining the best of pedagogy and technology.
The program expertly leads you through progressively more complex theories and analysis with a pace that keeps you challenged and engaged.
Not only was I able to expand my network so that I know someone in every major city around the world, but it also helped me land a job at a company that I absolutely love.
This is now my fourth HBS online course that I have taken. I love the format that lets me learn asynchronously when I have time in my busy schedule. The HBS courses do a wonderful job encouraging interaction with peer learners which amplifies the learning. The HBS courses foster this peer engagement much more effectively than I have found in other online courses that I have taken.
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.
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.
The course content is well designed and helps investors get a basic understanding of what sustainable finance is, its challenges, the path forward, and its key players.
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.
I got motivated and more optimistic about the success of giving life to my nonprofit organization.
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.
Meet Gaurang, a CORe participant and avid football fan who is applying CORe to his day job and entrepreneurial pursuits.
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.
While I have a deep business background, I was not well versed in several important aspects of entrepreneurship like investment structure, fundraising, and valuation. Entrepreneurship Essentials covered these topics well and I was surprised at some of the additional takeaways I had.
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.
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!
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.
What really impressed me were my classmates - people from all over the world and from all backgrounds that were invested in helping each other.
[With Business Analytics], I discovered a new-found love of data analytics. I was fascinated to learn about ways we can use data to systematically seek an answer to a specific business question or predict the outcome of a scenario given past behavior. This new interest has motivated me to pursue a career in data science (a field that combines statistics, analytics, and business knowledge), which I have begun to work toward since I finished [the course].
CORe is giving me that extra lens I was missing: how products, services and other contents are created, consumed and exchanged from a business perspective.
Rarely does a day go by where I don't see a business leader or company wrestling with the same issues that we discussed in class on the front-page of the Wall Street Journal. These issues are more relevant than ever and top of mind for many of the companies I work for as a consultant. They continue to inform my own personal worldview of capitalism, and my own role in shaping society as a future business leader.
Enrique is pursuing a PhD in Chemical Biology and working to find cures for diseases like cancer. He plans to use CORe as a way to bridge the gap between his work in the lab and the funding and entrepreneurial support he will need to bring those discoveries to the public.
I use what I learned on a daily basis. Even though I'm not in a finance role and operating in a general management position, I need to make decisions utilizing the principles we learned on a daily basis. The course empowered me to do that with confidence.
Having the perspectives of my peers and all the constructive conversation encouraged me to think in new and creative ways. Knowing that your peers were rating your participation and reading your contributions was truly compelling.
I got promoted to a senior project coordinator role just weeks after finishing the course, so I have had the chance to apply many of the topics covered.
Leadership Principles has helped shape my unique leadership style. One of the most influential lessons for my leadership development was the HBS four-step process for delivering effective feedback and coaching—a process that I now apply on a daily basis.
The real-world examples were the best part of the courses. While going through the examples, I thought a lot about how I would have handled it if I were them. That plays a big role in how I do things now.
I think it's the best online course on Sustainable Investing.
I've taken a lot of paid online courses, but the HBS Online experience was close to that of the classroom and highly immersive.
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.
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.
I enjoyed the real-life examples and stories and how they were integrated into the coursework.
Thanks to Business Analytics, I learned to apply statistical analysis to real world problems. For instance, I am currently doing a research project using regression analysis to see if we can predict emergency department demand on any given day - important for staffing and resource allocation.
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.
But in the few years I have been out of school, I have found that being able to understand key business principles is essential, especially in the startup world.
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.
By the end of the program I realized that CORe was a total game changer on how I see and understand things around me.
My certificate gives me a competitive advantage and the opportunity to contribute to the success of my company in a unique way. Moreover, a Harvard certificate opens news doors wherever I choose to work in the world.
Another aspect of CORe that greatly added to my learning was the diverse cohort I was able to interact with - the stories and instances from their lives added more color to each topic we learned.
Reading a balance sheet was completely alien to me. Since taking Financial Accounting, I’ve been keeping track of my company’s annual reports, and the accounting that I learned helps me in understanding where the business may head in the future. I’ve also been tracking a few other companies for investment purposes, and I’ve realized that I can make more informed decisions with my improved knowledge of company financials.
Executives from athenahealth reflect on their experiences in Disruptive Strategy, an online course taught by Harvard Business School professor Clayton M. Christensen.
The course has made me think more carefully about how I could create a competitive cost structure and make appropriate plans before entering the market. [Conjoint analysis] has also helped me think about what product features my consumers would really value and how to highlight those features. Having a better business vocabulary and understanding the underlying concepts has really helped me to contribute more productively to conversations and decisions.
However, the most exciting thing about CORe is that once you take it, you are never going to be the same. A simple grocery store visit becomes filled with economic references and analytical ponders. CORe allows the world to become more of a learning opportunity.
If you're looking for more information on how Harvard Business School Online programs can teach you the essential skills you need for success, request more information today.