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.
The highlight of the program was the content. From the videos with guest business executives to the interactive elements to the way we're continually tested via cold calls, CORe keeps you engaged through and through.
I had never experienced such an immersive platform online, and could argue that it was more effective at building and solidifying knowledge than some of the in-class courses I took in college.
Economics for Managers was immensely valuable. Hearing from founders and seeing the power of network effects through various case studies helped me see market opportunities through an entirely different lens. The market knowledge I acquired helped me refine and expertly craft research reports.
CORe is not an ordinary online learning platform; it is an amazing learning experience that will probably surprise you (as it did to me).
It’s an eye-opening course that enlightens the path for future founders, joiners, or investors.
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.
I think CORe may be the extra push I need to connect with jobs that really interest me.
Taking Entrepreneurship Essentials was an incredible opportunity to learn from the best and to be in a class full of great minds.
Meet Doug, a Leading with Finance participant who took the course to advance his career and deepen his understanding of essential financial concepts.
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.
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.
An excellent course: world-class content, perfect delivery, excellent and diverse cohort, and finally wonderful collaboration with both the organizers and the class.
My favorite part would be Professor Anand's jokes in some of the videos. You'd have to watch pretty carefully (but you would since you have to take notes anyway), and they'd always make me laugh.
The course has completely changed me today. I feel like a new person, with a new thought process, driven by purpose, committed to doing the right thing.
I have gotten an incredible wealth of knowledge and theories that are ready to apply. With every minute of learning, my company was better off and was setting a course for success.
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.
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've been able to understand the macroeconomic policies that are being implemented by, and imposed to, my country, and the implications they have on our lives. This has equipped me with more tools to make overall better decisions. The course has been tremendously useful and eye-opening.
By recognizing that every student brought with her or him a wealth of lived experiences, HBS Online empowered me to learn much more from peers than I had imagined.
This course had an amazing instructor, amazing examples, and an amazing user interface that made it easy for me to grasp the material and learn simultaneously with others around the world.
While I originally enrolled in CORe to determine if I wanted to pursue an MBA, I ended up using the knowledge I gained from CORe to interview for and land my current job.
Weekly, I negotiate strategic partnerships for my company, and Negotiation Mastery has given me additional skills that I have put into practice and have resulted in much more successful agreements.
I entered the CORe program with the assumption that business was binary in its reliance on creativity and science, on ideas and numbers. In reality, it’s simply not. There are numbers behind the most successful marketing campaigns, brand directions, and management decisions.
Another aspect which I loved and cannot emphasize enough is the fact that CORe does not feel like a virtual program.
This was an awesome way to get your feet wet in the world of business. I think that the courses were well-designed so as to maximize the impact they have on your real-world outlook.
Sustainable Business Strategy should be required learning for everyone, regardless of their sector or beliefs about business. Professor Henderson’s approach empowered me with a fundamental understanding of economic systems, in the U.S. and abroad, in order to make it possible for me to question the assumptions upon which they are built and challenge me to rethink how we construct entities—public and private—to ensure long-term success.
Additionally, the program allowed me to acquire a more holistic view of the services we provide, and it is helping me develop new ideas to innovate and generate different sources of revenue.
Being able to break down real-life scenarios, and look at the management processes within each—what worked and what didn't—provided a unique method of learning, and incomparable to other course offerings available.
The best part of CORe was its case-based approach to learning and retaining business fundamentals. No chapter in the entire curriculum had raw theory...It helped in challenging conventional wisdom with strong and practical, real life examples.
I think what I took from CORe or what I enjoyed was how it shaped me to think and apply all concepts simultaneously.
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.
The program gave me a framework and a great toolbox for the cases that I am currently developing.
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.
As always, the case studies are eye-opening. The content is superb, and the presentation of the case is superb as well.
As someone who’s worked in a large company for the past 20-plus years, it gave me the foundation and vocabulary to engage more confidently in the venture capital and startup community.
The content and approach to Finance offered by Professor Desai is a unique, engaging and powerful way to not only look at numbers, but more importantly, understand the story they tell.
Leading with Finance offered the perfect opportunity to refresh my core finance skills and interact with a global group of colleagues in an online format that was ideal for my schedule.
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.
Meet Raymond, a Management Essentials participant who took the course in order to be more effective in his new role as Manager of Diversity Pipeline Programs for Boston Public Schools.
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.
Professor David Garvin is so sentient and poignant in his discussions of process and decision-making. The case studies of significant historical events are like looking back through a time machine. People lost their lives because of faulty processes. I know this is a dubious feeling, but I can't get the thought out of my head that with more and more case studies, you could swell your brain with a better recipe for living as well as running a company. So if you are on the fence about taking this course, get off on the correct side. Take the course so we can talk about it.
The cases were phenomenal. I got engulfed in the videos; they made you feel like you were in sort of a planetarium, right in the tea fields in Asia, learning about the dangers of palm oil. And hearing from the executives at huge companies about their strategies solving their problems was amazing.
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.
Harvard Business School Online is one of the best things I've ever been a part of. Proud to be an alumni of two HBS Online programs, and looking forward to more. HBS really got it right with this.
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.
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 honestly use something from CORe nearly every day. In general, I have a much better appreciation for my client's business.
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.
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.
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.