Graduate Certificates: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Leadership

This certificate has an emphasis on building an entrepreneurial mindset in sales and marketing. It is intended for someone starting a new company or social enterprise.

1. Students will learn the tools necessary to apply entrepreneurial thinking in their work and life. Students will learn the creative solving problem process, which helps them to recognize opportunities for improving performance, choose correctly from a wide variety of resources for solving problems efficiently, anticipate problems in project planning, and promote the continuous involvement of others.
2. Students will learn the basic fundamentals of sales, review the relationship of customer need identification, and discuss reasons that make people buy. Students will learn the basic six steps of selling and discuss the real world marketing challenges involved in launching an entrepreneurship venture or sustaining competitive advantage.
3. Students will learn how to create a competitive analysis, prepare a customer analysis, determine target market and positioning, understand pricing management, and develop marketing objectives and goals.

Required Core Courses

ENTR 601: Entrepreneurial Mindset

This course provides participants with the tools necessary for applying entrepreneurial thinking in their work and life. In this course, participants learn concepts for handling the ambiguity inherent in every business plan. The course focuses on increasing a participant’s aptitude for adapting to unexpected circumstances as well as their openness to pursuing untried solutions and innovating within their field.

ENTR 609: Sales and Marketing

This course will introduce the basics of selling and how entrepreneurial techniques can make a difference in the success of an idea or inspire growth in a company. The class will focus on the basic fundamentals of sales and marketing and review the relationship of customer need identification and the reasons that make people buy. 

Prerequisite: Enrollment in the program or at least the second semester of graduate study.

Electives (choose two)

ENTR 604: Entrepreneurial Finance & Planning

This course focuses on finance, planning and start-up considerations that every entrepreneur must face. It is designed for students who have a deep interest in understandings the inner-workings of a start-up entity and an entrepreneurial venture. The purpose of the course is to teach what is needed to properly plan, finance and maintain a healthily entrepreneurial venture. 

Prerequisite: Enrollment in the program or at least the second semester of graduate study. A working knowledge of basic accounting terms and financial statements.

ENTR 607: Technology Commercialization

This course is designed to give the participants an introduction to the process for starting a technology-based company, including 1) identifying candidate technologies with commercial potential; 2) forming a company to develop a product or service based on that technology, and 3) taking the initial steps in taking the product or service to market. An experiential model for learning will be employed for instruction in which the participants will form teams, select a technology, identify products/services derived from that technology, and develop a plan for commercialization of the product/service. 

Prerequisite: Enrollment in the program or at least the second semester of graduate study.

ENTR 608: Design Thinking

This course addresses the fundamental principles of design thinking, and solving for difficult entrepreneurship and business problems facing early and growth-stage companies. A regional entrepreneurial company will serve as a source of problems for student teams who will take on the role of advisors. 

Prerequisite: Enrollment in the program or at least the second semester of graduate study.

ENTR 611: Project Management Approaches

This course provides participants with the requisite knowledge to explore how agile concepts can be employed to enhance project performance. Participants will learn the roots of the agile movement, key concepts, definitions, roles, and various tools and techniques. 

Prerequisite: Enrollment in the program or at least the second semester of graduate study.

ENTR 690: Special Topics in Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Leadership

The special topics courses will cover emerging or specialized Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Leadership topics on an as-need basis.

This certificate has an emphasis on diffusing innovation and design thinking. It is intended for someone who wants to drive change through innovation and incorporate innovative practices in their workplace.

1. Students will learn to successfully harness, promote and diffuse innovation and an innovation mindset across all levels of an organization. Students will learn the models of innovation to prepare individuals in leadership positions for effective decision-making. 
2. Students will learn to foster an innovative environment of communication and collaboration, including how to identify the Rules of Engagement in a collaborative environment, spot the barriers to collaboration, and see the difference between getting collaboration right and wrong.
3. Students will learn how to find and frame problems in creative ways using techniques such as ethnographic observation, prototyping, storytelling, journey mapping, value chain analysis, and divergent/convergent idea generation. 

Required Core Courses

ENTR 606: Diffusion of Innovations

This course looks at how to successfully harness, promote and diffuse innovation and an innovation mindset across all levels of an organization. This requires a switch in the organization’s culture to accommodate a free flow of new ideas. An organization’s change agents can facilitate the diffusion of this innovation mindset by consistently engaging with others, encouraging their sharing of new ideas and thinking, and challenging them by fostering an environment of friction. 

Prerequisite: Enrollment in the program or at least the second semester of graduate study.

ENTR 608: Design Thinking

This course addresses the fundamental principles of design thinking, and solving for difficult entrepreneurship and business problems facing early and growth-stage companies. A regional entrepreneurial company will serve as a source of problems for student teams who will take on the role of advisors. 

Prerequisite: Enrollment in the program or at least the second semester of graduate study.

Electives (choose two)

ENTR 601: Entrepreneurial Mindset

This course provides participants with the tools necessary for applying entrepreneurial thinking in their work and life. In this course, participants learn concepts for handling the ambiguity inherent in every business plan. The course focuses on increasing a participant’s aptitude for adapting to unexpected circumstances as well as their openness to pursuing untried solutions and innovating within their field.

ENTR 607: Technology Commercialization

This course is designed to give the participants an introduction to the process for starting a technology-based company, including 1) identifying candidate technologies with commercial potential; 2) forming a company to develop a product or service based on that technology, and 3) taking the initial steps in taking the product or service to market. An experiential model for learning will be employed for instruction in which the participants will form teams, select a technology, identify products/services derived from that technology, and develop a plan for commercialization of the product/service. 

Prerequisite: Enrollment in the program or at least the second semester of graduate study.

ENTR 611: Project Management Approaches

This course provides participants with the requisite knowledge to explore how agile concepts can be employed to enhance project performance. Participants will learn the roots of the agile movement, key concepts, definitions, roles, and various tools and techniques. 

Prerequisite: Enrollment in the program or at least the second semester of graduate study.

ENTR 690: Special Topics in Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Leadership

The special topics courses will cover emerging or specialized Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Leadership topics on an as-need basis.

This certificate has an emphasis on team-building, management, communication, and building an organizational culture of resilience.  It is intended for someone who wants to take a leadership role within his or her organization.

1. Students will learn effective management and communication skills through case study-analysis, reading, class discussion and role-playing.
2. Students will identify how participants can ultimately encourage and enhance a team’s synergy, causing it to become more than the sum of its parts, by showing commitment to both teammate and team goals and by jointly solving problems. It also provides a transformational learning opportunity for leveraging their leadership efficacy by cultivating self-awareness, successful communication skills, positive team interactions, and creating a growth mindset.
3. Students will learn methods for creating an organizational culture of resilience, including the research-derived four pillars of the resilient organization.

Required Core Courses

ENTR 602: Leadership and Communication

Students learn effective management and communication skills through case study-analysis, reading, class discussion and role-playing. The course covers topics such as effective listening, setting expectations, delegation, coaching, performance, evaluations, conflict management, negotiation with senior management and managing with integrity.

ENTR 605: Learning Organizations

This course covers design thinking as an approach to consider issues and resolve problems more broadly than is typically applied to business and social issues. This course instructs participants in methods for creating an organizational culture of resilience. The course covers the research-derived four pillars of the resilient organization and methods for creating them. 

Prerequisite: Enrollment in the program or at least the second semester of graduate study.

Electives (choose two)

ENTR 601: Entrepreneurial Mindset

This course provides participants with the tools necessary for applying entrepreneurial thinking in their work and life. In this course, participants learn concepts for handling the ambiguity inherent in every business plan. The course focuses on increasing a participant’s aptitude for adapting to unexpected circumstances as well as their openness to pursuing untried solutions and innovating within their field.

ENTR 606: Diffusion of Innovations

This course looks at how to successfully harness, promote and diffuse innovation and an innovation mindset across all levels of an organization. This requires a switch in the organization’s culture to accommodate a free flow of new ideas. An organization’s change agents can facilitate the diffusion of this innovation mindset by consistently engaging with others, encouraging their sharing of new ideas and thinking, and challenging them by fostering an environment of friction. 

Prerequisite: Enrollment in the program or at least the second semester of graduate study.

ENTR 610: Intrapreneurship

This course identifies how participants can ultimately encourage and enhance a team’s synergy, causing it to become more than the sum of its parts, by showing commitment to both teammate and team goals and by jointly solving problems. It also provides a transformational learning opportunity for leveraging their leadership efficacy by cultivating self-awareness, successful communication skills, positive team interactions, and creating a growth mindset. 

Prerequisite: Enrollment in the program or at least the second semester of graduate study.

ENTR 611: Project Management Approaches

This course provides participants with the requisite knowledge to explore how agile concepts can be employed to enhance project performance. Participants will learn the roots of the agile movement, key concepts, definitions, roles, and various tools and techniques. 

Prerequisite: Enrollment in the program or at least the second semester of graduate study.

ENTR 690: Special Topics in Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Leadership

The special topics courses will cover emerging or specialized Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Leadership topics on an as-need basis.

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