Rob Johnson

This course will explore best and evolving practices in the financial management and impact measurement of social enterprises.  The class will be taught from the perspective of the social entrepreneur and social enterprise manager and introduce cases to assess financial challenges, fiscal performance and financing strategy of pioneering firms with a social mission.  We will explore trends, successes and failures in managing enterprises to achieve both financial and social returns.  Measuring social impact in tandem with financial performance will be a core component of the course with topics including triple bottom line accounting, impact measurement, impact reporting and correlation between operating performance and impact sustainability.  Students will be introduced to accounting and reporting methods necessary to responsibly calculate and communicate financial and social returns to investors and stakeholders. This course will delve into the financial, operational and strategic management of social enterprises in domestic and international settings including developing nations. 

Operations management specifically involves the analysis, design, operation, and improvement of the systems and processes that deliver goods or services and ultimately outputs and outcomes. It is required to achieve the organization’s mission, provide value to the organization’s many stakeholders, and effectively translate policy into action. As such, operations management plays an important part of being an effective manager and policy implementer. In this course, we will develop a lens to perceive processes and systems in a variety of contexts along with an analytical toolbox to examine and understand these. Students will learn how to build basic operations models in Excel to make effective, evidence-based managerial, design, and policy decisions as well as gain defined analytical skills that lend themselves to roles in operations, management, hospital management, policy implementation, human services, consulting, and much more.

Operations management specifically involves the analysis, design, operation, and improvement of the systems and processes that deliver goods or services and ultimately outputs and outcomes. It is required to achieve the organization’s mission, provide value to the organization’s many stakeholders, and effectively translate policy into action. As such, operations management plays an important part of being an effective manager and policy implementer. In this course, we will develop a lens to perceive processes and systems in a variety of contexts along with an analytical toolbox to examine and understand these. Students will learn how to build basic operations models in Excel to make effective, evidence-based managerial, design, and policy decisions as well as gain defined analytical skills that lend themselves to roles in operations, management, hospital management, policy implementation, human services, consulting, and much more.

This course will provide a comprehensive overview and step by step approach to the most critical aspects of operating social enterprises. This course will put students in the shoes of the social entrepreneur, social enterprise or operations manager, using detailed examples and activities from a real-world social enterprise, as well as best practices from targeted case studies addressing key course topics. For this semester, the course will feature the Professor’s experience with building and operating a social enterprise in the peanut agricultural value chain in Haiti. Student practice and assignments will be informed by actual datasets and mini-case examples from this social enterprise.

Enterprises, particularly those in rural communities of the developing world, have unique operational challenges. These include but are not limited to 1) poor infrastructure that complicates logistics, 2) widely dispersed and fragmented supplier base, 3) limited trained talent pool and outsourcing options, 4) minimal experience in and budgets for systematization, 5) heightened political and climate risks, 6) inconsistent income streams and high degree of market informality, and 7) the impediments of last mile services and distribution. Social enterprises have the additional consideration of optimizing operations in a way that will amplify social impact. This course, unlike traditional operations courses, will focus on operations management through the lens of these unique challenges.

Students will work individually throughout the course, preparing homework assignments prior to each interactive session based on actual datasets and mini-case examples. Following each session, during which students will be provided with detail on real approaches utilized by the Professor as well as best operational practices highlighted in selected cases and readings, students will resubmit assignments based on learnings. This will mirror both hands-on nature and continuous improvement cycles used in social enterprise operations. Students will apply and where applicable build on previous experience and coursework in financial management, operations, impact measurement and strategy – however discover these topics from a tangible social enterprise operations perspective as well as better understand important areas of interconnectedness. Students will exit this course being able to lead or support key aspects of operating successful social enterprises.