There has been a worldwide explosion of entrepreneurial activities by organizations whose primary focus is on improving the health, education, and well-being of individuals and communities. Most of this activity has been undertaken by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) or nonprofit organizations, which, in the United States, generate revenues greater than the gross domestic product of Brazil, Russia, or Australia. In recent years, some entrepreneurs working in the social sector have chosen to incorporate as for-profit organizations rather than nonprofit organizations. Both models will be considered in this course, though the vast majority of cases will be about nonprofit organizations, such as Habitat for Humanity and City Year.

This course focuses on the tools and skills required to launch or grow a successful enterprise in the social sector. Because of the nature of the funding in this sector, all but the largest organizations rely on an entrepreneurial style of management. During this course you will meet some outstanding social entrepreneurs who have succeeded in creating sustainable enterprises that combat important social problems.

Ethics in Action is a minicourse that addresses the ethical challenges that arise in the ordinary course of business. Students develop the ability to identify the ethical dimensions of business problems; the ability to make practical, reasoned decisions when faced with ethical dilemmas; and the ability to justify those decisions in language that is both clear and persuasive. The course is taught several times during the year to make it accessible to the students. The class size is limited to allow for active interaction in class discussions.

The ethics faculty members administer the course, and an ethics professor participates in every class session. Faculty members from a variety of disciplines teach the classes, each covering ethical issues pertaining to his or her area of expertise. The course constantly evolves as the composition of the faculty participants changes and as new ethical issues arise in the current business environment. The course addresses such diverse subjects as corporate espionage, sweatshops, direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs, and sexual harassment.

One of Tuck's signature courses is the Tuck Global Consultancy, which sends teams of students to developing countries for three weeks. In collaboration with Tuck's Center for International Business, which administers these consulting projects, the Allwin Initiative works to create and define consultancy projects for nonprofit organizations and NGOs in the developing world. For example, in December 2005, Director Pat Palmiotto lead a field study team to Johannesburg to consult for the NGO CityYear South Africa.

This mini course starts with the premise that corporate social responsibility is good for business and focuses on how leaders can balance the needs of their organizations with responsibilities to key constituencies. Through cases focusing on the social, reputational, and environmental consequences of corporate activities, students will learn how to make difficult choices, promote responsible behavior within their organizations, and understand the role personal values play in developing effective leadership skills.

This course is designed to give second-year students a hands-on opportunity to develop leadership skills by tackling complex social issues from a business perspective. For '07-'08, the focus is on microfinance as a vehicle for alleviating global poverty. For details, including the syllabus, click here.

We are seeing more companies, organizations, individuals, and groups experience disaster scenarios that require urgent appropriate response. Anticipation, risk management, mitigation, operations management, and communication are all critical to the ultimate outcome. Disasters need to be understood and managed with potentially different leadership skills than normal business operations. This course will focus on leadership and management principles necessary during disasters, and, where applicable, their relevance, or lack thereof, in normal business operations. While some discussion of communications and ethics during disasters may arise, this will not be a major focus of the course as it is covered in other courses. During the course we will explore such concepts as anticipating disaster, risk management, leadership in crises, corporate culture and crisis response, and long term organizational transformation.