Individual Course
Social Entrepreneurship and Systems Change
Course Length
5
2–3 hours per week
Featuring faculty from:
Harvard Business School
What is the difference between an entrepreneur and a social entrepreneur?
The world faces complex, interconnected challenges—climate change, economic inequality, educational disparities, lack of affordable health care, water scarcity, and food insecurity. Social entrepreneurs are tackling these issues by building mission-driven nonprofit and for-profit organizations. But what sets these entrepreneurs apart from the rest? How do they create lasting impact where governments and markets can fall short?
In this course, Harvard Business School Senior Lecturer Brian Trelstad explores the field of social entrepreneurship, examining how entrepreneurs can transform broken systems to drive meaningful change. By staying open to learning, seeing the big picture, and understanding people's needs, social entrepreneurs can create solutions that grow and make a lasting impact on communities and society.
Self-Guided
edX
Industries:
- Other Non-profit
- Community/Economic Development
- Learning Outcome
Identify the motivators for social entrepreneurship, and how it sets people and organizations apart from traditional entrepreneurs.
- Learning Outcome
Define the role of design thinking to develop effective solutions to complex problems.
- Learning Outcome
Develop a personalized strategy to apply to an area of your choosing.
Faculty
Your Instructor
Brian Trelstad
William Henry Bloomberg Senior Lecturer of Business Administration at Harvard University
Brian Trelstad is a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School in the General Management Unit, teaching elective courses on Social Entrepreneurship and Systems Change, Impact Investing, and the first-year required courses on the Social Purpose of the Firm (SPF) and Leadership and Corporate Accountability (LCA). His teaching and research focus on social entrepreneurship, systems change, impact investing, and the role of business in society. Brian is also the Faculty Chair of the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative, a one-year fellowship that helps seasoned leaders transition into a third chapter dedicated to impact.
Brian has spent 20 years in impact investing, most recently as a Partner and Board Member of Bridges Fund Management spearheading the US operation of one of Europe’s oldest and largest impact investment firms. Before that he was the Chief Investment Officer at Acumen, where he oversaw $55 million of investments in companies that were delivering health, water, energy, and agriculture services in South Asia and East Africa.
Brian has an undergraduate degree from Harvard University, an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business, and an MA in City and Regional Planning from the University of California at Berkeley. Brian was the first impact investor to go through the Kauffman Fellows Program at the Center for Venture Education, and is a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute.