I teach MBA and Executive MBA students at NYU Stern. Since fall 2018, I have taught a two-semester MBA elective on science and technology entrepreneurship, which I developed as the course component of Endless Frontier Labs. Students work directly with EFL startups and their mentors, and pair that experience with a curriculum grounded in the latest research on entrepreneurship, venture screening, and startup strategy. I also teach Competitive Strategy and Corporate Strategy in the Executive MBA program, and I have previously taught core Strategy in the full-time and Langone MBA programs and a doctoral seminar on innovation and entrepreneurship.
My teaching has been recognized with NYU’s University Distinguished Teacher Award, Stern’s Distinguished Teacher Award for Pedagogical Innovation, and the Academy of Management’s Innovation in Pedagogy Award for founding Endless Frontier Labs. I consider it a privilege to help train future business leaders and scholars.
Teaching philosophy
I see my role as helping students become better strategic thinkers. Strategic thinking is part art and part science. The art is generating new courses of action that create value for customers, investors, and society; it depends on creativity and is hard to teach. The science is forming hypotheses about the consequences of each action and choosing among them, usually with imperfect information. I focus on the science, drawing on my training as a social scientist, and emphasize three principles.
What do the data say? Better-informed managers make better decisions. As data and the tools to analyze them become ever more abundant, the ability to turn data into insight is a growing source of competitive advantage. I ask students to ground strategic arguments in evidence wherever it exists.
Combine the qualitative and the quantitative. Many big decisions must be made with limited data and real ambiguity. Good strategy combines frameworks for structuring a situation with numbers that test it. Students also learn to ask how sensitive their calculations are to the assumptions underneath them.
Think counterfactually. As an empirical researcher, I instinctively ask whether an observed relationship is causal. Firms that patent more may be more profitable. But unless we know what those firms would have earned without patenting, holding everything else equal, we cannot advise managers to patent more. In every case discussion, I push students to ask “compared to what?” and to design tests that evaluate strategic choices against their alternatives.
Courses taught
- Science and Technology Entrepreneurship (Endless Frontier Labs course), MBA, 2018–present
- Competitive Strategy, Executive MBA, 2019–present
- Corporate Strategy, Executive MBA, 2019–present
- Strategy (core), full-time and Langone MBA, 2010–2018
- Seminar on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, PhD, 2016–2018
You can read my full teaching statement here.