The Entrepreneurial and Innovative Spirit of Boston, Cambridge and New York City

Getting at least a grasp of the American way of doing business and pushing innovation is the main focus of the Field Trip to Boston, Cambridge and New York City. The 2018-2020 class of the Professional MBA Entrepreneurship & Innovation got invaluable insights into the vibrant and unique “innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem”.

The students enjoyed exclusive lectures by leading international researchers at renowned institutions. The kick-off took place at Harvard Business School. After an enjoyable tour through the historical Harvard Yard Prof. Ariel Dora Stern and the students worked on inspiring cases about “Design Thinking” and managing internal innovation. Furthermore, Prof. Sam Ransbotham form Boston College joined us to tell the students more about AI and the strategic use of IT. At the MIT Sloan School of Management, the students had the honor of meeting Prof. Eric von Hippel, inventor of the concept of “User Innovation” and a highly cited social scientist. In New York City students pitched their venture ideas to the critical jury member Prof. Jack Kaplan from the Columbia State University.

This year’s highlights were also company visits and distinguished guest speeches by experts and entrepreneurs. The students got a glimpse behind the scenes at Formlabs – an emerging 3D printing technology developer/manufacturer and well known for a successful Kickstarter campaign, Salesforce – the world's #1 customer relationship management platform as well as German Accelerator which supports high-potential. German startups to successfully entering the U.S.. On top of these insights, we had the pleasure of meeting Liz Elting, an accomplished business leader recognized for her outstanding entrepreneurship and focus on developing women business leaders.

It was a great week in a fascinating environment with great people! To sum up it can be said that the Field Trip was an amazing and memorable experience!