Growing a business needs a dynamic set of skills, ranging from leadership, employee management, strategy, planning, finance, accounting, ethics, accountability, and profitability.
Developed at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, and led by top-ranked Darden faculty, this specialization covers challenges faced by private businesses, when they attempt to grow substantially. It starts with common challenges and human resource issues faced by private business. It then teaches you essential financial accounting skills for entrepreneurs, such as creating and interpreting cash flow, balance sheet, and income statements to make financial health conclusions.
This specialization also presents an exciting new approach to values-driven leadership development in the workplace, in business education, and in life. In an action oriented introduction to Giving Voice to Values (GVV), it is not about persuading people to be more ethical, but instead starts from the premise that most of us already want to act on our values, and we feel that we have a reasonable chance of doing so effectively. It then discusses the emergence of a new story about business, contextualizing it within a societal framework. Finally, it teaches you to write innovative business plans, by driving meaningful focus, forcing specificity, and bringing linkages between key business drivers to the foreground.
There are 4 Courses in this Specialization. Finish all four courses and earn a Growing Your Business Specialization certificate.
Course 1 – Financial Accounting Fundamentals
This course will teach you the tools you’ll need to understand the fundamentals of financial accounting. By the end of this course, you will be able to: – Use journal entries to record transactions – Prepare and use t-accounts to summarize transactions recorded during an accounting period – Describe the three most commonly used financial statements and how they fit together – Prepare these financial statements based on transactions recorded during an accounting period – Draw basic conclusions about a company’s financial health.
Apply Now!! Application Deadline January 3rd 2021.
Course 2 – Ethical Leadership Through Giving Voice to Values
This course offers an action-oriented introduction to Giving Voice to Values (or GVV), an exciting new approach to values-driven leadership development in the workplace, in business education and in life.
GVV is not about persuading people to be more ethical, but instead it starts from the premise that most of us already want to act on our values, but that we also want to feel that we have a reasonable chance of doing so effectively. Through positive, real life examples, pre-scripting, rehearsal and peer coaching, GVV builds the skill, the confidence and likelihood that we will act on our values more often and more successfully.
Apply Now!! Application Deadline January 31st 2021.
Course 3 – New Models of Business in Society
In this course we will be discussing the emergence of a new story about business. This new story locates business within a societal framework. Almost every business creates or destroys value for customers, suppliers, employees, communities and society, in addition to shareholders and other financiers. A number of new models of business can be built on this idea such as corporate responsibility, philanthropy, shared value and sustainability. Profits and stakeholder value go together, and this course explains how.
Apply Now!! Application Deadline February 28th 2021.
Course 4 – Innovating with the Business Model Canvas
Have you ever gotten really excited about reading or writing a business plan? You might have started out excited, but I’m going to bet you didn’t stay that way. Let’s be honest- business plans are boring and mostly ignored.
The beauty of the one-page Business Model Canvas is that it drives meaningful focus. It helps us organize our ideas and have better discussions by forcing specificity and bringing linkages between key business drivers to the foreground. In this course you’ll learn key tools from the worlds of design thinking and Lean Startup to approach the Canvas with thoughtfulness, focus, and above all a test-driven approach to business model innovation.