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and compelling description of your new business. Assume that this description will
determine whether or not you get a microloan to start the business. Be sure to include the
following in your description:
• What is the personal/community need you wish to fill?
• How much money will you need? How will you repay the initial loan with interest?
• Will you partner with others?
Suggested Answer:
Student responses will vary. If students run a search on Muhammad Yunus some of the
Learning objective: Define entrepreneurship; Describe how a new business gets started
Course level objective: Identify the fundamental concepts and issues of international
Leading with Emotional Intelligence: Entrepreneurs Are a Special Breed
Do you believe that entrepreneurs need better emotional intelligence skills than your
ordinary non-entrepreneurial person? How critical are self-awareness and relationship
management to a successful entrepreneur?
1. Interview someone you know who has started, or has attempted to start, his/her own
business (it may even be you!).
2. Use these questions to get your interview off to a successful start:
a. In your opinion, what are the essential characteristics or qualities of an entrepreneur?
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b. How important was it to be aware of and manage your emotions as you planned and
launched your business? Please explain why this was important.
c. What role, if any, did fear, risk-taking, hope, or self-confidence play in your effort?
d. What role did innovation and creativity play in your entrepreneurial experience?
e. Do you think emotional intelligence is critical for entrepreneurial success? Explain
your answer.
Suggested Answer:
Student responses will vary. This should be an interesting exercise for students to where
Leading with Critical Thinking Skills: Hypercompetition
Hypercompetition has had a lasting impact on our world. Think back to 10 years ago.
You may not even have been in high school, but chances are you had a cell phone and/or
an MP3 player. Now, fast forward to today. Rapid technological advances in innovation
and creative design and fierce competition in the global market have placed smartphones
and tablet computers in your hands at an affordable price. Go online to research three
smartphones and three tablets. Be sure you choose three different companies and do not
choose two smartphone or tablet models from the same company. You may, however,
choose one smartphone and one tablet from the same manufacturer. Once you have
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chosen your smartphones and tablets, answer the following questions either in teams or
individually:
1. Which smartphone/tablet has the most appealing design? Why?
2. Which smartphone/tablet has the most innovative features and functionality? What are
those features/ functionality and how do they stand out from competitors’ features?
3. Which product stands out as the best choice in value, creative design, and innovative
features?
Once you have answered these questions, choose your favorite smartphone or tablet
based on creativity and innovation. Then, create a short list of additional innovative
features or suggest a more creative design for your chosen device—YourSmartphone 1.0
or YourPad 1.0. Use your own creativity to enhance the product.
Suggested Answer:
Ethical Leadership: Copyright Infringement
Imagine that you have a 10-page management paper due at the end of the semester. You
are swamped with schoolwork and your job waiting tables at a restaurant. You copy large
chunks of text from a Website that addresses the issue you have chosen as your topic.
You turn it in as your own. Of course, this is unethical. Infringement of copyright is a
fairly common practice. In the Internet age, it is all too easy to download and use
something that we legally and ethically have no right to use without first seeking
permission. It is possible that, at one time or another, you’ve unknowingly infringed on a
post it as an introduction to your blog site. Infringement or not?
4. You find the perfect chart on climate change at a U.S. Federal Website and use it in
your midterm report on Global Climate Change. Infringement or not?
5. You go to the PirateBay Website and download your favorite artist’s new CD, burn it
to a disc, and give it to your best friend for her birthday. Infringement or not?
6. You find a great article on copyright infringement online for your management
presentation that costs $3. You pay for it, download it, and make 25 copies for your
classmates as a part of your presentation. Infringement or not?
7. You find several very cool graphics online from an artist who has been dead for 15
years. You copy the graphics to post on your online business Website. Infringement or
not?
8. You just bought a new laptop and need the latest version of Microsoft Office. Your
friend, who bought the software six months ago, lends you his copy to download onto
your computer. Infringement or not?
Suggested Answer:
Student responses will vary. Following site offers basics on copyright law:
ADDITIONAL SUPPORTING MATERIALS
VIDEOS:
• Ken Robinson on Creativity
“Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an
• Amy Tan on Creativity
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“Novelist Amy Tan digs deep into the creative process, looking for hints of how hers
• Tim Brown on Creativity and Play
“At the 2008 Serious Play conference, designer Tim Brown talks about the powerful
relationship between creative thinking and play — with many examples you can try at
• Jill Bolte Taylor’s stroke of insight
“Jill Bolte Taylor got a research opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: She had
a massive stroke, and watched as her brain functions — motion, speech, self-awareness —
• Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, two years on
“Nicholas Negroponte talks about how One Laptop per Child is doing, two years in.
html
• Elizabeth Gilbert on Nurturing Creativity
“Elizabeth Gilbert muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses —
and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person “being” a genius, all of us
• Charles Leadbeater on innovation
“In this deceptively casual talk, Charles Leadbeater weaves a tight argument that
innovation isn’t just for professionals anymore. Passionate amateurs, using new tools, are
• Jeff Bezos on the next web innovation
“The dot-com boom and bust is often compared to the Gold Rush. But Amazon.com
founder Jeff Bezos says it’s more like the early days of the electric industry.”
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• Saul Griffith on Everyday Inventions
“Inventor and MacArthur fellow Saul Griffith shares some innovative ideas from his lab –
• Jeff Han demos his breakthrough touchscreen
“Jeff Han shows off a cheap, scalable multi-touch and pressure-sensitive computer screen
• Let’s Build a Filter
“NASA engineers have to construct a carbon dioxide filter using only materials available
INDIVIDUAL EXERCISES
1. Real creativity begins with seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary. Picasso said:
“Every act of creation is first an act of destruction. … Art washes away from the soul the
15-20 minutes of discussion, direct their attention to a cache of small, ordinary items that
you have laid out on a desk. Break students into teams of 4-5. Give each team one of the
2. Give each student a piece of paper with 20 – 30 blank circles on it. Instruct them to
draw as many things as they can imagine from those circles in 1 minute. For instance, a
clock a face, a baseball, the moon, etc. Once the time is up, ask them how many were
they able to complete and encourage them to share with the class.
Ask students to work in pairs or in a team of 3-4 people. Tell them to come up with a
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Beginning: A) Veronica Harmonica boarded the 747 one spring evening on her way to
London.
3. Divide your students into triads. Explain to them that the Chancellor of the University
has invited all students to create a new course of study within any discipline they choose.
They must identify the discipline it would fit into. They must then create a curriculum of
4. Divide students into pairs. Tell them that they have to create a story in two minutes
using all of the elements on the list below. This exercise can also be done individually
with the time to complete the story extended a minute or two more.
– 1 ½ years
TEAM EXERCISE
1. EXPLORING METAPHORS FOR THEIR LEADERSHIP LESSONS
Break the class into teams of 4-6. Each team is given a metaphor to explore for its
leadership lessons. Identify a list of ways that this metaphor helps to understand and
1. Chess
2. Participating in a triathlon
3. Conducting an orchestra
2. 13 WAYS OF LOOKING AT A BLACKBIRD
Wallace Stevens, the American poet, wrote a poem composed of 13 small poems, each a
different perspective on blackbirds, called “13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.“
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird
Wallace Stevens
I
Among twenty snowy mountains,
The only moving thing
Was the eye of the blackbird.
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V
I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of inflections
Or the beauty of innuendoes,
The blackbird whistling
Or just after.
VII
O thin men of Haddam,
Why do you imagine golden birds?
Do you not see how the blackbird
Walks around the feet
Of the women about you?
VIII
I know noble accents
X
At the sight of blackbirds
Flying in a green light,
Even the bawds of euphony
Would cry out sharply.
For blackbirds.
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XII
The river is moving.
The blackbird must be flying.
ADDITIONAL RESEARCH
Decision Processes: New Perspectives
Creativity is near the top of many leaders’ lists of organizational needs. Stacey[i] notes
that intuition and the ability to reason by analogy are the necessary processes of
creativity. Insights arising from these creative processes are ‘amplified’ in an
organizational setting when the informal networks operate under conditions of chaos.
relative lack of newness of information. New information is introduced from other
networks through acquaintances that are more strongly embedded in other social
networks. Burt[iii] advanced Granovetter’s ideas of weak ties with the introduction of the
concept ‘structural holes.’ He argues that Granovetter’s weak ties generalize to structural
holes, which are positions occupied by individuals that link to multiple network ‘clusters’
(groups of individuals that all know and are in close communication with each other).
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