Deconstructing Impact: Lessons with Leaders

We all want to have impact - even Stanford's purpose is to 'prepare students to...contribute to the world.' But words like impact, purpose, change, and even innovation have lost their teeth. In this intimate seminar, students will put the bite back into these ideas, learning a diverse toolkit of strategies to enable them to make a positive dent in complex ecosystems through companies and capital. Through weekly, student-led dialogues with leading private-sector change-makers - including unicorn founders, investors across asset classes, and iconic C-suite executives - we'll explore questions like:How do you introduce new innovations to old markets? How do you identify, manage, and mobilize stakeholders within an ecosystem? How do you deploy capital for positive social and financial returns? What are the strategies for companies to be good corporate citizens? What mindsets enable leaders to effect change? How does design support innovation for impact? What are the key issues and megatrends shaping the future of private sector innovation and impact? As a way of synthesizing key insights, students will create a public-facing design project (e.g.co-publishing a book of lessons, authoring a series of articles, creating content for social platforms, producing live video or audio, some combination, or something else!). Alongside this core project, students will also be paired with a mentor from the instructors' networks who will help them reflect on their own interests in impact and innovation.