Executive Electives Week

Drexel LeBow Executive Electives Week features coursework that spans a diversity of disciplines and explores some of the most pertinent challenges facing industry today. Designed by leading faculty members, industry experts and the Corporate and Executive Education team, these immersive experiences are designed to enhance your business acumen and sharpen your existing skillsets.

Executive Electives: Course Descriptions April 2025

Strategic Value Creation and Digital Transformation

Date: Thursday, April 3, 2025

Location/Format: Drexel University City Campus, In Person Delivery

Instructor: David Kurz, EdD, Associate Clinical Professor, Management

Course Description:

In this one-day workshop, a LeBow faculty expert in digital business strategy and leadership will interactively demonstrate innovative frameworks for strategic thinking and integrated business model innovation. The main frameworks are:

• Value Creation - How to drive business value in a more holistic, integrated way
• Critical Thinking - Adding strategic framing and data analytic thinking to decision making processes
• Digital Business Drivers - Promotes alignment structured thinking for integrated digital business models that improve customer experience while managing cost

Module One: Creating Business Value - in this session we will develop an integrated Value Creation framework. The main components of the framework are Strategy Definition, Asset Identification, Financial Modeling, Talent, and Culture.

Module Two: Value Creation - In this session participants will share reflections on how integrated value creation might help them troubleshoot, accelerate, or strategically advance a business dilemma they are currently facing in their roles. Small breakout groups will work to collaborate in identifying common barriers to business execution.

Module Three: Business Problem Solving - This session will introduce a critical thinking tool designed to help business leaders improve the speed and quality of decision making. Even professional and experienced problem solvers can improve their data driven decision making.

Module Four: Digital Business Strategies - In this session a leadership execution framework for identifying and developing digital business integration will be presented. This framework focuses on customer segment identification, data analytic approaches, segment value chain design and business modeling opportunities, talent implications, technology section and risk management.

Higher for Longer: What are the Implications of Higher Interest Rates?

Date: Friday, April 4, 2025

Location/Format: Drexel University City Campus, In Person Delivery

Instructor: Gregory Nini, PhD, Professor, Finance

Course Description:

Since the middle of 2021, interest rates on most financial products have risen substantially. For instance, the interest rate on a typical 30-year mortgage increased from under 3% in early 2021 to nearly 7% at the end of 2024. The rise has made borrowing to fund large purchases – including houses, cars, and other investments – considerably more expensive, and the rise has changed the investing landscape for savers. This executive course will provide a window into the causes of higher interest rates and an in-depth exploration of how rising interest rates affect businesses, markets, and the broader economy.

Participants will analyze the relationship between monetary policy, inflation, and borrowing costs, gaining insights into how these factors influence corporate finance, investment strategies, and consumer behavior. The course combines theoretical frameworks with real-world case studies, helping leaders develop strategies to manage debt, assess risks, and seize opportunities in high-rate environments. Designed for executives and senior managers, this program equips participants with the financial acumen needed to navigate economic shifts and drive informed, strategic decision-making.

Climate Change Simulation Challenge: Can you reach Net Zero while maximizing performance for competitive advantage?

Date: Saturday, April 6, 2025

Location/Format: Drexel University City Campus, In Person Delivery

Instructor: Suresh Chandran, PhD, Clinical Professor, Management

Course Description:

One of the greatest innovation challenges humankind has ever faced is staring us in the face: the world has 10 years to halve global greenhouse gas emissions and avoid global warming of above 1.5°C, an amount beyond which scientists warn dangerous impacts will kick in. According to a recent PWC report, to achieve this, every sector of the global economy needs to transform in just over two business cycles. Before 2050 the global economy needs to be at ‘net zero’ carbon emissions. The challenge for companies is to reduce carbon emissions, using novel technologies, disruptive approaches and innovation in an effective way, while at the same time optimizing business performance for future competitive advantage. We will explore these opportunities and challenges in this course.

In this climate change simulation challenge, students are part of the management team of a business whose goal is to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. As a first major step, the business needs to reduce its emissions by 50% over the next 7 years and at the same time optimize its financial performance. Each year, teams must prioritize and select initiatives from a wide-ranging and evolving list that impacts the business’s emissions as well as financial performance. Teams must therefore make operational and strategic decisions on a variety of issues as they seek to balance competitiveness with net-zero goals. Feedback is provided to students of the business’s emissions and their underlying drivers as well as the financial performance after each round of decisions. This exercise will help the student management teams think through the consequences of their decisions and the need to prioritize. This course is intended to provide grounding in the strategic thinking necessary to guide a company’s overall approach to meeting the climate change challenge and to prepare students to take leadership roles in addressing such issues in business.