Course Description

African-American business leaders successfully have contributed to the growth of the American economy for centuries. This course is not only for Black students, but for every student interested in learning about great business leaders who might be a Black entrepreneur, intrapreneur (entrepreneur in a corporate setting), union leader or social entrepreneur.

Topics include the entrepreneur spectrum, leadership, start-up and under served markets, financial statement analysis, financing for Black entrepreneurs, acquisitions, selling a company, franchising, intrapreneurship, and private equity.

Most of the case studies concentrate on protagonists who are HBS alums, including Otis Gates ‘63, the oldest living Black HBS alum who sold his real estate company for over $100 million; Earl Gordon '08, who purchased a company a few years after graduation; and Amanda Johnson and Kristen Jones Miller ’14 who founded a cosmetics company after graduating. There are also case studies highlighting non-alums; Larry Morse and JoAnn Price, the founders of Fairview Capital, a private equity fund with over $5 billion of assets under management; and John Rogers Jr., the founder of Ariel Investments, the largest black-owned asset management firm in America.

The course examines the great business opportunities that have emerged from identifying under served markets of Black consumers, and the unique interplay between, and intersection of, race and successful entrepreneurial ventures.

The beginning of every class is devoted to the analysis of a traditional case study, with the protagonist serving as a guest speaker in person or via video call. The second portion of the class is the practicum on entrepreneurship. Students work in teams to identify, test and create an entrepreneurial firm that specifically targets under served markets in poor, middle class and affluent Black communities throughout the United States.