Stanford Quad with Hoover Tower in background.
Teaching Leadership
Can leadership be taught? Dean Garth Saloner talks about teaching principled leadership, the importance of critical analytical thinking, leadership exercises, conventional classes, and the Stanford MBA curriculum.
» First Year Courses
» Second Year Electives
» Classes at Stanford University
"My Stanford GSB classes helped me to learn the basic economic frameworks that underpin modern business, and then challenged me to apply these frameworks across a broad swath of sectors and cases.
Some of the greatest teachers along the way turned out to be my classmates: caring, responsive, and incredibly talented.
They helped to ground conceptual business ideas with their own real-life experiences.
Who would have guessed that the largest mergers-and-acquisitions deals of the past 5 years would have been executed by a few of the friends seated around me?
Or that China's massive technological growth over the past decade would have been fueled, at least in part, by the entrepreneurial drive of several of my classmates?"
Coddy Johnson, MBA 2007
California, USA
SVP/Chief of Staff
Activision Blizzard
Curriculum First Year
In your first year, you will dive into complex managerial issues, develop the foundation for your general management education, and gain valuable international experience.
Autumn Quarter
General Management Perspectives
Your first quarter will begin with General Management Perspectives, a series of courses designed to give you insight into the perspective of a senior manager and leader.
Essential to Perspectives is the Critical Analytical Thinking (CAT) seminar, in which a senior faculty member and 16 students analyze, write about, and debate fundamental issues, questions, and phenomena that arise in many forms in management.
» General Management Perspectives Courses
Winter/Spring Quarters
General Management Foundations
Toward the end of your first quarter, you and your faculty advisor (who is also your CAT instructor) will develop a personalized plan for your General Management Foundations courses, which will provide the base for your general management education.
In your second quarter, you will begin General Management Foundations. In most cases, you will complete these courses in your third quarter.
» General Management Foundations Courses
Global Experience Requirement
You will also enroll in one of several options for the program's mandatory Global Experience Requirement.
» Global Management Immersion Experience
» Global Study Trip
» Service Learning Trip
» SAIL
» STEP
