Admission Process Begins for Harvard Business Analytics Program

Harvard Business School (HBS) has started the admission process for the newly launched Harvard Business Analytics Program with the first application deadline on February 5, 2018, and the inaugural cohort to begin classes in March 2018.

For the online certificate program, HBS has partnered with the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), the Department of Statistics in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the education technology company 2U Inc.

“The Harvard Business Analytics Program will prepare business leaders to bring data analytics from the periphery to the heart of their respective businesses, helping them to remain competitive in an evolving business landscape,”

The program is designed for experienced professionals, including those who already possess an MBA or advanced business degree, interested in expanding their knowledge and capabilities in data and analytics. It will help participants develop a foundational understanding of quantitative analysis and data science. They will thus be able to provide leadership in applying this knowledge to solve a range of complex business problems, HBS said in a press release.

With data and data analytics rapidly redefining and transforming almost all industries, from healthcare and manufacturing to marketing and finance, industries are demanding business leaders who can effectively work with data science teams. They are expected to ask the right questions and apply the results to solve practical business problems.

The demand for data scientists and data engineers is expected to grow 39 percent by 2020. “We are in the midst of a secular shift in the economy where transactions are being digitized and generating more data, making it critical that companies recruit business leaders who are both analytics savvy and understand how to deploy these new capabilities to drive strategic advantage,” said Karim R. Lakhani, the Charles E. Wilson Professor of Business Administration at HBS, and the faculty co-founder of the HBS Digital Initiative.

“The Harvard Business Analytics Program will prepare business leaders to bring data analytics from the periphery to the heart of their respective businesses, helping them to remain competitive in an evolving business landscape,” he added.

David C. Parkes, George F. Colony Professor of Computer Science at Harvard SEAS, and co-director of the Harvard Data Science Initiative said, “This partnership across Harvard’s schools reflects the need for integrated thinking, for crossing boundaries in enabling data-driven decision making.”

The program comprises six courses and two condensed two-week seminars to be completed in nine months. It also has two on-campus learning experiences at the Harvard Business School campus in Boston.

The curriculum consists of entirely new courses, designed and taught by Harvard faculty, to help students build capabilities in technical, analytical and operational areas that can be used to advance their professional prospects in the global market.

Students will participate in live, face-to-face online classes and engaging course content created by HBS, SEAS and Statistics faculty and delivered with technology partner, 2U. 2U’s platform provides a comprehensive fusion of technology, services and data architecture to transform high-quality and rigorous campus-based universities into the best digital versions of themselves.(Image Source: Wikipedia.org)