Instructor(s):

Gábor Bojár
Ernő Duda
Andrea Szabó
Dominika Szabó
Weeks
1-14
Contact hours
2x2 hours/week
Credit
4 credits

Short Description of the course:
Many of the most accomplished IT entrepreneurs and leaders come from engineering or computer science backgrounds rather than business administration. Therefore, CS students might consider an entrepreneurial career path. Regardless of their professional goals, this course helps students appreciate the broader impact of ethical business practices while addressing major themes in leadership and entrepreneurship.

In today's rapidly changing world, understanding social, technological, and business environments is crucial for scientists and engineers designing future IT products and services. This course addresses this issue while emphasizing the impact of globalization, cross-cultural adaptation skills, and the unique challenges facing entrepreneurs in the US, Europe, and Asia/Pacific, including cultural differences within Europe,

Aim of the Course:
Unlike pre-professional courses with similar titles at business schools this course has been designed specifically for CS majors. Our goals are:

  • To help students to assess and evaluate entrepreneurship and leadership in theory and practice;
  • To help students gain a deeper understanding of dynamic economic and social environments;
  • To help students assess the ethical aspects of business;
  • To enable students design IT products and services with a special focus on marketability and cross-cultural differences and
  • To enable students’ better understanding of key stakeholders in the IT sector and in IT organizations.

Learning Outcomes:

  • Students will be able to understand the mindset and roles of entrepreneurs and leaders;
  • Students will learn conflict resolution methods;
  • Students will dive into presentation theory and practice;
  • Students will be able to build empathy with lay customers, and will learn how to understand customers’ mindset and priorities;
  • Students will be able to analyze competitive advantages and challenges, market opportunities and resource requirements;
  • Students will develop and practice interpersonal- and other important soft skills and will have increased understanding and acceptance of diversities and different viewpoints.

Method of Instruction:
The course is organized into interactive lectures, workshops and projects. Lectures include slide presentations, available to students following presentation in class. Slides serve as guidelines only and do not summarize all points presented in class, and some parts of presentations may be verbal only, without slides. Company visits (2-3 companies / semester) will be organized and guest lecturers from the Hungarian business community will also speak in class.

Soft skills seminars will be organized as interactive self-awareness workshops, based on pair work, work in triads and individual work. As soft skills don’t come in a textbook, they come from inside every individual, the seminars will aim at raising awareness of the students’ strengths they can rely on and on areas of development. These seminars will be mini-trainings, focusing on individual and group reflection.

 

Homework assignments:

Two personal SWOT analyses: (400 – 600 words each) will be required as assignments that are linked to the soft skills segments of the course. Students are expected to prepare their personal analysis about their own entrepreneurial ambitions and skills, and in the second half of the semester they should prepare a similar analysis about their leadership ambitions and skills.

Essays about companies visited: Throughout the semester students are expected to write essays about the companies visited (400 – 600 words each), analyze their strengths and weaknesses, their market opportunities and related challenges (SWOT analysis). Students are also expected to assess the attractiveness of the visited companies as potential employers as well as the ethical aspects of their business.

For project-based group work, teams of 3-4 students develop presentations about a product or service. The goal is not to invent the "best idea" but to develop the skills to assess a business idea whether there is a real market for the product, what kind of competitive advantages are required, etc. Students will develop skills to present to potential investors and potential customers.

Market survey: Students are expected to identify target customer groups and design a survey that allows them to assess the real market need for their product. Each group is then expected to conduct customer surveys with real potential and lay customers.

Financial exercise: A workshop will be conducted about the basic financial calculations, including Profit and Loss statement (P/L) and Cash Flow statement (C/F), with particular focus on the difference between the two. Students are expected to make another version as a home work.

Final Exam: By the end of the course a 5000 -10,000-characters long Self-reflection paper and presentation is to be submitted about your own improvement in the course.

Instructors' bio:

Gábor Bojár (born 1949) is one of the very few entrepreneurs of Central-Eastern Europe to have succeeded in global business during the era of state-socialism. He founded Graphisoft, a software development firm, which became one of the top three international software vendors in its field within ten years. Claiming the most prestigious awards of the trade, Graphisoft's leading product, ArchiCAD® is used by hundreds of thousands of architects around the world. Graphisoft was listed on the Frankfurt and the Budapest stock exchange and has been purchased by Nemetscheck Gmbh in 2007. Mr. Bojár remains Chairman of Graphisoft's Board of Directors. Mr. Bojár is also the founder of Graphisoft Park, a real-estate development that turned an industrial site on the bank of the River Danube into a state-of-the art science park. Mr. Bojár was also an adjunct faculty member of Central European University Business School, lectures internationally, and has published a book exploring the "Graphisoft story" with an analytic perspective.

In 2007 Mr. Bojar founded Aquincum Institute of Techology and dedicates most of his time and other resources to realize the mission of AIT. Mr. Bojár has received numerous national and international awards for scientific and business excellence. He has been named by the Wall Street Journal as one of the ten most successful entrepreneurs in Central Europe and by Ernst and Young as Entrepreneur of the Year in Hungary. He has also spoken at several prestigious events including the Davos World Economic Forum. Mr. Bojar obtained his M.S. in physics from Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest.

Ernő Duda (born 1968) is Co-Founder, President & CEO of Solvo Biotechnology, Hungary’s largest independent biopharmaceutical company. Mr. Duda is also Founder and President of the Hungarian Biotechnology Association, and Co-Founder and Senior Consultant of Qualinnova Consulting. He has been acting as CEO of Solvo since 1999, and as a genuine entrepreneur, he has founded or co-founded 20 companies, including a corporate finance consulting company focused on high-tech Hungarian start-ups, and Hungary’s largest online second-hand book store. He is Co-Founder and Chairman of Aquincum Incubator, founded to help to develop new technology startups. He was Vice President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hungary, and President of the Junior Achievement Foundation Hungary. Mr. Duda was a member of the Research and Technology Innovation Council, the Board of Trustees of the Bay Zoltán Foundation for Applied Research, and works on the board of the Hungarian Association for Innovation. As an Associate Professor at the University of Szeged, he holds courses on the business aspect of the biotech industry. He is also a regular contributor to newspapers, periodicals and other publications, and frequently holds presentations on biotechnology and entrepreneurship at conferences, trainings and other public events.

Andrea Szabó (born in 1969) works as an executive, team and career coach, and as a Gestalt Therapist. She holds an M.A. degree (Eötvös Lóránd University, Budapest), a degree in Human Resources Management (Central European University), and a Degree in Gestalt Psychotherapy (Norwegian Gestalt Institute). She has a certification in individual and team coaching, and a license in career coaching (Accredited by the Association of Coaching, London, UK). Andrea has held various managerial positions for 15 years before becoming a coach in 2008. She has worked as a Managing Partner for the largest Hungarian Executive Search firm, Telkes Consulting Inc, and as the HR Director Worldwide for Graphisoft. She has a professional international background, having worked on projects e.g. in the U.S., Canada, Japan, Germany, Romania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland.

Dominika Szabó is an associate professor at the liberal arts college of McDaniel College Budapest, and is a communications expert. As a storytelling and communications trainer, she designs and facilitates trainings and workshops focusing on business development, branding and communication purposes. She mentors startups even from an early stage, helping them develop entrepreneurship skills and build effective communication strategies. She started to teach at AIT in 2022, she has been teaching courses in AIT’ Leadership and Entrepreneurship Studies.

Students' Review About This Course

"My favourite class at AIT was the LES course. I was really excited to expanding my business knowledge and that definitely happened. But beyond that, this class taught me valuable personal and career skills that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. The class discussion topics have help me better understand myself, my relationship with others and my career goals."

Madeline Griswold

Madeline Griswold

Brown University

"This course taught me to ask the right questions from a prospective employer, to evaluate its business and to see if it will be a good place to work. I have learned to look at a software from the customer’s perspective to be able to create useful and marketable products."

Pratik Prasad

Pratik Prasad

University of Washington

LES course is the most valuable class at AIT for anyone who wants to be an entrepreneur. As a previous startup founder, I only wish I could have taken this class earlier. It helped me learn more about the potential market through my competitors and clarify the different motivations of players such as angels, venture capitals, and employees involved in a startup. The most important lesson I learned was how to strategize each step in a business to bring the best out of the talents and avoid the traps that can lead the business owner away from focusing on customers. You will learn from the experts who went from the very early stage of a startup until it became a global company. You will discover many mistakes that entrepreneurs should avoid when running a company and it will help you think differently when it is your time to run a startup.

Kevin Kim

Woochul (Kevin) Kim

Grinnell College

"LES was one of my favorite courses to take in AIT and would encourage others to take it as well. This course not only shows you the steps and process of what it means to be an entrepreneur but also teaches you on what it means to be a good leader. The professor who teaches this class all have the credential experience to back up what they teach in the class. This is what I love about the class, knowing that the lesson and knowledge I am gaining in class is not something from a book or novel but from someone who has gone through this path. Again, I would highly encourage others to take this class."

Tenzin

Tenzin Nyima

Macalester College

"Taking the Leadership and Entrepreneurship course at AIT has been a game-changer. The chance to learn from some of the most successful entrepreneurs, who offer candid and comprehensive advice, is truly unique. This class has provided me with invaluable knowledge and connections that have significantly shaped my entrepreneurial mindset."

Ákos Varjú

Ákos Varjú

Budapest University of Technology and Economics

"LES has been one of my favorite & most applicable classes. Prior to AIT - I was working on a few EdTech startups. Our discussions in LES have directly impacted the way I lead & manage my co-workers. I would seriously recommend this class to students looking to advance their professional relationships & learn more about startups."

Jonathan Wise

Jonathan Wise

Claremont McKenna College