Facilitated by Nir Tsuk, Founder & Director, NYU Bronfman’s Institute for Impact and Entrepreneurship
The Senser Foundation & Philtech are excited to invite our community to join this enriching fully-funded online course.
12 Senser Foundation fellows will be selected for a unique opportunity to gain insights on innovation and entrepreneurship, equipping them with practical tools to become changemakers in their organizations and communities.
All sessions will begin at 9:00 am CT / 5:00 pm Israel time,
and last 2 hours including a break.
The course content and guest speakers are subject to change.
During the course, participants will build their own entrepreneurial projects based on acquired course content.
A general but practical introduction to the course: we will start with definitions – what is the difference between innovation, entrepreneurship, and disruption? What is the difference (if any) between business and social entrepreneurship? What are the main tools that help to find new solutions to existing problems, or to lead processes of change in organizations that need it? We will also understand why in turbulent times like ours this changes from a possible addition into a permanent necessity. The conceptual opening will be accompanied by a practical experience that will allow participants to feel firsthand how to define a problem and how to find the appropriate solution to it. We will also be introduced to the course goals, its content, its lecturers – and especially its participants.
We will discuss the two main entrepreneurial methodologies – Design Thinking and Lean Canvas for beginners – and their usage and significance. At first, change-making building blocks will be discussed, explained, and exemplified. Showing how with the right tools, or building blocks, each innovative project could gain scaffoldings, this session will combine both theoretical and practical elements: first showing where they come from and why – and then demonstrating their implementation in a variety of contexts, scenarios, and fields.
The difference between business/social innovation and entrepreneurship, and the importance of the latter will be illuminated and emphasized in a way that will stress the great similarities between them. Sharing stories of impressive and impactful international social entrepreneurs – as well as ones from the US and Israel – we will try to understand what constitutes the “social” mindset and how such changemakers define success, find resources, and get ideas. Going back to thinkers such as Schumpeter and Drucker, theory here will help again not only to explain reality but also to improve or even change it.
It turns out that crises are very good for entrepreneurship and innovation. They provide “fuel” or a “stimulant” that helps to make a leap – often technological, but not exclusively. What does the history of digital transformation look like, and how did the COVID-19 pandemic contribute to it at first? How will almost-too-fashionable concepts like artificial intelligence and machine learning continue to contribute to this? In a workshop based on both comprehensive historical research and insightful business analysis, we will combine learning and application, understand how global trends affect social organizations (in Israel but not only), and see how forward-thinking can help organizations stay informed, relevant and effective – and what if they don’t?
The role of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship in organizations is redefined – no longer just changemakers and problem-solvers, entrepreneurs must be actual leaders who change the status quo and take their audiences and followers through turbulent phases with as much safety and ease as possible. The concept of adaptive leadership will be explained to shed light on decisions taken by entrepreneurs to create new solutions to old problems, while short exercises will demonstrate to the participants how to do it right themselves. Different kinds of leadership problems and challenges need different approaches and solutions – the trick is how to know what is what …
Combining purpose with profit, the 2nd and 3rd sectors, might be the future of social action and change – hence more and more experts talk about impact and impact investments as the key tool for solving severe societal challenges in a way that is not only charity-based or government-led. With an interesting short history and various manifestations in both the developing and the developed world, impact has become the new flavor in the past few months. Because of its increased attraction, a deeper understanding and perhaps even critical selections are needed.
A participants’ guided discussion of projects and challenges, successes, and lessons learned.
Although people are the beating heart of any organization, too often do managers overlook them in the design of organizational processes and leadership mentality. Intentionally building entrepreneurial organizational behavior is essential to the successful growth of the organization and can be a competitive advantage, especially in an environment where the struggle to attract and retain talent is a constant challenge. The workshop will share practical strategies and examples of a variety of informed systemic changes that will help upgrade leadership in participating organizations. It will provide a wealth of examples and case studies from Israel and around the world, from the social sphere as well as from business and government realms.
Technology could help social organizations increase their impact and footprint more
than ever before – but what is the real gospel of artificial intelligence, machine learning, advanced language recognition techniques, and other terms that have now almost become part of our everyday life and language? In an experiential session, we will learn, try, analyze, and apply relevant tools and concepts, understand how to ask, search, design, and implement using the right AI “helpers”- while also dealing with myths, fears, prejudices, and exaggerations which are almost too popular in this industry.
We believe that the best way to learn entrepreneurship and innovation is through a combination of some definitions, typologies, models and techniques, lots of stories, examples, case studies, and guests – and finally a bit of “learning by doing.” This provides a way to practically examine all of the above by examining challenges from the professional lives of the participants. Throughout the course, each participant will develop a draft plan, start a process, define a problem, outline a solution, and demonstrate a possible action or change in his/her professional/organizational world. We will present the products (which can be a presentation, text, illustration, or almost anything) in the final, festive lesson and receive feedback and enlightenment from peers – as well as from guests who will join.
Dr. Nir Tsuk is a seasoned practitioner, academic, and facilitator with over 25 years of international experience in the fields of social capital, entrepreneurship, and culture of innovation. Serving as NYU’s Global Distinguished Scholar and Visiting Professor of Entrepreneurship at Osaka University, Nir launched the Institute for Impact and Intrapreneurship, connecting New York with Tel Aviv, and bridging the language of innovations to those who need it the most.
Before this, Nir was Head of Growth at idealist.org, the world’s largest social talent acquisition platform, and helped to expand its impact. He also brought Ashoka, the largest social entrepreneurship organization, to Israel, serving as its Global fellowship Director and connecting over 3,000 entrepreneurs in 72 countries.
Nir holds a PhD from Cambridge University in social and political sciences. Previously, he has led policy research initiatives at the Community Development Foundation in London and at the Committee for Social Affairs in the Israeli Parliament in Jerusalem. Nir advises and lectures citizen organizations, entrepreneurs, government bodies, and companies.
The NYU Bronfman Center’s Institute for Impact & Intrapreneurship exposes people to the language, mindset and culture of innovation and entrepreneurship. Using NYU’s worldwide platforms, they make the language of innovation and entrepreneurship understandable to new audiences and communities. Their methods are hands-on and practical: teaching innovation and entrepreneurship the way that others teach management or leadership with educational interventions consisting of experiential learning and workshop practices.
Eligibility Guidelines: Members of the Senser Foundation’s Digital Transformation Community are eligible to apply for participation in this course.
Write to us at info@philtech-il.com