100 Free Ivy-League Courses for Aspiring CEOs

June 21st, 2009

Whether you’re climbing the corporate ladder or creating a company of your very own, there are lots of useful online courses available to you. Some of these courses are offered at the Ivy League level, even. In this list, we’ll explore 100 of the best free Ivy League courses that can help you on your way to becoming a CEO.

Management

Check out these courses to learn how to be a better manager.

  1. Communication for Managers: Take this course to polish your methods of communicating as a leader. [MIT]
  2. Practical Leadership: Get insight into your leadership abilities with this course. [MIT]
  3. Operations Management: Check out this course, and you’ll learn about planning, operations, control, project management, and more. [MIT]
  4. Special Seminar in Management: Follow this course, and you’ll learn the basics of management. [MIT]
  5. Leadership Lab: Take this course to promote leadership and business success. [MIT]
  6. Management of Supply Networks for Products and Services: Find out how to manage supply networks in this course. [MIT]
  7. Special Seminar in Management: The Nuts and Bolts of Business Plans: You can learn about business plans from this course. [MIT]
  8. People and Organizations: This course will help you learn about the way professionals work in organizations. [MIT]
  9. Theory of Operations Management: Find out how to create effective management operations by taking this course. [MIT]
  10. Strategic Management: Find out how to manage strategically by following this course. [MIT]
  11. Dynamic Leadership: Using Improvisation in Business: This course will help you learn how to improvise as a leader. [MIT]
  12. Management Communications for Undergraduates: Undergrads can learn more about communication in management from this course. [MIT]
  13. Introduction to Operations Management: This course offers learning in the problems and analysis of operations management. [MIT]
  14. Game Theory for Managers: This course will help you understand game theory in terms of business applications. [MIT]
  15. Managerial Psychology: Use behavioral science to better understand employees, and you can learn all about it with this course. [MIT]
  16. Building and Leading Effective Teams: In this course, you’ll learn how to build skills to effectively lead teams. [MIT]
  17. Strategic HR Management: This course will help you learn how to best manage your HR department. [MIT]
  18. Cross-Cultural Leadership: Find out about effective leadership across different cultures in this course. [MIT]
  19. Leading Organizations: This course will help you better understand organizational behavior. [MIT]
  20. Strategic Management and Consulting Proseminar: Theoretical Foundations: In this course, you’ll learn about important issues in strategic management. [MIT]
  21. Ethical Practice: Professionalism, Social Responsibility, and the Purpose of the Corporation: Follow this course to learn about applied theories in business ethics. [MIT]
  22. Literature, Ethics and Authority: Follow this course to learn about ethics and authority through literature. [MIT]
  23. Competitive Decision-Making and Negotiation: Check out this course in order to learn about business negotiation. [MIT]
  24. Applied Statistics: In this course, you’ll learn how to collect and explore data. [MIT]
  25. Communicating with Data: Check out this course to learn how managers can use data to make informed business decisions. [MIT]
  26. Advanced Corporate Risk Management: In this course, you can learn about managing risk. [MIT]
  27. Individuals, Groups, and Organizations: In this course, you’ll learn how to manage teams and understand groups. [MIT]
  28. Managing the Innovation Process: This course will help you learn how to manage innovation in your business. [MIT]
  29. Leadership Tools and Teams: A Product Development Lab: Develop tools that will help with leadership in this course. [MIT]
  30. Competitive Decision-Making and Negotiation: Learn and practice the art of negotiation through this course. [MIT]
  31. Management Communication: Check out this course to develop your skills in management writing, speaking, teamwork, and more. [MIT]
  32. Seminar in Operations Management: If you’re interested in operations management, be sure to check out this course. [MIT]

Finance & Economics

These courses will teach you what you need to know about money and finance as a CEO.

  1. Applied Economics for Managers: This course will teach you how to deal with economics as a manager. [MIT]
  2. Designing and Leading the Entrepreneurial Organization: Find out how to create a business through this course. [MIT]
  3. Risky Business: Find out how to diversify your interests for safer investments through this course. [Columbia]
  4. Individuals, Groups, and Organizations: Follow this course, and you’ll learn about the basic concepts in individual, group, and organizational behavior. [MIT]
  5. Applied Macro and International Economics: In this course, you’ll learn about the macroeconomics of business. [MIT]
  6. Pricing: You can get an understanding of pricing strategies and more from this course. [MIT]
  7. Game Theory: Check out this course to learn about game theory and strategic thinking in business and economics. [Yale]
  8. Introduction to the Art of Venture Valuation: Check out this seminar to learn about investing in potential companies. [Columbia]
  9. Economic Applications of Game Theory: Find out how game theory applies to economics in this course. [MIT]
  10. Early Stage Capital: This course will teach you about startups and early stage capital. [MIT]
  11. Introduction to Financial and Managerial Accounting: Learn how to make smart investment decisions with the help of this course. [MIT]
  12. Management Accounting and Control: This course will show you how to make your business finances function.
  13. Business Analysis Using Financial Statements: This course will help you learn how to valuate business with the help of financial statements. [MIT]
  14. Financial Markets: See how today’s financial markets function by checking out this course. [Yale]
  15. Investments: In this course, you’ll cover financial theory and investment decisions. [MIT]
  16. Entrepreneurial Finance: You can learn about raising money for company development from this course. [MIT]
  17. Economic Analysis for Business Decisions: This course will teach you about making financial business decisions. [MIT]
  18. Taxes and Business Strategy: This course will help you make better sense of business taxes. [MIT]
  19. Mathematics of Finance: In this course, you’ll learn about the elements of finance including derivatives, hedging, and more. [Columbia]
  20. Behavioral Economics and Finance: You’ll learn about the intersection of psychology and economics in this course. [MIT]
  21. Financial Management: Through this course, you can learn about corporate finance and capital markets. [MIT]

Marketing & Branding

Follow these courses, and you’ll learn the essentials of marketing.

  1. Introduction to Psychology: In this course, you will learn about the study of thought and behavior, including perception, communication, and decision making. [Yale]
  2. Amazon.com: Customer Experience Matters: Find out why customer service and experience are so important to business from this course. [Princeton]
  3. Special Seminar in Marketing: Marketing Management: Get the basics of marketing and ideas and phenomena from this course. [MIT]
  4. Marketing Management: In this course, you’ll get an overview of marketing from a management standpoint. [MIT]
  5. Introduction to Marketing: Learn about the theory and application of marketing in this course. [MIT]
  6. How Your Brain Works-Or Not!: Get a look into human behavior with the help of this course. [Columbia]
  7. Listening to the Customer: Using this course, you can get a look into strategic marketing management that focuses on listening to the customer. [MIT]
  8. Entrepreneurial Marketing: Learn about marketing problems, new venture issues, and more. [MIT]
  9. Brand Leadership-A Series of Three E-Seminars: Learn about the steps that you must take to successfully manage your brand through these e-seminars. [Columbia]
  10. Improving Survey Research: Anchoring Vignettes: Learn how to conduct surveys and gather information with the help of this course. [Harvard]
  11. Marketing Strategy: Check out whole-company strategies for marketing in this course. [MIT]

Communication

Learn how to best communicate as a CEO from these courses.

  1. Anytime, Anywhere: The Recent Revolution in Wireless Communication: This course takes a look at the growth in the wireless industry and its implications. [Princeton]
  2. Advanced Managerial Communication: Find out how to build in-depth communication skills from this course. [MIT]
  3. Argumentation and Communication: This course will help you learn how to effectively argue. [MIT]
  4. Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language: You can learn about what makes up language from this lecture. [Princeton]
  5. Communicating in Cyberspace:This course will teach you how to use the Internet for communication. [MIT]
  6. Columbia University DKV Editorial Style Guide: You can learn about traditional style, usage, and editorial issues from this course. [Columbia]
  7. Power and Negotiation: Build your negotiation skills by taking this course. [MIT]
  8. Planning, Communications, and Digital Media: In this course, you’ll learn about digital media and communication. [MIT]
  9. Negotiation and Conflict Management: Learn how to deal with workplace conflict and more through this course. [MIT]
  10. Seminar on Deep Engagement: In this course, you’ll learn about building interactive media that encourages deep engagement. [MIT]
  11. The Future of English: See how the English language will affect the future of America’s economic and political power by studying this course. [Columbia]
  12. Listening to the Customer: Make sure you’re listening to your customers by learning fundamental skills in this course. [MIT]
  13. Architecture and Communication in Organizations: This course offers help in communication for your business performance. [MIT]
  14. No Sweat Speaking: Follow this course to learn how to take the pain out of public speaking. [Columbia]

Future

Explore what awaits CEOs in the future through these courses.

  1. Broadbanding America: What, Why, and How: You’ll find out about spreading broadband, and what makes it so important in this course. [Princeton]
  2. Science on the Edge: Research Faculty Symposium: Take a look into the future of artificial intelligence through this course. [Harvard]
  3. The Future of the Web: Sir Tim Berners-Lee take a look into what the future holds for the World Wide Web. [Princeton]
  4. Digital Video: An Introduction: Find out more about video, a tool that can make your business more powerful, from this course. [Columbia]
  5. Edwin Howard Armstrong: FM Inventor: Follow this e-seminar to get inspired by the inventor of FM broadcasting. [Columbia]
  6. Einstein, Franklin, and the Role of Creativity in Today’s World: Check out these creatives from history to find inspiration. [Princeton]

Law

Learn about laws of concern to CEOs through this collection of courses.

  1. Rip, Mix, Burn, Sue: Get a look into the fight to control digital media through this course. [Princeton]
  2. Law for the Entrepreneur and Manager: This course offers an overview of business legal issues facing entrepreneurs and managers. [MIT]
  3. The Creative Commons: Find out what creative commons means from this course. [Princeton]
  4. Patents, Copyrights, and the Law of Intellectual Property: Take part in this seminar to learn about concepts in property law, including patents, trade secrets, and copyrights. [MIT]

Industries

These courses focus on specific industries.

  1. Oil in the Arab-Persian Gulf: This professor explains the business of oil trade in the Arab-Persian Gulf. [Columbia]
  2. Do Movies Have a Future: David Denby’s discussion shows the changing role of movies in the future. [Princeton]
  3. The Software Business: If you’re getting in to the software business, be sure to check out this course. [MIT]
  4. Real Estate Finance and Investment: Check out this course, and you’ll learn the basics of real estate and investment. [MIT]
  5. Martin Scorsese Discusses Film-Making: Martin Scorsese discusses the business of film-making in this course. [Princeton]

International

Explore international business with these courses.

  1. International Relations: New Approaches in a Complex World: Find out how changes in technology have changed international relations from this course. [Harvard]
  2. New Global Agenda: Exploring 21st Century Challenges Through Innovations in Information Technologies: In this course, you’ll learn about information technology in international relations. [MIT]
  3. International Multilateral Negotiation: Check out this course to learn about negotiating with businesses around the world. [Tufts]
  4. Global Entrepreneurship Lab: Learn how to succeed in an international market with the help of this course. [MIT]
  5. Topics in Culture and Globalization: Find out about the effects of global interconnectedness in this course. [MIT]
  6. Global Markets, National Policies, and the Competitive Advantages of Firms: This course will help you get a global perspective as a CEO. [MIT]
  7. Globalization: You can learn about international economy through this course. [MIT]