Private Equity and Venture Capital

As the global economy evolves, interest rates shift, and competition for the best deal escalates, investors must seek out opportunities in emerging countries, industries, and niches. Private Equity and Venture Capital helps you master the innovative approaches required to adapt best practices for investing to today's complex market dynamics. Gaining new insights into successful strategies, you will be positioned to capture new opportunities and increase your firm's return on investment.

What You Can Expect
Designed to help improve your effectiveness at all stages of a deal, the program examines the critical aspects of investing, such as negotiation strategy, organizational structure, and portfolio management. You will learn how to redefine your deal-making approach, enhance your investment expertise, and seize fleeting opportunities.

Your Course of Study
Immersed in compelling lectures and discussions, you and your peers will explore real-world challenges faced by investors, as well as the art of building a successful investment strategy. Through a hands-on team exercise in managing an investment portfolio, you will hone essential analytical and decision-making skills.

Who Is Right for the Program
Suited for executives with considerable investment industry experience, the program brings together a stimulating mix of executives, including general partners and principals of private equity and venture capital firms, limited partners, as well as professionals providing services to the industry.

Dates and Fees

Also offered in China

What You Can Expect

Markets evolve quickly—and investors must keep pace. Today's turbulent debt markets and fluctuating economies challenge investment strategies that were successful as recently as last year. To maintain a winning portfolio and sustain your return on investment, you must be able to identify promising opportunities in new areas and quickly apply innovative investment approaches.

Private Equity and Venture Capital helps you become a more successful investor by raising your level of investment expertise. Addressing the full range of industry models—from venture capital to growth equity to buyouts—the program explores critical issues related to industry infrastructure, portfolio strategies, and decision-making processes. This HBS Executive Education program is designed to help you:

• Apply best practices for making investments—within your borders and in developing countries
• Assess opportunities in emerging industries
• Evaluate the impact of market cycles so you can take advantage of opportunities with the most potential
• Make better investment decisions by examining how growth and organizational change influence deal source, valuation, and portfolio mix
• Move quickly to select the best deals and negotiate the best terms with confidence
• Monitor the progress of portfolio companies and choose appropriate exit strategies
• Successfully scale your firm by managing deals and integrating operations across multiple locations
• Expand your network by building strong relationships with other experienced industry leaders

The program's structure fosters close interaction among participants, providing opportunities to build valuable personal relationships that may have enduring value throughout their careers.

How Will My Organization Benefit?

Executive Education programs at Harvard Business School are a significant investment for both you and your organization. Going far beyond the basic transmission of skills and theories, each program provides applicable lessons in the classroom that can be implemented successfully within your organization. You will acquire a fresh perspective on global business from our groundbreaking curriculum, world-renowned faculty, and an accomplished group of elite peers from around the world.

"Private Equity and Venture Capital broadened my thinking on issues such as portfolio management, while stimulating my thought processes on the organizational options within a venture management firm."
Aidan Langan [Chief Executive Officer], Enterprise Equity, Ltd., Ireland

Your Course of Study

Through lectures, group discussions, case studies, and a hands-on exercise, you will develop a new perspective on the multifaceted issues that investors face each day. Engaging in robust debates and practical exercises will strengthen your problem-solving and decision-making skills. As a result, you will return to your company better prepared to formulate an effective investment strategy, raise needed capital, and facilitate productive deal-making.

Program elements include:

Private Equity Game Simulation

Crafted by veteran venture capitalist Professor G. Felda Hardymon and colleagues, this multiyear simulation enables you and your team to sharpen diverse skill sets as you compete with peers:

• Discover the best deals in a selected industry sector
• Evaluate potential investments and negotiate terms
• Compete with other teams to finance the best opportunities
• Explore the risks and rewards of using debt to enhance returns
• Establish the ideal investing scenario for each company
• Build the reputation of your team's "firm" and the value of its fund over time

Private Equity Globalization

Today, capital flows freely across both national and regional boundaries. While exploring the dynamics of global capital and global companies, you will improve your ability to:

• Manage a multinational fund versus one run from a single office
• Adjust your investment strategies for the varying demand-and-supply dynamics of different countries and regions
• Assess the impact of traditional management practices and the localization of investments
• Anticipate exit difficulties and other risks

Emerging Markets

New high-growth markets bring a wealth of opportunities, but often require a different investment style. As you delve into the complexities of emerging market investments, you will learn how to:

• Identify new funding opportunities
• Embrace earlier-stage investments
• Understand the vast differences between fundraising and investing efforts
• Make decisions that recognize the distinct financial and cultural aspects of a country or region

The Implications of Both Firm and Fund Size

Are your investment strategies aligned with the size of your firm and your fund? Addressing the unique challenges faced by firms at different stages of growth, the program helps you to:

• Understand how the size of your firm or fund affects the perceptions of investors, target-company managers and owners, as well as the broader investment community
• Explore how firm and fund size can influence deal sourcing and selection, enterprise valuation, portfolio mix, and the management of portfolio companies

"This was a great opportunity for me to gain insight into the thinking of groundbreaking movers in private equity. The professors communicated their messages with great clarity and the classroom interactions were dynamic and interesting. Hearing fresh points of view and networking with other people in the industry has been very beneficial for me."
Martine Kerschenmeyer [Vice President], Morgan Stanley & Co., United Kingdom

Who Is Right for the Program

Private Equity and Venture Capital is designed for individuals with considerable investment industry experience. To facilitate discussion from all sides of an issue, HBS selects a diverse mix of accomplished professionals. Typical participants include, but are not limited to:

• General partners and junior partners of private equity and venture capital firms
• Principals from the limited partner community who invest in private equity and venture capital firms
• Chief investment officers, investment principals, and investment managers or directors
• Asset managers
• Entrepreneurs in the process of receiving and/or structuring capital funds

The class will accept a few professional intermediaries providing banking, accounting, legal, and other advisory services to the industry.

Visit the admissions section for details about our application process.

Past Participants Represented:

Sales Volume			Nationalities
14%		less than $5 million	2%		Africa
29%		$5–29.9 million	9%		Asia
11%		$30–99.9 million	4%		Australia/NZ
25%		$100–499.9 million	36%		Europe
4%		$500–999.9 million	8%		Latin America
10%		$1–10 billion	4%		Middle East
8%		$10+ billion	33%		North America
			4%		Other

Participating Companies Have Included:

Akzo Nobel NV Bechtel Corporation CIGNA Corporation Duke Energy Corporation Ernst & Young, L.L.P. Fidelity Ventures General Electric Company The Gillette Company The United States Government Hewlett-Packard Company ING Groep N.V.

Johnson & Johnson J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. Kaiser Permanente Microsoft Corporation Morgan Stanley New Balance Athletic Shoe, Inc. Novartis AG Schlumberger Ltd. Tage Corporation Wachovia Corporation The World Bank Group

Meet the Program Faculty

Like all Harvard Business School Executive Education programs, Private Equity & Venture Capital is developed and taught by a core faculty of HBS professors. Our faculty members are widely recognized as skilled educators, groundbreaking researchers, and award-winning authors.

Through publishing, consulting, and teaching, they leverage their business expertise and field-based research to create new knowledge and enduring concepts that shape the practice of management. The result is a teaching team that exposes participants to multiple perspectives, challenging their thinking and encouraging new practices that result in superior business leadership. For more detailed biographies, click on each faculty name.