Educational Objectives

Businesses leaders in companies of all sizes are increasingly facing demands to look beyond their bottom line, to meet a broader set of responsibilities to society and our planet. This is evidenced by the strength of ESG and impact investing industries but also by the proliferation of roles dedicated to impact measurement and management at some of the world's largest companies. Fortune 500 companies like McDonald's, IBM, and Salesforce have invited impact into the C-suite through Chief Impact Officer roles. Similarly, companies such as Deloitte, PwC, Hasbro, and Cisco among many others have a Chief Purpose Officer. The fervor behind these movements has the potential to change the world.

But to deliver on these new, multifaceted obligations, managers and investors must be sophisticated in how impact is measured. Impact measurement is critical for assessing which initiatives to leave by the wayside, for improving those that are working well, and for reporting impact to key stakeholders.

What are the most effective tools and frameworks for measuring impact? How does the answer to these questions differ for investors and managers, and for companies at different growth stages? Can impact be reduced to a dollar figure? How can managers utilize impact measurement to massively amplify their impact? These are some of the questions we will tackle in this course.

Data for Impact (DFI) is intended to train students to become informed and discriminating consumers of evidence, so as to enable the more effective management of impact. DFI aims to develop data literacy even amongst managers who never plan to implement statistical analyses themselves. This course requires an openness to – but no prior background in – statistical analysis and quantitative thinking.

Throughout the course, students will engage with evidence from a wide range of impact studies applied to companies of all sizes. The emphasis will be on the managerial issues related to designing impact studies that are cost effective, credible, and persuasive to various stakeholders, as well as critically interpreting the evidence that these studies produce, and drawing implications for how companies should adapt to amplify their impact and (often) their profitability.

DFI will be of core interest to students with aspirations to manage for impact in businesses and nonprofits of all sizes as well as students with an interest in impact investing. While class discussions will center on social and environmental impact, the methods utilized in class extend to any question of causal inference, including questions about whether a particular endeavor increases a firm’s profits, raises customer engagement, etc. It will therefore also be of interest to any manager that aspires to commission and evaluate data analysis as a part of their workflow.

Course Deliverables

Grades will be based on in-class participation, several at-home statistical exercises, and a final paper (completed in groups of up to 3), in which students will assess the impact of an existing or aspirational enterprise.

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