Amitava Biswas
Professor of the Practice
- Office
- Hesselgrave 222
- amitavab@middlebury.edu
- Office Hours
- Tue & Thu 5-7PM by appointment
Amitava Biswas is a management consultant and teaches the business courses here at Middlebury. He received his B.A. from Johns Hopkins University and has an M.D. from Stanford University. He is currently a Business Building Consultant with Blackwood ventures in Thailand and Hong Kong. Prior to that he was a business partner at McKinsey and Company. He started out as a surgeon from Stanford medical school and served at Beth-Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, MA and at the National Institutes of Mental Health in Washington D.C. In his consulting work he specializes in building new businesses in new, uncertain and fast-evolving industries and markets, working with both entrepreneurial start-ups and new growth divisions of established companies.
Courses Taught
INTD 0120
Upcoming
Intro Business & Enterprise
Course Description
Introduction to Business and Enterprise
This course provides students who have little to no background in business with a broad overview of business and enterprise in the economy. Students will learn about types of enterprises and a functional framework for understanding a business, including strategy, finance, production, and marketing. This framework will be used to analyze various businesses and non-profits, exploring the advantages and disadvantages of various structures. The course will give overviews of accounting and entrepreneurship, and explore policy and philosophical debates about the morality of for-profit business and the need for corporate responsibility. 3 hrs. lect.
Terms Taught
Requirements
INTD 0205
Marketing
Course Description
Marketing: Formulation, Methods, and Research
Marketing is both a qualitative and a quantitative discipline. It is one of the rare business fields that actively draws upon and integrates the creative and analytical components of the liberal arts tradition. In this course students will be exposed to a broad overview of marketing principles, focusing on the application of marketing theory to for-profit, not-for-profit, and the public sectors. Cause marketing and social marketing techniques will also be discussed to determine their utility in combating social ills and promoting favorable public health behaviors and outcomes. As the implementation of marketing programs is undergoing a massive transformation from conventional to digital media, students will be exposed to digital designing and marketing, which are driven by a sound understanding of consumer segmentation, brand positioning, distinct product benefits, and relevant in-market executions. (INTD 0120) Introductory statistics course recommended. 3 hrs. lect.
Terms Taught
INTD 0220
Management and Enterprise
Course Description
Management, Enterprise, and Business
What does it mean to lead or manage a business, non-profit or any other enterprise, and how does one go about doing it? Drawing on different management theories, this course will explore games and "tactics" deployed by organizations. We will leverage basic industrial organization frameworks from economics (eg. hold-outs, switch costs, network effects, economies of scope, etc) to decipher organizational behavior. In addition, we will review case studies of organizations facing serious management challenges and explore how those challenges could be addressed (INTD0120 or by waiver).
Terms Taught
Requirements
INTD 0236
Upcoming
Business Analytics
Course Description
Numbers & Narratives: Human Stories in Business Data
In this course we combine the rigor of business analytics with the depth of the liberal arts, unveiling the human tapestry behind the data. We will breathe life into numbers through storytelling, crafting compelling narratives from financial reports, using ethical frameworks to evaluate operational efficiencies, and weaving historical and cultural insights into marketing campaigns. Students will learn how to translate complex data into impactful narratives, how to uncover biases and ethical dilemmas embedded in data, how to infuse empathy and understanding into analytical models and how to bridge the gap between quantitative and qualitative worlds, speaking the language of both data and humanity. No coding or past experience required but you will need access to Microsoft Excel.
Terms Taught
INTD 0500
Upcoming
Independent Study
Course Description
Independent Study
Approval Required
Terms Taught