www.fueloilnews.com | FUEL OIL NEWS | SEPTEMBER 2014 37
Included among them are debates over fiduciary responsibil-
ity, social security uncertainty and an overall lack of adequate
retirement savings for many Americans.
To download a Slideshare of the Top Five Small Business Is-
sues of the Election Year, visit www.slideshare.net/Paychex/top-
5smallbusinessissueselection2014.
LEaRN TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS
"WIThOUT ScREWING UP" IN FREE ONLINE
cOURSE FROM STaNFORd
Stanford Graduate School of Business will launch a massive open
online course on September 15, 2014 to help business leaders grow
their organizations without falling prey to common pitfalls.
In this free five-week course called "Scaling Up Your Venture
Without Screwing Up," Stanford faculty experts Huggy Rao and
Robert Sutton will share what they've learned during eight years
of research in the field, as well as host business luminaries who
will shed light on the real-world challenges they have conquered.
The course is inspired by the recent book coauthored by
Rao and Sutton called Scaling Up Excellence: Getting to More
Without Settling for Less. Their premise is that "scaling" isn't
just about getting bigger—it's also about getting better, which
can be a difficult proposition in an environment that rewards
fast growth.
According to Rao and Sutton, their goal is for course par-
ticipants to come away with an understanding of how to se-
lect, train, and reward people to fuel the right kinds of growth;
help teams do their work faster and more effectively as a ven-
ture grows; build a "scaling" team that can uncover and spread
pockets of exemplary performance; and eliminate bad beliefs
and behaviors that make it impossible to develop and spread
excellence.
The five-week course is comprised of brief video lectures,
first-hand lessons from well-known executives and venture
capitalists, reading assignments, a multimedia case study and
team-based exercises. Some of the featured guests include
Hearsay Social CEO and cofounder Clara Shih, Onyx Phar-
maceuticals' former CEO Anthony Coles and Ben Horowitz,
cofounder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.
Participants can expect to spend approximately four hours
a week on all of the course elements and will receive a state-
ment of accomplishment for completing all of the required
activities. Selected team projects will be featured during a live
webinar at the conclusion of the course.
