During this course, you will learn that buying a business is an exciting path to becoming an entrepreneur, and it can be far less risky than starting one. You can even decide to pursue this avenue immediately after graduating with your MBA. However, some of you may decide to follow this path in three or five years, or even later. Some may do so by organizing a search process, while others may end up buying the company they manage as an employee (MBO). Whatever approach you may take, this course will help you understand what it is all about.

If you want to buy a company for yourself someday, this course was designed for you. But the course can also be helpful if you plan to be involved in acquisitions in private equity, investment banking or consulting. In addition, we will learn about managing small- and medium-sized businesses and dealing with business situations, numbers and problems that are part and parcel of these more human-sized businesses. And as you know, small businesses are a huge and important part of our economy.

During this course, we will examine the world of ETA through a series of case studies and classroom discussions that bring to life the techniques that work in real life. We will use the stories of real entrepreneurs who bought real companies to highlight the problems and opportunities they faced and the decisions they made. We’ll see what they got right and what they got wrong. And by understanding what these entrepreneurs went through, you will realize that it is entirely possible for you to buy and run a company too.

The cases are all based on recent MBA alumni who have gone out and done it. Most of the time, they will join us in class (in person or via videoconference) to bring the case to life, to provide added insights, and to give you the chance to question them directly.

By the end of the course, participants should be fully aware of Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition as a career option, should have a firm grasp of what is involved in this area of entrepreneurship, and most importantly, should have been able to assess his or her own comfort with pursuing it.

Carlos Gila

Adjunct Professor

Carlos Gila is an Adjunct Professor of Management at Columbia Business School.  He also teaches MBA courses on Management and Entrepreneurship at IE Business School in Spain.

He is widely recognized as one of the Spanish leading financial and operational crisis management professionals.  He is a hand-on expert in turnarounds and workouts, with extensive experience in acquisitions and divestures, bankruptcy...

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