Digital Business - Understand the digital world (Coursera)

Digital Business - Understand the digital world (Coursera)

Facebook, AirBnB, Tesla, Amazon, Uber. In just a few years, companies like these have changed the face of the global economy. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of start-ups are disrupting old business models, taking on centennial industrial groups – and winning. It’s clear that the rules of business have changed forever.

Class Deals by MOOC List - Click here and see Coursera's Active Discounts, Deals, and Promo Codes.

This MOOC provides a knowledge toolkit for the ongoing digital revolution. You’ll discover 10 concepts that are essential for understanding the new mechanisms of digital business and innovation.
Each concept is explained in its own beautifully designed, content-rich instructional video, along with additional resources for you to explore. The ideas are illustrated with up-to-the-minute case studies and examples from a wide range of industries.
This MOOC is ideal for learners from a wide range of backgrounds. It is brought to you by three expert professors and researchers from IMT - Telecom Paris, a leading European graduate school in the field of digital technology and social science.
This MOOC is supported by the Patrick and Lina Drahi Foundation.

Course 1 of 4 in the Digital Business Specialization.

Syllabus

WEEK 1
Why Digital Changes Everything
Many people have yet to realize just how rapid and profound the current digital revolution is, or how quickly it’s breaking down old institutions. Yes, we’re always hearing about Google, Uber, and all those “pirate entrepreneurs.” Yes, we know technology has something to do with it. But the future is approaching even more quickly that we think. Right now, all the pieces are in place to completely change the face of products, technologies, organizations, and entrepreneurship over the next few years. This module will tell you how and why.

WEEK 2
Creating Value in a Digital World
Once upon a time, the rules of the game were simple. People worked away in their offices to develop and sell products or services, and shared the margin between price and cost. But now this product-based way of competing is all but gone – wiped out by the new principles of value creation. Going digital means playing by new rules, powered by network effects and system goods, that radically changed the fundamentals of business. Now, people create value outside their offices by connecting in third places, and the best way to turn a profit can be to give your products away, or share your knowledge, for free. Across the board, old-style value chains are being completely disrupted by new business ecosystems.

WEEK 3
Thinking and acting differently
Going digital is a bit like emigrating to another country. To succeed digitally, people and firms need to adopt a whole new mindset. Entrepreneurs should forget about building the perfect business plan, and instead put the focus on “trial and learn” processes. And companies should forget about long-term strategy, protecting their IP, product planning, and entry barriers, and concentrate on running instead of defending. This is true in every area from strategic decision-making through to getting the most from the assets that firms own, control, or use – knowledge assets in particular.

Go to Class
MOOC List is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Related Courses

Leading Diverse Teams & Organizations (Coursera) Coursera
University of Michigan

Leading Diverse Teams & Organizations (Coursera)

In this new course, you'll gain evidence-based knowledge and practical tools to help you design and lead diverse, equitable, and inclusive (DEI) teams and organizations. You’ll better understand yourself and your personal identity in the workplace and gain new skills to identify privilege, implicit bias, and microaggressions in your organization and to take action as an active ally and change advocate. After hearing from experts representing a diverse array of real-world perspectives, you’ll understand best practices for equitable organizational processes and norms and inclusive behavioral practices in teams.

Nov 9th 2026
4 Weeks
The Marketing Plan (Coursera) Coursera
IE Business School

The Marketing Plan (Coursera)

Create your own Marketing Plan for your own product or service idea. In this course you will learn how to produce arguably the most important marketing tool for any business. Rather than simply learning the stages of The Marketing Plan, you will be asked each week to complete a peer graded assignment which will help you complete a simplified version of the plan.

Nov 9th 2026
4 Weeks
Negocios Internacionales I (Coursera) Coursera
University of New Mexico

Negocios Internacionales I (Coursera)

Vivimos en un mundo cada vez mas globalizado, en el cual el éxito en los negocios internacionales se ha convertido en el factor determinante del desarrollo económico y la prosperidad. Esta materia, Entorno Global de Negocios, Parte I, introduce al alumno a una comprensión fundamental del entorno político, cultural, lingüística y socio-económico en el cual opera una empresa internacional.

Nov 9th 2026
5-12 Weeks
How to Validate your Startup Idea (Coursera) Coursera
UNSW Sydney - University of New South Wales

How to Validate your Startup Idea (Coursera)

Starting a new business begins with an idea that needs to evolve through experimentation, iteration and interactions with people. This course is for existing and potential entrepreneurs who are looking for guidance and support to make their ‘great idea’ a reality. In addition to reviewing the basic principles of entrepreneurship, this course guides you through the process of actively validating your idea in the market.

Nov 9th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Developing a Google SRE Culture (Coursera) Coursera
Google Cloud

Developing a Google SRE Culture (Coursera)

In many IT organizations, incentives are not aligned between developers, who strive for agility, and operators, who focus on stability. Site reliability engineering, or SRE, is how Google aligns incentives between development and operations and does mission-critical production support. Adoption of SRE cultural and technical practices can help improve collaboration between the business and IT. This course introduces key practices of Google SRE and the important role IT and business leaders play in the success of SRE organizational adoption.

Nov 9th 2026
3 Weeks
Contexto de Negocios en LATAM: Factores Políticos, Sociales y Económicos (Coursera) Coursera
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

Contexto de Negocios en LATAM: Factores Políticos, Sociales y Económicos (Coursera)

Latinoamérica resulta ser muy atractiva al momento de decidir realizar nuevos negocios, pero en algunos casos este proceso se considera algo distinto a cómo opera el mercado mundial, por lo que es importante conocer algunos elementos que permitan entender de mejor manera este contexto y así definir estrategias más efectivas cuando se piensa comenzar un negocio en esta región.

Nov 9th 2026
4 Weeks
Management of International Development: Towards Agenda 2030 (Coursera) Coursera
Università Bocconi

Management of International Development: Towards Agenda 2030 (Coursera)

Welcome! This course provides participants with the opportunity to explore the multifaceted concept of international development in order to be able to interpret and lead its challenges, opportunities and constant evolutions. Starting from an in-depth analysis of the current international development architecture, its key actors and trends, the course then illustrates the main international organizations' governance systems; identifies their funding and financing tools necessary to implement development programs and achieve sustainable development goals; and explains how to effectively leverage on human capital to drive organizational success and be ‘fit for purpose’ in an ever changing international development scenario.

Nov 9th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Sustainable Vikings: Sustainability & Corporate Social Responsibility in Scandinavia (Coursera) Coursera
Copenhagen Business School

Sustainable Vikings: Sustainability & Corporate Social Responsibility in Scandinavia (Coursera)

This course gives you immediate access to the world leading sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices. Scandinavian firms dominate the major sustainability and CSR performance indicators including the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI). In this course we explore the concepts of sustainability and CSR and focus attention on how Scandinavian firms, like Novo Nordisk, have achieved superior sustainability and CSR performances.

Nov 9th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Introduction to Enterprise Resiliency (Coursera) Coursera
IBM

Introduction to Enterprise Resiliency (Coursera)

Resiliency is the ability to provide the required capability in the face of adversity, without significant impact. This is not something that just happens, but rather must be thoroughly planned for and tested, including: 1. Keeping hardware, the operating system, middleware, and applications up and running throughout planned and unplanned outages; 2. Recovering a site from an unplanned event without data loss.

Nov 9th 2026
3 Weeks
Doing Business in Latin America (Coursera) Coursera
Universidad de los Andes

Doing Business in Latin America (Coursera)

Join us in the course Doing Business in Latin America. In this course, you will learn about the characteristics of the biggest multilatinas, how they have built their domestic and international competitive advantage, and you will identify which are the challenges and innovations to achieve the sustainability of their superior economic performance. The course includes videos presenting and explaining the topics, learning and evaluation activities, interviews, reviews, reports, and additional bibliography. Assessment activities are designed so that you get feedback, which is saved in the platform, so that you can pick up where you left off when you go online again.

Nov 9th 2026
4 Weeks