The Story Behind Business Improv

In 1999, Bob Kulhan was an improv instructor at Chicago’s famed Second City and an improv performer at the Annoyance Theatre, as well as in the Improv Olympic Resident Company – Baby Wants Candy! During that time, a Dean at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business put out a request to faculty for intensive one-week courses with strong academic and experiential learning components. Bob immediately saw this as an opportunity to collaborate with top professors in the fields of Behavioral Psychology, Social Psychology, Organizational Theory and Behavior Economics on a new approach to teaching managers, and “Business Improvisation” (the course) was born. The course was eventually renamed Managerial Improvisation, and since its inception, it has been among Duke University’s highest rated MBA electives.

Over the past 17 years, Business Improv have gone on to create corporate training programs and executive education programs for a growing list of top business schools in the US and abroad. In addition, we specialize in creating leadership development programs and customized experiential learning programs for corporations, including many Fortune 500 companies. Based in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, we work with organizations nationwide and worldwide.

SOME TESTIMONIALS…

You brought our diverse group of software developers and sales and marketing professionals together in a fun and exciting venue to learn those invaluable traits of teamwork and trust. Their training and guidance helped us grow as a team and we have continued to use the techniques as taught to this day.
–JMP, A Business Unit of SA

“I want to take a moment to give you a big Navy ‘BZ’ (Well Done) ! You not only met every requirement of the command, but also went well beyond our expectations in the content and quality in your presentation.”
–Henry Conde, Captain SC, USN Commanding Officer, Fitting Out And Supply Support Assistance Center