Shawn Atlow is director of facilities, legislation, and grants and funding for the Los Angeles Unified School District in Los Angeles, Calif.  and a member of the MIT Sloan EMBA class of 2013.

Working for a government agency, I wasn’t sure how the MBA curriculum would apply to my job. It turns out to apply more than I ever imagined. Even the entrepreneurship classes have been right on target for the ways my organization needs to think and innovate, especially in light of the current economic environment. Here are a few examples:

Find a framework

A key step for entrepreneurs is finding a framework for evaluating opportunities. You need a way to filter the opportunities you’re considering to ensure that you offer value to your stakeholders/customers without wasting...