HBS at the Frontier:

The avalanche of corporate scandals in the last two years have shown only too clearly the dire need for ethical leadership in corporate America.

Many of the executives involved in these scandals are products of top business schools, leading people to question the role of business schools in cultivating ethical leadership in their graduates. The public’s reduced trust in business leadership places an onus on all of us to rebuild credibility by acting with integrity. For that, we must reflect upon many fundamental questions about life and our work: What is success? How do you lead from the ranks when you lack formal power (a situation most of us will face for some time after graduation)? How does one lead in a crisis? What would constitute truly meaningful and fulfilling work for you, even if it is the road less traveled? To explore these and other questions further, we would like to invite you to the groundbreaking Leadership, Values, and Spirituality (LVS) conference at the Harvard Business School on April 4 .

The upcoming LVS Conference is a follow on to last year’s Mobius Leadership Forum, that gathered current and future business leaders at Harvard Business School for the first major b-school conference on this subject. Participants explored questions about the relationship between our inner lives of values and our outer lives of leadership in our businesses, communities, and the world. Speakers such as Deepak Chopra, Alan Dershowitz, and Bill Pollard came from across the world to discuss their insights in an open setting. The conference struck a nerve as over 200 people, most of them HBS students and alumni, came to participate in this forum. Many alumni said that they felt so proud to see HBS at the frontier of such a discussion, and they felt that the forum answered a deep need within them to talk about the role of leadership, values, and spirituality in their lives.

This year, the Mobius Forum has changed its name to the Leadership, Values, and Spirituality Forum. On Friday April 4, 2003, the Forum will again gather at Harvard Business School to allow business leaders to continue the important conversation that was started last year. We have some fabulous speakers from the business, government, academic, and literary worlds. The conference will bring two outstanding keynote speakers: Rev. Peter Gomes, Chaplain of Harvard University, Harvard Divinity School Professor, Preacher of the Year, and best selling author.

The second keynote will be David Batstone, founding editor of Business 2.0 magazine, and author of Saving the Corporate Soul.

Harvard Business School is in a unique position to help bring the conversation about leadership, values, and spirituality further into the mainstream – not just for its students, but also for the business world in general. Having such a conference at the Harvard Business School shows that the HBS community has the courage, thoughtfulness, and commitment to explore issues that contribute to the well being of society.

The Leadership, Values, and Spirituality Confernce is truly a unique conference which will inspire you to lead with integrity, reflect upon your values, and create a more fulfilling life. We urge you to you support us in this commitment by registering for the conference at www.lvsconference.org.