This week, we look at the big picture, from corporate strategy to national policy. Please continue to submit all comments by email to quotes@mba2003.hbs.edu.
Ari Hasteotis (NH): “I have five brothers and sisters who are equal partners with me in my business.”
Professor Nancy Koehn (Entrepreneurial Manager): “And has that complicated the relationships?”
Ari: “I got screamed at a lot over Thanksgiving dinner. They don’t know what they’re doing.”
Professor Koehn: “Are you the oldest? Is that how you got picked to get the money?”
Ari: “I’m the second youngest. Daddy really liked me.”
Professor Huw Pill (BGIE): “There are a lot of great business minds in this classroom, and I am not one of them.”
“Somehow a banana is a strategic good?”
Lisa Jacobs (NH): “I hate getting gas. I have to take time out of my day. You don’t go to a gas station to hang out and have a good time.”
Ari Haseotis (NH): “I am a low tech guy.”
Sanjay Singhvi (OJ), on Willow Creek Community Church’s attempts to bring “unchurched” people to their services: “But then you’re assuming that God is better than watching TV.”
Damien Ko (OG): “You are dealing with human beings [in this merger], which are usually the most difficult things to deal with.”
Advanced Competitive Strategy Professor Jan Rivkin, on Ben & Jerry’s: “They’re a lot like Coors, except that they have hippies at the top instead of right-wing fascists.”
Ariba Tanvir (NH): “The McKinsey model is to hire insecure overachievers.”
Sarah Kim (NH): “Some of the best salespeople out there are these quiet, geeky types. Maybe Amanda can back me up on this?”
Marc Zelanko (NH): “In every country in the world, there is nothing scarier than 20-year-old males. That’s part of the reason why we create militaries and send them overseas.”
During the Saudi Arabia case in BGIE, Josh Jarrett (NH): “I think it’s ironic that the motivation for change is strongest when the economy is poor, and you have the money to fund the change when things are going well. The lesson I take from that is that if I was running my own oil-based empire, I would put money away for a rainy day.”
