Emily Batt (MBA ’20) reports on a field trip in which RC TOM students saw course ideas in action. Every day, the MBTA completes 1.4 million rides for residents of greater Boston. On November 27, twenty RC students got an inside look at what keeps that service running as part of the TOM Field Trip… Continue reading What Keeps Boston Moving: RCs Visit the MBTA
Category: Industry Insights
More Women CEOs
Mary Barra, the highly regarded CEO of General Motors pictured above, is part of a very, very small group of women CEOs. Mary is a GM lifer who rose through the manufacturing ranks to earn the job five years ago. Despite decades of focus, effort, progress and learning women like Mary are vastly underrepresented in… Continue reading More Women CEOs
The Journey Begins
This column is addressed mostly to the class of 2018, but perhaps the class of 2019 might take a peek too. First, my congratulations for earning the right to be in perhaps the most admired, sought after and elite group in the business world. You very soon will be a graduate of Harvard Business School.… Continue reading The Journey Begins
4 Steps to New Product Success: Tech Leaders Discuss Keys to Launching the Next iPhone, Tesla & AWS
What are the greatest high-tech products and services ever launched? Apple’s iPhone? Tesla Model S? Amazon Web Services? Adobe Photoshop? Windows XP? How about the groundbreaking Netscape Navigator? This past year, Silicon Valley technology product leaders launched a Product Leader Summit series hosted by Spero Ventures and sponsored by The Omidyar Network, Women in Product… Continue reading 4 Steps to New Product Success: Tech Leaders Discuss Keys to Launching the Next iPhone, Tesla & AWS
Exclusive: Interview with Carlyle Co-Founder David Rubenstein
The following is a Harbus exclusive interview with David Rubenstein, co-founder of The Carlyle Group, one of the world’s largest private equity and alternative asset management firms with $174 billion under management. Rubenstein, who is a member of the Harvard Corporation as of July 2017, addressed the community at Spangler Auditorium in an event co-hosted… Continue reading Exclusive: Interview with Carlyle Co-Founder David Rubenstein
A Letter to Facebook’s CEO
Dear Mark, You founded and built Facebook into a global colossus in a remarkably short time. You conceived of a need to allow people to connect easily, quickly everywhere and at virtually unlimited scale. You recruited the team to help you, made adjustments along the way and in the process built a commercial juggernaut with… Continue reading A Letter to Facebook’s CEO
Can Telemedicine Solve the Ballooning Healthcare Budget?
With the healthcare budget continuously swelling, digitization seems to be a promising remedy to an exponentially growing problem. As Joseph Kvedar highlights in his Harvard Business Review article “Telemedicine is Vital to Reforming Healthcare,” one of the primary challenges within healthcare around the globe is the requirement for high levels of skill across the chain,… Continue reading Can Telemedicine Solve the Ballooning Healthcare Budget?
WesTrek: Behind the Scenes of HBS’s Largest Professional Trek
Just after Fall semester came to an end, 142 HBS students embarked on WesTrek, an annual pilgrimage to the West Coast for all budding HBS technopreneurs. Sure, escaping the chilly frost of the Northeast was a welcome change, but WesTrek’s biggest draw remained the privilege of intimate meetings in the legendary Silicon Valley with the… Continue reading WesTrek: Behind the Scenes of HBS’s Largest Professional Trek
Goliath vs. Goliath: Hospital Mega-Mergers and the Fight for Your Healthcare
A turbulent year for healthcare policy, 2017 was capped off with a spree of healthcare mega-mergers. Some transgressed traditional industry boundaries, reflecting the evolving dynamics of a sector in dramatic flux since the 2010 implementation of the Affordable Care Act. CVS’ $69bn acquisition of Aetna, the nation’s third largest insurer, introduced the possibility of converting… Continue reading Goliath vs. Goliath: Hospital Mega-Mergers and the Fight for Your Healthcare
Impossible Burger Takes Boston
Unappetizing, dry, bland: these are the adjectives that come to mind when we hear the phrase “veggie burger” and start imagining that scary frankenpatty. Insert the Impossible Burger: a burger that bleeds and sizzles like beef but, since it’s made entirely from plants, with none of the downsides. Targeted at meat eaters, it is one… Continue reading Impossible Burger Takes Boston
Six Questions with Professor Matt Weinzierl
Picture yourself in a BGIE class with Professor Matt Weinzierl. Guests pack the room every session and their introductions take the first few minutes. All students are holding their breath as Matt is unravelling a complex and unpredictable explanation for which student will get the cold call. For example, choosing “Frances” for the case on… Continue reading Six Questions with Professor Matt Weinzierl
HBS students collaborate with ABCDC to increase home ownership around campus
Buying a house in a “hot” market can be a daunting task. When a property becomes available in highly competitive locations, financial buyers usually get it before prospective owner-occupants. Investors can almost instantly secure financing and make a purchase, leaving individuals with no real chance of home ownership in the area. This results in neighborhoods… Continue reading HBS students collaborate with ABCDC to increase home ownership around campus
A Challenge for Uber’s Board
Uber is a remarkable company that has transformed personal transportation around the world. In the process it has created enormous value for shareholders, provided jobs for thousands including many HBS grads, and upended the status quo. The CEO has pursued an aggressive, take no prisoners approach familiar to many in Silicon Valley. He has made… Continue reading A Challenge for Uber’s Board
The Macroeconomics of American Populism
The effects of automation, globalization, and financialization on employment and our responsibility as future business leaders With much of the news coverage of the next presidential administration focused on the personalities occupying the White House, it’s easy to lose sight of macroeconomic trends that are just as responsible for the new wave of populism… Continue reading The Macroeconomics of American Populism
Thank You Mr President
This Thanksgiving, like many of you, I spent a few minutes contemplating my many blessings. One blessing in particular provoked a surprising flood of gratitude in my heart: I am deeply and profoundly thankful to Barack Obama for his service to our country over the past eight years. No, this is not a back… Continue reading Thank You Mr President
HBS to DBS: Larry Culp’s General Management Journey
“If you were the CEO of an airline, could you be as engaging with the baggage handlers as you are in the boardroom?” – Larry Culp The case method, which is used across all HBS classes, places students in the tough position of the decision maker. Often operating from the perspective of the CEO, students challenge… Continue reading HBS to DBS: Larry Culp’s General Management Journey
Deciding on a Job: Don’t Overthink It
Last year the column entitled Primary Colors provided a framework for how to think about career choices. The main thesis of the piece was that there were three broad pathways to choose between, and the fundamental choice was deciding which one appealed to you. These pathways were described as operator with CEO being the ultimate… Continue reading Deciding on a Job: Don’t Overthink It
Ambitious, Talented and Unemployed
Addie Swartz, CEO of reacHIRE, reflects on how to help the 37%+ female HBS Alums who plan to take a career break to raise their kids It’s a warm summer evening in London, and I’m sitting down for dinner with my sister and one of her friends. My sister is seven years older than I… Continue reading Ambitious, Talented and Unemployed
An Interview with Henry Ellenbogen: The Man who Taught Mutual Funds how to Invest
The allure of Silicon Valley has grown in the eyes of HBS graduates since the Financial Crisis, and it is not surprising that more and more HBS’ers are leaving school to join start-ups. The MBA curriculum has tilted in the same direction although the shift of FIELD 3 back into EC year may signal a… Continue reading An Interview with Henry Ellenbogen: The Man who Taught Mutual Funds how to Invest
Executive Search: Finding the Needle in the Haystack: An interview with Jim Searing, HBS ’79; Founder, Lochlin Partners
“It is like looking for a needle in a haystack” describes Jim Searing with a mild chuckle, when asked to describe the executive search business. The founder and retired CEO of Lochlin Partners, a top notch executive search firm, has spent an impressive 32 years in the “head-hunting” industry. A Marine Corps veteran, he graduated… Continue reading Executive Search: Finding the Needle in the Haystack: An interview with Jim Searing, HBS ’79; Founder, Lochlin Partners
Communicating through Change, Challenge, and Chaos; The Education of Tom Strickland
What do brands like Target, Theranos, UnitedHealth, and Vanderbilt University have in common with the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Columbine High School Massacre? All were the subjects of intense press coverage, and in each case the man brought in to weather the media maelstrom was Tom Strickland. A lawyer by training, Strickland served… Continue reading Communicating through Change, Challenge, and Chaos; The Education of Tom Strickland
Disrupting the engagement ring industry: the hbs alum taking on cartier and tiffany
The idea: A luxury jewelry start-up that disrupts the engagement ring industry by creating a unique ring for every client. Designed from scratch, manufactured, and sold only for that single proposal, it tells a couple’s personal love story. The start-up will compete with Tiffany, Harry Winston, Cartier – hallowed names of the jewelry industry that… Continue reading Disrupting the engagement ring industry: the hbs alum taking on cartier and tiffany
From MBA to Fortune 500 CEO: Fireside Chat with Steven Reinemund, former PepsiCo CEO
It is hard to know what to expect when going to meet a Harvard Business School case protagonist in person. In our HBS cases, most CEOs spend an awful lot of time staring out of windows in heavy contemplation. Windows, it seemed, were critical to learning. This robust theory was unequivocally overturned when I met… Continue reading From MBA to Fortune 500 CEO: Fireside Chat with Steven Reinemund, former PepsiCo CEO
TENURE SYSTEM: PERFORMANCE MOTIVATOR OR RUSSIAN ROULETTE?
When junior professors enter the Aldrich classroom, we often imagine that they are thinking about who to cold call and how to open the case. Underpinning those fleeting thoughts of theirs, is the much larger concern, “Will I get tenure?” When faculty members were asked if they would share their perspectives on the tenure… Continue reading TENURE SYSTEM: PERFORMANCE MOTIVATOR OR RUSSIAN ROULETTE?
Coding is the New Business Literacy
Dispelling the myth that “business leaders don’t need to be technical” It’s easy to imagine a future where nearly all CEOs are technologically literate. As we swiftly integrate technology into our daily lives, more and more “traditional” companies are starting to look a lot like “tech” companies. When the first iPhone was released a mere… Continue reading Coding is the New Business Literacy
Social Impact And Balancing Social Value With Financial Value
Why investing in Education is so frustrating for the Impact investor When I was young, my family would often visit my paternal grandparents’ home in rural Kisumu, Kenya. On one of our visits, I remember pestering my mother to let me start a school in our home, after seeing how bad the local rural district… Continue reading Social Impact And Balancing Social Value With Financial Value
A CEO’s Career: Interview with Ellen Kullman, former CEO of DuPont
Many HBS students dream of breaking into the C-Suite, but how does one get there? Careers in general management are highly sought-after as they offer broad management training and preparation for senior roles. To learn more about this path, I sat down with Ellen Kullman, former CEO of DuPont and board member of General Motors.… Continue reading A CEO’s Career: Interview with Ellen Kullman, former CEO of DuPont
Sapphire Ventures’ Quiet Approach Speaks Volumes with HBS Alums
Ask any current HBS student with a background or interest in venture capital this simple question: “What is the best-performing venture capital fund in the world?” Likely answers include Sequoia, Accel, NEA, Greylock or Andreessen Horowitz – each a smart pick. Yet, a quick look at CB Insights’ list of the top VC funds with… Continue reading Sapphire Ventures’ Quiet Approach Speaks Volumes with HBS Alums
It’s Legal but is it Right?
Google the phrase “do the right thing” to see the many ways in which this mantra is intrinsic to American and other healthy cultures. At HBS this message is paramount. It goes without saying that we all want to be successful in life and business, always in ways that are rewarding, legal, honest, and honorable.… Continue reading It’s Legal but is it Right?
Pay to Play: Why Professional Athletes Represent Cheap Labor
When NBA free agency, a time when professional basketball players whose contracts have run out can sign with other teams, rolls around this coming summer, it will be common to hear of players signing deals paying them millions of dollars to play basketball. Some, like Kevin Durant, can expect to earn upwards of $20M per… Continue reading Pay to Play: Why Professional Athletes Represent Cheap Labor