Tag: LEAD

Memoirs from the Year 2013

I am currently the general manager of the hybrid/electric car division at General Motors. I enjoyed my time at Procter & Gamble pushing toothpaste around the world. I then took that marketing experience to GM, and eventually moved from marketing to general management. I have a political agenda: I think if the US depended less… Continue reading Memoirs from the Year 2013

New Year's Resolution

I’ll admit it: I was ready for a nice long winter break. I was eager to get back to reading bestsellers and memoirs, seeing old friends, renting movies, skiing for hours on end. I even triumphantly abandoned my computer on my desk at school to collect dust as I traveled and relaxed.But after I left,… Continue reading New Year's Resolution

Upside Down

Did you notice that 2002 is perfectly symmetrical? If you write it from right to left, you get exactly the same number. Those palindromic years are pretty rare, and happen only once every century. It is even less common to go through two of those years as we do (1991 and 2002). The last time… Continue reading Upside Down

RC Final Exam IT Glitches Explained

During last semester’s RC LEAD final, approximately 300 students experienced difficulty uploading completed exams to the HBS intranet. HBS IT and the MBA program reacted quickly to the situation, and the deadline for uploading the LEAD exam was extended. Cammie Wynn, Technology Advisor, IT Client Services, explained the root cause of the problem, “Some of… Continue reading RC Final Exam IT Glitches Explained

Roses & Thorns

For most people, it’s hard to believe that an entire semester has passed. I remember being sad that Foundations was over. I liked having classes with different people every day. I hardly recognized any names in Section H. Who is this Robert Sheedy guy sitting next to me for the rest of the semester? I… Continue reading Roses & Thorns

Around the World with the A-Team Around the World with the A-Team

Since the last time we checked in on the A-Team, the final midterm-Marketing-has come and gone. For most, the process went smoother than expected. Some groups were even able to finish early and then stand outside Aldrich, trying to freak out other teams by sadistically hollering things like, “COME ON!!!! YOU ONLY HAVE 15 MORE… Continue reading Around the World with the A-Team
Around the World with the A-Team

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NK Checks In for First Time

This just in . . . Don?t believe the propagandists, bootlicks, and running-dog lackeys: Section K lives. Speaking on deep psych background yet fearful of reprisals, sources said mutiny was abrew. Whether the insurgents sought my ouster, hide, or charred effigy for being such a slouch on this beat, one thing is clear: Folks sorely… Continue reading NK Checks In for First Time

News from the Hive

The Bees had a great start to the year, welcoming the newbies (pun intended) to the Hive during their first week together with some hectic activity in old Aldrich 108. A few minutes before LEAD was over that Friday, Rafa Calderon, dressed in cleaners’ overalls, burst into the room with earphones on and started wiping… Continue reading News from the Hive

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Editorial: Community Standards:

“Old Guard” versus “New Guard” faculty debate take-home exams. The debate is illegitimate. As we approach May, some teaching units are actively discussing how to administer final exams. At the heart of the debate is whether or not students will be allowed to take exams at home or a location of their choosing. On one… Continue reading Editorial: Community Standards:

An Olympic Perspective on the Power of the Team

If we hadn’t “got it” before, we all learned in LEAD that teams are more effective than individuals. Never in my life have I experienced this phenomenon more powerfully than during training for, and winning, a gold Olympic medal at the OCHY Exhibition race Atlanta 1996.Anyone who has experienced the (very) early morning water training,… Continue reading An Olympic Perspective on the Power of the Team

Conference Highlight – Lunch with Taran Swan

Last Saturday, I joined about 900 students and professionals in Burden Auditorium for the opening ceremonies of the WSA’s 11th Annual Dynamic Women in Business Conference. I didn’t go to the conference expecting to be inspired (in fact, I’d planned to stay for a couple of hours and then return home to study for the… Continue reading Conference Highlight – Lunch with Taran Swan

New J Goes Skiing (Sex)

Thank you to Sisto Merolla for sharing with us his simplistic Italian approach for capturing reader attention. Last week I discovered that Joshua Margolis, our LEAD professor, and Bjorn Jorgensen, our FRC professor, read my simple NJ contributions to the Harbus. Now, the obvious tactic here would be for me to write a sniveling, greasy,… Continue reading New J Goes Skiing (Sex)

Life in NH

The 85 students of Section H, which stands for Hellraisers of the January Cohort, have burst onto the HBS scene since they came together at the end of Foundations in late January. The section includes an architect, three of the cohort’s four Germans, (for the first time) two Portuguese students, several Canadians (it’s hard to… Continue reading Life in NH

Tales from Finals

I did everything right. I studied for hours, I went to the review sessions, I did the end-of-term pit dives, everything. Unfortunately, the results for my final exams did not reflect the amount of hours I spent preparing. (Fortunately, I ran my mouth incessantly in enough classes that I was able to be invited back… Continue reading Tales from Finals

A World of Discovery

It’s always stressful when friends and family announce that they are coming to Boston to visit you. Somewhere between reading cases, exercising at Shad, throwing holiday parties, and pretending to get some sleep, you realize that you also need to entertain them while they are here. The typical frenzied rush of Boston-at-its-best planning begins. Duck… Continue reading A World of Discovery

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Summer Internships Give EC Students First Chance to Utilize HBS Skills

The summer internship is considered a cornerstone of the HBS experience: a chance for entering EC students to apply the skills they so carefully cultivated throughout the RC year, such as finance, marketing, accounting, and arrogance. “I really loved my summer at Morgan Stanley,” gushed Lizzie Sanders (OB), “I spent 10 weeks performing multiple valuations… Continue reading Summer Internships Give EC Students First Chance to Utilize HBS Skills

Study: Only Unsuccessful People Talk about Family at HBS Reunions

(Boston) Researchers at Kutztown State’s Institute for MBA Reunions released a shocking new study on Saturday indicating that, contrary to what is taught in the “Profiles of the Class of 1976″ LEAD case at Harvard Business School, only people who’ve been unsuccessful in their business careers will actually talk about their families at an HBS… Continue reading Study: Only Unsuccessful People Talk about Family at HBS Reunions

C&S Wholesale Grocers Hosts RC Section F

Roger Huffstetler particularly enjoyed “the interaction we had with the folks in the warehouse. The young man who led our tour was full of practical and insightful comments regarding how and why the warehouse was organized.” After discussing C&S Grocers during a LEAD class, a member of section F used relationships he had with the… Continue reading C&S Wholesale Grocers Hosts RC Section F

The Soviet Case Method

Rummaging through old drafts of possible HBS Show script ideas, I found the rough outlines of a story called “LEAD of the Flies” in which the evil LEAD professor is played by a Soviet general named Pasivlov Agresivan Sonovovich. Here are some of his long-lost lines: What do you do with employees who are secret… Continue reading The Soviet Case Method

The Name Game

This week I’ve decided to look at sex in the gender, rather than procreational sense. The main reason for this, other than being anxious not to appear too one-sided a columnist, is that I had several experiences during Hell Week that have exemplified all of the delights and downsides of having a gender-inspecific name. Anyone… Continue reading The Name Game

50 Things I Wish I'd Known when I Applied

Given that it is admit weekend this weekend, and the lovely people at the admissions office are at full capacity churning through applications, interviews and offers, I’ve found my mind turning back to his time last year, when as a relatively disorganised second round applicant I was preparing for my interview and starting to believe… Continue reading 50 Things I Wish I'd Known when I Applied

Point – Stop Being So Sensitive

A remarkable thing happened the other day in a LEAD class. We were discussing the Lyndon Twitchell and Jenny Kravitz incident. For 30 minutes “typical LEAD randomness” was the major content, and then the subject quickly moved on to race. Barely noticeably, but very suddenly, people became more reticent, less eager to put up their… Continue reading Point – Stop Being So Sensitive

An Inconvenient Truthiness

As the U.S. Congress is wracked by the Foley scandal, politicians are busy playing Political Jeopardy, where political points are won by asking, “Who knew what, and when did they know it?” I long disdained politics for its dirty games and unquenchable thirst for scapegoats, yet after recent experiences I have come to appreciate the… Continue reading An Inconvenient Truthiness

The "Aha" Moments at HBS-What Are You Doing to Scrape on a 24 Hour Day?

When your classmates reveal that they analyze cases during cab rides to the Latin Lust party (and stuff the LEAD case in their back pocket) and during a church wedding (while the minister married their best friend), you experience an “Aha” moment. You wonder, “Now, why didn’t I think of that?” Marilyn Monroe famously said… Continue reading The "Aha" Moments at HBS-What Are You Doing to Scrape on a 24 Hour Day?

A Winter Wonderland: HOTS and She-E-Os Delight

For those who missed the “Winter Wonderland” concert performed by Heard on the Street (HOTS) and the She-E-Os, shame on you. One piece of advice, don’t miss their next performance. The concert far exceeded my expectations, which were already very high. As a prospective student last year, I visited HBS during the first week of… Continue reading A Winter Wonderland: HOTS and She-E-Os Delight