The Harvard admissions trial has shed light on some troubling facts that must be addressed. This October, Lawrence Bacow was inaugurated as the 29th President of Harvard University. In his inaugural address, President Bacow, quoting the theologian Reinhold Neibuhr, urged, “We must always seek the truth in our opponent’s errors, and the errors in our…
Exploring Asian identity and minority politics beyond the SFFA v. Harvard lawsuit On Lee’s first call with his MBA admissions coach, she told him, bluntly, that he’d drawn one of the worst hands for admission to HBS: Asian-American, heterosexual, male, with a background in finance and technology. There were simply far too many people “like…
HBS graduates will soon go out to “make a difference” in a world that is changing. Trump, Brexit, Erdogan, Orban, Duterte, and now Bolsonaro have all joined the roll-call of far-right nationalist populists rising to power. As leaders of tomorrow, what can we learn from Brazil’s (B) case? A lot has changed since the promising…
It has been over a decade since HBS’ Business, Government and the International Economy (BGIE) case on Brazil took place. In the early 2000s the world applauded the first years of President Lula, the case protagonist and leader of Brazil’s Workers’ Party, who is currently serving a 12-year sentence due to corruption charges. What at…
To many, Cape Town, the host of the 2018 MBA World Summit, evokes images of a tourist mecca, known for picturesque mountains and animated nightlife that draw ten million visitors each year. The spotlight at the Summit, however, was on the heart of the city beneath its blissful veneer. The event, which annually sponsors 100…
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…
On a brisk January day in San Francisco, California, 10,000 attendees from more than 450 companies spanning medical devices, healthcare service providers, and pharmaceuticals piled into the heart of the city to attend the annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. The days were filled by a rapid fire of ideas in innovation and investing—from how to…
In 2017, the U.S. economy had a solid year. Unemployment fell to a 17-year low, GDP growth picked up, and the stock market reached record highs. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Trump Administration was quick to take credit for these positive developments. “The President’s economic agenda of lower taxes, less regulation, and more opportunity for all is…
Roaming the halls of Harvard Business School over the past few weeks, you would never know it, but the U.S. Senate just voted on one of the most consequential pieces of legislation of our time. Early Saturday morning, the Senate passed a tax “overhaul” that dramatically lowers corporate tax rates, balloons the federal deficit, reduces…
People at HBS have always tended to be politically and socially active. Many students speak about a desire to work in the public sector after a successful business career. Others hope to promote change from a position of corporate influence. However, during the 2016 election cycle, the social and political problems in our country began…
President Trump defended his decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program as an effort to promote “safe communities, a robust middle class, and economic fairness for all Americans.” In his statement, the President painted his stance as simultaneously shrewd and compassionate. He pointed a finger at roughly 800,000 undocumented immigrants brought…
Manning Invite Widened the Civilian-Military Divide at Harvard In honoring former US Army Specialist Chelsea Manning by naming her a Visiting Fellow, the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School opened wide a wound that leaders at Harvard have diligently worked to close in recent years: the civilian-military divide. There are few Rorschach Tests more…
From The Harvard University Employees Credit Union *Sponsored With college graduation on the horizon, now is a time to celebrate and look back on all you’ve accomplished – and it’s also time to set your sights on the future. Offering advice to fresh graduates is a tradition as old as education itself, but sometimes, less…
Populism is all the rage. One cannot help but hear about it, sought amongst the conversation which makes up polite society. Or even politer society, such as HBS. In the last week of class, the Required Curriculum cohort had been learning about populism. It is something which has been threaded thoughtfully throughout BGIE, or the Business,…
On January 20, 2017, shortly after being sworn in as the 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump formally submitted nominations for his Cabinet members and key senior advisors. Amongst the slate of those nominated to serve in senior administration positions are several notable HBS alumni. In fact, beyond HBS, Harvard as a…
The populist revolt; Questions MBAs should be asking to understand today’s political reality Few expected the election of Donald Trump. None of the macro-trends seemed favorable to him. The outgoing president was popular. Stock market valuations were high. Unemployment was low. We here at The Harbus even went to print with a story…
Harvard reacts to the implications of President Trump’s Immigration Policies President Donald Trump on Friday 27th January signed an executive order limiting foreign nationals’ admission into America. While the first wave of the order affects citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries, due to the ambiguity embedded within the it, the full extent of the order’s scope…
By Ali Rahman and Daniel Gastfriend More than 130 students from Boston-area schools, including Harvard Business School, gathered in Harvard Yard on Friday Nov. 18 to protest president-elect Donald Trump’s recent appointment of climate skeptic Myron Ebell to his Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Transition Team. A collection of students, including HBS RCs, organized the protest…
Reflections on the Soul of HBS and a Response to a Trump Victory in the U.S. Election Dear Dean Nohria, I hope this finds you well, but expect that it does not. I’ve spent the last several weeks reflecting on my time at HBS and the role I want to play in the world. My…
A pickup truck rolled through Harvard Square on the morning of Wednesday, Nov. 9. A man in the truck bed waved a “Make America Great Again!” banner and the passengers yelled at anyone within earshot. Even if you couldn’t make out words, the tone – somewhere between energized and vindictive – was enough. They were…
The mood on the Harvard Business School campus last week was incredibly somber. The entire institution appeared to be paralyzed. Undoubtedly, some of this was driven by the fear and uncertainty around what a Trump administration will look like. A substantial portion of the underlying despair was, and still is, driven by disbelief. Disbelief that…
The Minneapolis headquarters of food conglomerate General Mills is less than 20 minutes away from where Philando Castile was shot this July, right in the middle of my internship. I remember watching the video filmed by his girlfriend Diamond, and breaking down when I realized that her 4-year-old daughter was in the back seat….
These reflections were written in reaction to the tragedies that took place over the summer, but they are especially relevant given the recent bombings in NY/ NJ and the deaths of Tyre King, Terrance Crutcher and Keith Lamont Scott. My clock stopped shortly after July 4th with the murders of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling,…
A Lesson in Low Cost Education from Sierra Leone Mohammed Kamara raises his hand as high as he can, eager to catch the teacher’s gaze and, maybe, get called. If he answers this question correctly he may help the boy’s team win the “boys vs. girls” math challenge for the second day in a row….
The nail in the coffin for “Great” Britain? On June 23rd, the British people will vote in a national referendum and will answer the following question; “Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave?” Whilst a seemingly straightforward question, if the British people vote through simple majority to exit the EU (dubbed…
Since President Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court on March 16th to fill the seat left by the sudden death of Antonin Scalia, Republican legislators have summarily refused to consider the nominee. Unprecedentedly, they have said that the current president should not fill the Supreme Court vacancy, but that the decision should…
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…
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…
Ex-Military Physicist creates new HBS dating service. The Harbus heard murmurs of DatingHub, a new HBS-centric dating service, that has been gaining notoriety among the student population. We sent our intrepid reporter, Vipul Chhajer (HBS ’16), to investigate and interview the creator of this service, Asaf Lifshitz (HBS ’16). The following conversation has been edited…
Diabetes is a global pandemic. Characterized by chronic high blood glucose levels (hyperglycemia) due to the body’s failure to produce enough insulin, diabetes affects over 9% of the population in the US alone, and of those people, approximately 25% are undiagnosed. More alarmingly so, the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) estimates that 415 million people have…