Learning and Responsibility Spoiler alert for our RC readers: EC year feels very different from RC year. Okay, that’s perhaps not much of a spoiler; you have probably heard it by now. But I would like to share a bit about how it feels different. I am conscious of the difference because, like many ECs,…
Over 350 students and professionals attended the 16th Annual Energy Symposium to discuss the role of businesses in transitioning to a lower-carbon future. How do countries and companies work to achieve their carbon reduction goals? Is a Green New Deal necessary to transform the United States economy? These were just a few of the questions…
Randy Li (RC Partner) shares his personal story with Anja Do (RC Partner). I first met Randy and Joy at a dinner gathering at the home of my husband’s sectionmate Emil Veltchev (Section B) and his wife Hannah. Joy, truly living up to her name, is a petite lady with enormous energy and enthusiasm, and…
Harsha Mulchandani (MBA ’21) reports on the project looking at alumni contributions with a broader lens. A clip of Gordon Gekko proudly announcing, “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works,” in a recent FIN class got me thinking. It’s not uncommon to use greed as a synonym for…
Ryo Takahashi (MBA ’20) speaks with Harvard Professor William Kirby. As U.S.-China trade tensions rise and the world watches the demonstrations in Hong Kong unfold, the question of China’s role in the world has once again come to the forefront of public debate. Harvard Business School Professor William Kirby, who is the former Dean of…
When Carolina Perry and Mafalda Hipólito (MBAs ’19) heard that some of their peers were hesitating to start a family while at HBS because of how it might affect them in school, they knew it was time for action. “You never recover lost time, and time is the most precious resource we have—it’s irreplaceable,” Perry…
In a bold revamp of the Elective Curriculum, the HBS Student Academic Committee has decided that starting in the spring semester, FIELD reflections will be mandatory following every weekend trip that EC students undertake. Students who travel everywhere from Stowe to Sweden will now be required to submit reflections on their personal journeys as they…
Reggie Smith (MBA ’20) tells us what to expect this month. When’s the last time you played jenga? Think of the descent into winter as one big jenga tower and we’re about to pull that last piece out before it all comes crashing down. Yes, we’re about to crash down right into the most dynamic…
John Geagea (MBA ’21) examines how fan engagement is changing and what sports teams can do about it. In 2018, Disney reported a loss of 2 million subscribers to its ESPN service. This was the latest in a precipitous fall in subscribers from a peak of 100 million in 2010 down to 86 million, a…
Michael Rush (MBA ’72) recounts the early history of HBS rugby and the alumni’s recent “Japan Trek” for the World Rugby Cup. The HBS rugby tradition was founded in 1963 through the organization of an intrepid Scot, Jim Johnstone (MBA ’65). Various tours to the Bahamas and other island venues during the 1970s instilled an…
Haneen Hindi (RC Partner) shares her personal story with Anja Do (RC Partner). My friendship with Haneen began with a blender. True story, and I will get there! When we left Singapore for Boston, we figured we would not bring any electric appliances because the voltage is different and so none of it would work…
Ryo Takahashi (MBA ’20) speaks with Professor Michael Sandel. Bracing for a Brave New World Scenes of genetic selection in Gattaca (1997), the telescreen surveillance state depicted in Orwell’s 1984 (1948), and the apprehension of criminals before they commit a crime as depicted in Minority Report (2002) may seem like distant dystopian science fiction. Until…
This may seem a strange time to make a case for optimism. There are so many serious issues in the United States and the wider world. It is hard to know where to start. Here is a partial list of the challenges: endless wars in the Middle East; an increasingly totalitarian China; climate change; racism;…
Bringing people and cultures together with Yasu & Masa’s ramen: Tannya Cai (MBA ’21) reports. It was a cold, rainy day. On October 27, in 90 minutes, over 50 bowls of ramen were served by Yasu & Masa’s, a new startup founded by Yasu Sasago (MBA ’20) and Masato Nakamura (MBA ’20). A company focused…
Upoma Dutta (MBA ’21) talks with Jen Sargent (MBA ’05) about what’s fueling the exponential growth of the podcast industry. Over the last few years, podcasting has gone mainstream: 32% of Americans over the age of 12 listen to podcasts monthly, up from 17% in 2015, according to the latest report from market-research firm Edison….
RC Partners attend the Partners Case Night, a hidden tradition at HBS. Anja Do reports. The Partners Case Night, albeit unknown to many MBA students and the Harvard Business School (HBS) community in general, is one of the key highlights for RC Partners in the Fall semester. I was fortunate to be invited to participate…
Patrick McGinnis (MBA ’04), writing just before his graduation in 2004, defined FOMO for the HBS campus—and the world. [Editor’s note: To complement this month’s article by Michael Deliakis, we are delighted to reprint the piece that began it all. McGinnis published this article in the Harbus in May 2004. Although some of the Harvard…
Patrick J. McGinnis (MBA ’04), who created the term FOMO while a student at HBS, helps Michael Deliakis (MBA ’20) understand and overcome FOMO. It was titled “Social Theory at HBS: McGinnis’ Two FOs” and printed in the Humor section of the Harbus in May 2004. Fast forward 15 years: today, the terms FOMO and…
Dean Nitin Nohria offers his perspective on the promise and perils of our market system, touching on the role of corporate and public actors. Tarun Galagali (MBA ’21) sat down with him as a part of an ongoing podcast, Remaking Capitalism, hosted by the Harbus. Two weeks into RC year at HBS, I wrote an…
HBS makes major investment in the Required Curriculum. No cases. No section discussion. No Aldrich. No, we’re not talking about a totally different MBA program. We’re talking about ISDL, the artist formerly known as Field Foundations. HBS students likely have long been familiar with our mission: we educate leaders who make a difference in the…
Join us on November 13 in Klarman for the Campus-Wide Discussion. Can you respect, and perhaps even love, those who have fundamentally different views from you? Today, we’re living in a time of heightened polarization, when people are not engaging constructively with those who differ from themselves. The result is tribal politics, ideological siloing, and…
Asha Tanwar (MBA ’21) talks to Ronan Ryan, President of the start-up exchange, The Investors Exchange (IEX), about creating a fairer stock market, starring in Michael Lewis’ book Flash Boys, and why he does not recommend starting a business straight after school. I am delighted when Ronan Ryan confirms that he has managed to fit…
HBS Rugby continues their winning form against the fearsome opposition of local club side Maccabi RFC. After a wet and dark Thursday in Cambridge, the skies cleared for HBS RFC’s first home game of the season: Maccabi RFC. With the memory of losing to Wharton in the final at Hogfest two weeks earlier, the HBS…
HBS Rugby’s season is off to a strong start after the boys in black stormed into the final at the annual Hogfest tournament hosted at Wharton. It was a Thursday morning, and the weekend was off to an inauspicious start. There was a message in the Airbnb inbox saying that the team’s accommodation had been…
HBS Rugby is gearing up for another action-packed season. The HBS Rugby team is gearing up for another barn-storming year. After powering into the finals of Wharton’s Hogfest tournament in September and overpowering local club side Maccabi RFC in October, the team is hard at work teaching the “Yanks” to stop throwing the ball forward…
Students converge on Pittsburgh and realize there’s much more to see than coal, steel, and bridges. Brian Linville (MBA ’20), Frankie Costa (MBA ’20), and Eric Levine (MBA ’20) report. Harvard Business School has a long tradition of “Treks,” structured trips organized by students who come from the destinations, and alumni often count them among…
Upoma Dutta (MBA ’21) talks with Professor Amy C. Edmondson about what’s changed in the two years since #MeToo went viral. On October 5, 2017, the New York Times published an explosive exposé on how one of Hollywood’s most successful film producers, Harvey Weinstein, abused his power for decades to subject numerous actresses to sexual…
Ryo Takahashi (MBA ’20) speaks with Harvard Professor Ezra Vogel. As China celebrates its 70th National Day, Japan prepares in earnest to host the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and the United States becomes increasingly protectionist, the coming decade presents unique opportunities and challenges for Sino-Japanese relations. Professor Ezra Vogel at Harvard University is among those who…
Azra Noormohamed (RC Partner) shares her personal story. With the incoming MBA Class of 2021, we have experienced an arrival of another “class of its own.” Partners (a.k.a. wives, husbands, fiancés, girlfriends, boyfriends) of HBS students every year take a leap of faith, uprooting themselves from their homes or places with which they are familiar…
Umang Sota (MBA ’21) examines entrepreneurial efforts at large companies. Almost ubiquitously, words like “Innovation” and “The Next Big Thing” are associated with startups. VC firms are competing every day to get a sliver of potentially the next Uber or the next Google. Up-and-coming talent and even the long-time industry veterans are happy to work…