HBS News Releases: 2008

Harvard Business School Featured in CNBC Original Production
BOSTON, Dec. 12, 2008 - Harvard Business School is the focus of a new CNBC original production, "The Money Chase: Inside Harvard Business School." Anchored by CNBC's Carl Quintanilla, the documentary will premiere on Wednesday, December 17, at 10 p.m. (eastern time). The show aims to provide an inside look at the Harvard MBA experience. Quintanilla, observes classes, interviews professors, and talks to current students about their expectations, concerns, and desire to thrive in a School full of high achievers. "The Money Chase: Inside Harvard Business School" also explores the role of business schools in the current troubled economy.

New Book Reveals How Customer and Employee Ownership Adds Business Value
BOSTON, Dec. 5, 2008 - Hundreds of large organizations worldwide have used the groundbreaking service profit chain to improve business performance. Now, The Ownership Quotient (Harvard Business Press), a new book written by Harvard Business School Professors James Heskett and W. Earl Sasser, along with Joe Wheeler, executive director of the Service Profit Chain Institute, reveals the next generation of the chain: customer and employee "owners." The book follows on Heskett and Sasser's previous works, The Service Profit Chain and The Value Profit Chain - both coauthored with former HBS professor Leonard Schlesinger.

Professor Thomas McCraw Honored by International Joseph A. Schumpeter Society
BOSTON, Nov. 26, 2008 - Thomas McCraw, the Isidor Straus Professor of Business History Emeritus at Harvard Business School, has received the biennial award from the International Joseph A. Schumpeter Society (ISS) for his book Prophet of Innovation: Joseph Schumpeter and Creative Destruction (The Belknap Press, 2007). The prize was recently awarded at the Society's 12th conference, "Technological Innovation and Development," in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

HBS Professor Clayton Christensen Brings Disruptive Innovation to Education
BOSTON, Oct. 10, 2008 - According to recent studies in neuroscience, the way we learn doesn't always match up with the way we are taught. Therefore, to stay competitive - academically, economically, and technologically - we need to rethink our understanding of intelligence, reevaluate our educational system, and reinvigorate our commitment to learning. In other words, we need "disruptive innovation."

Harvard Business School Announces Continued Access to Student Loans
BOSTON, October 31, 2008 - Harvard Business School is pleased to announce that Harvard MBA students will continue to have access to need-based loans, despite the pressures on loan availability for students in the current economic climate. This is true for U.S. students as well as international students, who will not be required to find a US co-signer.

Harvard Business School Global Business Summit Explores Future of Capitalism
BOSTON, Oct. 21, 2008 -- In a panel discussion led by University Professor Michael Porter at the Harvard Business School (HBS) Centennial Global Business Summit, Sir Ronald Cohen, founder and former chairman of the private equity firm Apax Partners; Thierry Breton, an HBS faculty member and former French finance minister; and former Harvard University President Lawrence Summers offered their views on the future of market capitalism and ways to address the challenges the market system faces.

Bill Gates Speaks at Harvard Business School Global Business Summit
BOSTON, Oct. 14, 2008 - Bill Gates, cochair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has donated more than $16 million dollars to help improve global development, global health, and U.S education, spoke yesterday at the Harvard Business School (HBS) Global Business Summit, the culmination of the School's Centennial celebration. He offered his views on what he called "creative capitalism," or the ability of companies to tap into their powers of innovation to empower the poor.

Harvard Business School Confers Alumni Achievement Awards
Boston, Oct. 13, 2008 -- As part of its Centennial celebration, Harvard Business School (HBS) today conferred its highest recognition, the Alumni Achievement Award, on five distinguished graduates: John Doerr, a partner in the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; Jeffrey R. Immelt, chairman & CEO of General Electric; Anand G. Mahindra, vice chairman and managing director of the Indian multinational Mahindra & Mahindra; Meg Whitman, former president & CEO of eBay; and James D. Wolfensohn, former president of the World Bank.

Harvard Business School Examines Crisis on Wall Street
BOSTON , Set. 24. 2008 --As the economic crisis began to spread from Wall Street to Main Street and beyond, Harvard Business School Dean and finance professor Jay Light convened a panel of fellow faculty experts yesterday to provide some explanation and perspective on the historic series of events that have thrown U.S. and world financial markets into a state of turmoil unseen since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Harvard Business School Admits First 2+2 Program™ Participants
BOSTON, Sept. 17, 2008 - Harvard Business School (HBS) has accepted the first undergraduates who will take part in HBS 2+2, the School's groundbreaking deferred MBA admission program. A total of 106 seniors from 52 colleges have been admitted to the HBS 2+2 program, which was designed to reach a diverse group of high-achieving college students, studying in the fields of science, engineering, healthcare, government, and public service, among other disciplines, as they begin to explore career and graduate school opportunities. After two years of work experience, they will begin the Harvard MBA program in 2011 as members of the Class of 2013.

Harvard Business School Names New Life Sciences Fellows
BOSTON, Sept. 17, 2008 -- Harvard Business School (HBS) announced today the first winners of its Life Sciences Fellowships. The Fellowship Program, established by the School in January 2008, awards $20,000 each to ten incoming MBA students with outstanding credentials from various disciplines in the life sciences. The annual merit-based Fellowships focus specifically on students interested in careers in life science-related businesses or organizations. The HBS Life Sciences Fellowship Program complements Harvard University's expanding efforts in the healthcare sector. For example, the University recently began construction of a new half-million-square-foot research and educational center near the HBS campus. This state-of-the-art facility will strengthen and expand collaboration among both HBS professors and faculty across the entire University to help address critical issues in biotechnology, healthcare, and related areas.

Prof. Emeritus Gerald Zaltman Honored for Contributions to Marketing Science
BOSTON, Sept.16, 2008 - HBS Professor Emeritus Gerald Zaltman has been awarded the annual Buck Weaver Award for Marketing. Established by the MIT Sloan School of Management in 2003 and sponsored by General Motors Corp., the award recognizes individuals who have made important contributions to the advancement of theory and practice in marketing science. He was selected from a pool of 25 competitors in recognition of his "long career in academic innovation" and for his influence on practice.

Professor John Kotter Details How Leaders Can Create and Sustain a Sense of Urgency
BOSTON, Sept. 8, 2008 - Many executives see that their organization needs to change. They may even know what the change needs to be: a new strategy, a new IT system, an acquisition or reorganization. But somehow, change comes too slowly or the implementation of that great new idea has stalled.

New Book Examines How to Execute Strategy
BOSTON, August 22, 2008 - These days, successful companies seem to have a system for everything. From acquiring new customers to managing customer relationships, and from quality management to performance measurement, industry leaders have realized that having systematic processes in place reduces risk, prevents oversights, and assures the best chance of delivering results. Yet, despite this insight, most companies still haven't developed a system to manage their most important process: how to develop and execute their strategies.

HBS Institutional Memory Web Site Adds New Feature
BOSTON, July 21, 2008 -- Harvard Business School's Centennial Institutional Memory Web site (http://www.hbs.edu/centennial/im) has launched a new feature called "How Do You Educate to Transform?" The feature examines the pedagogies, teachers, classrooms, and technologies that have helped HBS fulfill its mission of educating leaders who make a difference in the world. The interactive, multimedia site, part of the HBS Centennial celebration, tells the story of the School's past 100 years through personal narratives and recollections of generations of faculty, staff, students, and alumni.

Harvard Professor Robert Merton Receives Honorary Doctorate from Claremont Graduate University
BOSTON, July 16, 2008 - Robert C. Merton, Harvard's John and Natty McArthur University Professor based at Harvard Business School and winner of the 1997 Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize in the Economic Sciences, recently received an Honorary Doctorate of Science from Claremont Graduate University in Los Angeles.

Harvard University Opens Office In Shanghai
BOSTON, July 2, 2008 -- Harvard Business School (HBS) Dean Jay O. Light and William C. Kirby, T. M. Chang Professor of China Studies and Spangler Family Professor of Business Administration at Harvard and Chairman of the Harvard China Fund, announced yesterday the opening of a Harvard office in Shanghai. The office will serve both HBS and the Harvard China Fund under the auspices of the Office of the Harvard University Provost. The University plans to open another office in Beijing this autumn. Both locations will enable Harvard University to explore a range of potential activities in support of its research and teaching programs. Light and Kirby made the announcement in Shanghai.

Professor Michael Tushman Receives Honorary Doctorate from University of Geneva
BOSTON, June 30, 2008 -- Michael L. Tushman, the Paul R. Lawrence MBA Class of 1942 Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and an expert in the field of organizational change, leadership, organization design, and innovation, has received an honorary doctorate from the University of Geneva.

Winners of 2008 Harvard Business School Business Plan Contest Ring Opening Bell at New York Stock Exchange
BOSTON, June 20, 2008 - Members of the start-up company Diagnostics-For-All were in New York City this morning to ring the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange. The company, which recently won the social enterprise track of Harvard Business School's 12th annual Business Plan Contest, will provide health care agencies and commercial organizations with a new generation of point-of-care tools to address the diagnostic and clinical management needs of the global medical community.

Harvard Business School Names Brian Kenny Chief Marketing and Communications Officer
BOSTON, June 19, 2008 - Harvard Business School (HBS) has announced that Brian C. Kenny has joined the School in the newly created role of Chief Marketing and Communications Officer. He brings nearly twenty years of experience in planning, program management, brand development, and corporate communications to his new position at HBS. As CMCO, he will focus on the planning and implementation of all the School's marketing, communications, and public relations efforts around the globe.

Harvard Business School Celebrates 25 Years of Summer Venture in Management Program for Undergraduates
BOSTON, June 17, 2008 - Harvard Business School (HBS) will host 79 college students in a one-week management training program designed to increase diversity and opportunity in business education. For 25 years, the Summer Venture in Management Program (SVMP) has provided rising college seniors with a unique educational experience that helps them develop a broad understanding of today's business environment, and encourages them to consider business school as an option after graduation. The program will be held on the School's campus in Boston on June 21-27.

Prof. Thomas Mccraw Wins Spengler Award For "Best Book In History Of Economics"
BOSTON, June 11, 2008 - Prophet of Innovation: Joseph Schumpeter and Creative Destruction (The Belknap Press, 2007), by Thomas McCraw, the Isidor Straus Professor of Business History Emeritus at Harvard Business School, has been selected by the History of Economics Society as the winner of the Joseph J. Spengler Award for "Best Book in History of Economics" for 2007.

Harvard Business School Celebrates 98th Commencement
BOSTON, June 5, 2008 - Harvard Business School (HBS) held its 98th Commencement exercises today. The Class of 2008 included 907 MBA candidates from more than 70 countries. In conjunction with the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, HBS also awarded 8 Ph.D. degrees -- three specializing in business economics, three in organizational behavior, and two in informational technology management. Four students were awarded doctorates in business administration.

HBS Leadership Fellows Program Announces 2008-09 Recipients
BOSTON, June 2, 2008 - Soon after they graduate this year, nine newly minted Harvard Business School MBAs will join nonprofit and public-sector organizations with the help of the School's Leadership Fellows program. Now in its seventh year, the program provides Fellows with a one-year position in a nonprofit or public sector organization where they can make a significant contribution. Participating organizations pay Fellows $45,000, and HBS supplements that with a one-year grant of an equal amount. Throughout the year, Fellows also benefit from access to HBS resources and return to campus for organized networking and professional development events with other Fellows.

Six HBS Students Honored for Service to the School and Society
BOSTON, May 29, 2008 - Harvard Business School announced today that six members of the MBA Class of 2008 have been named winners of the School's prestigious Dean's Award. The recipients, who will be recognized by HBS Dean Jay Light at Commencement ceremonies on the HBS campus on June 5, are Shad Z. Ahmed, Jens Audenaert, Johnita W. Mizelle, Jon R. Puz, Jeffrey C. Shaddix, and Justin L. Silver.

Harvard Professor Michael Porter Honored by U.S. Department of Commerce
BOSTON, May 28, 2008 -- Michael E. Porter, Harvard's Bishop William Lawrence University Professor based at Harvard Business School, has received the first Lifetime Achievement Award in Economic Development from the U.S. Department of Commerce. The award was presented on May 22 by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez and Assistant Secretary Sandy K. Baruah at the 2008 National Summit on American Competitiveness in Chicago.

Professor Emeritus Howard Raiffa Wins 2008 Schelling Award
BOSTON, May 22, 2008 - Howard Raiffa, the eminent pioneer in the field of decision analysis, has been named this year's recipient of the Thomas C. Schelling Award, given annually to an individual whose remarkable intellectual work has had a transformative impact on public policy. Raiffa is Harvard University's Frank P. Ramsey Professor of Managerial Economics Emeritus - a chair administered by both the Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School. He received the award and $25,000 prize on May 15th at a dinner hosted by Harvard Kennedy School Dean David T. Ellwood.

Harvard Business School Introduces Executive Education Program on Maximizing the Value of Intellectual Property
BOSTON, May 20, 2008 - Harvard Business School (HBS) announced today that it will offer a new Executive Education program aimed at developing effective strategies for transforming intellectual properties into commercially viable assets. Called Strategies for Protecting and Monetizing Intellectual Property, the program will be held on the School's campus in Boston on July 27-30.

"In today's highly competitive global economy, it is essential that companies have a clearly defined legal and business policy for maximizing the value of their intellectual property," said Professor Josh Lerner, faculty chair of the Harvard Business School program. "This new offering will provide executive participants with actionable strategies to improve their organization's competitive position in the marketplace."

New Book Looks at Deep Metaphors and the Minds of Consumers
BOSTON, May 9, 2008 - Why do advertising campaigns and new products fail? Why do consumers often feel that companies do not understand their needs? It seems that marketers don't always think deeply about consumers' thoughts and feelings. Marketing Metaphoria, coauthored by HBS Professor Emeritus Gerald Zaltman and Lindsay Zaltman, managing director of Olson Zaltman Associates, reveals how to overcome this "depth deficit" and find the universal drivers of human behavior that are vital to a company's ability to connect successfully with consumers.

Professor Thomas McCraw Wins the Hagley Prize in Business History
BOSTON, May 8, 2008 - Thomas McCraw, the Isidor Straus Professor of Business History Emeritus at Harvard Business School, has received the Hagley Prize in Business History for his book Prophet of Innovation: Joseph Schumpeter and Creative Destruction (The Belknap Press, 2007). The Hagley prize is awarded annually by the Business History Conference (BHC) for the best book in business history and consists of a medallion and $2,500.

Harvard Business School Hosts Business and Human Rights Conference
BOSTON, May 7, 2008 - How do, and how should, business managers address human rights issues within their organizations' operations and supply chains? A recent conference organized by Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Michael Toffel and the U.S. Network of the United Nations Global Compact tackled these questions with a day-long series of panels and speeches.

Harvard Business School Holds 12th Annual Business Plan Contest
BOSTON, April 29, 2008 - Harvard Business School (HBS) held the final round of its 12th annual Business Plan Contest yesterday in the School's Burden Auditorium, the culmination of a process that began last January with a total of some 70 student teams. Eleven made it through the various stages of judging to Monday's final round of presentations.

Tarun Khanna Examines Entrepreneurial Forces Driving China and India
BOSTON, April 21, 2008 - For the first time since the rise of Western capitalism, entrepreneurs in China and India can ignore New York and London - and still build companies worth billions. Thanks to social and economic revolutions, Asia has captured the best minds and money from around the world.

Happy Birthday, Harvard Business School
BOSTON - April 9, 2008 - More than 3,000 members of the Harvard Business School community-MBA and doctoral students, faculty, and staff-came together yesterday for a day-long series of festivities and special events to celebrate the Centennial anniversary of the School.

Melinda Gates Comments on the Future of Social Enterprise
BOSTON, April 9, 2008-- Melinda Gates visited Harvard Business School recently in conjunction with a two-day symposium organized by the HBS Social Enterprise Initiative.

Harvard Business School Appoints Anjali Raina Executive Director Of India Research Center In Mumbai
BOSTON, March 24, 2008-- Harvard Business School (HBS) announced today that it has appointed Anjali Raina as Executive Director of its India Research Center (IRC) in Mumbai. She will officially assume her duties in late March.

Harvard Business School Offers New Executive Education Program in China
BOSTON, March 19, 2008-- Harvard Business School (HBS) announced today that it will offer its annual Agribusiness Seminar in Shanghai on May 11-14. The Executive Education program will focus on how customer needs, environmental concerns, economic issues, advanced technologies, and key strategies drive innovation throughout the agribusiness industry. Agribusiness Seminar: An Asian Offering will welcome participants from a range of organizations around the world, including agricultural producers and processors, branded food companies, major grocery chains, governments, and financial firms serving the agribusiness industry.

Associate Professor Laura Alfaro Named "Young Global Leader" By World Economic Forum
BOSTON, March 13, 2008-- Harvard Business School Associate Professor Laura Alfaro, an expert on international economics, has been selected as a Young Global Leader 2008 by the World Economic Forum (WEF).

New Harvard Business School Website Showcases Centennial Celebration
BOSTON, March 10, 2008 - As Harvard Business School's Centennial celebration continues, a variety of activities marking the historic occasion are under way, from colloquia led by HBS faculty to alumni gatherings around the globe. The School's new Centennial website, launched as part of the yearlong celebration, is rich with lore about the Harvard Business School's first 100 years and serves as a user-friendly gateway to the latest information on Centennial activities. The site offers also enables visitors to examine issues that will shape management and management education in the 21st century.

Harvard Business School Offers New Executive Education Program on South Asia Real Estate
BOSTON - March 10, 2008 - Harvard Business School (HBS) together with the HBS India Research Center today announced a new executive education program to be held in India in June 2008. South Asia Real Estate Seminar will be taught in Hyderabad by HBS faculty and is designed for senior executives in the real estate industry.

Marketing Can Serve Citizens as Well as Consumers
BOSTON, March 6, 2008 - In Greater Good: How Good Marketing Makes for Better Democracy (Harvard Business Press), Harvard Business School Professor John A. Quelch and Research Associate Katherine E. Jocz argue that democracy can be driven by good marketing and healthy dialogue. When governments treat citizens more like consumers - studying their needs, encouraging their feedback, and developing long-term relationships - democracy becomes more democratic. On the flip side, the authors also discuss how managers and marketers can learn from democracy's focus on fairness and concern for society.

Harvard Business School Joins 10,000 Women
BOSTON, March 5, 2008- Harvard Business School today announced that it will be an initial partner with The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE: GS) of 10,000 Women, a global initiative that will provide 10,000 underserved women, predominantly in developing and emerging markets, with a business and management education. The initiative will invest in a largely untapped yet significant resource - the exponential power of women as entrepreneurs and managers. 10,000 Women establishes relationships between universities in the United States and Europe and business schools in emerging and developing countries to improve the quality and capacity of business education in developing regions around the world. Harvard Business School will work with the Goldman Sachs Fund for Management to help "Teach the Teachers" India, a key element of the Harvard Business School's Global Initiative.

Harvard Business School's David Moss Provides Concise Guide to Macroeconomics
BOSTON, March 3, 2008 - Rates headed down? Inflation heating up? What's the Fed thinking? For thoughtful professionals in business, government, and the non-profit sector, such questions are anything but academic.

Harvard Business School's 2+2 Admissions Application Now Available
BOSTON, Feb.27, 2008 - The MBA application for Harvard Business School's 2+2 program, including all instructions, policies, and materials, became available today online: https://app.applyyourself.com/?id=hbs-da. HBS 2+2 is a first-of-its-kind deferred MBA admissions program designed to reach qualified college students, especially those who may not typically consider business as a career path or business education as a future option.

NFL Players to Participate in Custom Executive Education Program at Harvard Business School
BOSTON, Feb.21, 2008 - On February 24, more than thirty NFL players representing teams from across the league, including the New England Patriots, New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Seattle Seahawks, will travel to Harvard Business School (HBS) to take part in an executive education program that addresses the unique business opportunities and challenges faced by NFL players during and following their professional football careers.

Harvard Business School Launches Institutional Memory Website Commemorating Centennial
BOSTON, Feb.19, 2008 - As part of its Centennial celebration, Harvard Business School (HBS) today launched the Institutional Memory website. The interactive, multi-media site captures the history of the School through personal narratives and recollections of generations of faculty, staff, students, and alumni.

Harvard Business School Sets Out Centennial Activities
BOSTON, Feb.14, 2008 - Harvard Business School (HBS) will mark its Centennial in 2008 with a yearlong celebration of innovation and achievement and a series of special events designed to frame management education and research in the decades to come.

Harvard Business School Community Partners Receives President's Council on Service and Civic Participation Pro Bono Award
BOSTON, Feb.13, 2008 - At a ceremony last night at the Harvard Club of New York, The President's Council on Service and Civic Participation presented a Pro Bono Award to Harvard Business School (HBS) alumni club community consulting programs for their commitment to providing volunteer business consulting services to leading nonprofits in various regions throughout the United States. The Council, created by President Bush in 2003, recognizes the exceptional contributions volunteers are making to our nation.

Harvard Business School Faculty Members Win Smith Breeden Prize for Distinguised Paper in Finance
BOSTON, Feb. 7, 2008 - Harvard Business School assistant professors Lauren H. Cohen and Christopher J. Malloy, both members of the School's Finance Unit, have recently won the 2007 Smith Breeden Prize, which recognizes the top three papers published in The Journal of Finance in any area other than corporate finance. Their paper, Supply and Demand Shifts in the Shorting Market (coauthored with Karl B. Diether of the Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University) examines the link between the shorting market and stock prices.

Harvard Business School Announces Life Sciences Fellowship Fund
BOSTON, Jan. 22, 2008 - Harvard Business School (HBS) announced that it will award $20,000 fellowships to each of 10 incoming MBA students who present outstanding credentials from their work in the field of life sciences. The new Life Sciences Fellowships, which recognize academic achievements, professional accomplishments, and/or honors granted by academic, commercial, or professional organizations, will be awarded to students entering the School's MBA program next fall.

HBS Course Uses Literature To Teach Moral Leadership
BOSTON, Jan. 11, 2008 - Albert Camus, Barbara Kingsolver, and David Mamet are names not typically referenced in an MBA classroom. But they are just a sample of the literary giants discussed in the Harvard Business School second-year elective course, The Moral Leader, currently taught by Senior Lecturer Sandra Sucher. First introduced to HBS in the late 1980s by Harvard psychiatrist and educator Robert Coles, the course uses literary works to study decision making and leadership and help MBAs find their own definition of moral leadership.