For immediate release:
February 13, 2002

Contact: Catherine Walsh
Harvard Business School
(617) 495-6931

HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL INTRODUCES 
SERVICE LEADERSHIP FELLOWS PROGRAM

BOSTON -- Harvard Business School officials announced today the formation of a Service Leadership Fellows Program to encourage students seeking to make a significant contribution to society early in their careers to apply for one- or two-year postgraduate Service Fellowships.

The HBS Service Leadership Fellows Program builds on a long tradition of support at the School for social initiatives, according to Professor W. Carl Kester, senior associate dean and MBA Program chair. “Today’s introduction of the Service Leadership Fellows Program reflects a growing desire on the part of our students to be involved in the public and social sectors, as well as a desire on the part of key organizations around the world to avail themselves of the unique gifts and talents of HBS graduates,” Kester said.

“The School will subsidize the graduate’s salary so that is within the competitive range of offers that he or she would receive from for-profit businesses,” he explained. “Our aim is to make the program a tremendous learning experience for graduates and to make it affordable for sponsoring organizations.”

Professor Michael E. Porter, whose research has included studies of the competitive advantages of inner cities, believes that the Service Leadership Fellows Program represents “a real opportunity” for the School. “Given the close intertwining today between business, government, and the nonprofit sectors, the School can have a major impact on society through this program,” he said.

Not only do business leaders need to be more effective in their work on various community and social enterprises, but government and nonprofit organizations also need to develop better managerial and other skills, said Porter. He also envisions a network of Service Fellow alumni that, in time, will play a key role in managing the overlapping relationships between business, government, and the nonprofit worlds.

Professor V. Kasturi Rangan, who is actively involved in studying the role of marketing in nonprofit organizations, sees the Service Fellows as “catalysts and change agents” who will have an impact long beyond their tenure. “The carry-over effects of a program like this are fantastic,” he said. “The Fellow brings a culture of change to nonprofit organizations that can be tremendously helpful. In addition, the program will also sensitize and change the Fellows. When they go back to the corporate sector, Fellows will bring a deep knowledge of the challenges facing community and society.”

Seven organizations, both in this country and abroad, have so far expressed interest in hiring an HBS Service Fellow:

• The Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC), founded in 1994 and based on research by Professor Porter


• Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, led by John C. Whitehead (Harvard MBA ’47) to revitalize and rebuild Lower Manhattan and establish a memorial to victims of the World Trade Center attacks


• The Mayor’s Office in Boston, as part of a team charged with assessing the city’s neighborhood economic development programs


• Boston Community Capital, working on planning and implementing selected sector-wide initiatives at this leading community venture-capital organization


• The Governor’s Office in Mississippi as part of its effort to implement an economic development program (PDF file) based on clusters or geographic concentrations of firms, suppliers, service providers, research organizations and other institutions


• International Rescue Committee, where the Fellow will help the IRC assist people fleeing racial, religious, and ethnic persecution, as well as those uprooted by war and violence


• Comunidade Solidaria, Brazil’s largest antipoverty organization, where the Fellow will focus on strategic planning.

For more than twenty years, beginning with the Nonprofit and Public Management Summer Fellowship Program, Harvard Business School’s intensive social service involvement has played an important role in its mission of educating leaders who make a difference in the world. In 1993, the School founded the Initiative on Social Enterprise, an ongoing and comprehensive effort to involve students, faculty, and alumni in shaping successful not-for-profit and other social-purpose organizations. The School’s curriculum now includes a number of MBA elective courses, as well a variety of executive education programs, that focus on social enterprise.

Founded in 1908 as part of Harvard University, Harvard Business School (www.hbs.edu) is located in Boston and offers full-time programs leading to the MBA and doctoral degrees, as well as a portfolio of more than 40 Executive Education programs. With a faculty of over 200 distinguished scholars, the School is dedicated to educating leaders who make a difference in the world. Its core focus is to shape the practice of business, build enduring knowledge, and effectively communicate important ideas to meet the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century.