November 20, 2003
Contact: Jim Aisner
Harvard Business School Communications
(617) 495-6157
New Video Archive Features Insights from 27 Alumni
BOSTON -- Frank Batten (MBA '52) took Landmark Communications, a family business comprised of two newspapers and a television and radio station, and built it into a major multimedia enterprise that includes the Weather Channel.
Acting on his wife's concern about how much time she spent recording their expenses and paying the bills, Scott Cook (MBA '76) co founded Intuit, whose flagship product, Quicken, revolutionized the way families figured out their finances.
Orit Gadiesh (MBA'77) joined Bain & Company immediately after graduating from HBS. When the management consultancy ran into difficulties in the late 1980s, she played a key role in restructuring the firm and leading it to new heights.
One of America's first and most prominent venture capitalists, Arthur Rock (MBA '51) was a driving force in turning Silicon Valley into a center of innovation and entrepreneurship. Among the many leading-edge firms he has helped launch are Teledyne, Intel, and Apple.
Tom Stemberg (MBA '73) saw an opportunity to sell office supplies the way supermarket chains sold groceries - in large stores that offered customers a wide array of products at low prices. The result was Staples, which he co founded in 1986.
The entrepreneurial success stories of these and more than twenty other outstanding HBS graduates are featured in a new video archive (www.hbs.edu/entrepreneurs) that has recently been launched on the School's Web site (www.hbs.edu).
In a series of interviews that last from some thirty minutes to almost two hours, entrepreneurs representing a variety of industries -- from banking and financial management to media and manufacturing to health care and high tech -- share their insights as they reflect on their lives and careers. Each interview examines the subject's early years and education and then focuses on the particulars of their entrepreneurial experience, as these HBS graduates grew their businesses, worked with their customers and employees, and considered the role of their companies in society.
Viewers can either watch each video interview straight through or choose highlighted subsections in any order they prefer. In addition, a complete transcript of each interview can be downloaded from the new site, which also provides links to biographical and company information on these entrepreneurs.
Harvard Business School has offered courses in entrepreneurship for more than a half century and counts among its 65,000 graduates some of the world's most successful entrepreneurs. "About 40 percent of HBS alumni/ae describe themselves as entrepreneurs at some point in their career," according to Senior Lecturer Michael J. Roberts, Executive Director of the School's Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship.
The HBS Entrepreneurial Management unit has some 40 faculty members whose research interests range from a historical perspective on entrepreneurial and business history to the financial, legal, and human resource issues facing entrepreneurs. "The focus of HBS is general management, and to a large extent, an entrepreneur is the quintessential general manager," said unit head Teresa M. Amabile, the Edsel Bryant Ford Professor of Business Administration.
A course on entrepreneurship is part of the School's required first-year MBA curriculum, and a number of popular electives are offered in the second year of the program. Ninety-three percent of the School's second-year students take at least one Entrepreneurial Management elective. Entrepreneurial Management accounts for 20 percent of total second-year elective enrollment.
The Entrepreneurial Management unit also organizes the annual HBS Business Plan Contest, coordinates the activities at the HBS California Research Center in Silicon Valley, and publishes New Business, a twice-yearly overview of entrepreneurial interests and pursuits at HBS.
At the core of all these activities is Harvard Business School's unique definition of entrepreneurship: "The pursuit of opportunity without regard to resources currently controlled." From this perspective, entrepreneurship is seen as a particular type of managerial behavior, available to virtually all managers in organizations of all kinds and sizes.
Founded in 1908 and located on a 35-acre campus in Boston, Massachusetts, Harvard Business School 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 more than 200 distinguished scholars, the School has long shaped the practice of business by educating leaders, building enduring knowledge, and communicating important ideas.