School & Alumni News
May 22 2012
3 Harvard Business School startup founders get HBS Dean's Award 
As Harvard Business School preps for commencement on Wednesday, the school's Dean's Award has been awarded to four members of the 2012 HBS class — three of which are well known in the Boston startup community.
May 21 2012
Winning the competition for ideas
Eliminating the need for cold storage would help bring down the cost of vaccinations by simplifying distribution, and could increase access. "Global coverage of vaccines like hepatitis B is about 75 percent, and it has plateaued there," says Michael Schrader, a Harvard Business School student finishing his studies this spring. "We've gotten to those parts of the world that are easily accessible, and the question is, how do you cover the last 25 percent?"
May 17 2012
Harvard Business School For The Facebook Age
Harvard Business School is buzzing. In part, it's because students are working in "hives," new circular, collaborative workspaces. But also because the hives are part of a radical rethink happening here—of everything from the storied school's established curriculum, its pedagogy, student profiles, and outcomes, to its brand identity and physical spaces.
May 13 2012
From Forklifts to Photography
Four years later, I joined Shutterfly, which at that point had about 100 employees and $54 million in annual revenue. Its lead investor, Jim Clark, hired me to help take it public, which we did in 2006. Last year, we had $473 million in revenue, with 5.5 million paying customers. We now have four sites: Shutterfly, Tiny Prints, Wedding Paper Divas and, starting earlier this year, Treat.com, a personalized greeting card site.
May 09 2012
Charlene Li: The future of social media
Charlene Li is one of the most respected voices in social media today. Her book "Open Leadership" is a New York Times bestseller. A graduate of Harvard Business School, she has been named one of the 100 most creative people in business by Fast Company in 2010 and one of the most influential women in technology in 2009.
May 09 2012
How Starbucks Trains Customers to Behave
Anne Morriss, managing director of the Concire Leadership Institute, explains how the coffee giant increased efficiency and satisfaction by treating customers like employees. She is the coauthor of Uncommon Service: How to Win by Putting Customers at the Core of Your Business.
May 06 2012
Daiwa Chief Weathers Tumultuous Year
When Takashi Hibino took the helm of Japan's second-largest brokerage firm about a year ago, he knew it would be a tough start, with businesses across the country reeling from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Daiwa indeed had a difficult time last year, dented by the euro-zone crisis, the strong yen and overall market turmoil.
May 02 2012
Adding 2+2 To Equal Five
Harvard Business School requires most students to enter its MBA program with at least two years of work experience. The 2+2 Program opened the door to college-aged applicants. "We want to get the MBA out there as something for smart and active and committed college students to consider," Leopold said.
May 01 2012
2012 HBS Business Plan Contest
The 2012 HBS Business Plan Contest finals and awards ceremony happened on April 24th! In celebration of this annual event, we've pulled together some history of the contest as well as some crowd sourced updates as the event unfolded.
Apr 30 2012
On Harvard, Building Community & the HBS Startup Tribe: Q&A with Andrew Rosenthal
One of the greatest strengths of HBS is its location in Boston. The city has always attracted some of the world's greatest thinkers and academics. It also plays host to a rich startup ecosystem. With ready access to venture capital, Boston is a ripe environment for entrepreneurship. In addition to the companies, the community itself is thriving. From RubyRiot and Tech Prom to Venture Café, Boston is a great place to start and build a company.
Apr 27 2012
Former Navy SEAL Powers the Battlefield With Hybrid Generators
Meet Doug Moorehead, a sharp, athletic guy from Cambridge, Ohio, whose military service took him to Iraq, South America, the Persian Gulf, and the South China Sea. Today, at 37 and retired from the special forces, he's the president of clean-tech startup Earl Energy, where he's using his unique skill set to develop a cheap solar-diesel generator that slashes fuel requirements on the battlefield.
Apr 18 2012
POPStart Gives 11 Local Startups The Chance to Set Up Shop on Newbury Street
The team came up with the concept as part of Harvard's FIELD program, which forces students to design and launch a microbusiness over the course of a semester. Co-founder Joshua Plavner says the resounding question from his classmates was, "How do we go to market?" So, the group decided to create a market for them.
Apr 17 2012
How do you get into Harvard Biz School?
So how does one stand out? Dee Leopold, who earned her Harvard MBA in 1980 and has been working at the B-school for many years, the last six as director of admissions, offers some clues.
Apr 16 2012
Many U.S. Immigrants' Children Seek American Dream Abroad
Relocating to São Paulo, he became an "entrepreneur in residence" at a venture capital firm. He is starting an online eyewear business. "I speak the language, I get the culture, I understand how people do business," Assayag said.
Apr 14 2012
Pop-up store for startups
Some Harvard Business School students are giving fellow entrepreneurs a unique opportunity to connect face-to-face with customers on Boston's most high-profile retail boulevard. Their POPstart temporary "pop-up" store will give start-ups an opportunity to introduce and sell their products and services for two days in a Newbury Street storefront.
Apr 13 2012
HBS Gets Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg As Class Day Speaker
It's getting that time of the year again when the top business schools plan their graduation ceremonies. And Harvard Business School has just announced a coup of sorts by landing Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg as its Class Day speaker on May 23. Sandberg, chief operating officer for Facebook and a Harvard MBA graduate in the Class of 1995, is one of a handful of the most-in-demand executives today.
Apr 11 2012
Pop-up shop on Newbury Street will showcase products from startups
"While a start-up would normally not have the resources to maintain a permanent brick and mortar presence — particularly on Newbury Street — POPstart provides that chance by aggregating the collective resources of startups," explains Josh Plavner, one of the HBS students working on the project as part of the school's FIELD initiative, which promotes entrepreneurship through the creation of "micro-businesses."
Apr 11 2012
Be Proud of Your Accomplishments, Not Your Affiliations
As traditional notions of prestige are fast losing relevancy, we should all focus more on creating real value. If you're lucky enough to have attended a great college or worked for a top company, you have an obligation to turn these affiliations into accomplishments. If you're not one of the privileged few, you're no longer at a disadvantage.
Apr 10 2012
Awesome: Neil Pasricha posts the final entry on his popular blog 1000awesomethings
For four years now, Pasricha, 32, has been finding the extraordinary in the ordinary, writing about the small joys of life — popping bubble wrap, smelling bakery air, high-fiving babies — on his blog 1000awesomethings.com. The Harvard MBA and former comedy writer started posting a new entry every weekday, counting down from 1,000, as a way to cheer himself up during a dark period in his life.
Apr 08 2012
The Army as a Cornerstone
MY early years growing up in Allentown, Pa., gave no hint that I would have a 32-year career in the Army. I came from a middle-class family, played trumpet in the high school band, ran track and joined the football team. I had a newspaper route, and in the summer I washed dishes at a country club.
Apr 05 2012
The GI Bill is back, helping thousands of veterans
Thirty-three-year-old Greg Adams credits the bill with helping him adjust to civilian life after 10 years in the Army, where he did a stint in the Special Forces as well as tours in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Philippines. "I don't know what I'd be doing without this program," he said. "Transitioning right into the work force would be pretty tough."
Apr 05 2012
Black bank president talks to youth about financial literacy
Teri Williams is one of the nation's most-respected women in business. At 54, she is a graduate of Brown University, has an MBA from Harvard and has been in financial services for over 30 years. What's more, she is the president and a member of the board of directors for OneUnited Bank — the largest minority-owned bank in the U.S.
Apr 04 2012
Global Entrepreneurs Need New Funding Models
Entrepreneurship seems to have become the silver bullet for a job-scarce, unemployment-saddled global economy still struggling to shake off recession. Around the world, leaders talk about how start-ups can create new jobs and lift regions out of poverty. But many entrepreneurs — particularly those in the world's toughest economies — are still battling to secure the cash they need to launch and run their businesses.
Apr 03 2012
Because Life Should bcalm: Harvard MBA Creates a Brand New Wellness Drink
Part tea, part massage, part long walk on the beach. What sounds better than that? Honestly, nothing, so kudos to Harvard MBA Daniel Rumennik on the clever marketing behind bcalm, the newest wellness drink designed to bring you mental clarity and stress relief.
Mar 27 2012
One School at a Time
Students at the Alternative School for Math and Science (ASMS) in Corning, New York, don't diagram what a circuit board looks like on a piece of paper; they wire one themselves. Led by Administrative Head Kim Frock (MBA 1987) and opened just eight years ago, ASMS is a private school driven by the mission to provide an academically challenging, inquiry-based learning environment for children in grades 6 through 8.
Mar 27 2012
Building a 'Fully-Integrated Military Marketplace'
The two vets met while students at Harvard Business School and turned an academic project into TroopSwap, a full-fledged e-commerce and daily deals site exclusively for veterans, service members and their families.
Mar 24 2012
Search for boardroom equality goes on
Ilene Lang feels sorry for women trying to clamber up the corporate ladder today. When she graduated from college in the 1960s, took an MBA at Harvard Business School and went on to found the early search engine AltaVista, she had so few female peers that she could make it up as she went along.
Mar 18 2012
A matter of ‘false choices’
One of the contributors, Tasneem Dohadwala, in an account titled "Women and the Workplace", writes about the complexities of trying to strike a balance between work and home. She considers it to be a "false choice" to begin with. Dohadwala graduated from the Harvard Business School in 2009.
Mar 13 2012
Why Ratan Tata and his alma mater created a new class in India
I write this fresh from a new classroom at the Taj in Bandra. There are, I'm sure, more advanced classrooms elsewhere in India, but I doubt if their inaugural matched the bells and whistles Friday I hope to capture here.
Mar 12 2012
Teaching leadership is easier than practicing it
This week, the dean was in Mumbai to take his first theme forward, with the inauguration of the Harvard Classroom at the Taj Land's End hotel. "This classroom is hugely important to us. It's designed as an exact replica of the classrooms we have at HBS and its architecture is central to our educational technology, which is the case study method," he said.
