Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • November 2004 (Revised April 2005)
  • Background Note
  • HBS Case Collection

Math for Strategists

By: Tarun Khanna and Jan W. Rivkin
  • Format:Print
  • | Pages:18
ShareBar

Abstract

Great strategists rely heavily on numbers as they go about their work. Offers an overview of the high- and low-brow quantitative tools that students encounter during the Strategy course. The class explores high-brow tools in detail; the focus here is on low-brow calculations. Such calculations come up often in class but because they seem so simple, they get little airtime or explanation. From past class experience, roughly 20% of the students in each section come into the course with the intuition and experience to do these simple calculations themselves. The other 80% understand the calculations after they see them and grasp their value, but don't spot the opportunities to do the math themselves, before class.

Keywords

Mathematical Methods; Strategy

Citation

Khanna, Tarun, and Jan W. Rivkin. "Math for Strategists." Harvard Business School Background Note 705-433, November 2004. (Revised April 2005.)
  • Educators
  • Purchase

About The Authors

Tarun Khanna

Strategy
→More Publications

Jan W. Rivkin

Strategy
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • Spring 2021
    • Stanford Social Innovation Review (website)

    Building Cities' Collaborative Muscle

    By: Jorrit De Jong, Amy C. Edmondson, Mark Moore, Hannah Riley-Bowles, Jan Rivkin, Eva Flavia Martínez Orbegozo and Santiago Pulido-Gomez
    • January 2021
    • Faculty Research

    iOpenEye: Theater and #MeToo in Nigeria

    By: Caroline M. Elkins, Tarun Khanna and Joyce J. Kim
    • January 2021
    • Faculty Research

    Andela: Africa's AWS for Talent

    By: Caroline M. Elkins, Tarun Khanna and Joyce J. Kim
More from the Authors
  • Building Cities' Collaborative Muscle By: Jorrit De Jong, Amy C. Edmondson, Mark Moore, Hannah Riley-Bowles, Jan Rivkin, Eva Flavia Martínez Orbegozo and Santiago Pulido-Gomez
  • iOpenEye: Theater and #MeToo in Nigeria By: Caroline M. Elkins, Tarun Khanna and Joyce J. Kim
  • Andela: Africa's AWS for Talent By: Caroline M. Elkins, Tarun Khanna and Joyce J. Kim
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College