George A. Riedel is a Senior Lecturer in the General Management Unit where he teaches Leadership & Corporate Accountability, TOM and RC Section Chair. He returns to HBS after 30 years having graduated in 1987.
He also serves as an independent director on the XPERI board (formerly Tessera) in San Jose, CA. As well as the CERNER board in Kansas City, MO.
He spent the last 15 years of his career in various executive and entrepreneurial roles in technology related industries (Networking, Security, Software, Media) as well as over 7 years of board level work including compensation, audit and governance committees. Most recently he was the Chairman and CEO of Cloudmark, an SF based cybersecurity firm, where he led a significant EBITDA turnaround that subsequently led to a sale to Proofpoint in 2017.
He was also the Chairman of the Board of Montreal-based Accedian Networks from 2010-2017, which was recently sold to Bridge Growth Partners and a director at Peer App in Boston, Next Docs in Philadelphia (sold to Aurea) and Blade Networks in San Jose (sold to IBM).
From 2006 to 2009, he was the CSO of Nortel Networks helping lead the turnaround. He became President of Business Units in 2010 after the company filed, to lead the sale/restructuring of various business units through a series of transactions generating over $4B to a range of leading industry players. In 2011, he led the efforts to monetize the remaining 6500 patents and applications which led to an unprecedented transaction with Apple, Ericsson and others for $4.5B.
Prior to joining Nortel, he was VP of Strategy and M&A for Juniper Networks in Sunnyvale, CA from 2003-2006, developing a corporate growth strategy and then leading a series of acquisitions, most notably Netscreen; investing over $5B in M&A efforts that doubled the size and strategically repositioned the company.
After HBS, he joined McKinsey & Co where he rose to a Senior Partner spending 15 years at the Firm leading practices and serving clients in the telecom, media and technology sectors while living in both Asia Pacific and North America. After graduating from the University of Virginia in 1980 with a BS (with Distinction) in Mechanical Engineering he spent the next five years working as a Petroleum Engineer for Exxon Co USA in their production department in Houston, Texas.
He lives in Weston, MA with his wife Amy and their four children.
The case, which is a disguised version of real events, is set in Kandahar, Afghanistan (2013) during the long running Afghan war. Lt. Paul Rickson, a Navy SEAL Platoon Commander, is leading a team of 30 US and Afghan soldiers on a mission to clear hostile forces in Maiwand Village. After a long day of various hostile activities and clearing Improvised Explosive Devices (IED’s), he faces a tough choice that is filled with various tensions. After he directs a missile attack from a drone onto an enemy position, he’s ordered to conduct an on the ground Battle Damage Assessment (BDA), to confirm there are no civilian casualties. This would require some or all of his team crossing 800 meters in open territory, almost certainly drawing enemy fire. He’s concerned about the real risks to his team vs the perceived benefit of a US-forces taken picture. His has to reconcile a conflicting sense of priorities, from the Rules of Engagement for his team, the directive from HQ and inputs from his team. The primary purpose of the case is to focus on lessons from his decision-making approach that might be beneficial for a young leader facing conflicting tensions, such as:
a. The strategic directive to win hearts and minds, while training Afghan forces vs. the on the ground facts and circumstances facing the platoon commander and the threats to his team.
b. The predictability of support systems (e.g. communications, HQ guidance, video surveillance, transport) that can have outsized impact on options and outcomes.
c. How substantial risks and core values come together in deciding what to do for you and your team.
Since its founding in 2004, Facebook has built a phenomenally successful business at global scale to become the fifth most valuable public company in the world. The revelation of Cambridge Analytica events in March 2018, where 78 million users' information was leaked in a 2016 U.S. election cycle, exposed a breach of trust/privacy among its user community. In the past, growth at any costs appeared to be the de facto strategy. Now many voices such as regulators, advertisers, ethicists, shareholders and users argued for a more responsible approach to addressing their concerns. Mark Zuckerberg (CEO/Chair/Founder) and Sheryl Sandberg (COO) mapped out their six-point plan to address this existential threat. Could they continue to grow and rectify the breach of trust/privacy? Did other stakeholders have some greater responsibility too? In addition to issues of privacy and trust, there is a growing chorus of concern about “content moderation”—not for the easy topics like spam or copyright material—but for the hard things revolving around political points of view, hate speech, polarizing perspectives, etc. How will Facebook strike the balance between free speech and corrosive content across billions of users and dozens of languages? Are they the arbiters of truth/censorship in the digital world?
Hamermesh, Richard G., and George Riedel. "The National Football League and Brain Injuries (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 818-082, January 2018.
View Details
