United States

Corn likes people. It benefits from human contact, when it’s thinned out and hand-pollinated, explains Taylor Keen (MPA 1996/ MBA 1997). Corn thrives when sung to and spoken to—something Keen does in the language of his mother’s Omaha Tribe, where he is known as Bison Mane. Keen is also an active member of the Cherokee Nation, his father’s people, where his tribal name is Blackberry. He grew up between Omaha and the Cherokee reservation in northeastern Oklahoma, where he was a football player and top student—not a plant whisperer. It would be decades before Keen fully understood the role that growing things could play in educating others about indigenous cultures. Read more about his journey here.

This October, the Harvard community gathered to participate in a conversation based on a new case, Larry Miller, written by Professors Francesca Gino, Frances X. Frei, and Hise Gibson in collaboration with the Mid-US Research Office. Miller, chairman of Nike’s Jordan Brand Advisory Board, visited campus to join the discussion. His successful tenure at Nike and the Portland Trail Blazers suggests a life of accomplishment and privilege, but when he was younger, Miller spent nearly a decade in and out of prison for homicide and armed robbery. He shared his experience navigating adversity, and the conversation centered around themes of inclusive leadership and fair chance employment.

The School’s new Institute for the Study of Business in Global Society (BiGS) launched in Detroit, Michigan, this October with a convening of leaders who discussed the role of firms and their leaders in repairing a divided America and world. The event, hosted in conjunction with the Mid-US Research Office, brought together leaders in industry, academia, government, and nonprofit sectors for a day of discussion around current practices, challenges, opportunities, and rationales for business to engage in societal goals beyond shareholder value. These topics lie at the heart of BiGS, which seeks to frame and examine a critical management conversation of our time, and to provide new tools for leaders striving to navigate this shifting and complex landscape.

After two years of cancellation due to COVID-19, this May more than 1,000 first year MBA students participated in project assignments for FIELD (Field Immersion Experiences for Leadership Development) Immersion, a required course that took students across the US for the first time this year. For the past 10 years, this required course has sent first-year MBA students around the globe in an immersive learning experience that pairs them with companies to introduce a new product, service, or customer experience for the local consumer. This year, Stephanie Galloway, senior director of the Global Experience Office (GEO), and her staff, as well as with the MBA Program staff, worked to build an entirely new immersive experience. The team researched locations across the US, developed relationships and projects with companies and organizations, planned contextual experiences such as meetings with local leaders and historical tours, and fine-tuned the course details and extensive logistics required for sending 1,000 students to 15 new locations. Cities such as Milwaukee, Birmingham, or Chattanooga were intentionally selected as a majority of students would not have past experience. Students had the opportunity to participant in projects ranging from a company seeking to attract and retain more underrepresented minorities, to an organization wanting to design a program providing mortgage loans for Black and minority homebuyers, to a startup bringing dental services to traditionally underserved neighborhoods.