In a year shaped by the pandemic, Harvard Business School’s global presence has enabled the School to be at the forefront of the study of emerging trends.
Faculty members draw on the resources and expertise of the School’s 15 global outposts to conduct innovative research. They bring insights back to the classrooms to broaden the global understanding of students, and share findings with practitioners around the world. As the School works to fulfill its mission—to educate leaders who make a difference in the world—it also aspires to show that business is a force for good in society.
This report features a selection of stories that highlight the School’s influence and impact around the world during fiscal year 2021 (July 1, 2020–June 30, 2021).
MBA student Zainab Raji (MBA/MPA-ID 2022), who was born in Nigeria, saw how Ebola
ravaged West Africa from 2014 to 2016, which prompted her to think about how she could
have an impact in Africa when macro shocks occurred. The crisis led her to HBS and
the Harvard Kennedy School—the first steps on her path to a career in economic development.
MBA student Zainab Raji (MBA/MPA-ID 2022), who was born in Nigeria, saw how Ebola
ravaged West Africa from 2014 to 2016, which prompted her to think about how she could
have an impact in Africa when macro shocks occurred. The crisis led her to HBS and
the Harvard Kennedy School—the first steps on her path to a career in economic development.
GO: Africa Fellowship Enables Graduates to Have an Impact
The Global Opportunity Fellowship (GO: Africa) supplements the income of MBA graduates pursuing careers in Africa where the annual
compensation is less than $100,000. In 2021, four recipients were chosen (see below)
and three previous recipients had their funding extended.
Moni Alli (MBA 2021),
founder of Front Edge, a lending platform in Lagos, Nigeria, that provides access
to affordable working capital solutions.
Nelly-Ange Kontchou (MD/MBA 2018),
business development and mergers and acquisitions associate at Africa Health Management
in Accra, Ghana.
Dezzy Ogakwu (MBA 2021),
director/CEO of Lagos-based Aku Fintech, which enables access to digital financial
services.
Nikki Okrah (MBA 2021),
founder of Ghana-based Chaku Foods, and a grand prize winner in the Harvard President’s
Innovation Challenge.
Sharing Advice & Reflections about the Pandemic
In June 2020, the Africa Research Center hosted a four-part Africa Webinar Series: COVID-19 Reflections, Challenges, and Next Steps. The series brought together alumni and other leaders across Africa in the spirit of community and support and connected faculty to each other to share their latest work and to stimulate new cases and research. The series attracted more than 4,000 attendees from 50-plus countries.
Professor of Management Practice Hirotaka Takeuchi hosted a virtual reunion in March
to mark the 10th anniversary of the Immersive Field Course in Japan since the pandemic
prevented the course from being offered this year. The gathering, organized with the
assistance of the Japan Research Center, drew about 130 attendees, including 60 alumni
who took the course as students and Tōhoku-based project partners.
Professor of Management Practice Hirotaka Takeuchi hosted a virtual reunion in March
to mark the 10th anniversary of the Immersive Field Course in Japan since the pandemic
prevented the course from being offered this year. The gathering, organized with the
assistance of the Japan Research Center, drew about 130 attendees, including 60 alumni
who took the course as students and Tōhoku-based project partners.
Understanding Post-Pandemic Global Supply Chains
As Professor Willy Shih discusses in a Harvard Business Review webinar, because of the central role many Chinese companies play in global supply
chains, pandemic-imposed disruptions are being felt around the world. Shih addresses
the challenges companies now face in making their global supply chains more resilient
without weakening their competitiveness. He also advises that they look beyond just
relocating supply toward harnessing process innovations and revisiting some of the
trade-offs between product variety and flexibility.
Student Perspective on Entrepreneurial Journey
Having worked in consulting and fintech, Peter Gumulia (MBA 2021) of Jakarta, Indonesia, chose to attend HBS to hone his leadership skills and explore new career possibilities. The School taught him to think innovatively about the one problem he wanted to help solve in the next decade—access to education. With support from the Harvard i-lab and Rock Center, Gumulia and cofounder Sean Widjaja created Edukita, an online English learning platform in his home country. “My goal is to upskill and empower young Indonesians, so that they are ready to participate in this increasingly global economy,” Gumulia says.
A paper written by Swedish student Lovisa “Lisa” Tengberg (MBA 2020) for the spring
2020 elective Social Entrepreneurship and Systems Change was selected for development
as a case study. “Just Arrived: Integrating Refugees in Sweden” examines how job matching
platforms in Sweden, Germany, and Italy have sought to address the challenging refugee
crisis in their countries.
A paper written by Swedish student Lovisa “Lisa” Tengberg (MBA 2020) for the spring
2020 elective Social Entrepreneurship and Systems Change was selected for development
as a case study. “Just Arrived: Integrating Refugees in Sweden” examines how job matching
platforms in Sweden, Germany, and Italy have sought to address the challenging refugee
crisis in their countries.
Podcast Explores Unilever’s Digital Transformation
In an HBS podcast, Professor William Kerr (pictured) and Nick Dalton, executive vice president of business transformation at Unilever, discuss the company-wide plan Unilever launched to accelerate the speed of change throughout the organization and prepare its global workforce for a digitalized and highly automated era. Dalton is the protagonist featured in the 2020 HBS case study “Unilever's Response to the Future of Work” that Kerr authored with Emilie Billaud and Mette Fuglsang Hjortshøj of the Europe Research Center. In their conversation, Kerr and Dalton also explore the importance of being transparent about coming changes and working with employees, unions, governments, and others to identify mutually beneficial transitions.
Europe Research Center
Highlights since 2003 opening
Netafim, founded in Israel, is the global leader in drip irrigation systems—the most
efficient way to deliver water to crops. In spite of this, as a case study about the
company points out, in many markets, the top disincentive to investing in irrigation
is the free or low-cost availability of water to farmers. The case examines this and
other challenges the company faces as it tries to scale.
Netafim, founded in Israel, is the global leader in drip irrigation systems—the most
efficient way to deliver water to crops. In spite of this, as a case study about the
company points out, in many markets, the top disincentive to investing in irrigation
is the free or low-cost availability of water to farmers. The case examines this and
other challenges the company faces as it tries to scale.
Forging Connections through Technology
In the case “Israelis, Palestinians and the Technology Bridge Between Them: A Work in Progress,” coauthors Professor Elie Ofek and Lia Weiner look at Israel in 2020, when the demand for software engineers was endless, while many of the 3,000 engineers graduating annually from Palestinian universities could not find jobs in the nascent Palestinian tech sector. Could these dots be connected, the case asks, as it highlights comments by notable Israeli and Palestinian tech executives and entrepreneurs about the opportunities and complications associated with collaboration.
To spark discussions among executives in the Program for Leadership Development about
how to help employees succeed, Professor Joshua Margolis wrote a case with the Latin
America Research Center on a challenge that Karen Bruck of MercadoLibre, the Argentina-based
Amazon rival, faced. When discussing the case, Bruck hopes participants will understand
that human experiences and emotions are an important part of leadership.
To spark discussions among executives in the Program for Leadership Development about
how to help employees succeed, Professor Joshua Margolis wrote a case with the Latin
America Research Center on a challenge that Karen Bruck of MercadoLibre, the Argentina-based
Amazon rival, faced. When discussing the case, Bruck hopes participants will understand
that human experiences and emotions are an important part of leadership.
Alumni Help Students Advance Their Careers
During the pandemic and the disruption in business worldwide, HBS’s Career & Professional Development team made an appeal to alumni and recruiting partners that resulted in nearly 1,000 new full-time and internship opportunities for students in a few short months. Additionally, alumni continued to engage with HBS students and drive career opportunities, as seen in the connection between Eric Westphal (MBA 2021, pictured) and Diego Dzodan (MBA 1999), which led to Westphal’s summer internship in 2020 at Facily, a company founded by Dzodan in São Paolo, Brazil.
HBS Online Offers a Social Entrepreneurship Challenge
In May 2020, Harvard Business School Online (HBS Online) announced a partnership with Sustainable Harvest International (SHI), kicking off the second annual Community Challenge. The goal was to reverse the effects of climate change by helping SHI scale its business operations in Latin America and create ventures that offset financial costs and increase farmers’ benefits. Of the eight HBS Online Community Chapters that submitted proposals, the one from Los Angeles was chosen because it took the organization’s existing model and combined it with the earned-income component it needed to scale.
Professor Nien-hê Hsieh wrote the case “Cedar Environmental: Innovation vs. Corruption”
with HBS’s Middle East and North Africa Research Center to explore the “gray area”
of leadership—that uncomfortable and all-too-common space where leaders face difficult
trade-offs across their responsibilities and commitments. During a class discussion
among all 720 first-year MBA students, they considered the protagonist’s challenges
as he tried to navigate in an industry in Lebanon rife with corruption.
Professor Nien-hê Hsieh wrote the case “Cedar Environmental: Innovation vs. Corruption”
with HBS’s Middle East and North Africa Research Center to explore the “gray area”
of leadership—that uncomfortable and all-too-common space where leaders face difficult
trade-offs across their responsibilities and commitments. During a class discussion
among all 720 first-year MBA students, they considered the protagonist’s challenges
as he tried to navigate in an industry in Lebanon rife with corruption.
Spotlighting a Business Leader in Tunisia
As part of the Creating Emerging Markets project, Professor Victoria Ivashina, faculty chair of the Middle East and North Africa Region, interviewed Madame Ouided Bouchamaoui (pictured), the co-laureate of the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize and a board member of Hédi Bouchamaoui Group, who is also active in the Tunisian business community. The interview, facilitated by HBS’s Middle East and North Africa Research Center, is part of a collection that explores the evolution of business leadership in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.
A Mission to Improve the Health Care System
Nora Rabah (MS/MBA 2022), a fellowship recipient who emigrated from Syria at age five, is a member of the first cohort of the MS/MBA in Biotechnology: Life Sciences joint degree program. She is leveraging the program—a partnership among HBS, the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and Harvard Medical School through the Harvard Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology—to explore biotech careers in emerging markets, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa region. Her family’s difficulty obtaining health care coverage as immigrants, juxtaposed with the cost-free, quality care she received later as a US citizen, is why she wants to work towards improving the health care system.
HBS launched the Senior Executive Leadership Program—India five years ago to help
executives in one of the world’s fastest growing economies develop insights and strategies
that would enable them to harness the opportunities and overcome the challenges they
might encounter as leaders. Since then, the degree-granting program has expanded to
China and the Middle East.
HBS launched the Senior Executive Leadership Program—India five years ago to help
executives in one of the world’s fastest growing economies develop insights and strategies
that would enable them to harness the opportunities and overcome the challenges they
might encounter as leaders. Since then, the degree-granting program has expanded to
China and the Middle East.
Examining How Remote Work Affects Business
Even before the pandemic, Associate Professor Prithwiraj “Raj” Choudhury was studying the future of work, and specifically the changing geography of work. With the assistance of the India Research Center, he wrote the case “TCS: From Physical Offices to Borderless Work.” It looks at how Tata Consultancy Services, a multinational IT services company, moved to remote working during the COVID-19 pandemic. The company is now planning a 75/25 percent blended model for the future.
Alumni in South Asia Share Perspectives
In 2020, the India Research Center and the HBS Club of India debuted the Alumni on Air Webinar Series in which alumni from South Asia shared their perspectives on the pandemic, business frameworks, and leadership styles. This series offers alumni in the region the opportunity to learn from one another about topics such as philanthropic initiatives to support COVID-19 relief, frontline efforts to augment testing, as well as the future of the entertainment industry.
Global Donors & Funds
HBS gratefully recognizes alumni and friends who have made leadership gifts to enhance
the global understanding of HBS faculty and students and expand the School’s impact
around the world.
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