Great American Business Leaders of the 20th CenturyGreat American Business Leaders of the 20th Century   

Identifying and chronicling the lives of 20th century men and women whose business leadership shaped the ways that people live, work, and interact. And understanding how contextual influences deeply affected the opportunities available for businesses throughout the last century. 

Leadership Initiative 

Leaders have always faced the job of inspiring others while making important decisions with incomplete information. Today's leaders are confronted with challenges and opportunities that have never been more dynamic or complex. We help leaders effectively understand and manage these forces.

Faculty & Research 

Making Meritocracy: Lessons from China and India, from Antiquity to the Present

By: Tarun Khanna and Michael Szonyi
  • 2022
  • | 
  • Book
How do societies identify and promote merit? Enabling all people to fulfill their potential, and ensuring the selection of competent and capable leaders are central challenges for any society. These...

The Heart of Business (ハート・オブ・ビジネス)――「人とパーパス」を本気で大切にする新時代のリーダーシップ

By: Hubert Joly and Caroline Lambert
  • 2022
  • | 
  • Book
A remarkable turnaround by a leader with a remarkable philosophy: Find your noble purpose. Put people at the center. Unleash human magic. "It was fall in Minnesota. It was getting cold and we were...

GE: A New Way Forward?

By: David J. Collis and Haisley Wert
  • NOVEMBER 2022
  • | 
  • Case
One of the most iconic American companies, General Electric (GE) was founded in 1892 in New York state. Named among the original dozen companies on the Dow Jones index in 1896, it was the list’s most tenacious holdout, maintaining its “blue chip” stock status for over one hundred years. Throughout...

Weapons of Self Destruction: Zak Pym Williams and the Cultivation of Mental Wellness

By: Lauren Cohen, Ronnie Stangler and Grace Headinger
  • OCTOBER 2022
  • | 
  • Case
Zak Pym Williams, mental health advocate, grappled with the question of how to create a proactive mental health family environment for his children. Having witnessed how mental health challenges such as addiction and depression had impacted the past four generations of his family, Williams sought...

EducationSuperHighway 2.0

By: William A. Sahlman, Allison M. Ciechanover and Emily Grandjean
  • OCTOBER 2022
  • | 
  • Case
In 2012, Evan Marwell launched EducationSuperHighway (ESH) to address a major problem: though most public K-12 schools in the US had access to the Internet, only roughly 30% had true broadband access that would enable every student to have high speed connectivity. Marwell and his team raised...

Blake Sports: Evolution of the CEO and the Executive Team

By: Boris Groysberg and Katherine Connolly Baden
  • SEPTEMBER 2022
  • | 
  • Case
Cameron (Cam) Barker, CEO and Founder of Blake Sports Apparel, sat in his office at his company’s headquarters in Birmingham, England, feeling stunned and disappointed. Only a few minutes prior, he had wrapped up a meeting with CFO James Ryan, a highly-respected star executive who had just abruptly...

How to Manage for Collective Creativity

Linda Hill
14 Sep 2014

Executive Education 

We offer programs that strengthen the leadership capacity of individuals and their organizations.

MBA Experience 

Students exercise the leadership skills they will practice in business and beyond, and leave with lessons in leadership that are practical, priceless, and most importantly, real.

In the News 

Amy Edmondson: How To Make Firms Fearless

Re: Amy Edmondson
  • 26 Nov 2022
  • | 
  • Forbes

How Great Leaders Communicate

Re: John Kotter
  • 23 Nov 2022
  • | 
  • Harvard Business Review

The Myth of the Brilliant, Charismatic Leader

By: Raffaella Sadun
  • 23 Nov 2022
  • | 
  • Harvard Business Review

Test Your Leadership Skills

Strategic Management

Rate yourself to discover resources to improve your strategic management skills.
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Develops distinctive strategies to achieve competitive advantage
Translates broad strategies into specific objectives and action plans
Defines strategic issues clearly despite ambiguity
Aligns the organization to support strategic priorities
Initiatives focus on societal challenges that are too complex for any one discipline or industry to solve alone.