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MBA Voices
MBA Voices
If the past two decades have demonstrated technology’s potential, one of the challenges of the next ten years will be defining its boundaries. How can new technologies benefit people and societies in equitable ways? How can companies -- increasingly central to the development of frontier technologies -- responsibly manage innovation without sacrificing profitability? What is the role of government in mitigating harms and establishing safeguards?
I came to the HBS and Harvard Kennedy School MBA/MPP joint degree program interested in exploring these questions related to technology’s public impact. Along the way, I’ve been able to develop my understanding through both coursework and extracurricular offerings at Harvard. [...]
“Every organization has a really old device that they think they can’t part with. They feel a responsibility to keep it in their network,” said Breen, who graduated from the MS/MBA: Engineering Sciences program, jointly offered by the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Harvard Business School, in 2020. “What are the solutions available to you to secure it, and increase its functionalities beyond that end of life and end of support?” [...]
Bastian Purrer (MBA 2020), a native German, spent most of his career before HBS launching international offices for Groupon and Rocket Internet. After a few years in Europe and Asia, Bastian enrolled at HBS hoping to continue his entrepreneurial journey. Rather than completing two years straight, Bastian took a gap between RC and EC to launch an e-commerce startup in Indonesia. Upon selling the startup, he plunged himself in the world of fighting against disinformation and started humanID. Shuyao Kong (MBA 2020), a native Chinese, spent most of her career in the tech world across Middle East and Africa. She’s particularly passionate about blockchain, cryptoeconomics, and privacy. humanID is an anonymous Single-Sign-On replacing “Login with Facebook” while also blocking bot-armies and trolls, with the goal to stop fake news and cyber-bullying. [...]
Eleven student teams were required to run a “design sprint” – a structured and rigorous process for quickly identifying critical questions facing a venture, and rapidly developing multiple answers to these questions to test with stakeholders. Jake Knapp of Google Ventures, who invented the Sprint process, ran the first two days, then handed over to faculty co-chairs Alan MacCormack and Russ Wilcox. The pressure was on the teams to make progress, rapidly building prototypes to a high level to generate insightful feedback on how well the solutions matched real customers’ needs. [...]
The Black New Venture Competition was an event designed to offer support to promising early-stage Black entrepreneurs with resources to develop their ventures into dynamic powerhouses. The event served as a launchpad for innovative ventures founded by Black entrepreneurs, providing exposure to capital, mentors, and advisors. The Black New Venture Competition awarded $175,000, thanks to funding from General Catalyst, Google for Startups, and Khosla Ventures – making this event the largest pitch competition for Black founders in the country. [...]
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The views and opinions expressed in the MBA Voices blog are those of the authors.
Any political views shared by students are their own; HBS does not endorse a
particular party or candidate.