|UPDATE|

How Green Is the Valley: HBS Students Explore Booming California Industries

Sixteen years ago, Donna L. Dubinsky (MBA '81) was a second-year HBS student who, having "fallen in love" with her Apple computer, decided she wanted to work for the company. "I had no technical background or training," Dubinsky recalls. "It was also the first year Apple recruited at HBS, and they'd never hired a Harvard MBA before." Initially denied an on-campus interview with Apple due to her lack of experience, Dubinsky persevered and succeeded in meeting informally with the company's recruiter. Soon afterward, she became the Apple management team's first Harvard MBA.

Today's HBS students, equally interested and perhaps equally inexperienced in high technology, are carrying such enthusiasm even further. Rather than wait for Silicon Valley to come to the School, two student organizations - the CMC (Communications, Media & Computing) Ventures Club and the HBS West Club - recently sponsored concurrent fact-finding trips to the area. Designed both to introduce students to northern California's booming industries and to help them in their job searches, the January trips also included a networking event with HBS professor Steven C. Wheelwright and a social gathering hosted by the HBS Association of Northern California.

"The trip raised employers' awareness of the quality of our students and their enthusiasm for opportunities in this industry."

Participants in both trips came back energized and full of excitement about opportunities in the region. "When in your life will you have the chance to visit the biggest high-tech companies in the Valley?" asked one student upon returning from the West Club's tour, where he visited SGI, Sun Microsystems, Intel, Netscape, Oracle, Apple, and Hewlett-Packard, among other technology firms. Some 35 high tech, venture capital, and investment management companies opened their doors to the eighty students on the West Club's trip and sent high-level representatives to meet with small groups of HBS students.

According to the West Club's trip organizers, Francis Tapon (HBS '97) and Nadine Weil (HBS '97), students benefited enormously from the experience. "Many participants told us they learned a lot, made a number of significant contacts, and had a ball in the process," reports Tapon. While all of the companies' presentations and tours were outstanding, he says, those of Silicon Graphics, 3Com, and Adaptec were particularly well-received, as was a small gathering with Enterprise Director Doug Hawkins of the NASA Ames Technology Center.

Students interested in venture capital also benefited from private meetings with representatives of firms such as Kleiner Perkins, Summit Partners, and Pacific Venture Group. "At Pacific Venture," says Weil, "Managing Partner John S. Lewis (MBA '74) had just raised a new $100-million fund focused on health-care services. He took us step-by-step through his fundraising presentation and offering memorandum" - a process she likens to "a two-hour class in how to start a VC fund."

While students on the HBS West Club's trip could choose to visit firms in three industries, the CMC Ventures Club limited its trip's scope to companies in the high-tech industry. "This was in keeping with the club's mission to inform students with an interest but no experience in high tech," says CMC Ventures trip co-organizer Brett Queener (HBS '97). Throughout the week, 37 of Silicon Valley's most successful and rapidly growing firms - a roster that included Silicon Graphics, Cisco Systems, Netscape, Wired magazine, and the Palm Computing division of U.S. Robotics - hosted ninety-minute information sessions at their companies. CEOs and other senior managers, including some company founders, presented the HBS students with overviews of the high-tech industry, of their own companies, and of corporate strategies.

Organizers Queener, David Conway (HBS '97), and Paul Ostergaard (HBS '97) said they deliberately sought out companies that have never, or have not recently, recruited at HBS. They did so to underscore to participating companies that the students were primarily interested in learning about their industry, not in landing a job. Even so, the visiting students - most of whom will graduate in June - no doubt had jobs on their minds.

The CMC Ventures Club worked with the School's Office of MBA Career Services to plan the trip, which, according to Kirsten Moss, codirector of MBA Career Services and director of Recruiting Services, far exceeded expectations. "We felt the trip was not only valuable in helping students to make contacts," says Moss, "but it also gave them an overview of the industry and insight into the job-search process in high tech." In addition, Moss notes that "the trip raised employers' awareness of the quality of our students and their enthusiasm for opportunities in this industry."

Participating companies, many of which are indeed looking to hire, also reported benefiting from the exchange. One such firm was Palm Computing, whose general manager is none other than former Apple trailblazer Donna Dubinsky. "One reason we wanted to take part in this," explains Dubinsky, who gave a presentation on her company to visiting HBS students, "is that we have an exciting new product, and we're trying to get the word out. Another reason is that we're expanding quickly, and we're definitely in a recruiting mode."

Recalling her own leap from HBS to Silicon Valley, Dubinsky adds, "This event was a great way to help students see more options on the West Coast. I would have loved something like this when I was at HBS."

by Daniel Penrice

Management Update Launched
New Publication Cuts through the Clutter

Managers trying to make sense out of a continuously changing business environment should check out the latest from Harvard Business School Publishing (HBSP). Management Update, a monthly newsletter launched in June 1996 and edited by new Harvard Business Review publisher Walter Kiechel (MBA/JD '77) (see announcement below), may soon become an indispensable tool that they will reach for every month.

"Our target audience is anybody who wants to be a better manager, who wants to keep up with important ideas, and who would like a working, conversational knowledge of subjects like negotiation, customer retention, or strategies for growth," says Kiechel.

Kiechel believes Management Update is the perfect filter for the overwhelming flood of information managers receive daily. "Part of our function," he notes, "is to look at new and existing literature, distill the lessons from it, and present them to our readers in a crisp format." Management Update also solicits article ideas from readers by means of a response card bound into every issue.

The newsletter will complement HBSP's other major publication, the Harvard Business Review. "The Review concentrates on big-picture issues and on how to make your organization more effective," Kiechel explains. "Management Update also looks at the major trends but then zooms in on how to function more effectively as a manager, with articles on the essentials of an effective team, for example, or on how to best conduct a meeting. It also tackles the changing subject of career management."

A recent issue of the snappy, twelve-page newsletter, for example, featured a cover story on performance management as an innovative replacement for performance appraisal, as well as shorter articles on time management and memo writing. In a special interview, Jean-Marie Dru, cofounder and chairman of the BDDP Group, a Paris-based global advertising agency, discussed the importance of brands in the new economy. A list of Web sites relevant to managers and a section summarizing noteworthy articles in the scholarly press rounded out the issue.

"We are moving into a new economy," says Kiechel. "This will mean some major changes in the way managers discharge their responsibilities. Creating a publication like Management Update is one way we at HBSP can help them make the most of new opportunities."

To subscribe to Management Update, call 800-988-0866; outside the United States, call 617-496-1449.

by Judith A. Ross

AASU Holds 25th Annual Conference

"Our Silver Past and Golden Future" was the theme of the 25th annual Career/Alumni Conference of the HBS African-American Student Union (AASU), held January 30 to February 2 at HBS and the Boston Marriott Copley Place Hotel. Hundreds of students, alumni, and other participants attended a variety of talks, panel discussions, and seminars, including sessions led by Professor James L. Heskett and Associate Professor Kathleen L. Valley. A highlight of the conference was the presentation of professional achievement awards to W. Don Cornwell (MBA '71), Herbert P. Wilkins (MBA '70), and Terry L. Jones (MBA '74) and awards for civic and community service to Benaree Pratt Wiley (MBA '72) and Kenneth A. Powell (MBA '74). (Powell was also recently elected president of the HBS African-American Alumni Association, which features a large slate of new officers.)

In a forceful keynote address, Earl G. Graves, president and CEO of Earl G. Graves, Ltd., and publisher and CEO of Black Enterprise magazine, observed that a silver anniversary connotes "the blessings of longevity which include the verification of the soundness of your original purpose; affirmation that you have performed much more than adequately to have lasted so long; and a confidence that having come this far, you are well prepared to meet all future challenges."

"The nation's business community," Graves said, "continues to reserve the real positions of power for white males."

But Graves, who serves on the Board of Directors of the Associates of Harvard Business School, cautioned that the majority of African Americans, regardless of ambition or ability, "ultimately slam into the concrete ceiling in corporate America." The nation's business community, he said, "continues to reserve the real positions of power for white males."

Graves told his audience that their HBS education assured them of success but noted that with success comes an obligation to speak out against discriminatory practices engaged in by one's organization. "Far too many of us, having achieved a certain level, will not reach out to help others," Graves declared. To be truly successful, he said, "you will have to stand up for what's right and fair." Graves ended his talk by quoting the late F. Naylor Fitzhugh (MBA '33): "'We don't have time to be average. We've got to fly high where it's not as crowded.'"

Hong Kong Focus of Asia Pacific Conference at HBS

Hong Kong's future under China's sovereignty was the central topic of the fourth annual Asia Pacific Business Conference held at HBS from January 31 to February 1. Before a Burden Hall audience of some nine hundred students, business leaders, and academics, keynote speaker Dr. Edgar Cheng, chairman of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, voiced optimism for the British colony's economic prospects after it reverts to China this July.

Basing his assessment in large measure on the mutual dependency of the two entities, Cheng said, "Hong Kong has benefited enormously from the economic opening of China. At the same time, Hong Kong has helped China build a successful market economy." Characterizing Hong Kong's economic relationship with China as "symbiotic," Cheng noted that Hong KongÐbased investments in mainland China total US$80 billion (over 50 percent of foreign investment in China), that Chinese leaders "have quite well-developed commercial instincts" and are keen to develop their own markets, and that they will likely look to Hong Kong for guidance in developing China's economy.

Cheng stressed, however, that Hong Kong's future economic success will depend on China's observance of the formal transition agreement whose terms state that Hong Kong, with its 6.3 million people, will maintain a separate legal, administrative, and regulatory infrastructure. Political corruption, restrictions by China on the free flow of information and opinion, or other official interference could be potential areas of conflict, he said.

Organized by the Asian Business Club at HBS in collaboration with similar student groups from Harvard's Law School and Design School, this year's conference hosted over fifty speakers from business, government, and academia in the United States and Asia. Panels focused on the economic future of countries such as Taiwan, India, Japan, Korea, China, and Vietnam. Industry workshops covered various topics, including the information age in Asia, venture capital in India, and joint ventures in China.

Other conference highlights included the participation of Vietnam's Finance Minister Nguyen Sing Hung, Taiwan's Minister of State Ma Ying-jeou, and Daewoo International Corp. chairman Lee Kyung-Hoon.

At WSA Conference, Writer Anna Quindlen Addresses Passion and Success

Former New York Times columnist Anna Quindlen addressed a large Burden Hall audience on January 25 as the keynote speaker for the Women's Student Associ- ation's one-day conference "Personalizing Success: Identity and Passion in Career Choice." The author of three Times columns - "About New York," "Life in the 30s," and "Public and Private" - between 1981 and 1995, Quindlen won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1992. Three years later, she surprised her readers and fellow journalists by announcing her decision to leave the newspaper to pursue novel-writing full-time. (Her two books, Object Lessons and One True Thing, subsequently became bestsellers.)

In keeping with the conference's "personalizing success" theme, Quindlen spoke about her life's twin passions - work and family - and how over the last decade or more she has managed to achieve success and satisfaction in both realms. She related how in June 1983, six months pregnant with her first child, she became the Times' highestÐranking woman when the paper named her deputy metropolitan editor. She took a six-month maternity leave after her son was born, and then, three months after returning to work, she became pregnant again. When she informed the paper's executive editor, he deadpanned, "You did that last year."

Prepared to leave the paper following her second child's birth, Quindlen said she was delighted when her boss instead proposed an assignment that would allow her more flexibility than her previous job. He asked her to launch the "Life in the 30s" column, which would take its inspiration from the daily joys and travails of her own life. After Quindlen's third child was born, she tried to quit again; this time, the publisher came up with the idea for "Public and Private." "The standing joke around my office," she quipped, "was that if I had one more kid, I'd come back as managing editor!"

"An executive who has a personal life and urges her employess to do the same will be beloved and better at understanding the marketplace and the world."

Levity aside, there was an important lesson in these experiences, Quindlen said. "I gave the Times value for money, and so it decided to accommodate the obvious fact that I had a growing family," she said. "The Times didn't lose anything, even though it made what it would call concessions. It gained enormous loyalty from at least one employee."

All businesses, Quindlen asserted, can and should find creative ways to support and retain their most valuable asset - people. "I believe an executive who has a personal life and urges her employees to do the same will be beloved and better at understanding the marketplace and the world," she concluded. "Not coincidentally, I want my boys to know the joys of rearing children, not dropping in and out of their lives like visitors from an industrial park."

Quindlen's address was followed by more than a dozen panel discussions led by industry professionals on topics such as career choice, entrepreneurship and women's economic power, brand management, gender differences and female leadership style, and trends in employer work/life initiatives. More than four hundred people attended the conference, in-cluding HBS students and students from other area universities.

April 1997 Table of Contents: Table of Contents A Conversation with Dean Clark Facing the Music Alumni Resources Theory & Practice Update Profile Q & A