Student Conferences, at a Glance
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| At the H. Naylor Fitzhugh Conference, HBS professor James I. Cash received the Bert King Service Award from Andrew Robinson (MBA ’03), conference cochair and a Bert King Fellow. Photo by Stuart Cahill |
Every year, members of HBS student clubs work overtime to organize conferences that address an array of business-related themes and issues. This year’s events, which featured renowned guest speakers and thought-provoking panels, focused on topics such as technology and homeland security, corporate governance in Asia, and measuring performance in nonprofit organizations. As always, there was ample opportunity for networking and socializing with participants and speakers from across the Harvard University community and beyond. The following are summaries of each event’s highlights.
H. Naylor Fitzhugh Conference
Redefining Wealth: Claim It, Grow It, Sustain It
January 31–February 2, 2003
Sponsor: HBS African-American Student Union
Keynote speaker: Benaree Pratt Wiley (MBA ’72), president & CEO, The Partnership, Inc.
Bert King Award for Service to the Community: HBS professor James I. Cash, Jr.
Professional Achievement Award: Raymond J. McGuire (MBA ’83/JD ’84), managing director, Mergers & Acquisitions Group, Morgan Stanley
This year’s conference — named for one of the School’s first African-American alumni — included talks by hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons and billionaire Michael Lee-Chin, chairman and CEO of AIC, a Canadian mutual fund company. “Our behavior today will be our history tomorrow,” Chin said. “We have to make sure it is well written.” Panels included alumni from recent MBA classes discussing the ups and downs of charting a post-HBS career path, as well as a group of successful entrepreneurs who shared their experiences of launching and sustaining a minority-owned business. “Start planning early. Save money. And go back to your community,” said L. Londell McMillan, president and CEO of L. Londell McMillan, P.C. He named his mother, the owner of a beauty parlor, as an early source of entrepreneurial influence. Her advice? “Do for yourself. Do for your people. Provide a quality product.”
Cyberposium
Building Leaders for Technology
January 17–19, 2003
Sponsor: HBS High Tech & New Media Club
Keynote speakers:
Nicholas M. Donofrio, SVP, Technology & Manufacturing, IBM; Sanjay Kumar, chairman & CEO, Computer Associates International,
Inc.; Alfred S. Chuang, founder, chairman, & CEO, BEA Systems
• “Web services are underhyped at this point. Customers are quietly
starting to use this technology, and they’re driving significant cost savings.” — Aneel Bhusri, general partner, Greylock
• “After 9/11, do we want or need an ID card? From a technology stand-point, that’s a no-brainer. We need to get our act together
first on policy and cultural issues.” — Mark Cleverley, senior consultant, IBM’s Institute for Electronic Government
• “It’s not about buying CDs anymore. If the music industry doesn’t respond to this change quickly, it’s going to be in big trouble.” —
Russell Simmons, chairman & CEO, Rush Communications; cofounder, Def Jam Recordings
Dynamic Women in Business Conference
January 25, 2003
Sponsor: HBS Women’s Student Association
Keynote speakers: Maria Bartiromo, anchor, CNBC; Betsy D. Holden, president &
CEO, Kraft Foods North America
Bartiromo on gauging a company’s strengths:
• Watch the fundamentals. “Cash flow does not lie.”
• Scrutinize the management. “Governance is not necessarily leadership. Leadership soars past governance.”
• Trust your instincts. “Make sure you can raise your hand and say, ‘Something doesn’t look right.’ ”
Venture Capital & Private Equity Conference
February 1, 2003
Sponsor: HBS Venture Capital & Private Equity Club
Keynote speakers: Timothy C. Draper (MBA
’84), founder & managing director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson; Jeffrey C. Walker (MBA ’81), managing general partner, JPMorgan Partners; Stephen
A. Schwarzman (MBA ’72), founding partner, president, & CEO, The Blackstone Group
• Fewer but better biotech companies are being funded
with bigger dollars.
• Software opportunities include anti-spam technology, financial services, security, and Web services.
• The
worst of the media industry’s recession may be over. The popularity of integrating various media properties (e.g., AOL Time Warner) appears
to be waning.
Latin American Business Conference
The Road Ahead: Trends, Opportunities, and Strategies in a Changing Environment
February 8, 2003
Sponsor: HBS Club Iberoamericano
Keynote speakers: Ricardo Hausmann, professor, John F. Kennedy School of
Government; Luis Moreno Ocampo, president, Transparency International in Latin America and the Caribbean (TILAC); John H. Coatsworth,
director, David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard
• The private sector holds the key to reform in Latin America —
but the task of inspiring and involving business at a time when profits all over the region are plummeting is more difficult than ever.
• The strongest signs of economic life are coming from local and regional forces rather than from multinational corporations.
•
Corruption is the “oil and glue” of the system in much of Latin America. Reform will come from the private, not public, sector.
Asia Business Conference
Reinventing Asia
February 14–15, 2003
Sponsors: HBS Asia Business Club, Harvard Asia Law Society, East Asian Caucus at the John F. Kennedy School of
Government
Keynote speakers: Dr. Soon-Hoon Bae, former Minister of Information & Communication, South Korea, former chairman & CEO,
Daewoo Electronics Co., Ltd.; Alexander P. Brown, president & CEO, CNBC Asia Pacific; Ma Xuezheng, SVP & CFO, Legend Holding Group
•
Lalita D. Gupte, joint managing director, ICICI Bank Ltd.: Microfinancing may look small on her bank’s balance sheet, but it’s the future of
developing countries like India. “We cannot afford not to do it.”
• “By 2005 or thereabouts, China could provide 50 percent of the
worldwide consumer products output. Over time, ‘Made in China’ will become a very high quality stamp of approval.” — James Root, VP, head of
Asia Technology Practice, Bain & Company
Conference on Social Enterprise
The Exchange
February 22, 2003
Sponsors: HBS Social Enterprise Club, John F. Kennedy School of Government
Keynote speakers: William K. Reilly,
chairman, World Wildlife Fund, president & CEO, Aqua International Partners; Eli J. Segal, founding CEO, AmeriCorps, Welfare-to-Work
Partnership
• Starting a social enterprise in a difficult economic climate requires some creativity. Look for a social niche to fill.
The heart of starting a social enterprise is to answer the question of where it will fit in.
• Align your project with an existing
organization as a new department. Your chances of success are greater under the umbrella of a nonprofit that is already up and running.
•
Start networking a year in advance of when you’d like to launch. Don’t ask for a check. Instead, describe your vision; ask for help in
conceptualizing it. This takes the focus off money and puts it instead on the power of relationships.
• Be flexible in the search for
capital, which could come from a variety of private, nonprofit, and governmental sources. Foundations are fickle, so always keep more than a
few irons in the fundraising fire.
Africa Business Conference.
Building the African Dream: Defining a New Approach to Success
March 7–9, 2003
Sponsor: HBS Africa Business Club
Keynote speakers: Mark Shuttleworth, founder, Here Be Dragons Venture Capital
and Thawte Consulting; Papa Madiaw Ndiaye, director, AIG-African Infrastructure Fund
• “For Africans, the word ‘international’ must begin
to include other African countries, not just Europe, America, and Asia. The times of Afrocentrism — dashiki–wearing and all that — I think we
know that’s gone. But we must not lose what was behind that.” — Papa Madiaw Ndiaye, Senegal
• “Africa has still not played the role we’d
expect it to play in this messy phenomenon of globalization.” — HBS professor Debora L. Spar
• “Africa encourages you to be a
generalist. You put on many hats and play many roles.” — Toyosi Kolawole, founder, Integrated Business Strategies, Nigeria
For a full report on these and other conferences, visit the “HBS Conference Coverage” section of HBS Working Knowledge at www.workingknowledge.hbs.edu.
