Reunion Presentations

HBS faculty members, industry leaders and non-HBS scholars present their most recent research on a wide range of topics during reunions.

Friday

• Dean's Address: 8:30 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.

  Nitin Nohria, George F. Baker Professor of Business Administration and Dean of the Faculty

  Welcoming remarks by Robert Steven Kaplan (MBA 1983), Martin Marshall Professor of Management Practice in Business Administration, Senior Associate Dean for External Relations, and Chair, HBS Campaign Planning

  Speaker: Nitin Nohria , George F. Baker Professor of Business Administration, and Dean of the Faculty

• Session 1: 10:00 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.

  Amy J.C. Cuddy, Associate Professor of Business Administration and Hellman Faculty Fellow

  How to Boost Your Power through Body Language

  Our judgments of others - and their judgments of us - are largely based on nonverbal cues, such as how we stand, move, and smile. By making simple adjustments to our own nonverbal behaviors, we change how powerful we feel and how powerful we appear to others. Recent behavioral science breakthroughs reveal how body language affects our hormone levels, thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and interactions. This session focuses on how we can embody power through minimal adjustments that lead to high impact outcomes.

  Thomas J. DeLong, Philip J. Stomberg Professor of Management Practice

  Why Smart People Won't Change

  Many people with a high need for achievement find the process of individual change very difficult. Some professionals resign themselves to organizational, personal, and life situations that are miserable or where they feel caught. Professor DeLong will discuss individual motivation and how to leverage the opportunities that confront people in their professional and private lives. The presentation is based on DeLong's book, Flying Without A Net: Turn Fear of Change Into Fuel for Success.

  Rohit Deshpandé, Sebastian S. Kresge Professor of Marketing

  Case Discussion – Terror at the Taj Bombay: Customer-Centric Leadership

  "The Ordinary Heroes of the Taj"
  Join a case discussion about the bravery and resourcefulness shown by the rank-and-file employees of the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower luxury hotel during the terrorist attacks that took place in Mumbai, India, on November 26, 2008. Excerpts from the "Terror at the Taj" multimedia case will be shown during the session, featuring video interviews with hotel staff and executives combined with security footage of the attack, which create a documentary-like account of the events that took place. The case also covers the hotel's history and its approach to training, and the "guest is God" philosophy inherent in Indian culture. Why did the Taj employees stay at their posts, jeopardizing their safety in order to save hotel guests? And is this level of loyalty and dedication something that can be replicated and scaled elsewhere? No prior reading or viewing is required.

  Benjamin G. Edelman, Associate Professor of Business Administration and Marvin Bower Fellow; and Mikolaj Jan Piskorski, Associate Professor of Business Administration and Richard Hodgson Fellow

  Google and Facebook

  Ford and the Model T changed the physical world. The Internet is changing the mental world. First there was Google, which put a dent in world ignorance, and later Facebook, which did the same for global loneliness. Do these virtues come at a cost? They alter the line between private life and life in the marketplace; they change the balance of information between buyers and sellers; they turn word of mouth from a one-to-one sharing activity to one-to-many broadcasting. And as Google enters Facebook's domain with Google+, what will happen to the balance of information-age power?

  David A. Edwards, Gordon McKay Professor of the Practice of Biomedical Engineering, Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences

  Innovating at Frontiers of Art & Science

  The famous divide between the arts and sciences has emerged as one of the most exciting contemporary settings for learning and discovery. In this talk Professor Edwards will describe a new art & science public engagement paradigm that guides learning and discovery toward disruptive innovation. This paradigm, explored in recent years at the School of Engineering & Applied Sciences at Harvard University, and spun out in the form of ArtScience Labs, forms the basis of a cultural incubator (Le Laboratoire) next to the Louvre in Paris, and a new Cambridge cultural incubator to open in 2014 (The Lab Cambridge) next to MIT. Via these public art and design centers ArtScience Labs engages leading international artists, designers and scientists in public experimentation that assumes the form of cultural exhibitions and innovative food experiences. Several of these have led over recent years to unusual consumer product platform technologies and Cambridge-area startups, backed by Polaris Partners and Flagship Ventures. These include edible packaging, or WikiCells, by which foods and beverages are packaged in fruit-like skins and shells; breathable food, or the Aero, the basis of AeroShot Energy that presently sells in around 20,000 stores in the USA, and the new Ophone, by which Onotes and Otracks can be generated and exchanged with the facility of email and text messaging.

  Robert S. (Bob) Kaplan, Marvin Bower Professor of Leadership Development, Emeritus

  Value-Based Healthcare Delivery: Solving the Cost Crisis in Healthcare

  This session will provide a state-of-the-art summary of the Porter-Kaplan value-based healthcare project. Value-based competition rewards entities that deliver superior outcomes at lower costs. Until now, however, healthcare providers did not measure either their clinical outcomes or their costs, so that value-based competition was not feasible. Michael Porter, in 2012, established the International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurements to facilitate outcomes measurement and global benchmarking. Professor Kaplan is introducing time-driven, activity-based costing at two dozen sites for accurate and transparent costing at the individual patient level. These two initiatives promise to transform the economics of the healthcare industry by accelerating the introduction of innovative reimbursement approaches. Bundled payments for treating a given clinical condition will reward providers that deliver the best outcomes at the lowest cost, not those that perform multiple and expensive procedures.

  Jane Mendillo, President and CEO, Harvard Management Company

  Endowment Management in a Changing World

  The Harvard Management Company (HMC) is dedicated to the management of Harvard University's endowment and related assets. With about 35% of the University's annual budget dependent on endowment income, HMC's goal is to generate strong, sustainable investment returns to support the needs and goals of the university. Over the last 20 years, HMC's average annual return of 12.3% is substantially better than the 7.9% earned by a 60/40 stock/bond portfolio and the 9.2% annual return for the endowment's Policy Portfolio benchmark. HMC benefits by employing a unique model of investment management, using both internal portfolio managers as well as a select set of high quality external investment management firms across a range of asset classes and geographies. This hybrid approach gives Harvard several advantages as an investor, from significant cost savings associated with its internal management platform to greater degrees of market insight and increased nimbleness in taking advantage of investment opportunities.

  Gautam Mukunda, Assistant Professor of Business Administration

  When Leaders Make a Difference

  Assistant Professor Mukunda will describe how his research, detailed in his new book, Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter, shows when and how individual leaders in fields as diverse as politics, business, and science can save or destroy the organizations they lead.

  Das Narayandas, James J. Hill Professor of Business Administration, Senior Associate Dean for HBS Publishing, and Senior Associate Dean, Chair, Executive Education

  Leveraging Service Excellence

  Firms are increasingly looking towards service excellence to augment their core offerings and create sustainable differentiation that, in turn, increases customer retention and profitability. This cascading model (i.e., the Service Profit Chain) has been studied extensively over the years by various faculty at HBS. This talk will examine specific initiatives and actions that firms can implement to ensure and enhance the success of their service excellence strategies.

  Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Andreas Andresen Professor of Business Administration and Senior Associate Dean for International Development

  Reinventing the MBA: Action Learning and the New FIELD course at HBS

  Field Immersion Experience for Leadership Development (FIELD) is an innovative new First Year Required Course that helps students put theories into practice, working in small teams on intensive projects to solve real-world problems. Created to complement the school's traditional case-based method of pedagogy, FIELD provides a rigorous new platform for students to develop skills that focus on hands-on learning, teamwork, and self-awareness. In this session, Professor Oberholzer-Gee will describe the objectives of FIELD and how these are realized in a design that includes learning about effective leadership styles, engaging in a global immersion experience in one of twelve emerging markets, and taking a business idea from concept to fruition over the course of a single semester.

  Forest L. Reinhardt, John D. Black Professor

  Twenty-First Century Energy

  The world of energy is in turmoil: technological innovations on the supply side, exploding demand from developing nations, shifts in the geopolitical landscape, and pressures on the natural environment seem to render much of what we thought we knew about the economics and politics of energy obsolete. But is this really true? How can we make sense of these seismic shifts? What will the energy industries of the future look like? Who will benefit from the changes, and who will suffer? Drawing on the fundamental ideas of strategy and leadership that we remember from our time at HBS, we will attempt some answers to these complicated questions.

  Richard S. Ruback, Willard Prescott Smith Professor of Corporate Finance

  The Market for Smaller Firms

  Smaller firms sell for substantially lower multiples than larger firms in similar businesses. These smaller firms - with transaction values below $10 million - typically sell for four times EBITDA, multiples that are half to a third as large as those for comparable larger companies. These low multiples seem to provide enormous opportunities for potential buyers. The magic of small-firm investing is surely these low multiples. This talk offers some thoughts about the market for smaller firms and the dynamics that result in the low multiples for smaller firms.

  Robert Simons, Charles M. Williams Professor of Business Administration

  Seven Strategy Questions: A Simple Approach for Better Execution

  Executing strategy requires tough choices. Unfortunately, many managers avoid choosing in the mistaken belief that they can have it all. Instead of focusing on one primary customer, they try to serve many different types of customers. Instead of instilling values that prioritize the interests of shareholders, customers, and employees, they develop lists of aspirational attributes. Instead of focusing on what could cause their strategy to fail, they build complex scorecards with an overload of measures. The result: disappointing performance and declining market position. To guard against these risks, we will review the seven strategy questions that all executives (and directors) should ask to ensure that business leaders are making the tough choices that ensure successful strategy execution - and winning in highly-competitive, global markets.

• Session 2: 11:45 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

  Julie Battilana, Associate Professor of Business Administration and Marvin Bower Fellow

  Secrets of Effective Change Agents: The Power of Networks.

  Instituting change has always been the bane of leaders. Numerous studies show that employees tend to instinctively oppose such initiatives because they disrupt established positions, power structures, and ways of getting things done. At the same time, much of their resistance is not overt, or even conscious. So change agents must infer people's attitudes, and then work to bring them on side. However, some leaders do succeed - often spectacularly -- at transforming their organizations. What makes one manager triumph in a situation when the vast majority would fail? Existing models of change management provide only partial answers as to why the results are so variable. So we set out to investigate what successful change agents do differently, focusing on organizations in which size, complexity, history and tradition make it exceptionally difficult to push change through. Our findings were striking. They show that the network of relationships that change agents establish with colleagues in their organization is essential to their ability to push change through. The most effective change agents relied on three network "secrets" to get their initiatives adopted- and in so doing offer lessons for anyone trying to effect change, whether you are the boss or a middle manager.

  Anita Elberse, Lincoln Filene Professor of Business Administration

  Blockbusters: Hit-making, Risk-taking, and the Big Business of Entertainment

  What is the effect of digital technology on the entertainment industries and their business models? In this session, Professor Elberse will preview her new book, Blockbusters (launched in October 2013), in which she shows that although digital technologies are undeniably transforming the entertainment landscape, building a business around blockbuster bets remains the surest path to long-term success. Along the way, she reveals why the search for the next blockbuster is so costly, why superstars are paid unimaginable sums, and which strategies give leaders in film, television, music, publishing, and sports an edge over their rivals in the digital age.

  Regina E. Herzlinger, Nancy R. McPherson Professor of Business Administration

  Health Care, What's Next?

  Professor Herzlinger will discuss the impact of the healthcare reform legislation on the US healthcare system and economy.

  Gordon Jones, Managing Director, Harvard Innovation Lab; and Joseph B. Lassiter, Senator John Heinz Professor of Management Practice in Environmental Management

  Harvard Innovation Lab Presentation and Tour

  Newly opened in Nov. 2011, the Innovation Lab, or i-Lab, is designed to foster team-based and entrepreneurial activities and to deepen interactions among students, faculty, entrepreneurs, and the Boston community. The lab provides public areas and meeting rooms designed to foster project work as well as business development resources for companies, nonprofits, entrepreneurs, and other individuals in the Allston-Brighton neighborhood and Boston area. This is a central place where students, practitioners, and local businesses can work together, share knowledge, and collaborate on ideas. Join us for a presentation, video, and tour of the Harvard Innovation Lab.

  Rosabeth M. Kanter, Ernest L. Arbuckle Professor of Business Administration

  Cultures of Confidence, Dynamics of Decline, and How to Turn Around Nearly Anything

  This presentation will provide a guide to leadership action in a networked world of volatility and change. It will identify the surprisingly universal behaviors associated with the momentum of growth or decline across industries or countries. It will cover topics related to effective turnarounds of businesses, sports teams, schools, health centers, communities, and even family relationships, including:

  • how values-based leadership can reverse decline and build cultures of confidence by stressing purpose and principles over short-term gains
  • the connection between collaboration and innovation: how the community supports the entrepreneur
  • how small investments and small wins can have catalytic chain reactions that can revive stagnating regions or relationships
  • leadership actions that can turn ordinary organizations of all sizes into "SuperCorps" that can perform seeming miracles
  • inclusion and empowerment as keys to resilience

  Robert Steven Kaplan, Martin Marshall Professor of Management Practice in Business Administration and Senior Associate Dean for External Relations

  What You're Really Meant to Do

  How do you reach your unique potential? How can you manage yourself in order to meet this lifelong challenge? This talk will discuss a roadmap for creating your own definition of success - and then achieving it.

  Nancy F. Koehn, James E. Robison Professor of Business Administration

  Leadership in Crisis: Lessons for Here and Now

  Through interactive lecture and visual images, this presentation will explore three examples of effective leadership in moments of great turbulence: Abraham Lincoln's presidency during the Civil War; Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton's leadership when his ship, the Endurance, became stuck in the ice in 1915–16, and Rachel Carson's leadership as she tried to outrun cancer in 1962 and finish Silent Spring, the book that would launch the modern environmental movement and change the world. The presentation draws together several key lessons about individual leadership and its impact. It concludes by applying these insights to the current turbulent moment.

  Josh Lerner, Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking

  Private Equity at a Crossroads: What's Next?

  Both the buyout and venture-capital industries face unprecedented challenges today. After an orgy of investments in the mid-2000s, private-equity funds suffered a hangover of epic proportions. In recent quarters, however, the portfolios of the private equity funds have recovered in a manner that has surprised even the most optimistic observers. Meanwhile, venture capital, after a prolonged drought, shows some signs of recovery. But all is not rosy: many of the investors on which these funds have traditionally depended, such as endowments and pensions, have deep problems, which is affecting the flow of capital to the sector. This talk will explore this unsettled and often mysterious territory and offer some surprising predictions about the future of these sectors.

  F. Warren McFarlan, Baker Foundation Professor and Albert H. Gordon Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus

  Can China Lead? Reaching the Limits of Power and Growth

  Can China sustain its remarkable emergence of the past 35 years is the subject of Professor F. Warren McFarlan's forthcoming HBR Press book, "Can China Lead? Reaching the Limits of Power and Growth? coauthored with Regina M. Abrami and William C. Kirby to be published January 2014. Looking at the subject respectively through the lenses of a historian, a political economist and a general management scholar, the book's answer is almost surely "No." For multiple reasons, China will be a leader, but not the leader. The authors talk about both the challenges and opportunities for those seeking to do business with and within China over the next several decades.

  David A. Moss, John G. McLean Professor of Business Administration

  Putting the Financial Crisis in Perspective: What History Tells Us about the Crisis, and What We Can Expect Next

  In his talk, Professor Moss will briefly examine the history of financial crises and financial regulation in the United States and suggest what this history reveals about the recent crisis and how best to ensure a healthy and stable financial system going forward. He will also assess the current state of the financial system and consider whether the worst of the turmoil is truly ever, or another round is still yet to come.

  Daniel P. Schrag, Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology, Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering, and Director of the Harvard University Center for the Environment

  The Future of Energy in a Changing World

  Concerns about climate change and about conventional air pollution have motivated a worldwide effort to eliminate the use of fossil fuels. How much progress has been made? Remarkable improvements in the cost of renewable energy have occurred over the past decade, but the largest innovation has been in hydrocarbon extraction, specifically through improvements in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. How is the world energy system likely to develop over the coming decades, in the face of serious environmental challenges? A variety of strategies will be discussed for meeting the world's energy needs with the smallest possible impact on the atmosphere.

  Arthur I. Segel, Poorvu Family Professor of Management Practice

  Why I Love Real Estate and Other Such Views on Investing Today

  Noam T. Wasserman, Associate Professor of Business Administration

  The Founder's Dilemmas: Anticipating and Avoiding the Pitfalls That Can Sink a Start-up

  Worried about being blindsided on your entrepreneurial journey? Since 2000, Associate Professor Wasserman has focused on founders' early "people decisions" that tend to get them into trouble down the road. The potential consequences include the splintering of the founding team, the harming of company growth, and being fired as CEO. At this session, he will discuss his award-winning HBS course, Founders' Dilemmas, and his best-selling book, The Founder's Dilemmas: Anticipating and Avoiding the Pitfalls That Can Sink a Startup. The book and the course integrate his research results, quantitative data on 10,000 founders, and case studies to help founders, investors, and others involved in startups understand where their early decisions are likely to lead.

  David B. Yoffie, Max and Doris Starr Professor of International Business Administration

  The Digital Revolution: How Technology Is Changing the World

  Cloud computing, social networking, the explosion of smartphones and tablets, and the drive to connect all digital products together are having a profound impact on management, strategies, and the way people live their lives. This session will explore the underlying drivers of technological change, the critical trends in technology today, and the impact this revolution will have on tomorrow.

• Session 3: 2:30 p.m. – 3:45 p.m.

  Alnoor Ebrahim, Associate Professor of Business Administration

  Building a Performance-Driven Social Sector

  How can social sector organizations such as social enterprises, nonprofits, and foundations better measure their performance in order to drive social change? Should they measure short-term results that they can control, or aim for long-term results under conditions of limited control? Associate Professor Ebrahim will discuss his research on innovative organizations that are attempting to crack this problem, and he will lead a conversation about the future of this field.

  Thomas R. Eisenmann, Howard H. Stevenson Professor of Business Administration

  The Lean Startup

  Entrepreneurs who follow the "lean startup" approach strive to avoid wasting time and money. As quickly as possible, they launch a "minimum viable product" (MVP) with the smallest feature set necessary to rigorously test hypotheses about their opportunity, based on feedback from early adopters. They rapidly iterate this MVP based on a succession of tests, and pivot to a new product design, market segment, or business model when hypotheses are disproved. Professor Eisenmann will describe how lean startup principles are being taught in the required first-year MBA course, The Entrepreneurial Manager, and applied in the new FIELD course, which requires all first-year students to launch a new venture. He also will discuss the Rock Accelerator Program, a competition through which HBS this year made $5,000 grants to twenty MBA startups based in part on the quality of MVP tests they proposed.

  Robin Greenwood, George Gund Professor of Finance and Banking

  Is Japan Headed towards the Same Fate as Greece?

  Professor Greenwood will discuss the case "Hayman Capital Management" which concerns an investor's investment decision on Japan. Japan has the world's highest debt burden, whether expressed as a percentage of GDP or government revenue. Guided by recent global events, Professor Greenwood will lead a discussion about whether the country will have the same fate as Greece or alternatively whether a smooth landing is in store, as well as the broader role that investors have played in recent global economic fluctuations.

  Sunil Gupta, Edward W. Carter Professor of Business Administration

  Digital Strategy

  Digital and mobile technologies have transformed the way consumers interact with each other, obtain information and buy products. This has a dramatic impact on industry dynamics and firms' business models. Professor Gupta will discuss trends in digital technology and a framework for formulating digital strategy.

  Robert S. Huckman, Albert J. Weatherhead III Professor of Business Administration

  Healing Ourselves: Addressing Healthcare's Innovation Challenge

  Innovation is central to any sound approach - whether private or public - to healthcare reform. Recognizing this fact, Harvard Business School and Harvard Medical School created the Forum on Healthcare Innovation, a collaboration to identify key actions that can be taken to stimulate innovation across all sectors of the industry. This session will summarize the findings of the forum's inaugural conference of healthcare leaders – which took place at HBS in November 2012 – and the companion Survey of Executive Sentiment in Healthcare.

  Gordon Jones, Managing Director, Harvard Innovation Lab; and Joseph B. Lassiter, Senator John Heinz Professor of Management Practice in Environmental Management

  Harvard Innovation Lab Presentation and Tour

  Newly opened in Nov. 2011, the Innovation Lab, or i-Lab, is designed to foster team-based and entrepreneurial activities and to deepen interactions among students, faculty, entrepreneurs, and the Boston community. The lab provides public areas and meeting rooms designed to foster project work as well as business development resources for companies, nonprofits, entrepreneurs, and other individuals in the Allston-Brighton neighborhood and Boston area. This is a central place where students, practitioners, and local businesses can work together, share knowledge, and collaborate on ideas. Join us for a presentation, video, and tour of the Harvard Innovation Lab.

  Karim R. Lakhani, Lumry Family Associate Professor of Business Administration

  The Crowd as an Innovation Partner: Lessons from NASA, Harvard Medical School and Beyond

  Over the last decade, crowd-based modes of organizing for innovation have established themselves firmly within the economy. Crowds are now an important innovation partner to organizations in a range scientific and commercial settings. In this talk, Lakhani will discuss the four fundamental modes of organizing crowds and what types of problems are best suited to each mode. Using examples from NASA, the US Space Agency, and the Harvard Medical School, he will present evidence on important factors that determine success and performance when deploying crowds to solve innovation problems. He will also discuss the internal challenges of organizations using external innovation through crowds.

  Christopher J. Malloy, Associate Professor of Business Administration and Marvin Bower Fellow

  Powerful Politicians: Earmarks, Social Connections, and Insider Trading

  This session will investigate links between US politicians and corporate America. It will explore the process by which powerful politicians use their power to obtain earmarks and increased government spending for their home states. It will show that this type of government spending has distortionary effects on private-sector economic activity, in the form of reduced investment and R&D by corporations. It will demonstrate that social connections among politicians, and between politicians and firms, have a significant impact on the voting behavior of legislators. Lastly, it will investigate recent claims that politicians may be trading on illegal insider information in their personal stock portfolios.

  Douglas Melton, PhD, Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor in the Natural Sciences, Harvard University, Codirector, Harvard Stem Cell Institute, and Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

  The Promise of Stem Cell Science

  Advances in stem cell science have moved closer to the development of new medicines and cellular transplantations for degenerative diseases. This science of how people's bodies are made and maintained by stem cells is also opening a door to regeneration and a life of healthy aging.

  Michael Ogden Rich, MD, MPH, Mediatrician and Director, Center on Media and Child Health, Children's Hospital Boston, and Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School

  Finding Huck Finn: Reclaiming Childhood from a River of Electronic Screens

  Today's children are growing up in a world transformed by interactive media. How can parents and others who care for children tell if these media are helping or hurting them? How can they make sure that the media environment supports children's health and development? As Mediatrician and director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Boston Children's Hospital, Rich offers research-based, balanced answers to these and other urgent questions about parenting in the digital age.

  William A. Sahlman, Dimitri V. D'Arbeloff - MBA Class of 1955 Professor of Business Administration and Senior Associate Dean for External Relations

  The Basis for Optimism

  This talk focuses on the challenges confronting the United States and other countries and the entrepreneurial actors who are hard at work finding solutions. If K-12 education is failing in the U.S., entrepreneurs are designing new systems that are less costly and more effective. If climate change threatens life as we know it, entrepreneurs are searching for scaleable, clean, low cost alternatives to hydrocarbons. That's the basic duality we will discuss.

  Hirotaka Takeuchi, Professor of Management Practice

  The Wise Leader

  To become a wise leader, he or she will have to be many things at the same time:

  • a philosopher who grasps the essence of a problem and draws general conclusions from random observations
  • a master craftsman who understands the key issues of the moment and acts on them immediately
  • an idealist who will do what he believes is right and good for the company and society
  • a politician who can spur people to action
  • a novelist who uses metaphors, stories, and rhetoric
  • a teacher with good values and strong principles, from whom others want to learn

  Michael A. Wheeler, MBA Class of 1952 Professor of Management Practice

  The Art of Negotiation: How to Improvise Agreement in a Chaotic World

  Professor Michael Wheeler presents a fresh and dynamic approach to negotiation, one that challenges the static assumptions of win-win and hard bargaining models. The simple truth is that negotiation can't be scripted. We can't dictate what other parties will say or do any more than we'd let them dominate us. Success thus requires strategic agility and the capacity to be nimble moment to moment. Wheeler draws practical lessons from masters of improvisation in other fields including jazz, comedy, competitive sports, and even warfare. Wheeler is the author of the forthcoming Art of Negotiation (forthcoming from Simon & Schuster).

Saturday

• Session 1: 10:00 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.

  Dan Abbasi (MBA 1998), Executive Producer of Years of Living Dangerously and Managing Director of GameChange Capital, LLC

  "Years of Living Dangerously" at HBS

  Human civilization recently surpassed the 400 parts per million threshold of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere. Many now regard the inertia toward devastating climate change as unstoppable. Others refuse to give up. With backing from Chris Cooper-Hohn (MBA '93) and other visionaries, Dan Abbasi (MBA '98) is executive producing with James Cameron, Arnold Schwarzenegger and several 60 Minutes veterans a Showtime TV series called "Years of Living Dangerously". The eight-part series will dramatize the impacts of climate change on Americans and spotlight urgent solutions. At this session, Dan will provide a sneak preview of season 1 footage before its 2014 airing. He will also engage fellow alumni in helping to shape a new initiative he is launching to harness HBS' powerful alumni network in pressing for a change in climate policy in the U.S. and around the world. This is not about symposia or case studies; it's about action.

  Nava Ashraf, Associate Professor, MBA Class of 1966 Faculty Research Fellow and Atul Gawande, MD, MPH, Founder and Director, Ariadne Labs: A Joint Center for Health Systems Innovation

  How Do You Harness Human Nature for Global Health

  Each year, there are more than 13 million deaths from health conditions for which there exist safe, effective, and affordable prevention and treatment methods. Billions of dollars have been invested in global health, yet the gap between the existence of health technologies and their consistent use when people need them persists. Progress toward ending the update gap requires a deep knowledge of the decision-making processes of both the consumer/patient and the caregiver. The challenge is not necessarily a lack of resources or knowledge but, rather, designing health products, services, and work in a way that creates greatest impact.

  Professors Gawande and Ashraf, in separate field experiments and work around the world, have identified the critical levers of checklists, norms, and behavioral design. In this session, they will present a short overview of their respective work and then will engage in a dialogue on what works and what doesn't when we're trying to enable systems that produce better healthcare.

  Nava Ashraf is Associate Professor at HBS, where she teaches the EC course Managing Global Health: Applying Behavioral Economics to Create Impact. Atul Gawande is a surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Professor at Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School, and Director of Ariadne Labs: A Joint Center for Health System Innovation. He is also the author of Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science; Better; and The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right.

  Amy C. Edmondson, Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management

  Teaming: How the Learning Organization Works

  This talk reviews research on interpersonal dynamics that affect organizational learning. Teaming – the dynamic interactions through which interdependent work is carried out – emphasizes the action rather than the structures of teamwork. This perspective on organizational learning emerged through field research in settings ranging from the front lines of health care delivery, to the Space Shuttle program at NASA, to the management conference room. It emphasizes the debilitating effects of interpersonal fear and examines the role of leadership in counteracting these effects.

  Robin J. Ely, Diane Doerge Wilson Professor of Business Administration, and Senior Associate Dean for Culture and Community

  50 Years of Women at HBS: Findings and Insights on the "Life and Leadership After HBS" Study and other Research on Gender and Work

  An expert in the field of gender, race, and organizational change, Professor Ely leads the HBS Culture and Community Initiative (CCI), a multiyear effort to advance inclusion, one of the School's five priorities. Integral to the CCI is the School's commemoration of the 50th anniversary of women being admitted to the two-year MBA program. The School is using the occasion to ask the question, What can HBS do, what can organizations do, what can individual women and men do to ensure that women are thriving and reaching their potential for exercising leadership in the world? HBS began the commemoration with the study of "Life and Leadership After HBS," a survey of the School's 12,000 women graduates and 14,000 men on their aspirations, career choices, and other life decisions. Professor Ely will share findings and insights from the survey and other school-wide efforts.

  Francesca Gino, Associate Professor of Business Administration

  Sidetracked: Why Our Decisions Get Derailed, and How We Can Stick to the Plan

  Associate Professor Gino has long studied the factors at play when judgment and decision making collide with the results of people's choices in real life. She will explore how inconsistent decisions play out in a wide range of circumstances - from people's roles as consumers and employees (what they buy, how they manage others) to the choices that they make more broadly as human beings (who they date, how they deal with friendships). She will discuss when a mismatch is most likely to occur between what people want and what they end up doing. Participants will learn what people can do to correct for the subtle influences that derail decisions, to better understand the nuances of their decisions and how they get derailed - so they have more control over keeping them on track.

  Al Halliday, Philanthropic Advisor for Harvard University; and Don Etheridge, Director, Gift Planning at Harvard Business School

  How to Raise Great Kids in a Context of Wealth

  This will be an interactive discussion led by Al Halliday, Philanthropic Advisor for Harvard University and Don Etheridge, Director, Gift Planning at Harvard Business School. Al graduated from Harvard College in 1982 and, since returning in 2004, has guided Harvard individuals and families in their decisions about wealth, family and philanthropy. Don joined HBS in 2011, coming from 16 years of private law practice where he served as an estate planner and wealth advisor to several families and family offices. Their experiences of working with families often lead to discussions with parents on raising children who may enjoy financial, as well as non-financial, benefits that many of their peers do not have. Al and Don look forward to sharing the insights they've learned through their work, and learning from the insights of reunion alumni.

  Jill Miller Perrin, MBA 1985 (SVP); Chris Panagakos, MBA 1991 (Principal); and, Laura J. Klein, MBA 1996 (Principal); all of Client Services, Business Talent Group, LLC

  Independent Consulting: How to Thrive as an Elite Executive and Stand Out from the Competition

  This presentation will focus on the new world paradigm of independent consulting as a career choice, not simply a transitory professional state. The session will cover "hot areas" and future trends for independent consulting and share how talent can best take advantage of these trends. Key success factors addressed will include:

  • Should you launch an independent practice?
  • How to best prepare for an engagement?
  • What project profiles best lend themselves to interim/consulting roles?
  • Expansion of your independent consulting practice.
  • Tenants of success as a top tier consultant.

  Gary P. Pisano, Harry E. Figgie, Jr. Professor of Business Administration

  Producing Prosperity: Why America Needs Manufacturing Renaissance

  In this session, Professor Pisano, drawing from his recent book, Producing Prosperity (coauthored with Willy Shih), will discuss the competitive position of the United States in the global economy, and why a strong manufacturing sector is critical to America's capacity for innovation and long-term economic health. He will discuss how both management and public policies are critical to restoring the health of America's eroding "industrial commons."

  Clayton S. Rose, Professor of Management Practice and Chair, MBA Community Standards

  Scandals & Screw-Ups: Wall Street today and What We Should Worry About

  Professor Rose will consider the current state and future prospects for the financial system by examining three recent "scandals" or "screw-ups": Barclays' involvement with the LIBOR rate setting, MF Global's failure and JP Morgan's "London Whale" situation. Each case provides different insights into errors in leadership, compliance with the spirit and letter of the rules, and the effectiveness of regulation and regulators, among others. Taken together these cases suggest that the "post-crisis" financial system may require a different approach to leadership and different oversight.

• Session 2: 11:45 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

  Shawn A. Cole, Associate Professor of Business Administration, and Marvin Bower Fellow

  Making a Decent Profit, Decently: Innovative Financial Services for the World's Poor

  In the next 20 years, more than a billion people in emerging markets will enter the formal financial system. This transformation represents a tremendous opportunity, as low-income households gain access to savings, credit, and risk-management services for the first time. But it also poses significant risks, as poorly designed or improperly distributed financial products can harm consumers, push firms to bankruptcy, and undermine economic growth. Drawing on insight from behavioral finance, marketing, and economics, this session will describe what is necessary to build an inclusive financial system - one that allows firms to profitably offer financial services and customers to select products that improve their welfare. How can, and how should, firms design innovative products for a population traditionally thought impossible to serve profitably? Faced with a range of new and complex products, will consumers make good decisions, or will low financial literacy and behavioral biases limit potential gains?

  Kevin Davies Ph.D., Founding Editor and Editor-in-Chief of Bio-IT World and author of The $1,000 Genome

  The $1,000 Genome: When Will You Get Your Genome Sequenced?

  In 2007, James Watson, who co-discovered the iconic double helix, became the first person to have his personal genome decoded, at a cost of around $1 million. Today, the cost of sequencing an individual's personal genome hovers just above $1,000, and the service is available to anybody with a doctor's note. A British company has even unveiled a disposable sequencing device that doubles as a USB thumb drive. In the clinic, genome analysis is offering life-saving diagnoses and treatment options for cancer patients and ending diagnostic odysseys for children with life-threatening, undiagnosed genetic disorders. But are people overpromising the benefits of genome sequencing and underestimating the risks? Davies will spotlight the stunning progress in DNA sequencing technology and its growing impact on the clinic, share his experiences in decoding his own genome, and discuss the medical and ethical implications of personal genomics.

  John A. Davis, Senior Lecturer of Business Administration

  The Rise and Fall of Family Wealth

  Wealth and the motivation to create wealth is a predominant force in society, and yet there has been little formal study of the creation of wealth or its impact on the families who possess it. Davis will discuss the major issues that wealth presents to a family and how families successfully manage both the opportunities and challenges created by wealth.

  Keith Ferrazzi (MBA 1992)

  The 5 undeniable rules of Changing Human Behavior

  Have you ever set a new year's resolution and not met it? Have you ever wondered why your children can't change bad habits even though they say they will? Has your team ever fallen short of your desired objectives even though everyone agrees the objectives make sense and may even be critical to the group's success? Greenlight Research has studied the biggest barriers to humans changing behavior and the most efficient set of interventions which will help all of us in our own lives and helping others through change.

  G. Felda Hardymon, MBA Class of 1975 Professor of Management Practice; and Tom Nicholas, William J. Abernathy Professor of Business Administration

  The Allure of the Long Tail: The History of Venture Capital in America

  The venture–capital industry represents one of the most significant mechanisms for growth, innovation, and wealth accumulation in history and, like jazz, baseball, and blue jeans, it appears to be an American invention. Professors Hardymon and Tom Nicholas have started the HBS History of Venture Capital project to study this industry, which is closely identified with HBS; by some estimates, about 25% of professional VCs are HBS graduates. This session draws on the course Venture Capital in Historical Perspective and will examine early hybrid models for entrepreneurial financing, pioneers such as Georges Doriot and Arthur Rock, and the pivotal firms that created a pathway to modern venture finance. It will also document the rise of hotspots like Silicon Valley. The objective will be to look at the industry's past as a guide to the present and the future.

  Linda A. Hill, Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Business Administration

  Being the Boss

  Are you a great boss or a good boss? Professor Hill will lead a case discussion and discuss the imperatives of leadership.

  Case available here.

  Robert C. Pozen, Senior Lecturer of Business Administration

  Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours

  In this talk, Professor Pozen will share his practical suggestions on how to get more done at work from his new book on personal productivity. His key concept is: focus on the results you achieve, not the hours you log. In specific, he will discuss how to: 1) set and prioritize goals, 2) establish a daily routine in the office and on the road, 3) read and write more effectively, 4) manage up and down the corporate ladder, and 5) improve decisions about career and work-life balance. This talk is for anyone feeling overwhelmed by an existing workload, facing many competing demands and multiple project deadlines.

• Session 3: 2:30 p.m. – 3:45 p.m.

  Alumni Topical Panels