Learning from the Crisis In forbes.com, Dean Jay Light describes efforts at HBS to ensure that recent events "are not simply matters for academic study but lessons learned and applied over the long term."

Exclusive for Club members! On December 16, join Dean Light as he discusses the global financial crisis in the next Virtual Learning Series teleconference. Contact your local Club for more information.

Visit HBS's website on the economic crisis to stay in touch with research, activities, and resources: http://www.hbs.edu/economic-crisis/
 

Join the Conversation This month's Conversation on the Centennial website focuses on Leadership in the 21st Century. Join Professors Nitin Nohria and Rakesh Khurana for a discussion on different perspectives and approaches to leadership.
 

Alumni Community

LEFA: Access to Alumni Benefits Your Lifelong E-mail Forwarding Address (LEFA), coupled with your password, provides online access to the Alumni Navigator, Alumni Job Bank, HBS Alumni Clubs, Class Notes, HBS Videotools, and other alumni benefits. The unique portion of your LEFA (e.g., jdoe@mba2007) is your username. Once active, you may use this to log in from any page on the Alumni Website or the HBS Alumni Club sites. If you haven't logged in recently, you can reset your password securely online.
 

Alumni Travel

Best of Patagonia, March 13–23, 2009 See the wild and rugged beauty of Argentina and Chile's Patagonia. Travel by boat or take an ice-hike for an impressive view of the Perito Moreno Glacier. Next, go off-the-beaten path and explore the peaks of Los Glaciares National Park. In Chile, enjoy hiking in world-famous Torres del Paine National Park. Choose to stay in luxury lodges throughout the trip, or for a more rustic experience, spend evenings camping under the stars.

Tanzania Safari and Rwanda Gorillas, August 26–September 4, 2009 Join fellow alumni and friends in the company of Harvard Professor of African Studies and Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Elkins on this incredible trip. Visit unspoiled wildlife areas in Tanzania, including Serengeti National Park, Lake Manyara National Park, and the largest unbroken caldera in the world. View lions, leopards, cheetahs, elephants, rhinoceros, cape buffalo, and more. Marvel at the Olduvai Gorge, then travel to Rwanda to tour the city of Kigali, experience the Rwandan Genocide Memorial, track the endangered mountain gorilla, and visit Dian Fossey's Karisoke Research Center.

Alumni Career Services

A New Path: Setting Professional Directions Save the date: March 8–14, 2009. Are you interested in reentering the workplace, reenergizing your career, or pursuing a new direction? This program, next offered in March 2009, is designed for professional women seeking the competitive skills, vision, and strategic tools to redefine career plans.

Executive Education

Changing the Game: Negotiation and Competitive Decision Making—India In response to growing global demand, HBS is bringing "Changing the Game" to Mumbai for the first time on March 22–27, 2009. Drawing on the latest research, this offering will help you prepare for complex negotiations, anticipate and resolve obstacles, and respond quickly when circumstances require rapid decisions. Visit http://www.exed.hbs.edu/redirects/dmi_wn/ to learn more.

Why America Needs an Economic Strategy In BusinessWeek, Professor Michael E. Porter analyzes the strengths and weaknesses that affect U.S. competitiveness in the global economy. Porter proposes bipartisan dialog and new strategic planning structures to help "shift to a coherent set of policies" that could ensure "long-term economic prosperity."
 

Will Lending Ease the Crisis? Focusing on lending alone may not ease the credit crisis without an understanding of the broader role banks are playing. According to Professors David Scharfstein and Victoria Ivashina in the Wall Street Journal, the banks "provide a measure of protection to vulnerable firms, helping them forestall financial distress"(subscription required for full access).

HBS Working Knowledge For an advance look at HBS faculty research, visit Working Knowledge. This week, find an excerpt from Professor Michael E. Porter's newly released book On Competition. Written with HBS faculty members Jay W. Lorsch and Nitin Nohria, the article looks at The Seven Things that Surprise New CEOs.

Tax-exempt Gifts in 2008 Federal legislation now allows tax-exempt gifts of IRA Rollover assets to public charities in calendar years 2008 and 2009. To take advantage of this opportunity, donors must be at least 70 1/2 years old at the time of the gift. The maximum amount each year is $100,000. This is a great way to support HBS and other organizations, tapping assets that could otherwise be taxed at high rates if left in your estate. For more information, contact Edward Buckbee, ebuckbee@hbs.edu or 617.495.6027.
 

 
This message was prepared by the Alumni Communications office of Harvard Business School.

To unsubscribe from this newsletter, please click here:
http://apps.alumni.hbs.edu/apps/optout/index.jhtml?id=&LEFA;&prod=ERWN&opt=out

Harvard Business School, Soldiers Field, Boston, MA 02163