Alumni interested in leaders of the past century now have a powerful database at their fingertips, thanks to the School’s Leadership Initiative. The online resource offers a comprehensive overview of leadership in 20th-century American business and includes detailed information on 860 leaders of U.S.-based companies.

Whether looking for education levels, company tenure, industry affiliation, or key accomplishments of founders and CEOs, users of the database can quickly find what interests them.

The database is the result of research that the Leadership Initiative has gathered since it was launched two years ago. The original intent of the research project was to begin to collect data that would contribute to a “canon of business leadership” — a compendium of business leaders who have defined the way we live, work, and interact. With a focus on three different areas of leadership — legacy (past), global, and emerging (future) — the initiative aims to provide cutting-edge research on the often-elusive topic of leadership. Led by Anthony J. (“Tony”) Mayo (MBA ’88), its seven affiliated faculty members are part of the Organizational Behavior unit. “Our focus is practical: We want to have an impact on business managers on an everyday basis. In essence, we want to bridge the gap between theory and practice,” says Mayo.

Mayo, who spearheaded the legacy project along with HBS professor Nitin Nohria, notes that the database is much more than the sum of its parts. “Through analysis of these individuals and their companies, we have discovered distinct patterns that were at play during each of the decades in which they rose to prominence.

“Many of these leaders had a remarkable ability to adapt to the changes that they were faced with, something we call ‘contextual intelligence,’ ” adds Mayo, who rattles off examples of Henry Kaiser’s ability to work with government, Robert Wood Johnson’s talent for cooperating with labor, and Dee Ward Hock’s skilled use of emerging technology.

The entire content of the database is too large to be made available to the general public, but individual researchers who are not HBS alumni can gain access to it through the initiative. The public portion of the database includes short biographies as well as a host of details about each of the 860 leaders. Users can sort the information by various criteria, including industry, company, date of birth, or place of birth. “This was a particularly difficult database to put together because there is no public source of CEO tenure data prior to 1978,” says Mayo, who spent countless hours in Baker Library working with research associates to gather information for the legacy project.

While the database is an excellent resource for those interested in the history of leadership, Mayo stresses that it also conveys important information about qualities needed by future leaders. “We can ask, Does this decade look like any other decade of the 20th century? If so, what qualities were important back then that we might learn from today?”

The impact of the legacy research will be further examined in books, courses, and videos, according to Mayo. “There is so much fascinating material that we can learn from,” he says, linking the legacy project back to the initiative’s key mandates. “Our goal is to be at the forefront of leadership research and development for the 21st century. Understanding the past is the first step in that direction.”

To access the new database or to learn more about the Leadership Initiative, visit www.hbs.edu/leadership.

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