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Taking MBA know-how on tour across America
Knowing that not every American who has a dream to start a business can come to Harvard Business School, Casey Gerald (MBA 2014) decided to bring HBS to them. He and three classmates logged 8,000 miles in two cars during an eight-week road trip in the summer of 2013. The students offered a free mobile consultation service for entrepreneurs called MBAs Across America.
“We felt a responsibility to use our resources for a nobler purpose,” says Gerald. The MBA students met with American business owners, advised them on everything from business models to operational improvements, and witnessed how entrepreneurs functioned in their natural habitats of Washington, DC, New Orleans, Albuquerque, and Asheville, among other cities.
“MBAs Across America isn't about know-it-alls going out into the country to ‘fix’ things,” says Gerald, CEO of the nonprofit. “It's about understanding business in the trenches, and lending our skills, experience, and curiosity to the task of helping entrepreneurs and communities bring their visions to life.”
He and his classmates have helped students from other business schools take similar trips by building MBAs Across America into a Peace Corps for MBAs. Thirty-two MBAs from business schools at Babson College, Columbia University, HBS, Stanford University, the University of California/Berkley, and the University of Michigan traveled this past summer across the country into the heart of America to learn from and work with almost 50 entrepreneurs in over a half dozen cities.
(Watch Casey Gerald's stirring commencement address.)
(Published April 2014)
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