Stories
Stories

I have recently returned from the Board's winter meeting at HBS, and, as usual, I found being back on campus extremely energizing. Our subcommittees on information technology, alumni career management and development, and global alumni issues are each making significant progress.
One exciting topic on the minds of many HBS alumni is the upcoming Global Alumni Conference. To be held at the Fairmont Hotel in Chicago on June 16-19, this year's conference is titled "2000+: Global Innovation & Entrepreneurial Leadership." Coinciding with the recent fiftieth anniversary of teaching entrepreneurship at HBS, the conference will focus on the tools used by both large and small companies to identify and pursue opportunities in the marketplace. I thought I would give you a preview of what to expect in the Windy City.
An important feature of the conference will be presentations by HBS faculty who are discovering, articulating, and institutionalizing the management practices that will keep companies innovative and entrepreneurial in the new millennium. While I cannot possibly list all the presentations, I hope the following samples will give you a sense of the conference:
- Professor Howard H. Stevenson, conference chair and chair of the School's Entrepreneurial Management unit, will describe the key insights HBS has developed in fifty years of teaching entrepreneurship;
- Professor Teresa M. Amabile will report on her findings from an ongoing study of the factors that promote creativity in organizations large and small;
- Professor Michael E. Porter will offer his latest thinking on strategy and the need to move beyond simple "best practice" improvement to actually establishing a unique competitive position;
- Professor William A. Sahlman will highlight the current state of the risk capital markets and how entrepreneurial companies can access startup capital and growth financing;
- Professor Malcolm S. Salter will discuss the "modern industrial revolution" and the tools larger companies can use to ensure that they are not left behind by their entrepreneurial challengers.
Dean Kim B. Clark will also brief attendees on the School's efforts to build intellectual capital around these ideas and integrate them into the curriculum. He will report on some of the early work of HBS's California Research Center, our new facility in Silicon Valley. We will also hear from a number of executives who have successfully navigated the process of starting and growing a dynamic entrepreneurial company, as well as from those who have led their own organizations through difficult change in order to stay ahead of their competitors.
In a series of breakout sessions, HBS faculty will lead smaller groups in discussions focusing on how new competitive dynamics are playing out in retailing, health care, and several rapidly consolidating industries. Alumni who lead small, entrepreneurial companies will have a chance to discuss financing, marketing, and strategy, as well as issues related to family businesses. Those who oversee larger, more mature businesses will hear from HBS experts on managing technological change and new product development, maintaining creativity, and managing the firm's knowledge assets.
The conference sessions will be inspiring, challenging, and extremely valuable, and the networking opportunities will be limitless. I hope to see you there. I will continue to update you on Board activi-ties in future issues of the Bulletin. In the meantime, I encourage you to maintain our vital network and stay connected to one another and to the School.
Charles F. Milner, Jr. March 1998
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