Stories
Stories
Takeaways
Edited by April White

Peter A. Gudmundsson
photo by Susan Young
“All organizations need great people. Veterans are great people, so all organizations need to hire veterans.”
—Peter A. Gudmundsson (MBA 1990), The Veteran Hiring Leader’s Handbook
“Every single interaction you have with a person, no matter how small, is an opportunity to be a leader.”
—Linda El Awar (MBA 2007), Graduating from Google: Leadership Lessons
“A fable can get colleagues to have discussions that are less defensive, more productive, more aligning and mobilizing. This ultimately leads to action that produces needed results.”
—Professor emeritus John Kotter (DBA 1972), That’s Not How We Do It Here!, a book written in fable form
“It is now possible to build a new sort of firm that promotes open communication across the corporate hierarchy and leverages the entire organization’s collective wisdom in the process.”
—Catherine J. Turco (MBA 2003), The Conversational Firm
“Work through gray-area problems as a manager, using the best advice and information, and then resolve these problems as a human being, relying on your best judgment and making sure you can live with whatever you decide.”
—Professor Joseph L. Badaracco (MBA 1978, DBA 1981), Managing in the Gray

Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli
photo by Allison Shelley (Getty)
“The challenges to scaling are not unique to Africa, but social innovators on the continent need to make additional efforts to infuse scaling into the DNA of their business models, and institute appropriate strategies for recruiting and retaining talent, leveraging financing and partnerships for scaling impact.”
—Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli (MBA 1999), Social Innovation in Africa
“China is moving from imitation to innovation, and Western companies need to know how to deal with that.”
—George S. Yip (MBA 1976, DBA 1980), China’s Next Strategic Advantage
“The future should not be about what you have to do in the future.”
—Vijay Govindarajan (MBA 1976, DBA 1978), The Three-Box Solution
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