Stories
Stories
Fighting Climate Change Requires a New Capitalism
Photo by Evgenia Eliseeva
Photo by Evgenia Eliseeva
Rebecca Henderson spent her young adult years living two lives.
At work, she preached the risks of resisting change to MBA students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, drawing on lessons she learned while watching factories close as a management consultant. But at home, she found comfort in the seeming permanence of nature and trees, whose leafy branches provided solace to her as a child.
“I kept my job and my passions in separate boxes,” writes Henderson, who joined Harvard Business School in 2009 and is now the John and Natty McArthur University Professor at Harvard University. “Work was lucrative and fun and often hugely interesting, but it was something I did before returning to real life.”
Business was ever-changing, but nature was constant. It wasn’t until in the mid-2000s, at her brother’s urging, that she started to read about the science of climate change—and the part that business has played in accelerating it. The revelation shook her world view.
After debating whether to quit her job at MIT, Henderson started seeking out like-minded leaders who shared her concerns. Her experiences and the research that came out of them culminate in her new book, Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire, a deeply personal exploration of capitalism’s role in addressing climate change.
[Read the complete interview in Working Knowledge.]
Post a Comment
Featured Faculty
Related Stories
-
- 12 Dec 2022
- Worth
HBS Alumni Named to 2022 Worthy 100
Re: Mike Bloomberg (MBA 1966); Jane Fraser (MBA 1994); Alice Vilma (MBA 2007); John Doerr (MBA 1976); Lara Hodgson (MBA 1998); Xiao Wang (MBA 2014) -
- 25 Aug 2022
- HBS Alumni Bulletin
On Purpose
Re: Jenny Cohen (MBA 1997); Ranjay Gulati (Paul R. Lawrence MBA Class of 1942 Professor of Business Administration); By: Jen McFarland Flint -
- 01 Jun 2022
- HBS Alumni Bulletin
Making It Count
Re: Ronald Cohen (MBA 1969); George Serafeim (Charles M. Williams Professor of Business Administration); By: Jen McFarland Flint -
- 13 Apr 2022
- HBS Alumni News
New School
Re: Rob Waldron (MBA 1992)
