Alumni Books

Smarter Together: How Communities Are Shaping the Next Revolution in Business
By Rob Bernshteyn (MBA 2001)
Greenleaf Book Group Press
Driving value today requires information. Lots of information. Most of us are becoming good at distilling the data within our own companies, but that’s not enough if we want a competitive advantage. In Smarter Together, Coupa Software CEO Rob Bernshteyn explains how we will soon be able to draw upon the intelligence of the community—collectively what we, and the organizations we work for, know—to benefit the community, our companies, and ourselves. As Bernshteyn explains, the prescriptive insights gleaned from the massive amount of community data available worldwide will transform entire industries and break down long-standing barriers to value.

The Ends Game: How Smart Companies Stop Selling Products and Start Delivering Value
By Marco Bertini (DBA 2006) and Oded Koenigsberg
The MIT Press
Would you rather pay for health care or for better health? For school or education? For groceries or nutrition? A car or transportation? A theater performance or entertainment? In The Ends Game, Marco Bertini describes how some firms are rewriting the rules of commerce: Instead of selling the “means” (their products and services), they adopt innovative revenue models to pursue “ends” (actual outcomes). They show that paying by the pill, semester, food item, vehicle, or show does not necessarily reflect the value that customers actually derive from their purchases. Revenue models anchored on the ownership of products, they argue, are patently inferior. Bertini and Koenigsberg explain that advances in technology have made it possible for firms to collect “impact data” that tells them when and how customers use their products and how those products perform, and that firms can draw on this data to turn products into seamless services. New revenue models will enable transparency, accountability, and efficiency.

Real-world examples show how companies in health care, transportation, education, and other sectors are playing “the ends game,” including Dollar Shave Club, Rent the Runway, and “pay as you fly” insurance for drone flights. Finally, the authors outline the challenges in adopting these new models and offer guidance to overcome them.

Spirituality After Harvard: My Path Out of Depression and Into Inner Peace
By Edmund C. Bujalski (MBA 1976)
Independently published
Very few of us get through life without experiencing a major personal crisis or devastating loss. These crises and losses can come with great pain and often with almost unbearable inner turmoil. Twenty years ago, the author Edmund Bujalski experienced a crisis that left him depressed and despairing that he might never find inner peace. In this book, he shares the spiritual practices that transformed his life. In straightforward language, he provides a set of tools and techniques that everyone can use to bring more joy, happiness, and love into their lives. After graduating Cum Laude from Harvard College in 1974 and earning his MBA from the Harvard Business School in 1976, Bujalski had a successful business career as CEO of several health care services companies. His journey into spirituality has since led him to explore a variety of alternative healing modalities including becoming a Reiki Master Teacher.

Investing for the Smarter Sex: Wealth Building Tips and Secrets Sophisticated Women Know (But Wall Street Won’t Tell You)
By Tiffany Kent (MBA 2001)
Wealth Engagement LLC
Investing for the Smarter Sex is a financial advisory book geared to help you take active steps toward achieving your dream life. Former Wall Street investor, adviser, and author Tiffany Kent infuses specific investment advice with her personal story to show you how to take control of your finances and live comfortably for the rest of your life. Kent’s guide helps you develop a personal investment blueprint, design a solid financial plan to help you gain number clarity, hire an advisor who understands you and values your voice at the table, interpret the mumbo jumbo of investment language, and pull it all together so that you can secure your financial future.

Leadership Courage: Leadership in a Culture of Cowardice
By Kirk Kirlin (MBA 1979)
Authors Place Press
In a time when timidity and disquiet seem epidemic in both American and American Church culture, author Kirk Kirlin offers nine principles of courageous leadership to point the way for those who influence others. Leadership Courage is not theory; this is a book about the real issues of leadership: character, inner fortitude, courage, and identity. For those walking through the fires of life and leadership, this book will be a forge that helps shape your soul.

The Daughters of Kobani
By Gayle Tzemach Lemmon (MBA 2006)
Penguin Press
In 2014, northeastern Syria might have been the last place you would expect to find a revolution centered on women's rights. But that year, an all-female militia faced off against ISIS in a little town few had ever heard of: Kobani. By then, the Islamic State had swept across vast swaths of the country, taking town after town and spreading terror as the civil war burned all around it. From that unlikely showdown in Kobani emerged a fighting force that would wage war against ISIS across northern Syria alongside the United States. In the process, these women would spread their own political vision, determined to make women’s equality a reality by fighting—house by house, street by street, city by city—the men who bought and sold women.

Based on years of on-the-ground reporting, The Daughters of Kobani is the unforgettable story of the women of the Kurdish militia who improbably became part of the world’s best hope for stopping ISIS in Syria. Drawing from hundreds of hours of interviews, best-selling author Gayle Tzemach Lemmon introduces us to the women fighting on the front lines, determined to not only extinguish the terror of ISIS but also prove that women could lead in war and must enjoy equal rights. In helping to cement the territorial defeat of ISIS, whose savagery toward women astounded the world, these women played a central role in neutralizing the threat the group posed worldwide. In the process, they earned the respect—and significant military support—of US Special Operations Forces.

Spring: Bouncing Back from Rejection
By Ambi Parameswaran (AMP 186, 2014)
Westland
“Spring: a twisted piece of metal that can be pushed, pressed or pulled but which always returns to its original shape or position afterwards.” Rejection is inevitable in every stage of our lives. But what if this inevitability were a tool? What if it could be used as leverage to spring forward at every setback? What if there was a way to systematically process rejection and become a super-spring?

Ambi Parameswaran—best-selling author, brand/leadership coach, and former CEO of FCB-Ulka Advertising—was rejected at his dream job interviews, denied promotions, and turned down by potential clients. He now knows that he eventually succeeded because of the way he handled these rejections. Spring is packed with tales of rejection and redemption. Walt Disney, the Beatles, Thomas Alva Edison, Michael Jordan, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the founders of Infosys, author Amish, and others have used rejections as a pivot to swing their careers and businesses around. Parameswaran brings his decades of experience to bear on perhaps the vital life and career lesson you could learn from rejection. In Spring, he puts a gentle arm around your shoulders and helps you bounce back stronger than ever from every rejection.

Juror Number Two
By Efrem Sigel (MBA 1968)
The Writers Press
This riveting memoir recounts the author’s experience on a jury in a murder trial and his subsequent investigation of the conditions in East Harlem that led young people to be involved in drug-selling and criminal activity. Besides the trial itself, the book is the story of the failures in NYCHA housing projects, the schools and the criminal justice system, and the efforts of a handful of educators, nonprofit leaders, and criminal justice reformers to find pathways to success for these young people. In the author's words, “As a juror in a criminal trial, your vote is one of 12 determining whether the accused goes free or is punished. When the charge is murder, you never forget that a decision to convict can take away his liberty for the rest of his life. I had thought that our jury’s vote at the conclusion of the trial would be the end of the story. But I was mistaken. For me the jury verdict was only the beginning.” True crime buffs and fans of memoirs will be enthralled by Sigel’s irresistible mix of clear reporting, empathy, and thoughtful examination of the link between poverty and violence.

A Blessing: Women of Color Teaming Up to Lead, Empower and Thrive
By Bonita C. Stewart (MBA 1983) and Jacqueline Adams (MBA 1978)
Wordeee
An unapologetic look at the often-overlooked role of Black women in the social, political, psychological, and economic history of the United States, A Blessing offers a playbook for Black teams to find innovative ways to support one another as they climb the typically lonely and stressful, yet ultimately rewarding, ladders of opportunity. A Blessing also includes the results of Bonita C. Stewart’s and Jacqueline Adams’ proprietary Women of Color in Business: Cross Generational Survey, which examines the views of 4,005 female knowledge workers across four races (Black, Latin X, Asian, and white) and four generations (Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, and Boomers). In addition, the authors interview other successful Harvard Business School alumnae who are creating or leaving legacies.

What an MBA Taught Me…But My Kids Made Me Learn
By Bea Wray (MBA 1999)
Post Hill Press
Great business schools know that connection, more than curriculum, shapes great leaders. Every aspect of the experience intentionally maximizes relationship building.

What an MBA Taught Me...But My Kids Made Me Learn is author Bea Wray’s sometimes hilarious, other times harrowing journey through Harvard Business School, 20 years of business experience, and the most important academy of all: parenting. When Wray returned to entrepreneurial work after six years as a full-time mom, she worried. What relevant skills could she bring to the corporate table? Yet her career took off as her interpersonal expertise soared. Perhaps family time can be a breakthrough, rather than a break from professional advancement.

As she discovered, “soft” skills are actually pretty hard, but they can be mastered. As kids demonstrate, we all learn best when having fun. In this book, dozens of essential executive leadership lessons are carefully wrapped in humorous and heartfelt stories to inspire and encourage you.

Faculty Books

Time Smart: How to Reclaim Your Time and Live a Happier Life
By Ashley Whillans, Assistant Professor of Business Administration
Harvard Business Review Press
Four out of five adults report feeling that they have too much to do and not enough time to do it. These time-poor people experience less joy each day. They laugh less. They are less healthy, less productive, and more likely to divorce. In one study, time stress produced a stronger negative effect on happiness than unemployment.

How can we escape the time traps that make us feel this way and keep us from living our best lives? Time Smart is a playbook for taking back the time you lose to mindless tasks and unfulfilling chores. Author and Harvard Business School assistant professor Ashley Whillans shares proven strategies for improving your “time affluence.” These techniques will free up seconds, minutes, and hours that, over the long term, become weeks and months that you can reinvest in positive, healthy activities. Time Smart shows you how to achieve the mindset shift that will make these activities part of your everyday regimen through assessments, checklists, and activities that can build a happier, more fulfilling life.

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