Starting this past fall and continuing through the coming year, Dean Srikant Datar is traveling to meet with alumni around the world. On Thursday, February 23, more than 60 alumni and guests gathered in Florida to celebrate and connect with each other at "HBS in Palm Beach: Breakfast with Dean Datar." Alumni were energized to be back together in person again at the event, which was cohosted by the School, the HBS Club of South Florida. The gathering took place at the Four Seasons Palm Beach Resort and featured a breakfast reception and speaking program.

The Dean was introduced by Professor Emeritus Bill Sahlman (MBA 1975). During his remarks, Dean Datar talked about several innovative initiatives that he anticipates will have lasting value for the School and that place the School at the cutting edge of addressing the challenges facing business and society today. Dividing the current efforts of the School into three priorities, he offered insights into work that is underway on the role of business in society, digital innovation, and reimagining learning.

"I don't think there is another institution other than business and free enterprise that has done more good for humankind," said the Dean. "If you look at the billions of people lifted out of poverty, the standard of living we have created, the kinds of jobs we've created… it all came from the enormous force for good that is business." This powerful idea paved the way for the new Institute for the Study of Business in Global Society (BiGS), which he described as an interdisciplinary research enterprise that will position HBS as an intellectual hub for examining the most critical issues and opportunities of our times—from climate change and environmental sustainability to racial equity and social and economic inclusion—and then sharing that research with students, practitioners, policy makers, and the general public to affect meaningful change.

The desire to produce thought leadership at a fast pace, the Dean said, is the catalyst for the new Digital, Data, and Design Institute at Harvard (D^3), a lab-based research model that will draw faculty, students, and alumni from across the University to reinvent how companies compete and thrive in the 21^st century. "How will we do this?" he said. "By focusing on big problems, on an open platform, with multiple faculty. D^3 will position HBS as a global leader in digital innovation and business."

Addressing society's rapid move to digital platforms, Dean Datar said, "As you look at some of the challenges that confront us as a society, one of those is the accelerated pace at which technology is moving– from data and quantum computing to the metaverse and blockchain. How do we, as a school and as business leaders, lean into these trends? What are the opportunities?"

Regarding reimagining learning, the Dean first made note of the aspiration throughout the School's history: to deliver an MBA experience that will best position our students for leadership. Today, based on the experiences of the pandemic, he said, "we need to deliver an on-campus experience that is central to leadership development, while also leveraging synchronous learning and hybrid technology to ensure that our two-year program is a competitive advantage. We must move to a dynamic model that prepares students to lead in a data-driven and digital world, to seek business opportunities in new technologies, to lead across differences, and to build sustainable businesses."

The Dean also made note of ways the School is making the MBA Program more accessible and affordable to the most qualified students without regard for their financial status. This includes the decision last summer to provide scholarships to cover the total cost of tuition and course fees for those with the greatest financial need—approximately 10 percent of the HBS student body—as well as providing new scholarship support to more students from middle-income backgrounds.

Following the Dean's visit to Palm Beach, he will travel to New York City on March 14 and Los Angeles on March 21 for evening events with alumni in those regions. Additional international events are being planned for later this spring. The Dean began this series of alumni gatherings last fall in London and Chicago and continued earlier this month in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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