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HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL
One of the most consistently recognized leading business schools in the world, Harvard Business School (HBS), is worthy of mention. HBS, founded in 1908, is the graduate business school of Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was ranked first in the United States by US News & World Report in 2016. In 2015, Harvard’s MBA program was ranked first in the United States by Bloomberg and second in the world by the Financial Times.
They say the best customers are the loyal ones. They cost less to serve, they’re usually willing to pay more than other customers, and they often act as word-of-mouth marketers for your company. It gives me pleasure to share with my readers that I’ve been a loyal customer of Harvard Business Review (HBR) articles since time immemorial. My corporate subscription with them dates back to my early engineering career at AMOCO Oil Company. I have always loved and revered their research—they never failed to keep up with the pace of their customer segments’ ever-changing needs, wants, and expectations.
However, March 2, 2020, was D-Day; Mr. Ammar Kadi, executive director of the Harvard Business Review, Arabic version, paid me a courtesy visit in my office at SEWA headquarters. He was delighted to hear that I’ve always been an ardent reader of their recent publications, and he admired my inclination towards citing HBR articles, research, and publications in my books as well.
During the meeting, we discussed, how HBS is changing the lives of people around the globe through quality education, research, and literatures. So I have decided to highlight and focus on HBS’s roles and achievements that have been earned over the years.
HBS offers dual degrees with several Harvard schools, including the law school, the medical school, and the Kennedy School of Government. The list of Harvard alumni includes some of the most powerful people in America: Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase; Michael Bloomberg, billionaire former mayor of New York City; Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of General Electric; George W. Bush, former US president; Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots; and Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook COO.
Through a network of Global Research Centers and Offices, the School continues to build upon a rich legacy of global engagement in business education, encouraging a global outlook in research, study, and practice. HBS Initiatives cover a range of topics, from sectors of the economy to societal issues that businesses must address in an ever-changing global marketplace.
As explained by the Dean of HBS, Nitin Nohria:
"Each element of the school’s mission—to educate leaders who make a difference in the world—is infused with meaning.”
"LEADERS"
When we talk about leaders, we mean people who embody a certain type of competence and character—both the competence that comes from the general manager’s perspective the school cultivates and the character to understand the difference between being self-interested and self-centered. It goes far beyond knowing that it’s not right to lie, cheat, or steal. It involves recognizing that you are a true leader only when you have earned the trust of others, and when others, whether in your organizations or your communities, recognize you as such.
"MAKE A DIFFERENCE”
Making a difference means people who create real value for society, and who create value before claiming value. I’ve not found anyone who begrudges a leader for claiming value after creating value. Rather, the recent economic crisis showed us too many examples of leaders who claimed value without creating any. It is worth noting here that there are many ways of making a positive difference: as an investor, as a general manager, as an entrepreneur, as an active citizen of your community. Indeed, what distinguishes Harvard Business School is that our graduates provide leadership in all walks of life.
"IN THE WORLD”
In the world reflects our understanding of a rapidly changing, dynamic environment, and the fact that many of the world’s most challenging issues will require a global perspective. Moreover, it involves embracing the view that the world desperately needs more leaders to address its most urgent and challenging problems, and that virtually none of these problems can be addressed without business leaders playing a vital role.
And, of course, the first component of the mission is educating, which we do in many ways—through our educational programs, through the ideas our faculty produce and disseminate, and through the influence we achieve by being close to leaders of all types, and of organizations all across the world. Here, I would encourage us to recognize that the impact of what we do extends far beyond the people who come to our campus. Although we can touch only a few thousand directly each year, we can indirectly influence many more by remaining the most trusted and admired leader in business education.