Spring Break
Crisis Casts Shadow Over Summit
The HBS Centennial Global Business Summit explores themes of leadership, globalism and market capitalism all under the veil of the current financial crisis
Jimmy Tran (OJ), Contributing Writer
Issue date: 10/20/08 Section: News
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Throughout the weekend, HBS staff members scurried about, making sure everything was in place for the big day. Vendors displayed Crimson-colored flowers at the entrances to Bloomberg and lined HBS's walkways with pumpkins and pillar candles enclosed in glass vases.
For several weeks prior, an immense crane built a quasi-convention center dubbed the Pavilion which would seat nearly 2,000 HBS alumni. Even by HBS standards, the Centennial Global Business Summit was an impressive undertaking.
The event sold-out in minutes with tickets priced at $1,500 (students received a discounted rate at $750 a pop) and brought together what Dean Light conceded was the "largest and best group we have ever assembled." This was a big deal - a really, really big deal.
Yet there was one thing that HBS did not and could not plan for, one thing that no speaker was entirely prepared to address: the financial meltdown of 2008. Not a single person in attendance (nor HBS for that matter) clearly predicted the dramatic events of the prior weeks, including the collapse of storied investment banks, the liquidity crunch that paralyzed markets, the government bailout of Fannie/Freddie/AIG, the failure of numerous banks, the U.S. taxpayer-funded rescue plan of $700B, and the trillions of dollars of wealth lost in markets throughout the world.
Indeed, a glance at the schedule of the conference reveals intellectual pursuit of topics such as 21st century leadership, globalization and the social contract, the future of market capitalism and entrepreneurship. As worthwhile as these topics may be, they took a backseat to the looming question on everyone's mind: How did we fail to accurately predict the financial crisis and what should our response be?
With the financial crisis at the forefront, the conference began in full force as Dean Light introduced the 2008 HBS Alumni Achievement Award recipients, four fascinating individuals that represent the very best of HBS alumni: John Doerr (MBA '76), Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; Jeffrey Immelt (MBA '82), Chairman and CEO of General Electric; Anand Mahindra (MBA '81), Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd; Meg Whitman (MBA '79), former President and CEO, Ebay, Inc; James Wolfensohn (MBA '59), former President of the World Bank.
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