The "Harvard MBA Indicator" for the Next 100 Years
Brian Dutt (OE), Viewpoints Editor
Issue date: 10/20/08 Section: News
HBS in 2008 is a different place - a beacon of diversity and (dare I say) an elite place operating in the context of a different world. Indeed our country and her industries face many new competitors. The inventor of the Model T has been unseated by a Japanese company to remain unnamed. Our position as the world industrial capital evolving out of the industrial revolution, the days of the robber barons, and the birth of the modern organization around the turn of the 20th century is now being challenged by China, India, and many others who have a lot to say about who will wear the trade balance crown over the next 100 years.
There is a lot of good news too. We have finally entered the innovative future that I dreamed about after watching Back to the Future II. As I learned during the Business Summit panel on Entrepreneurship in a Global Setting, Donna Dubinsky's new company, Numenta, is planning to create the next generation of computers that can think like humans. Bill Gates is finding ways to end diseases familiar to generations (e.g., Malaria) as well as diseases that no one had ever heard of in 1908. And everything, from the creation of ideas to the financing of those ideas must be considered in the context of a global economy. HBS professor and Partner at Highland Capital, Robert Higgins (MBA '70), alluded to this fact in his explanation of the evolution of the Venture Capital industry. In the 1980s, the mantra was "be local," in the 1990s it was "be bi-coastal," and today it is "be global."
But a new global, interconnected world can bring new global problems. Anyone who has ever heard of this thingy called a subprime loan knows that all too well. So that brings us to the question: what will be the role of the HBS graduate in the next 100 years?
As Harvard University President Drew Faust related through metaphor in her address, a person can think about his or her path in one of three ways. In the story she told, three stone cutters working in a town were asked what they were doing. One replied, "earning a living," the second replied "I am being the best stone cutter in the community," and the third replied "I am building a castle."
There is a lot of good news too. We have finally entered the innovative future that I dreamed about after watching Back to the Future II. As I learned during the Business Summit panel on Entrepreneurship in a Global Setting, Donna Dubinsky's new company, Numenta, is planning to create the next generation of computers that can think like humans. Bill Gates is finding ways to end diseases familiar to generations (e.g., Malaria) as well as diseases that no one had ever heard of in 1908. And everything, from the creation of ideas to the financing of those ideas must be considered in the context of a global economy. HBS professor and Partner at Highland Capital, Robert Higgins (MBA '70), alluded to this fact in his explanation of the evolution of the Venture Capital industry. In the 1980s, the mantra was "be local," in the 1990s it was "be bi-coastal," and today it is "be global."
But a new global, interconnected world can bring new global problems. Anyone who has ever heard of this thingy called a subprime loan knows that all too well. So that brings us to the question: what will be the role of the HBS graduate in the next 100 years?
As Harvard University President Drew Faust related through metaphor in her address, a person can think about his or her path in one of three ways. In the story she told, three stone cutters working in a town were asked what they were doing. One replied, "earning a living," the second replied "I am being the best stone cutter in the community," and the third replied "I am building a castle."
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Carl @ Harvard Application
posted 2/17/10 @ 9:08 AM EST
What a great article. Thanks for all of your research and sharing.
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