Nancy Koehn was our guest of honor on Tuesday, January 8, when she led a discussion on "Leadership--with a Big L, Leadership with a small l--Living Truthfully in Turbulent Times." The discussion was based on a Harvard Business School case she wrote on Oprah Winfrey as well as a book she is writing on Abraham Lincoln.
Nancy is the James E. Robison Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. Her research focuses on business strategy, leadership, and connecting with customers in the Information Revolution. Her last book, Brand New: How Entrepreneurs Earned Consumers' Trust from Wedgwood to Dell (Harvard Business School Press, 2001) received much acclaim; it examined six entrepreneurial visionaries who have created powerful brands and best-of-class companies in moments of great change. (As we have already received requests - yes, we will have books available.)
Koehn is also the author of The Power of Commerce: Economy and Governance in the First British Empire (1994), as well as a contributor to Remember Who You Are: Life Stories That Inspire the Heart and Mind (2004); The Intellectual Venture Capitalist: John H. McArthur and the Work of the Harvard Business School, 1980-1995 (1999); Creating Modern Capitalism: How Entrepreneurs, Companies, and Countries Triumphed in Three Industrial Revolutions (1997); and Management Past and Present: A Casebook on American Business History (1995). She has written and supervised cases on Starbucks Coffee Company, Wedgwood, Williams-Sonoma, Est�e Lauder, Henry Heinz, Marshall Field, Dell Computer, Ernest Shackleton, and other companies and leaders.
At the Harvard Business School, she teaches the MBA elective in business history, The Coming of Managerial Capitalism, one of the School's most popular courses. In 1998, the HBS Student Association selected Koehn as one of two Outstanding Professors in the Elective Curriculum.
Koehn consults with many companies and speaks frequently before business leaders on a range of subjects including leading in turbulent times, the power of strong brands, visionary entrepreneurs, and learning from history. In 2001, Business 2.0 named Koehn one of 19 leading business gurus in the United States. She has appeared on "Good Morning America," CNBC's "Moneywheel," "Nightly Business Report," and "Street Signs," "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," A&E's "Biography," CNN's "Money Line" and many other television programs. She is a frequent commentator on National Public Radio.
Before coming to HBS in 1991, Koehn was a member of Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences for seven years, first as a graduate student in history and then as a lecturer in the History and Literature concentration and the Department of Economics. During the years, she received the Allyn Young prize in 1989 and numerous Danforth commendations for excellence in teaching.
A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Stanford University, Koehn earned a Master of Public Policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government in 1983. She worked as a congressional aide before receiving her MA and Ph.D. in European history from Harvard University in 1985 and 1990, respectively.
Nancy Koehn | Leadership with a Big L, Leadership with a small l
David M. Darst was our guest of honor Tuesday, December 6, and talked with us about "The Influence of the World Economy and Global Financial Markets on Society, the Community, the Family, and the Individual - and Vice Versa."
David is a Managing Director of Morgan Stanley and sits on the Firm�s Asset Allocation and Investment Policy Committees. He serves as Chief Investment Strategist of the Individual Investor Group, with responsibility for Asset Allocation and Investment Strategy, and was the founding President of the Morgan Stanley Investment Group. David joined Morgan Stanley in 1996, after 24 years with Goldman Sachs, where he served as Chief Financial Officer of the Equities Division. Previous positions with Goldman also included responsibilities as New York International Equities Sales Manager and Resident Manager of their Private Bank in Zurich.
David is the author of three books: (i) The Complete Bond Book (McGraw-Hill); (ii) The Handbook of the Bond and Money Markets (McGraw-Hill); and (iii) The Art of Asset Allocation (McGraw-Hill), and has contributed numerous articles to Barron's, Euromoney, The Money Manager, and other publications. He writes extensively on asset allocation in the Morgan Stanley quarterly publication, Financial Management Review and Outlook, which he launched in 1997. He also founded two widely read Morgan Stanley monthly publications, Investment Strategy Digest and Market View Bulletin.
David earned his MBA from Harvard Business School and received his BA degree in Economics from Yale University. David has lectured extensively at Wharton, Columbia, INSEAD, and New York University business schools, and for nine years, David served as a visiting faculty member at Yale College, Yale School of Management, and Harvard Business School.
David M. Darst | The Influence of the World Economy and Global Financial Markets on Society, the Community, the Family, and the Individual - and Vice Versa.
Paul Sack | Taking Place: Photographs from the Prentice and Paul Sack Collection
Preeminent art collector Paul Sack discussed the exhibition of his photography collection "Taking Place: Photographs from the Prentice and Paul Sack Collection" while on view at SFMOMA! Johnny will beam ten of Paul's favorite photos onto the screen and Paul will lead a discussion on the inspiration behind art, photography, and favorite pictures.
Dr. Thomas Cunningham | San Francisco Opera: An Insider's Preview to the 2005 Season
Dr. Thomas Cunningham, opera expert extraordinaire, spoke to us about the San Francisco Opera's 2005 season, with multiple operatic samples from DJ Bogus and his Monster Sound System.
Catherine R. Newman | Waiting for Birdy
A reading and discussion on Newman's book, to be published by Penguin in March, 2005 - Waiting for Birdy: A Year of Frantic Tedium, Neurotic Angst, and the Wild Magic of Growing a Family.
Alain Enthoven | America's Health Care Future: Medicare for All or Consumer Choice?"
Professor Alain Enthoven is a renowned healthcare economist at Stanford University and one of the national's leading experts and speakers on areas of healthcare and managed care. The evening benefited the St Elizabeth Seton School in Palo Alto, California.
Professor Enthoven is the Marriner S. Eccles Professor of Public and Private Management (Emeritus) at Stanford's Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. Enthoven has held a wide variety of positions in both the government and corporate worlds, including work as the Assistant Secretary of Defense, an economist with the RAND Corporation, and the president of Litton Medical Products. He is now Chairman of the Stanford University committee on faculty/staff human resources, grappling with the problem of soaring health care costs for university employees.
Professor Enthoven holds degrees in Economics from Stanford, Oxford and MIT, and is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The former Chairman of the Health Benefits Advisory Council for CalPERS, the California State employees' medical and hospital care plans, Enthoven is a member of the Research Advisory Board of the Committee for Economic Development.
In 1963, Professor Enthoven received the President's Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service from John F. Kennedy and in 1977, while serving as a consultant to the Carter Administration, he designed and proposed Consumer Choice Health Plan, a plan for universal health insurance based on managed competition in the private sector.
In 1997, the former Governor Wilson appointed him Chairman of the California Managed Health Care Improvement Task Force. Commissioned by the State legislature, the Task Force addressed a range of healthcare issues raised by managed care.
Enthoven wrote the Rock Carling Lecture "In Pursuit of an Improving National Health Service" recommending further introduction of market forces in the National Health Service. He and Laura Tollen recently edited a book entitled "Toward a 21st Century Health System: The Contributions and Promise of Prepaid Group Practice" (Jossey Bass, San Francisco, 2004)
Amanda Marquit | Shut The Door
A Discussion of the novel to be published in early 2005 by St. Martin's Press by Amanda Marquit. The author, a New York City native, will be discussing inspiration for the novel in our living room.
Read this interview with Amanda Marquit, in which she discusses how she came to write the novel, starting at age 14, and which tunes she listened to while she was doing it. Check out the book on Amazon.com
Dr. Lisa Materson | Has it always been Sex in the City for American women? An intriguing look at the history of women's sexuality.
Lisa Materson, Assistant Professor of History at the University of California at Davis, teaches classes on the history of sexuality in America,women's history, and American race relations. Prior to coming to UC-Davis, she taught at Yale University and held a postdoctoral fellowship at Princeton University. She is currently writing a book on African American women's political activism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This was an excellent event with lots of fascinating questions addressed:
- What did "passionlessness" and "hysteria" mean to nineteenth-century Americans?
- When did birth control become widely available to American women and men?
- How did the feminist movement affect the bedroom?
- Lots of other provocative questions ....
Michael Wolfe | The Making of Muhammad
Poet, author, and journalist Michael Wolfe lives in Northern California. During the 1970s and 80s, he published small press literature, including work from Moroccan storytellers translated by the American novelist Paul Bowles.
Wolfe became a Muslim in 1988. In 1993, Grove Press published his travel book about the pilgrimage to Mecca. In 1997, working with Ted Koppel and ABC Nightline, Wolfe was the first American journalist to report from Mecca. Unity Productions Foundation, his nonprofit production company, develops documentary films for national broadcast. UPF�s mission is to increase peace by creating understand of the world's cultural and spiritual traditions. The current focus is on Muslims and Islam.
Our discussion centered on what has happened since September 11, 2001, and where we go from here. Michael shared how he made his two-hour historical documentary on Muhammad for PBS, where it has now aired over 500 times.
Beth Navon | Reform and Redemption: Saving the Juvenile Felon
We were joined by Executive Director of Friends of Island Academy Beth Navon. Friends of Island Academy (FOIA) reaches out to youth prior to their release from Rikers Island, a major New York City prison. Riker's Island is the heart of New York City's jail system, home to 80 percent of its 14,600 or so inmates, with nine jails for men and one for women. According to a recent Village Voice piece, Rikers' daytime population, including prisoners, employees, and visitors, numbers nearly 20,000.
The name "Friends of Island Academy" name reflects the Board of Education school located on Rikers Island Academy, which is attended by many of the youth while incarcerated. Upon discharge, FOIA provides job training, counseling, education, mentoring, and youth leadership development. In return, participants are expected to stay out of trouble, take responsibility for themselves, and work to rebuild their lives.
Founded in 1990, the inspiration for FOIA came from a small group of professionals with the Board of Education and Department of Correction staff who were alarmed by the more than 70% reincarceration rate for adolescents released from Rikers Island. FOIA evolved from their conviction that with intense support and access to opportunity, many young people could be saved from a life of recurrent criminal behavior.
FOIA is the only organization of its kind in New York City, with an active roster of 250 young men and 50 young women. The agency also reaches thousands of at-risk youth through anti-violence and education programs led by FOIA members.
As its website notes, FOIA is built on the belief that young people need to be helped, guided, empowered and challenged. Through the support of staff, each FOIA member takes responsibility, first for themselves and later for their peers and community.
Diana Kapp and Christy Jones | Putting Your Eggs in a Frozen Basket: Family Planning for the 21st Century
We were joined by San Francisco author Diana Kapp (who penned the fascinating cover story on this topic in October's San Francisco magazine) and entrepreneur Christy Jones (former senior executive at Triology Inc), founder of Extend Fertility, a company using revolutionary science to effectively slow down women�s' biological clocks.
100% of proceeds went to Fertile Hope, an organization dedicated to providing reproductive information, support and hope to cancer patients whose medical treatments present the risk of infertility.
Jennifer Chaiken | FILM: My Flesh and Blood
MY FLESH AND BLOOD is a feature length documentary about the Tom family - 11 (eleven!) special needs children adopted by Fairfield, California mother Susan Tom. Producer extraordanaire Jennifer Chaiken was present to introduce the film and to guide discussion afterwards.
Kay Moffett | The Heart's Hard Turning, the Heart's Slow Learning: Lessons from a Study of 30 'Starter Marriages.'
Kay Moffett, who interviewed 30 young women whose marriages ended early in divorce, discussed her views on marriage in the 21st century: Why might early marriages be more likely to fail today than in the past? How have women's changing roles in society influenced the institution? How are our conceptions and expectations of marriage different from our parents'? Our conceptions of divorce? What kinds of factors seem to lead to divorce? And what seem to be the ingredients of great, long-lasting partnerships today?
Kay, a graduate of Harvard College and Stanford University, works as a Web Editor and Corporate Writer at Genentech. She is the co-author, with Sarah Touborg, of "Not Your Mother's Divorce: A Practical, Girlfriend-to-Girlfriend Guide to Surviving the End of an Early Marriage," published by Broadway Books in December 2003.
Deb Cohan and Cynthia Cobaugh | Sex Work, San Francisco Style
Deb Cohan and Cynthia Cobaugh conducted an observational study of sex workers at St James Infirmary. Individuals underwent an initial questionnaire, and we offered screening for STI at each clinic visit. We performed univariate, bivariate, and multivariable analyses to assess for predictors of STI in this population.
The majority of sex workers have never discussed their work with a medical provider. Domestic violence is extremely prevalent as is work related violence. Working with other sex workers appears to be protective of STIs. STI prevention interventions should target African-American and male sex workers. Addressing violence in the workplace and encouraging sex workers to work collectively may be effective prevention strategies.
Mark Estes | AIDS in the Present Day
Mark Estes is a photographer in San Francisco, known for his intimate and tender portraits. frequently focuses his camera lens on critically-ill patients in hospitals. His work shows the strength of the spirit, transcending the vulnerabilities of the physical body. For years he has participated in the AIDS/LifeCycle Benefit Bike Ride, 600 miles from San Francisco to Los Angeles, raising over $40K for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.
Jon Cowan | Americans for Gun Safety
In 2000, Jon Cowan co-founded and ran Americans for Gun Safety, which is now part of Third Way, a centrist think tank. He advocated for sensible gun policy at Americans for Gun Safety, which The Atlantic said was responsible for “fundamentally changing the debate” on firearm policy. He spoke to us about his advocacy work at the first ever CPS lecture.