Harvard Business School plans to reassess leadership, management education, and even market capitalism in an ambitious series of about 70 events worldwide marking its centennial.
The activities will culminate in a global business summit in October where business leaders such as Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates, General Electric Co. chief executive Jeff Immelt, and eBay Inc. president Meg Whitman will join Harvard business students, faculty members, foreign leaders, and about 2,000 alumni on the school's Boston campus to discuss "Leading in Business and Beyond."
Founded on April 8, 1908, by a vote of the Harvard Corporation, the business school offered the first master of business administration degree, started the first executive education program, and was a pioneer in fields like marketing and organizational behavior.
Of the 70 centennial events, which will range from academic and industry colloquia to an online forum on business issues, about 50 will be alumni gatherings across the United States and abroad, said John Quelch, the senior associate dean who chairs the centennial faculty steering group. While about a quarter of the focus will be on celebrating Harvard's innovations and achievements in business education, three quarters will be on looking forward to future challenges, he said.
"We're trying to use the centennial as a galvanizing force for new thinking about management and leadership," Quelch said. "We want to use this as an opportunity to challenge each and every member of our faculty on the assumptions behind which we build our curricula."
Harvard Business School, which has intensified its focus on globalization, technology, entrepreneurship, and business ethics in recent years, isn't explicitly planning to use the centennial to overhaul its curriculum, Quelch said. But he added, "I'm absolutely confident that the research and the thinking will find its way into the curriculum."
Robert Weisman can be reached at weisman@globe.com.
