HBS Leaders on HBS | Alumni on Leadership | Community Memories

Community Memories

A collection of poignant, humorous stories and reminiscences on the HBS experience from our community members, including alumni, staff, and MBA students.

1-12 of 12 listed alphabetically by storyteller's last name

CLASS OF1988

Arnold Dicke Story VIDEO: RT: 06:18

Story regarding his fond recollections of the intensive learning environment and lifelong friendships of his Advanced Management Program. As an actuary, he quickly completed the mathematical portions of a case but he admired the insightful summation of information which enabled other students to zero in on the crux of the matter and thus he gained a deeper understanding of his own capabilities. At the executive seminars he organized, Prof. Robert S. Kaplan was a big hit, especially his pin factory story. As a symbol of the indelible impressions of his AMP experience, he remembered the names and faces of all the classmates at his reunion, even those whom he had not seen for twenty years.

 

CLASS OF1993

Donald Evans Story VIDEO: RT: 00:55

Story regarding how he disbelieved his professor's startling first-day prediction but then it in fact proved true for him. Prof. William Sasser prophesied that the majority of his Advanced Management Program class would be pursuing different career paths within five years. After repaying his company's sponsorship of his attending AMP with four years of applying his education to their business, he struck out on his own and has developed a successful consulting firm based on the principles and skills of his HBS learning.

 

STAFF

Annmarie Fennelly Story VIDEO: 06:43

Story regarding her first position at HBS working with Prof. Jay Lorsch, who made her feel at home. She recounts dashing across campus in bare feet to deliver a typing job. In the Executive Education program, she worked business leaders from around the globe. She was called out of retirement to work with Prof. Linton Hayes. She describes the staff and faculty as a family and HBS as an institution of "understated elegance."

 

CLASS OF2007

Anthony Fry Story VIDEO: RT: 04:19

Story regarding how his participation in AMP 173 "restored his faith in humanity" and illuminated a new path in life for him. The intellectual interchange of the Advanced Management Program was the main ingredient of his personal renewal. One particularly intense discussion on international relations initiated an opportunity for his classmates to tighten their social bonds. The global character of the AMP participant pool has furnished him with the good fortune of assembling a new world-wide network and creating friendships with individuals with whom he might not even have the chance to meet. These various avenues of exposure to innovative thoughts and people fortified him to strike out in a boldly novel direction.

 

STAFF

Ani Kharajian Story VIDEO: 08:01

Story regarding her years managing international Executive Education programs. She recounts the transformational experience of leading the Senior Executive Program for Southern Africa and how she convinced HBS to extend the program so that the participants could come to the School. She describes her professional growth through these programs and their global impact.

 

CLASS OF1947

Clifford Kirtland Story VIDEO: 10 minutes

Story regarding his experience as a V-12er attending HBS during World War II, his career as an accountant and a venture capitalist, and his membership in and leadership of HBS clubs in Buffalo, New York, and Atlanta, Georgia.

 

CLASS OF1993

Kathleen Murray Story VIDEO: RT: 04:07

Story regarding how she accords a prominent position to her membership in the HBS community among her multiple life affiliations. She devotes a great amount of time and energy to her HBS alumni network and responsibilities, including serving as AMP class secretary and working with various HBS and Harvard organizations. The lifelong intellectual stimulation, learning, and friendships from her Advanced Management Program experience continually reinvigorate her connection to the School. She has even transmitted that commitment to her nephew, whom she persuaded to select HBS from among the business schools to which he was accepted.

 

CLASS OF1983

Emmanuel Nnatuanya Story VIDEO: RT: 04:37

Story regarding how he discovered within himself the profound potentialities for personal power and the drive for excellence through the International Senior Management Program. The case method exerted demands on his intellect and endurance that strengthened him greatly. The HBS imprimatur has furnished the advantage that has secured him professional opportunities. His inquisitive mind has at times stretched standard limits such as when he won the award for the longest question in class. His HBS experience has reinforced his belief that with determination and commitment, any problem can be surmounted.

 

CLASS OF2005

Victor Papazov Story VIDEO: RT: 03:19

Story regarding how he was seeking out a new challenge in his career after founding the Bulgarian Stock Exchange and how he discovered an invigorating impetus in the Advanced Management Program. The AMP workload and intensity of the learning environment was at times overwhelming for him. However, he converted those demands on his capabilities into the energy for a positive personal transformation. With his new self-perception and skills, he plans to make a difference in the world.

 

CLASS OF2006

Sanjay Razdan Story VIDEO: RT: 05:47

Story regarding how his life-changing educational experience in the Advanced Management Program was crowned by the joyous occasion of the birth of his first child. He enumerates the steps in the process of directly applying business principles from AMP courses in his company and the consequential benefits. Prof. David Yoffie's single slide of how to research, understand, and meet the needs of your customers stands out as the most indelible memory of his program. His defining moment was the realization of the power of HBS as a center of knowledge creation and his participation as both sharer and contributor.

 

CLASS OF2002

Carlo Reato Story VIDEO: RT: 06:12

Story regarding how he insisted on applying to the Advanced Management Program only despite his firm's urgings to explore other options. On first meeting his team members, he was thrilled by the international character of the group. In a collection of such expert executives, he found the challenge of leading a cadre of leaders exhilarating. The AMP faculty greatly impressed him with their facility in instructing experienced managers. He accounts membership in and access to the HBS alumni network as an amazing asset. Despite his team's nickname for AMP 162 as the "executive jail," he urges any interested party to take advantage of the program and rejoices at returning for his reunion.

 

CLASS OF2007

David Tudehope Story VIDEO: RT: 05:49

Story regarding how he reached the half-time break in his career and the Advanced Management Program served as a spring training for recharging his entrepreneurial skill set. The broad range of cases exposed him to the issues and perspectives of other business sectors, nations, and regions and thus has enabled him to study his own field and country from a new angle. With a group of students from around the globe, he assembled a rowing team that defeated the Kennedy School of Government but more importantly renewed his fondness for teamwork and collaboration. In terms of the AMP mission, he exhorts the School to continue to innovate and to evolve as the world changes.