Vulnerabilities - Publications - Faculty & Research

Profile

Varnika Menghnani

lens, and there was not a single person in the classroom without tears in their eyes. HBS classrooms allow you to be vulnerable in the most beautiful ways. What is your favorite childhood memory? My favorite childhood memory is my mom... View Details

Web

Confronting Climate Change - Business & Environment

largest source of greenhouse gas emissions and the largest contributor to climate change. Food & Agriculture Focusing on regenerative agriculture Food and agriculture is the second largest contributor to climate change. This sector is also especially View Details

25 Jul 2023
Research & Ideas

Could a Business Model Help Big Pharma Save Lives and Profit?

With Hepatitis C running rampant in Egypt in 2012, Clifford Samuel, then of California-based Gilead Sciences, convened a series of urgent meetings with Egyptian government officials, doctors, and patients. His goal? To make Gilead’s lifesaving Hepatitis C drugs... View Details

Keywords: by Esther Schrader; Pharmaceutical; Health

Web

Impact - Health Care

entrepreneurial opportunities and solutions. HBS research highlights business models that help some of the world’s most vulnerable populations. Building Entrepreneurial Organizations Entrepreneurial students, faculty, and alumni are... View Details

28 Nov 2023
Book

Economic Growth Draws Companies to Asia. Can They Handle Its Authoritarian Regimes?

call it “looting,” drawing on a well-known paper on US firms in the savings and loan crisis, among other episodes. That paper shows that firms loot their own assets in expectations of bailout, but I show that expectations of vulnerability... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

14 Mar 2023
In Practice

What Does the Failure of Silicon Valley Bank Say About the State of Finance?

on SVB, and the subsequent run on other regional banks. Many observers postulate that the vulnerability was hiding in plain sight (an unsettling thought), a result of a combination of COVID government stimulus followed by a series of... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Financial Services; Banking

20 Sep 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Historical Origins of Environmental Sustainability in the German Chemical Industry, 1950s-1980s

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones & Christina Lubinski; Chemical

29 Jul 2021
Blog Post

Exploring the Intersection of Business & Health Care: Summer Fellow Derek Soled (MD/MBA 2022)

designing interventions to increase vaccination levels for specific populations. I am helping reach vulnerable groups such as older immigrant adults, incarcerated adults, and home health workers, using focus groups and other market... View Details

19 Oct 2022
Op-Ed

Cofounder Courtship: How to Find the Right Mate—for Your Startup

you likely did not have when you were colleagues at a business where someone else was accountable for the overall successes and failures and, likely, making more strategic decisions than you were privy to. Have vulnerable conversations.... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Austin

22 Mar 2021
Research & Ideas

How to Learn from the Big Mistake You Almost Make

Professor Amy C. Edmondson, who studies psychological safety and organizational learning. Incidents that almost result in loss or harm often pass unnoticed, in part because workers worry about being associated with vulnerability or... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Health

16 May 2023
In Practice

After Silicon Valley Bank's Flameout, What's Next for Entrepreneurs?

crisis. In addition to the operational learnings around banking and ensuring not all of their cash is in one vulnerable place, it was a big wake-up call for many founders in terms of how they do everything to keep their cool with... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman; Technology; Financial Services

Web

Bankruptcy | Baker Library | Bloomberg Center | Harvard Business School

Bear Stearns hedge funds that had major investments in MBSs. Regarding Lehman Brothers, Erin Callan Montella argues, “We were the smallest remaining investment bank. The least diversified. The most vulnerable to a deteriorating fixed... View Details

The Money of Invention: How Venture Capital Creates New Wealth

When the economy was booming and dot-coms were flying high, venture capitalists were admired as impresarios of innovation. Then the market tanked, start-ups fizzled, and those same deal-makers were rebuked as predators out for a quick score. So... View Details

26 Jun 2020
Research & Ideas

Why Japanese Businesses Are So Good at Surviving Crises

cost.” During the two vulnerable weeks before government relief kicked in, Lawson delivered 200,000 prepared meals to victims, including onigiri rice balls, bread, and cups of noodles. The company also took care of its own in an area... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

20 Dec 2022
Op-Ed

Employee Feedback: The Key to Retention During the Great Resignation

substantially different attrition rates among competitors. Companies with healthy, high-commitment, high-performance cultures—such as Southwest Airlines, Johnson & Johnson, and Enterprise Rent-A-Car—have had comparatively less attrition during the pandemic. What... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Beer

27 Jun 2019
Blog Post

My Week at Harvard Business School's Summer Venture in Management Program (SVMP)

The Prosperity Paradox: How Innovation Can Lift Nations Out of Poverty, and Kwame Owusu-Kesse, COO of Harlem Children's Zone, was particularly inspiring for their lasting impact on vulnerable communities in the United States and abroad.... View Details

05 Nov 2021
Blog Post

Video Blog: Why I Decided to Pursue an MBA at HBS

stories. And that translated over into the actual MBA experience itself. My first year of school, I mean, just how vulnerable people let themselves be about the things that they'd gone through or the thoughts that they have percolating in... View Details

13 Feb 2020
Book

Open Your Organization to Honest Conversations

and know-it-all, they won’t get anywhere,” Beer says. “People at the top have more decision rights, and that gives them a sense of distance and sometimes a false sense of confidence that they have the answers to everything. But they don’t. Nobody does.” So, CEOs should... View Details