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Regardless of what you think of HBS, I find this to be impressive.... > Even in Silicon Valley, where HBS is relatively weak, about 10% of “Unicorns”—private s

Regardless of what you think of HBS, I find this to be impressive.... > Even in Silicon Valley, where HBS is relatively weak, about 10% of “Unicorns”—private startups worth over $1bn—have at least one HBS MBA as a founder. As to the article, Not really sure what the content is. Evidently HBS has > become a breeding ground for toxic behaviour, with conflicts of interests rife within the school, and its alumni responsible for pushing a rapacious form of capitalism that explains many of the ills of the world’s biggest economy. but they don't really provide any evidence to back up that claim or to disprove it.

Retric 9y ago
What's the number of actually profitable startups vs pump and dump "Unicorns"? Because the second group benefits from credentials far more than the first.
rch 9y ago
That's not really surprising since HBS looks good on paper, and people tend to be both affluent and relatively high-aptitude going in.
jonwachob91 9y ago
>>but they don't really provide any evidence to back up that claim or to disprove it. Duff McDonald did a live interview on CNBC a few weeks back and cited examples. This economist article was weak. Mr. McDonald's primary argument is that HBS teaches students to focus on Financials and not the Business, thus creating weak companies.
flerchin 9y ago
Survivorship bias. Content-free article is content free.
bluetwo 9y ago
The article reads to me a little bit like a promotion for the book that it references. No doubt in my mind HBS has been widely influential. Their book on strategy (simply called "Strategy") is an excellent collection of articles any startup founder would do well by reading. I find it interesting however that the task of building a new business is really very different from the art of making a business profitable and sustaining. Most schools still concentrate on the latter part, assuming their job is to get their students placed in a Fortune 500 company.
- adsteel__ 9y ago
  When you reference the book "Strategy", are you referring to "On Strategy" from HBR?
  - bluetwo 9y ago
    After I wrote that I looked for an easy link to the book. It seems it is out of print but shares an editor with the newer "On Strategy". Here is a link to the one I was talking about: https://www.amazon.com/Strategy-Seeking-Securing-Competitive-Advantage/dp/B007CGLBCG/ https://www.amazon.com/Strategy-Seeking-Securing-Competitive...
arcticfox 9y ago
To be fair, the article says the book makes that claim. I don't know what's in the book. The article is definitely short on content other than announcing the book though, I'm not sure why I read it. That said, I'd love to hear the discussion about the topic, because in my experience it's true.
sangnoir 9y ago
>> become a breeding ground for toxic behaviour, with conflicts of interests rife within the school, and its alumni responsible for pushing a rapacious form of capitalism that explains many of the ills of the world’s biggest economy. > but they don't really provide any evidence to back up that claim or to disprove it. They are paraphrasing a book by Duff McDonald - I'm guessing the book goes into the meat of it. There is a NYT review of the book[1] that offers a bit more detail into the allegations, including the paragraph below: > In virtually every instance, McDonald contends, Harvard has obsessively pursued money, sending a disproportionate number of its graduates to consulting firms beginning in the 1950s (it was all but synonymous with McKinsey), to Wall Street in the 1980s and to entrepreneurial start-ups once initial public offerings became the rage in the 1990s — and provided intellectual justifications for its actions. Much of that wealth found its way back to the school itself. Its professors earn enormous sums as consultants to businesses populated by their former students, who also give generously to their alma mater... 1. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/24/books/review/golden-passport-duff-mcdonald.html?_r=0 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/24/books/review/golden-passp...
- smelendez 9y ago
  > In virtually every instance, McDonald contends, Harvard has obsessively pursued money, sending a disproportionate number of its graduates to consulting firms beginning in the 1950s (it was all but synonymous with McKinsey), to Wall Street in the 1980s and to entrepreneurial start-ups once initial public offerings became the rage in the 1990s — and provided intellectual justifications for its actions. Is this Harvard pursuing money, or its students pursuing money and prestige (presumably the reasons they went to HBS in the first place--hardly anyone goes to business school primarily because of an intellectual curiosity about management theory)?
frgtpsswrdlame 9y ago
There's another article in Newsweek on this: http://www.newsweek.com/2017/04/14/harvard-business-school-financial-crisis-economics-578378.html http://www.newsweek.com/2017/04/14/harvard-business-school-f...
zepto 9y ago
What's impressive about it? What's the 10% for VC's? How can you distinguish performance of the school, from basic credentialism?
gm-conspiracy 9y ago
Like Kaleil Tuzman? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0256408/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0256408/
bsder 9y ago
Impressive? Why? We all know that access to capital is a huge advantage when starting a business. Look at Musk. He was going around to his social circle begging for money to make payroll right before the government contract to SpaceX came in. That's going to be far more effective if your social circle includes HBS or Stanford MBA grads as a founder.

Retric 9y ago

What's the number of actually profitable startups vs pump and dump "Unicorns"? Because the second group benefits from credentials far more than the first.

rch 9y ago

That's not really surprising since HBS looks good on paper, and people tend to be both affluent and relatively high-aptitude going in.

jonwachob91 9y ago

>>but they don't really provide any evidence to back up that claim or to disprove it. Duff McDonald did a live interview on CNBC a few weeks back and cited examples. This economist article was weak. Mr. McDonald's primary argument is that HBS teaches students to focus on Financials and not the Business, thus creating weak companies.

flerchin 9y ago

Survivorship bias. Content-free article is content free.

bluetwo 9y ago

The article reads to me a little bit like a promotion for the book that it references. No doubt in my mind HBS has been widely influential. Their book on strategy (simply called "Strategy") is an excellent collection of articles any startup founder would do well by reading. I find it interesting however that the task of building a new business is really very different from the art of making a business profitable and sustaining. Most schools still concentrate on the latter part, assuming their job is to get their students placed in a Fortune 500 company.

adsteel__ 9y ago
When you reference the book "Strategy", are you referring to "On Strategy" from HBR?
- bluetwo 9y ago
  After I wrote that I looked for an easy link to the book. It seems it is out of print but shares an editor with the newer "On Strategy". Here is a link to the one I was talking about: https://www.amazon.com/Strategy-Seeking-Securing-Competitive-Advantage/dp/B007CGLBCG/ https://www.amazon.com/Strategy-Seeking-Securing-Competitive...

arcticfox 9y ago

To be fair, the article says the book makes that claim. I don't know what's in the book. The article is definitely short on content other than announcing the book though, I'm not sure why I read it. That said, I'd love to hear the discussion about the topic, because in my experience it's true.

sangnoir 9y ago

>> become a breeding ground for toxic behaviour, with conflicts of interests rife within the school, and its alumni responsible for pushing a rapacious form of capitalism that explains many of the ills of the world’s biggest economy. > but they don't really provide any evidence to back up that claim or to disprove it. They are paraphrasing a book by Duff McDonald - I'm guessing the book goes into the meat of it. There is a NYT review of the book[1] that offers a bit more detail into the allegations, including the paragraph below: > In virtually every instance, McDonald contends, Harvard has obsessively pursued money, sending a disproportionate number of its graduates to consulting firms beginning in the 1950s (it was all but synonymous with McKinsey), to Wall Street in the 1980s and to entrepreneurial start-ups once initial public offerings became the rage in the 1990s — and provided intellectual justifications for its actions. Much of that wealth found its way back to the school itself. Its professors earn enormous sums as consultants to businesses populated by their former students, who also give generously to their alma mater... 1. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/24/books/review/golden-passport-duff-mcdonald.html?_r=0 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/24/books/review/golden-passp...

smelendez 9y ago
> In virtually every instance, McDonald contends, Harvard has obsessively pursued money, sending a disproportionate number of its graduates to consulting firms beginning in the 1950s (it was all but synonymous with McKinsey), to Wall Street in the 1980s and to entrepreneurial start-ups once initial public offerings became the rage in the 1990s — and provided intellectual justifications for its actions. Is this Harvard pursuing money, or its students pursuing money and prestige (presumably the reasons they went to HBS in the first place--hardly anyone goes to business school primarily because of an intellectual curiosity about management theory)?

frgtpsswrdlame 9y ago

There's another article in Newsweek on this: http://www.newsweek.com/2017/04/14/harvard-business-school-financial-crisis-economics-578378.html http://www.newsweek.com/2017/04/14/harvard-business-school-f...

zepto 9y ago

What's impressive about it? What's the 10% for VC's? How can you distinguish performance of the school, from basic credentialism?

gm-conspiracy 9y ago

Like Kaleil Tuzman? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0256408/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0256408/

bsder 9y ago

Impressive? Why? We all know that access to capital is a huge advantage when starting a business. Look at Musk. He was going around to his social circle begging for money to make payroll right before the government contract to SpaceX came in. That's going to be far more effective if your social circle includes HBS or Stanford MBA grads as a founder.