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Meet HBS Leadership Fellows: Katie Rae Mulvey, Detroit Economic Growth Corporation

Katie Rae Mulvey (MBA 2017) will be starting this summer at the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation.

Tell us about the organization and your role for the Fellowship year.

Next year, I will be working with the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation (DEGC), a nonprofit that has been leading economic development and real estate work in the city of Detroit for 35 years. DEGC works closely with the Mayor’s office to attract corporations and investments to the city, to build up the small business community, and to facilitate public-private partnerships that create jobs and strengthen the local economy. In my role as Special Assistant to the President and CEO, I will be creating internal structures and systems that allow DEGC to better measure and communicate its impact. I will also support DEGC’s work on the ground in in the city to accelerate the revitalization efforts in Detroit.

What is your background pre-HBS?

Prior to HBS, I spent three years in consulting at Booz Allen Hamilton, followed by three years in venture philanthropy at Strategic Grant Partners, a foundation in Massachusetts. My stint in consulting helped me build critical analytical, problem solving, and project management skills that I will be able to use throughout my career. During my time at the foundation I discovered my passion for social impact work and learned how to effectively translate a promising mission or idea in the social sector into an actionable plan and a high functioning organization.

What most excites you about the Leadership Fellows opportunity?

It’s an extremely exciting time to be living and working in Detroit, especially in economic development and real estate. These are new focus areas for me and I feel very lucky to be able to do this work in a city like Detroit that is rebuilding from the ground up and trying to redefine its identity and economy while honoring its rich history. The DEGC team is also very impressive, having amassed a wealth of experience leading economic development efforts in Detroit and in other cities across the US; I am eager to learn from them.

Why The MBA Is Still Relevant

I come from an industry that gives sideways glances at the mention of an MBA. “Tech moves so quickly,” I was advised. “It won’t be the same when you return. Taking two years away from the workforce is risky.” The MBA isn’t exactly praised in Silicon Valley. But it was a risk I was willing to take on two years Harvard Business School, primarily because I believe this degree is still relevant, regardless of industry.

What surprised me most about my time at HBS is that the curriculum is incredibly relevant to all leaders, and will be a gift that continues to materialize through future years. Some people pursue an MBA because their professions require it; others because they are looking to switch careers; and yet another cohort seeking to formally build upon business skills obtained on the job. And although I had received advice that I could learn both the hard and soft skills on the job at a startup, nothing can replace two years of the personal and professional growth I did here at HBS.

There are three major aspects of the HBS experience that confirmed for me how valuable getting an MBA can be, and I’m grateful for the two years I spend absorbing that knowledge.

Harvard Business School Announces Social Enterprise Loan Repayment Assistance Program

Since 1992, Harvard Business School has supported graduates through the Nonprofit/Public Sector Loan Repayment Assistance Program, reducing the educational debt repayment burden for alumni serving in managerial positions in the nonprofit and public sectors.

The School’s Social Enterprise Initiative and MBA Program announced today an expansion of the program to include for-profit social enterprise positions. Beginning with the October 2017 application cycle, the program will support alumni working with a nonprofit, public sector organization or for-profit social enterprise. These include certified B Corporations (B-Corps) and limited liability corporations (L3Cs) in the United States or the equivalent in another country. Applications from alumni working at for-profit social enterprises will be awarded on a case-by-case basis, with a limited number of applications accepted on an annual basis.

“The line between nonprofit and for-profit is increasingly blurring,” said Matt Segneri (MBA 2010), director of the School’s Social Enterprise Initiative. “We are seeing a growing number of HBS graduates elect to pursue opportunities at the intersection of sectors, working at hybrid organizations or for-profit social enterprises.”

Expansion of our financial assistance program allows the Social Enterprise Initiative to broaden the impact of its mission “to educate, support, and inspire leaders across all sectors to tackle society's toughest challenges and make a difference in the world.” The shift also reflects Social Enterprise offerings in the MBA Program, which highlight and celebrate for-profit models that are both mission-driven and market-driven. This includes cases, courses (such as Business at the Base of the Pyramid and Investing for Impact), and the Social Enterprise Track of the annual HBS New Venture Competition, where an increasing number of entrants pursue for-profit and hybrid models.

The application deadline is October 1, 2017, for the 2018 award. More information can be found on the Loan Repayment Assistance Program website.

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Who said Harvard MBAs don’t code?

Last spring, we published a Harbus piece asserting that “coding is the new business literacy.” As we look back on the student-led digital literacy movements at HBS over the past year, we’d say that the student body agrees. There’s a blossoming ecosystem on campus of tech-driven clubs, hackathons, and ventures. It’s hard to believe that in 2015, HBS lacked even a computer science club.

Fast forward to 2017, and CODE is one of the largest, most active organizations at HBS. Many other new clubs have also come to life and become technical beacons on campus. Business Analytics & (big) Data Club (BAD) regularly hosts popular SQL 101 and data science workshops. Bitcoin Club is teaching MBAs about the technicalities of blockchain. Harvard AR/VR Student Alliance connects Harvard students, staff, and faculty interested in exploring the frontiers of augmented and virtual reality. All of these clubs are united in the strong belief that learning happens by building — not by lecturing.

This article is the first in a Harbus series highlighting technical clubs on the HBS campus. Today, we’re going to dive into CODE’s members and vision for the future.

CODE was founded in the fall of 2015 by a group of RCs who wanted to bring technologists together at Harvard Business School. Some of us were former engineers who wanted to keep the toolkits sharp during their time at HBS, while others were enthusiasts who wanted to learn the basics and how to better communicate with engineers. We believed then, as we still do, that HBS needed a place where engineers could meet to discuss technical topics and the student body as a whole could come to gain that first toe-hold into the richness, and modern necessity, that is coding skills.

How an African History Scholar Became a Modern Righter of Wrongs

Recently, a first-year MBA student at Harvard Business School was overheard gushing to a friend about a professor’s deep knowledge of Africa’s past.

He was talking about Caroline M. Elkins, a visiting professor at HBS who teaches in the School’s FIELD (Field Immersion Experiences for Leadership Development) global immersion course, which sends groups of students all over the world to get first-hand experience doing business in an unfamiliar location. This past May, Elkins and her students traveled to Cape Town, South Africa, where they engaged with 10 global partners on a dozen different design projects.

A renowned scholar of colonial-era African history, she isn’t the most obvious candidate for teaching modern business lessons to future executives. But Elkins, who has spent years conducting intensive field research in rural Kenya and other parts of the former British Empire, argues that there are clear parallels between academic knowledge and business intelligence.

3 REASONS I CHOSE TO ATTEND HBS

Greetings! My name is Alonso Lucero, and I’m currently a first year student at HBS. Prior to HBS, I worked in consulting, social impact venture capital, and data analytics.

I chose to attend Harvard Business School for three primary reasons: the case method, increased support for entrepreneurship, and diversity of experiences of its students and faculty.

EDUCATION SECTOR OPPORTUNITIES AT HBS

Peers are often confused when they meet MBA students who want to pursue careers in the education sector. “Why didn’t you go to the Graduate School of Education or the Kennedy School?” they often ask. Those are phenomenal programs (and some MBAs pursue joint degrees or cross-register for courses there). However, there’s a lively and robust education sector community within Harvard Business School and you can learn a valuable set of skills and perspectives to take into the education field.

For example, what do Boston Public Schools, Google Education, Altschool, Minerva, UC Berkeley, UP Education Network, the Gates Foundation, New Schools Venture Fund, and the Harlem Children's Zone have in common? Our HBS friends work there.

The education sector needs talent and expertise from a variety of different fields with a variety of different perspectives. HBS is a great place to develop skills and experiences that school districts, universities, non-profits, state and federal agencies, think tanks, education start-ups, and large companies with education divisions are looking for in the next generation of innovators and leaders. Here are some of the paths we’ve taken to develop these skills and experiences . . .

AN AVERAGE DAY AT HBS

At HBS, especially in your first year, no two days look or feel the same. That makes it extremely difficult to outline what my average weekday and weekend looks like, but I will do my best!

Weekdays

Not surprisingly, during the week the primary thing going on is class. In my RC year, my day began at 7:30 with an earlier alarm than I ideally would want, followed by discussion group. At discussion group, you have the chance to meet with five other first-year students (who aren’t in your section) to talk through that day’s cases. It is a great resource and one that truly helps you prepare for the day ahead.

After discussion group, it’s time for class. Each day you either have two or three cases (fingers crossed for two!). You will know at the beginning of the semester which days you have two versus three cases per day, which helps you mentally prepare and get ahead of your work as much as possible. These classes provide an incredible opportunity to learn new things from your professors and, more importantly, from your classmates. It is important to speak up during them since participation is a significant percentage of your grades at HBS!

At the latest, class should end each day by 2:45 p.m., which leaves you plenty of time the rest of the day for a number of activities, including:

• Homework: each night you will have to prepare for the next day’s cases. Preparation usually includes reading the case and some associated work (i.e., outlined question answers, Excel spreadsheets). My tip: try your best to stay two days ahead! This removes some stress and provides you with flexibility to take advantage of all that HBS has to offer.

• Speakers: not surprisingly, HBS has no shortage of amazing opportunities to hear from business leaders from around the world. I highly recommend you take advantage of this while you are here.

• Club events: these events can range from social to professional and include speaker series, conferences, and various recruiting prep.

• Recruiting/Networking: obviously this will vary depending on the time of year and where you are in your personal recruiting search, but this takes up a lot of time on weekdays. Early on this takes the form of Career and Professional Development events, company presentations, and networking phone calls/meetings with alumni and/or current students. As you progress through the cycle, this will take the form of interview prep (e.g., cases for consulting) and interviews themselves.

• Physical activity: one of my personal priorities is to make time for visits to the gym throughout the week. It helps clear your head and take a break from what can sometimes be coursework and recruiting madness.

• Social: last, but definitely not least, there is no shortage of social events that happen during the week. This can range from the casual hang session with sectionmates to group dinners to HBS-wide events and parties.