2024 Best 40-Under-40 MBA Professors: Tiona Zuzul, Harvard Business School

Tiona Zuzul
Harvard Business School

“As a young female student, I want to stress how important it is to have a mentor like Professor Zuzul to look up to. At moments, it has been difficult to ‘see’ myself in the highly male-dominated world of Strategy. Yet with Professor Zuzul as a role model, I feel more confident that there is a place for me here, and a way to balance a high-impact career with a family. Somehow Professor Zuzul is able to span seemingly impossible dichotomies: she is simultaneously ambitious and generous, whip-smart and patient, competent and warm. Professor Zuzul has given me, along with countless other young female students, a sense that we belong in Strategy, too. This is no little feat.” – Ryann Noe, PhD student

Tiona Zuzul, 39, is Assistant Professor of Strategy at Harvard Business School.

Her research focuses on how leaders and organizations learn and adapt to major changes and disruptive events. Her research settings range from startups to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Her work has been published in top journals such as Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, and Strategic Management Journal. She won the first Research Methods Prize from the Strategic Management Society. Other research awards include multiple best paper finalist honors from Strategic Management Society, best paper runner-up for Academy of Management Discoveries, the Wiley Blackwell/BPS Dissertation Award Finalist, Heizer Dissertation Award Finalist, and the Grigor McClelland Dissertation Award Honorable Mention.

She serves on the editorial boards of Administrative Science Quarterly, Organization Science, and the Strategic Management Journal. She was selected as a Radar Thinking by Thinkers50 (the “Oscars of Management Research) in 2022.

Previously, she was an assistant professor at London Business School for three years and at the University of Washington for four years, where she was recognized as MBA Professor of the Quarter and received a PhD Faculty Mentor award.

At HBS, Class of 2024 MBA students selected her to teach a special “Parents Session” case discussion for families during graduation week.

BACKGROUND

At current institution since what year? 2021
Education: PhD – Harvard Business School; MSc – London School of Economics; AB – Harvard University
List of MBA courses you currently teach: Strategy (Required 1st year), Making Difficult Decisions (Elective 2nd year)

TELL US ABOUT LIFE AS A BUSINESS SCHOOL PROFESSOR

I knew I wanted to be a business school professor when… My father was a professor so, growing up, I understood and appreciated academic life. But it wasn’t until I started consulting that I considered a career as a business school professor. I have always loved conducting research, and was motivated to apply my research skills to explore and help solve important organizational problems. And my love of teaching developed during my PhD and continues to grow each year!

What are you currently researching and what is the most significant discovery you’ve made from it? I am currently studying how leaders make sense of and communicate about discontinuities that threaten their organizations’ survival. I do this through deep, ethnographic research into a single organization that unfolds over years or even decades. For example, in one study, my co-authors and I examined the FBI’s response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001; in another study, we focused on Virgin Galactic’s deadly 2014 test flight crash. We found that, following these discontinuities, leaders needed to re-build stakeholder support, and that this required reframing the organization’s entire purpose. For example, by analyzing 12 years of data following September 11, we found that then-FBI-Director Robert Mueller re-built stakeholder support by reframing the FBI as a “threat-based, intelligence-led” agency (as opposed to a law enforcement or counterterrorism agency).

If I weren’t a business school professor… I would be a writer. I like to think I would write novels, but more likely I would write expository non-fiction about the incredible leaders, entrepreneurs, and thinkers I have encountered through my work and research.

What do you think makes you stand out as a professor? According to my students: empathy and authenticity. And my extensive shoe collection.

One word that describes my first time teaching: Nerve-wracking.

Here’s what I wish someone would’ve told me about being a business school professor: You’re a part-time lecturer, researcher, administrator, career counselor, life coach, and psychiatrist. Each role is incredibly rewarding but balancing them can be tricky!

Professor I most admire and why: My mentors and role models Amy Edmondson (at HBS) and Mary Tripsas (at UC Santa Barbara). On a recent trip to India for field research, I saw a sign in front of an ashram that read: “You learn by doing, and you teach by being.” Amy and Mary have taught me so much, not only through their words and advice, but through the example that they have set—through their unwavering dedication to research excellence, their generosity toward their students and colleagues, their commitment to their families, and the joy that they bring to their work and their lives.

TEACHING MBA STUDENTS

What do you enjoy most about teaching business students? Those “aha!” moments, when students’ comments build on one another to cumulate in a key, collective insight nobody could have brought on their own. I also enjoy getting to know my students and understanding how their unique experiences and backgrounds shape their comments and perspectives on a case or class discussion.

What is most challenging? Time management. Both inside and outside the classroom!

In one word, describe your favorite type of student: Curious.

In one word, describe your least favorite type of student: Overconfident.

When it comes to grading, I think students would describe me as… Unremarkable (I hope).

LIFE OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM

What are your hobbies? I have two brilliant, hilarious little daughters (ages 4 and 6) who keep me very busy. I practice Ashtanga yoga daily. I love reading, good food, walks and hikes with my husband, and spending time with my friends and family (especially my siblings and their families). I recently picked up painting after a 25-year hiatus… let’s see if that one sticks!

How will you spend your summer? Research, conference travel, teaching in executive education programs. A trip to St Thomas and Miami to visit special friends and celebrate my big upcoming birthday. An annual sailing trip to Croatia, where I am from, to relax and recharge with family.

Favorite place(s) to vacation: Croatian coast and islands.

Favorite book(s): Anything by Vladimir Nabokov. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (our cat, Yossarian, lives up to his name).

What is currently your favorite movie and/or show and what is it about the film or program that you enjoy so much? Bluey. If you know, you know.

What is your favorite type of music or artist(s) and why? Because I was born with the musical tastes of a 65-year-old: opera, classical, folk/English rock. Because I am, after all, an elder millennial: late 1990s/early 2000s party anthems.

THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS

If I had my way, the business school of the future would have much more of this… Experimental exercises, small-group sessions, and role-plays that allow students to practice management skills, receive real-time feedback, and put into action the concepts they learn about through cases and classes.

In my opinion, companies and organizations today need to do a better job at… Developing strategies today that allow for flexibility and agility tomorrow, rather than over-relying on what has worked in the past. Developing policies that reflect the realities of the modern economy and that can attract and retain diverse employees (including part-time or flexible schedules, four-day workweeks, and support for families).

I’m grateful for… Every day: my health, my family, my mentors and teachers. Today: that upcoming sailing trip to Croatia!

DON’T MISS: THE ENTIRE 2024 ROSTER OF THE WORLD’S BEST 40-UNDER-40 MBA PROFESSORS