B-School Bulletin: Fighting Cancer More Efficiently

A Better Business Model For Fighting Cancer

News from Harvard Business School

“With billions of dollars spent on the development of precision medicine and related cancer research over the last decade, a recent partnership seeks a new way to bring these treatments to patients more quickly: through a better business model.

“Founded in 2016 with a $20 million gift from the Robert and Myra Kraft Family Foundation, the Kraft Precision Medicine Accelerator is a partnership between the foundation, Harvard Business School, and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. The alliance is working to eliminate inefficiencies and bottlenecks in the precision medicine development system to speed delivery of targeted therapies to the marketplace.

“’Early on, people would ask us why the (Harvard) business school, and not the medical school, was the recipient of this gift,’ says accelerator co-chair and HBS senior fellow Richard Hamermesh. ‘Nowadays, I don’t get that question—it’s clear.’ Simply put, inefficiencies in the development of precision medicine can best be addressed by a business-analysis approach.”

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Professor James Rubin, who had worked at Darden for more than 25 years, died after a fall in his home in 2016. Photo courtesy UVA Darden School of Business

Darden Colleagues Carry Late Professor’s Book Over The Finish Line

News from University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business

“James Rubin, a professor at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, had spent years working on his first book before he sustained serious injuries in a fall at his home on June 21, 2016 – the same day he submitted his first draft to his publisher.

“Rubin, 64, died from his injuries 15 days later, leaving his wife, Jane Perry; son, Edward; and many more family members, friends, students and colleagues grieving his loss.

“Thanks to the efforts of some of those colleagues, he also left behind a published book.”

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The 2018 Kellogg Women’s Leadership Seminar Kicks Off

News from Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management 

“During the first week of winter quarter, 150 female second-year and 1Y students gathered in White Auditorium for the kickoff session of the third annual Women’s Leadership Seminar. Started in 2016 by the Women’s Business Association Co-Presidents, the WLS has become a formalized, co-curricular program with five sessions facilitated by esteemed Kellogg professors, inspiring alumnae and external experts.

“The mission of this program is to equip and inspire high-potential women to pursue, navigate and sustain careers that drive impact and create lives of personal meaning. Each of the sessions is structured to define and educate participants on the four mindsets and behaviors that impact women throughout their careers: anchoring, aspiring, advocating, and adapting. Led by Professor Ellen Taaffe ’97, Kellogg’s director of women’s leadership programming, these sessions, along with organized discussion groups known as Kellogg Circles, provide female students with a unique forum to discuss and reflect prior to relaunching their careers after graduation.”

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Brad Shervheim

‘Be Vulnerable.’ A Berkeley Haas Student Shares His MBA Essay Tips 

News from UC-Berkeley Haas School of Business 

“Deciding that the MBA application essay was truly a chance to reveal himself as a whole person — beyond his resume and test scores — Brad Shervheim dug deep and made himself vulnerable.

“It paid off. Brad shares his MBA essay insights in conversation with Eileen Jacob, associate director of admissions for Berkeley MBA Programs for Working Professionals.”

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McNulty Leadership Program Executive Director Jeff Klein (left) watches from the side of the Irvine stage as Cluster 3’s Space Elevator team presents in The Big Idea finals. Penn photo

How The Big Idea Bridges MBA Pre-Term And Academics

News from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania

“’You got to know your learning teams. Now this is the first project you’ll do together,’ Manvi Goel, WG’18, a Leadership Fellow, told her Cohort L students as she introduced The Big Idea, the final event of MBA Pre-term. Fresh from their learning team retreat, the newly formed teams were tasked with ideating, researching, planning, and pitching a novel business idea in just two days.

“The fellows rolled a video of Vik Malhotra, WG’86, chairman of the Americas and a senior partner at McKinsey & Associates, which has sponsored The Big Idea for the past two years. He issued the the following challenge:

“’Pick an area where you think a collaborative partnership between private and public entities can provide a solution to to a problem, take advantage of an opportunity, improve an exciting partnership, or unleash untapped potential.’”

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