Harvard Faculty Discuss Recent Chinese Tariffs, and More – Boston News
Let’s explore some of the most interesting stories that have emerged from Boston business schools this week.
Trade War or War of Words? – Harvard Business School Blog
Following the Trump administration’s recent announcement of 25 percent tariffs on 1,000 Chinese exports, Bill Kirby and Willy Shih, Harvard Business School faculty experts on China, took to the HBS blog to “trade theories on the best path forward for the world’s two largest economies.”
Both experts point to economic shifts in the 1980s, which, not incidentally, was the decade in which Donald Trump started to become a household name. Kirby notes that the major trade distinctions between the United States and Japan, specifically regarding the auto-manufacturing industry, set a precedent. In that, the United States began to firmly invest in Japanese car companies like Honda and Toyota, building their own domestic manufacturing plants. Kirby suspects, however, that the Trump administration may not be as open to that kind of investment. “If Chinese companies wanted to improve access to American markets by investing in the US, would the administration be open to it?” he asks. “They ought to be, in my view. But my suspicion is that that’s not the outcome that this administration is looking for. They’re looking for a miraculous recovery of American-based manufacturing exporting to a Chinese market, not a particularly good match.”
Shih, staying on the topic of the ’80s, offers a different opinion, saying; “I think the real issue is industrial policy on the Chinese side competing with a lack of industrial policy on the U.S. side and the consequences of that. Going back to the mid-1980s, the Chinese government has been mapping a pathway for the country to become a modern country (just as the Koreans, Taiwanese, and the Japanese did before, except on a much larger scale). The Chinese have identified core capabilities that they want to see inside the country, and they’ve been methodically working on that over the last 30-plus years. I’d argue the positive trade balance with the US reflects the progress they’ve made.”
You can read the full conversation between Kirby and Shih here.
An Easy Internship Trick from Kayla Humel ’18 – Simmons Blog
Current Simmons School of Management student body president Kayla Humel, ’18, wrote candidly about the impact of the Student Government Association (SGA) on her recent internship at Puma and future career plans.
“First and foremost, [SGA has taught me] the power of good communication. When the e-board is communicating with one another, event planning is exponentially easier. When SGA is communicating with organizations, processes like budgets occur seamlessly. Good communication is crucial to success in any organization.”
Humel threw her hat in the presidential race because she “saw opportunities to improve processes between SGA and the other organizations on campus. I knew that SGA could create change on campus and I wanted to play a major part in that.”
You ca check out more about her Simmons experience here and watch an interview with Humel about her internship below.
Wield Polarization to Build Positive Change – MIT Sloan Newsroom
MIT Sloan School of Management sustainability initiative director Jason Jay used his recent TEDx talk as an opportunity to share some strategic advice on how to more effectively spark difficult conversations. “The voltage feels so high that we simply avoid conversations out of fear of getting shocked. But I like to think about that polarization as a kind of energy.”
- Draw a contrast between what others might expect you to do and what you’re really trying to do.
- Clarify the values underlying your positions, and do the same with the people you’re talking to.
- Make it clear that you aren’t meeting simply to bargain over these values, but to embrace tension and find new ideas.”
You can check out Jay’s TEDx talk at Hofstra University below and learn more about his work here.
Rady’s 2016 Business Accelerator Success
The Rady School of Management at UC San Diego is known for its heavy focus on entrepreneurship. Not only does the Rady MBA program offer various electives—as well as a Lab to Market capstone course focused on developing the next great entrepreneurs—but the school is also home to two accelerator programs including the StartR Accelerator. And for StartR, 2016 was an exciting year in entrepreneurship.
StartR is a non-profit accelerator program designed for Rady students and alumni. Its goal is to provide entrepreneurs with the tools and skills they need to start and grow their business. In 2016, StartR was responsible for launching ten new business ventures. But that’s not all; participants in the program also took home multiple prestigious awards throughout the year.
Below is a detailed look at some of the top achievements for StartR in 2016.
Key StartR Achievements 2016
- Braykion, a healthcare system designed to rid the health care environment of preventable infections, became the seventh StartR team to be accepted into EvoNexus.
- StartR teams took home multiple local awards including the Social Innovation Challenge; the Entrepreneur Challenge, EvoNexus Demo Day, CONNECT’s Most Innovative New Product Awards and more.
- TEDxSanDiego’s Innovation Alley featured two StartR teams (Aira and Braykion).
- The 2017 cohort welcomed ten new teams in November 2016, and it’s the most gender diverse group to date.
- StartR teams raised more than $7 million in funding, bringing the total funding since 2013 to over $23 million.
- Clarify Medical and Grolltex were named to Xconomy’s 12 San Diego Tech Startups to Watch.
- The Wall Street Journal’s Startup Showcase included Aira, a tech service for the visually impaired, as a finalist.
To learn more about all of Rady’s achievements with StartR Accelerator in 2016, visit the school website and check out the news article. And to find out more about StartR, the free six-month long acceleration program located on the Rady School campus, head on over to the StartR website.
