DAX (May 18) 6318.65 9.69 0.15% CAC (May 18) 3013.64 1.65 0.05% FTSE (May 18) 5297.17 -41.21 -0.77%
Brent Crude (May 18) $ 111.12 -1.12 -1.00% Gold (May 18) 28,816.00 289.00 1.01% Silver (May 18) 53,844.00 710.00 1.34%
Dollar / Rupee 54.42 -0.05 -0.09% Euro / Rupee 69.32 0.37 0.53%
Led by outstanding performance by SBI in fourth quarter numbers and sharp recovery in rupee from record low to near previous close, the BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty showed a nice rebound in late trade on Friday. However, the global markets stayed under pressure due to eurozone concerns and weak US data.
Short covering helped markets close higher on Friday. The BSE benchmark rose 82.27 points or 0.51%, to close at 16,152.75 after seeing recovery of more than 300 points from intraday low of 15,809.71.
The NSE benchmark fell below the 4800 level to hit a low of 4,788.95 during the day, before closing at 4,891.45, up 21.25 points or 0.44% led by support from banks, oil & gas, FMCG, steel and technology stocks. Index touched an intraday high of 4,908.50 in late trade.
The Indian rupee too bounced back quite smartly to 54.56 a dollar from record low of 54.89 a dollar, but still down 9 paise from previous close of 54.47 a dollar. Currency has fallen due to sliding euro and other Asian currencies due to Eurozone turmoil.
European markets were off day's low at the time of closing of Indian equities; France's CAC and Germany's DAX were down 0.2% while Britain's FTSE fell 0.9%. Asian markets were down 1-3% at close. Spike in German government bond yields to record lows, rising US dollar, downgrade Greece by Fitch and bank crisis in Spain dampened investors' sentiment globally.
Back home, country's largest lender State Bank of India rallied 5% after better than expected net profit of Rs 4,050 crore for the fourth quarter of FY12 as against Rs 21 crore a year ago, aided by higher interest income and lower provisioning for non-performing loans. Analysts on average had expected profit at Rs 3,580 crore. Net non-performing asset (NPA) ratio declined to 1.82% as against 2.22% in the October-December quarter while the gross NPA ratio fell from 4.61% to 4.44% during the same period.
Private sector lenders ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank gained 2.26% and 0.93%, respectively. Yes Bank, UCO Bank, IDBI Bank, DCB and Syndicate Bank too moved up 1.6-3%.
Technology stocks too turned positive towards the close; Infosys and Wipro rose over 0.5% while rival TCS was flat. In midcap space, Mahindra Satyam (post strong numbers in Q4) and KPIT Cummins jumped 6% (gained 56% in a month post Q4 numbers and strong outlook).
Index heavyweight and oil & gas producer Reliance Industries rose 0.5% while state-owned ONGC was up 1%.
FMCG majors ITC and HUL too rebounded quite nicely, rising nearly 2% and 0.6%, respectively.
Among metals and mining stocks, Sterlite Industries, Jindal Steel, Sesa Goa and SAIL gained around 2-4% whereas Tata Steel and Coal India fell 1-1.5%.
Auto stocks were beaten down badly as rising rupee may increase the cost of imports and royalty payment for these companies. Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto and Maruti Suzuki tanked 2.6-4%. Hero Motocorp was down 1% whereas M&M gained 1%.
In the second line shares, aviation stocks witnessed buying interest after CNBC-TV18 reported quoting top government sources that foreign direct investment in aviation sector is in final stages of approval. Kingfisher was up 2.8%, Jet Airways rallied 6.4% and SpiceJet shot up nearly 9%.
Future Capital and Pantaloon Retail surged 5-6% after 2.5 crore equity shares (38.6% equity) of Future Capital changed hands at Rs 129.58/share via block deal.
However, state-owned earthquake equipment manufacturer BEML tumbled 7.5% after the Karnataka police frozen company's bank accounts.
Manappuram Finance was down nearly 4% ahead of fourth quarter numbers of FY12.
Declining shares outnumbered advancing by 1464 to 1232 on the BSE.
For the week; the 30-share BSE Sensex and 50-share NSE Nifty fell around 0.8%.
Xchanging Wins Best Business Continuity Approach of the Year - Yahoo Finance
LONDON, May 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --
Xchanging (XCH:LSE), the business process and technology services provider and integrator has won the 2012 StrategicRISK Best Business Continuity Approach of the Year. The Award recognises firms that "initiated or implemented a well thought-out new business continuity approach in 2011 that reflected current challenges." Xchanging was selected as winner after being placed on a shortlist of five companies.
Nigel Knight, Head of Business Continuity Planning at Xchanging said, "Over the past twelve months we have worked tremendously hard to overhaul our business continuity planning. We are thrilled that our efforts have been so recognised by the European Risk Management Awards."
Throughout 2011, Xchanging's Insurance Risk Management and Business Continuity teams undertook a major strategic review with senior stakeholders internally and externally and formulated associated plans in order to demonstrate Xchanging's ability to continue to provide services in the event of a financial crisis. The resulting new plans were externally tested by KPMG in line with BS25999 standards.
In further recognition of its high quality business continuity planning, in 2011 Xchanging became the first insurance service provider to qualify for a certification to the management system standard, BS25999 by the British Standards Institution. Highlighting Xchanging's excellence in Business Continuity, Lorna Anderson, EMEA Business Continuity Expert at BSI said: "Business continuity is not a one-off activity. It needs to evolve with the organisation. The key to this is thinking about what may happen and taking appropriate steps as demonstrated by Xchanging. A further endorsement to XIS's commitment is having it independently assessed by BSI."
Xchanging
What we are
Xchanging provides business processing, technology and procurement services internationally for customers across multiple industries.
What we do
Xchanging brings innovation, thought leadership and passion to its customers' businesses so as to enhance performance and value. Our values are embedded into everything we do.
What we want to be
Xchanging wants to be regarded as the best provider in its chosen markets by delivering services that are recognised for outstanding quality, reliability and innovation.
For further information, please contact:
Xchanging UK
Julie Lynch
julie.lynch@xchanging.com
Tel: +44(0)20-7780-5010
FWD PR
Michael Gaughan
michael.gaughan@fwdpr.co.uk
Tel: +44(0)20-7623-2368
Richard Adams
richard.adams@fwdpr.co.uk
Tel: +44(0)20-7623-2368
PTDA Business Index indicates expansion and sales growth. - ThomasNet Industrial News Room
Power Transmission Distributors Association
230 W. Monroe St
Chicago, IL, 60606-4703
USA
Press release date: May 15, 2012
Chicago, Ill.-The PTDA Business Index indicated 1Q2012 was the eighth consecutive quarter for business growth among PTDA members, with a reading of 75.4. Compared with a reading of 67.3 for 4Q2011, the recently released first-quarter results indicate the power transmission/motion control industry is expanding at a faster pace than before. Both distributors and manufacturers saw strong growth in 1Q12.
[Note: The index reading indicates the rate of change compared with the previous period. For example, a reading of 50 indicates no change from the prior period while readings above 50 indicate growth and below 50 indicate contraction. The further the index is above or below 50 suggests a faster or slower rate of change.]
The table below provides an overview of the results from the 1Q2012 index and a comparison with 4Q2011.
PTDA Quarterly Business Index 4Q2011 1Q2012 Business Activity 68.6 83.7 New Orders 72.8 80.8 Employment 65.9 74.4 Supplier Deliveries 61.9 62.5 Inventories 64.7 69.8 Prices 83.7 87.2 Backlog 55.8 66.3 Overall PTDA Index 67.3 75.4MPTDA members participating in the Business Index expect 2012 to be another year of growth with an average forecast of 11 percent, up from 9 percent in the 4Q11 survey.
The PTDA Business Index full report is available through PTDA's website at www.ptda.org/BusinessIndex. It includes U.S. and Canadian breakout data in addition to historical data. Conducted jointly by PTDA and Cleveland Research Company, the PTDA Quarterly Business Index was modeled after the widely respected Purchasing Managers Index and tracks change in business activity, new orders, employment, supplier deliveries, inventories, prices and backlog in the PT/MC market to arrive at an overall index.
Founded in 1960, the Power Transmission Distributors Association (PTDA) is the leading association for the industrial power transmission/motion control (PT/MC) distribution channel. A U.S.-based trade association, PTDA represents 178 power transmission/motion control distribution firms that generate more than $10 billion in sales and span just over 3,500 locations in North America and 11 other countries. PTDA members also include 180 manufacturers that supply the PT/MC industry.
PTDA is dedicated to providing exceptional networking, targeted education, relevant information and leading-edge business tools to help distributors and manufacturers meet marketplace demands competitively and profitably. For more information, call +1.312.516.2100 or visit www.ptda.org.
Pot business founder facing grand theft charges - San Francisco Gate
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The man behind a national chain of stores that provide supplies to medical marijuana growers is facing charges that he stole thousands of dollars from Oakland grant programs. Alameda County prosecutors charged 27-year-old Dhar Mann on Thursday ...Chinese Internet Stocks Posting Mixed Results - Yahoo Finance
NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire -05/18/12)- China's internet stocks have posted mixed results recently as government restrictions, high costs, and a shift to mobile devices have made it difficult for companies to tap into the nation's vast online market. It is estimated that only 37.7 percent of China is online according to the China Internet Network Information Center (CINIC). Five Star Equities examines the outlook for companies in China's Internet Sector and provides equity research on E Commerce China Dangdang Inc. (DANG) and Youku Inc. (YOKU)
Access to the full company reports can be found at:
www.FiveStarEquities.com/DANG
www.FiveStarEquities.com/YOKU
China currently has more than 500 million internet users. China's internet growth has lagged in recent years, 55.8 million users were still added in 2011, according to the CINIC. Estimates from eMarketer, a digital-marketing research firm, projects that online advertising revenue is projected to grow from $4.6 billion in 2011 to $9.5 billion in 2014. With tight restrictions from the government and growing competition, internet companies have struggled to turn users into reliable sources of revenue.
"A lot of these problems are coming from the fact that most of these firms are still figuring out what the ultimate business model is going to be," said David Wolf, chief executive of Wolf Group Asia. In regards to slowing internet user growth, he added, "It will be about who has the deeper pockets and who is going to be able to evolve their service to keep users. We are looking at more spending before we see more revenue."
Five Star Equities releases regular market updates on China's Internet Sector so investors can stay ahead of the crowd and make the best investment decisions to maximize their returns. Take a few minutes to register with us free at www.FiveStarEquities.com and get exclusive access to our numerous stock reports and industry newsletters.
E-Commerce China Dangdang Inc. is a leading business-to-consumer e-commerce company in China. Dangdang recorded an operating loss of RMB107.2 million ($17.0 million) in the first quarter of 2012, as compared with an operating income of RMB1.3 million in the corresponding period in 2011.
Youku Inc. is China's leading Internet television company. Their Internet television platform enables users to search, view and share high-quality video content quickly and easily across multiple devices. Youku, which stands for "what's best and what's cool" in Chinese, is the most recognized online video brand in China. The company received an Internet Publication License from China's General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) on March 28.
Five Star Equities provides Market Research focused on equities that offer growth opportunities, value, and strong potential return. We strive to provide the most up-to-date market activities. We constantly create research reports and newsletters for our members. Five Star Equities has not been compensated by any of the above-mentioned companies. We act as an independent research portal and are aware that all investment entails inherent risks. Please view the full disclaimer at: www.FiveStarEquities.com/disclaimer
BMO Financial Group Announces Monthly Cash Distributions for BMO Exchange Traded Funds - Stockhouse
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - May 18, 2012) - BMO Financial Group today announced the May 2012 cash distributions for the 23 BMO Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)* which pay monthly distributions. Unitholders of record at close of business on May 30, 2012 will receive cash distributions payable on June 7, 2012.
Details of the per unit distribution amounts are as follows:
| BMO ETFs: | Ticker | Cash Distribution per Unit ($) |
| BMO Short Federal Bond Index ETF | ZFS | 0.032 |
| BMO Mid Federal Bond Index ETF | ZFM | 0.042 |
| BMO Long Federal Bond Index ETF | ZFL | 0.051 |
| BMO Short Provincial Bond Index ETF | ZPS | 0.048 |
| BMO Short Corporate Bond Index ETF | ZCS | 0.048 |
| BMO Mid Corporate Bond Index ETF | ZCM | 0.061 |
| BMO Long Corporate Bond Index ETF | ZLC | 0.068 |
| BMO Aggregate Bond Index ETF | ZAG | 0.045 |
| BMO Real Return Bond Index ETF | ZRR | 0.028 |
| BMO High Yield US Corporate Bond Hedged to CAD Index ETF | ZHY | 0.098 |
| BMO Emerging Markets Bond Hedged to CAD Index ETF | ZEF | 0.072 |
| BMO 2013 Corporate Bond Target Maturity ETF | ZXA | 0.042 |
| BMO 2015 Corporate Bond Target Maturity ETF | ZXB | 0.053 |
| BMO 2020 Corporate Bond Target Maturity ETF | ZXC | 0.061 |
| BMO 2025 Corporate Bond Target Maturity ETF | ZXD | 0.063 |
| BMO S&P/TSX Equal Weight Banks Index ETF | ZEB | 0.051 |
| BMO Equal Weight Utilities Index ETF | ZUT | 0.075 |
| BMO Equal Weight REITs Index ETF | ZRE | 0.083 |
| BMO Monthly Income ETF | ZMI | 0.062 |
| BMO Covered Call Canadian Banks ETF | ZWB | 0.085 |
| BMO Covered Call Utilities ETF | ZWU | 0.085 |
| BMO Covered Call Dow Jones Industrial Average Hedged to CAD ETF | ZWA | 0.075 |
| BMO Canadian Dividend ETF | ZDV | 0.055 |
Further information about BMO ETF Products can be found at www.bmo.com/etfs.
*BMO ETFs are administered and managed by BMO Asset Management Inc., an investment fund manager and portfolio manager and a separate legal entity from Bank of Montreal.
Commissions, management fees and expenses all may be associated with investments in exchange traded funds. Please read the prospectus before investing. The funds are not guaranteed, their values change frequently and past performance may not be repeated.
About BMO Financial Group
Established in 1817 as Bank of Montreal, BMO Financial Group is a highly-diversified North American financial services organization. With total assets of $538 billion as at January 31, 2012, and more than 47,000 employees, BMO Financial Group provides a broad range of retail banking, wealth management and investment banking products and solutions.
S&P ® is a registered trademark of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC ("S&P") and TSX is a trademark of Toronto Stock Exchange ("TSX"). These trademarks have been licensed for use by Bank of Montreal. BMO S&P/TSX Equal Weight Banks Index ETF is not sponsored, endorsed, sold or promoted by S&P or TSX, and S&P and TSX make no representation, warranty or condition regarding the advisability of buying, selling or holding units in the BMO ETFs.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average(SM) is a product of Dow Jones Indexes, a licensed trade-mark of CME Group Index Services LLC ("CME"), and has been licensed for use. "Dow Jones®", "Dow Jones Industrial Average(SM)", "Dow Jones Canada Titan 60" and "Titans" are service marks of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings, LLC ("Dow Jones")and have been licensed for use for certain purposes. BMO ETFs based on Dow Jones indexes are not sponsored, endorsed, sold or promoted by Dow Jones, CME or their respective affiliates and none of them makes any representation regarding the advisability of investing in such product(s).
US STOCKS-Wall St to rise after steep decline as Facebook debuts - Reuters UK
* Facebook shares to start trading on Nasdaq at 11 am
* Spanish CDS hit record high, bank shares bounce back
* Futures up: Dow 53 pts, S&P 6 pts, Nasdaq 9 pts (Updates prices)
NEW YORK, May 18 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were set to open higher on Friday but major indexes were still setting up to close their worst week of the year, while Facebook's market debut could help lift battered investor sentiment.
The S&P has fallen 6.7 percent so far in May, and while volatility is expected to continue, some analysts were forecasting a near-term rebound as valuations become more attractive.
Investors are bracing for Facebook's debut after the world's No. 1 online social network raised about $16 billion in one of the biggest initial public offerings in U.S. history. Facebook priced its offering at $38 a share on Thursday, and shares are expected to begin trading under the FB symbol on Nasdaq at around 11 a.m. (1500 GMT).
The large weekly decline in equities has come amid uncertainty over a political crisis in Greece and whether that could trigger a default and possible exit from the euro zone.
Market participants were skittish even as a poll showed Greek voters are returning to the establishment parties that negotiated its bailout.
"Even good news is not enough to overcome the fear that there is going to be a dramatic slowdown in the world economy because of the European crisis," said Rick Meckler, president of investment firm LibertyView Capital Management in New York.
"Today, Facebook trading up would be a good start," he said, adding that a decline below the IPO price "could be a big negative for the market."
Shares of companies in the online social media sphere were active before the bell. LinkedIn rose 2.4 percent to $107.45 and Groupon added 2.6 percent to $12.73.
S&P 500 futures rose 6 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 53 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures added 9 points.
The cost to insure Spanish government debt against default hit record highs Friday, a day after Moody's cut its ratings on 16 Spanish banks, heightening fears of contagion from the Greek political crisis.
Spanish government-run Bankia shares, up more than 25 percent on the day but still down 31 percent this month, led a rebound in Spanish banking stocks as traders closed short positions. U.S.-traded shares of Banco Santander and BBVA rose near 5 percent in light premarket trading.
Shares of Foot Locker jumped 8 percent in premarket trading after the athletic footwear retailer posted higher-than-expected quarterly results.
U.S. stocks hit a four-month low on Thursday as another round of weak data undermined hopes for a U.S. economic recovery, and as rising Spanish bond yields increased investor anxiety over the European nation's banks. (Reporting by Rodrigo Campos. Editing by Bernadette Baum, Dave Zimmerman)
Stocks tumble after Spanish banks have credit ratings cut - Metro.co.uk
The Ibex 35 index was off more than two points shortly after trading began on Friday.
Banks were among the biggest losers, although both the index and bank stocks recovered later.
Shares in Bankia, a recently nationalised bank, took a roller coaster ride on Thursday, ending up sharply lower on reports depositors pulled out a billion euro in a week.
The fall comes after Moody's cut the ratings of 16 Spanish banks in total, as well as Santander UK, with fears over the country's losses impacting on an already fragile eurozone.
A spokesman for Santander said there would be 'no impact' on its businesses in the UK or its 'plans for future growth'.
Banco Santander and BBVA, the two biggest banks in Spain, were also included with ten of the banks being placed on the negative credit watch, showing the potential for further downgrades.
According to Moody's, due to the Spanish government's borrowing difficulties, its ability to provide support to the banks has been 'reduced'.
The agency also cited 'adverse operating conditions, characterised by the renewed recession, the ongoing real-estate crisis and persistent high levels of unemployment'.
Because the Spanish government has had to pay higher rates of interest when borrowing money on the markets, some feel that the country will need a bailout.
The ratings of four Spanish regions, Catalonia, Murcia, Andalucia and Extremadura, were also cut as there was a perceived 'low probability' that their regional governments would be able to meet their respective 2012 deficit targets.
Madrid stocks slide after banking downgrade - Straits Times
MADRID (AFP) - Madrid share prices tumbled 2.28 per cent in opening trade on Friday, with banking stocks falling moderately after Moody's Investors Service downgraded 16 institutions.
The IBEX-35 index of top shares dropped 149.1 points, or 2.28 per cent, to 6,388.8, a day after the New York-based Moody's struck with a widely anticipated downgrade of the financial sector.
The euro zone's number-one bank by market value, Banco Santander, fell 1.64 per cent to 4.372 euros, rival BBVA declined 1.05 per cent to 4.717 euros, and CaixaBank eased 0.68 per cent to 2.189 euros.
Bankia, which plummeted more than 27 per cent at one point on Thursday as it was forced to deny a newspaper report of a run on the bank, eased 0.77 per cent to 1.411 euros.
Harvard Business School For The Facebook Age - The FINANCIAL
The FINANCIAL -- Innovation and real startup companies are front and center at the newly re-engineered HBS. The venerable institution hopes to prepare budding entrepreneurs--with inspiration from the one that got away.
Harvard Business School is buzzing. In part, it’s because students are working in “hives,” new circular, collaborative workspaces. But also because the hives are part of a radical rethink happening here—of everything from the storied school’s established curriculum, its pedagogy, student profiles, and outcomes, to its brand identity and physical spaces. Inspiration for the hives, for example, comes from a company founded by Harvard’s most famous dropout--they have “the look and feel of Facebook’s offices,” Dean Nitin Nohria tells Fast Company.An inestimably influential institution and iconic brand, Harvard Business School for some has become a symbol for what is wrong with business and education today: stodgy orthodoxy; ivory tower learning; American elitism and entitlement; and bloated Wall Street salaries. HBS’s makeover aims to change all that with a focus on the kind of real-world risk-taking, sweaty hard work and tinkering, and spirited collaboration that lured Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg away from Cambridge to the wild tech innovation happening out west.
Under the leadership of Harvard University President Drew Gilpin Faust and Nohria, the school has implemented this year an ambitious creative destruction project. HBS wants to reinvent the MBA and birth a new generation of entrepreneurs, innovation, and startups.
Learning by doing is a central tenet of the new FIELD curriculum which supplements its venerated case method core with a required leadership, global immersion and entrepreneurship “module” for all 900 students. HBS has taught courses on entrepreneurship for decades; but now all first year MBAs will do it by building 150 real businesses which are graded by real markets.
“HBS has long been a leader and innovator in business education,” Faust tells Fast Company. “The field of organizational behavior began at Harvard in the late 1920s. The first course in entrepreneurship was taught at Harvard just after World War II, and the case method was developed here just to name a few. I think FIELD and other innovations by HBS faculty will have a similar impact.”
Before FIELD, HBS had a credible innovation story. Decorated professor Clayton M. Christensen wrote The Innovator’s Dilemma which “deeply influenced” Steve Jobs and coined the term “disruptive innovation.” It was the first school to dedicate faculty and facilities specifically to entrepreneurship. HBS established a Research Center in Silicon Valley back in 1997 to bring both faculty and students closer to emerging technology business cases. According to Harvard Business School, its star-studded list of alumni who founded or lead successful startups and major global tech companies is hard to match.
Despite this pedigree, Nohria says that other business schools are more often top-of-mind in the areas of entrepreneurship and venture capital; he’s working to change that perception, which "lags reality,” he says. Stanford University of course is nearly synonymous, if not incestuous with the Silicon Valley scene. But even in its own Boston backyard, HBS tends to be overshadowed on entrepreneurship by schools like MIT Sloan School of Management and Babson.
Raj Kapoor, Managing Director at Mayfield Fund on Sand Hill Road, is an HBS ’96. In 2005, he sold the company he cofounded, Snapfish, to Hewlett-Packard for $300 million. He says HBS tends to be more famous, or infamous, for minting bankers, consultants, and captains of Fortune 500 companies than entrepreneurs. Kapoor tells Fast Company he's noticed a change in the HBS culture building; there is a new attitude now with “more students wanting to create new values-based companies versus just manipulating markets.” In the past, entrepreneurship had a stigma at HBS. “This is what people did when they couldn’t get a job,” he says.But the mantra in the FIELD 3 module is that failure is good learning and expected for most of the 150 startups ultimately judged on May 14, “IPO Day” at HBS. Every first year student is evaluated on the “microbusiness” they jointly conceive, form, and fund, then launch and commercialize. Unlike the Business Plan Contest, which has been growing at HBS since the 1990s, FIELD 3 business-building is a non-elective. The microbusiness teams are not self-selected but rather chosen by faculty based on factors such as student interests and diversity. The FIELD 3 ventures are graded less on slick PowerPoints and more on market results--actual sales and stock prices from a financial market simulation made up of non-conflicted student shareholders; input from a panel of VCs, entrepreneurs and faculty also factors into the final judging and report cards.
HBS is far from alone among business schools in revamping its curriculum to focus on entrepreneurship and “action-learning.” But the sheer pace and scale of implementation, and requirement that all 900 students be immersed globally at 150 established companies and then, a few months later, build from scratch 150 businesses and sell their products--is unprecedented, say Nohria and Alan MacCormack, FIELD 3’s co-director who previously ran an entrepreneurship “experiential learning” program at MIT Sloan.
But FIELD 3 does not have an explicit goal of launching successful startups, MacCormack says. In fact, the school encourages those students with the best IP to save those ideas for post-graduation. But several microbusiness teams have already heard from VCs including the winner IvyKids, which is an iPad application that teaches children about everyday experiences. The market reality is that a handful of the 150 startups will become successful businesses, MacCormack says. Long range Nohria expects HBS to produce “more entrepreneurs, more action-oriented, better trained students who put ideas into practice more quickly, versus just analytical thinkers.” By adding FIELD to its case foundation, “the soul of the school," and the HBS experience, we “continue to put distance between us and others,” Nohria says.
Still, a debate simmers about whether Stanford or Harvard can claim the b-school entrepreneurship mantle; it goes something like this: HBS has more outcomes and dedicated faculty and buildings; Stanford and its students have multi-disciplinary innovation in their DNA and form the fabric of Silicon Valley; name brand alumni entrepreneurs and tech titans are referenced by each.
Matthew Prince, HBS ’09, tells Fast Company “all the VCs I know are either Harvard or Stanford MBAs.” He and classmate Michelle Zatlyn came up with the idea behind hot San Francisco-based startup CloudFlare, which won the HBS Business Plan Contest in 2009. Prince thinks HBS’s generalist requirement served to better prepare him to be an entrepreneur than would have Stanford’s “choose you own adventure” approach. He cites a “remarkable list” of companies started by his ‘09 classmates that “have created easily over a billion dollars in value.”Bob Sutton, a professor of management science and organizational behavior at Stanford’s engineering school who also teaches at Stanford’s Institute of Design and business school, welcomes HBS’s new FIELD approach and downplays the Harvard-Stanford competition. “If you blend evidence, experience and vivid cases, you get a more complete understanding and better prepared students. That is what the best of Stanford aims for, and it appears the best of HBS is going that way,” he says. Sutton views FIELD as a supplement and enhancement to the HBS cases, which he uses, not a replacement. He’s not sure how HBS will make up for the loss in revenues as a reduced case focus means less cases sold.Nohria, who greatly admires Stanford’s cross-university collaboration and teaching involving the d.school, has plans for the “FIELD method, not just the HBS experience” to become a widely imitated, shared, and distributed learning product. “That is our measure of success, the only one really,” he says. The overarching goal is “to improve the education of business leaders, not just at HBS, but wherever they are taught in the world.”
While the speed, size and institutional acceptance of FIELD have been impressive, Prince sees some pitfalls and challenges with the new program. He wonders if the more formalized FIELD faculty-led immersion trips will end up stifling innovation long-term with the decline of informal, student-led forays which define spirited, bootstraps-style entrepreneurship. Prince is disappointed that a core course on negotiation was cut to make room for FIELD. He also fears that HBS students will ultimately end up running up debt to pay for the ambitious program--fueled in part by “the arms race” with Stanford--thus limiting their ability to be entrepreneurial.
HBS wants to be a catalyst for the nascent Boston entrepreneurial ecosystem. Stopping short of envisioning a Silicon Yard, Harvard Hub, or Cambridge Corridor that rivals Silicon Valley, both Faust and Nohria see a thriving innovation and tech scene that is born and stays in Boston with Harvard as a “sparkling node.” Nohria points out that in the 1980s, nearby Route 128) and Silicon Valley were roughly on a par for technology innovation. His long view of history says life sciences and biotechnology may be the next big wave of innovation--post-information technology/Internet age; Boston and Harvard are well positioned for that, he says.
Last November, on the campus of HBS, Faust and Nohria opened Harvard’s gleaming new iLab facility which is designed to spur innovation and interdisciplinary collaboration across the Harvard University campus. iLab is housed in the old WGBH studios building where the innovative Sesame Street ”learning product” was born and first broadcast across the country. HBS’s hives take up the two floors above the iLab.
“The iLab is designed to be an incubator for new ideas where students and faculty from across the University can meet and develop innovative ideas and learn how to translate them into entrepreneurial ventures," Faust says. "It is also a place where people from the community can receive advice on new ventures. These two facets make it an important contributor to Boston’s reputation as a hub of innovation.”
One can only imagine the impact that the iLab might have had were it available for Mark Zuckerberg. It’s impossible to ignore the timing of HBS’s overhaul with the record-breaking, landscape-changing $104 billion IPO of Facebook, and it’s hard not to imagine whether its founder and CEO would have stuck it out at Harvard if he had the iLab at his disposal. The iLab’s director, Gordon Jones, tells Fast Company that Zuckerberg was wowed by the facility while attending its opening recently. ”This is really cool,” Jones recalls him saying. “This really is a lot like Facebook.”
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