A Letter From the Editor

Learning About Technology

We educate leaders who make a difference in the world. It’s what HBS does. And we at the DI are committed to equipping the leaders of today with the technical and business skills they need to succeed and lead in the digital economy.

  • A Letter From the Editor

    DI editor Theresa Diederich reflects on the DI’s digital publication a year on and shares her highlights of the advancements in the tech community at HBS.

  • Harvard business analytics program: narrowing a gap in the big data age

    The explosion of available data and subsequent renaissance in data-driven decision making is poised to open up 2.7 million new jobs in analytics by 2020. To meet this growing demand, Harvard is taking an interdisciplinary approach to help professionals upskill their business analytics mastery.

  • Gamifying Student Data

    Fresno Unified School District had built a robust data-collection system, but none of it was being put to use. That is, until Harvard Strategic Data Project Fellow David Jansen developed a app that turned improving student outcomes into a compelling game.

  • Data skills: they’re not just for data scientists

    Data skills are in higher demand than ever, and the workforce is rapidly attempting to fill the gap. In this article, Emily Glassberg Sands (Ph.D. ’14 in Economics) shares her observations on data upskilling trends gleaned from over 30 million learners at Coursera — some of them might surprise you!

  • How Tech Companies Can Help Upskill the U.S. Workforce

    In 2015, there were 7 million jobs that required some level of coding, but the number of workers with those skills hasn’t kept up with demand. Could provide better access to technical learning for those who work in lower-paying industries provide the answer? Kausik Rajgopal and Steve Westly think so.

  • Liberal arts in the data age

    What are humanities good for? It turns out, in today’s complex and interrelated modern world, quite a lot. In this piece from the Harvard Business Review, J.M. Olejarz deconstructs the false dichotomy between liberal arts and STEM fields and argues that humanities majors have much to offer in the digital economy.

  • Technology innovation abounds, but what does it really mean for us all?

    What are the meaningful implications of technological innovation? This is the question Janet Balis (MBA ’99) found herself asking at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Breaking down her key insights from the conference, Balis offers several salient and thought-provoking questions for those seeking to derive more impact from innovation than simply shiny, exciting new gadgets.

  • Harvard-MBAs-Code-featured

    Who Said Harvard MBAs Don’t Code?

    This article takes a look at the thriving tech culture on the Harvard Business School campus, and explores how MBA students view the value of opportunities to become more technical. If “coding is the new business literacy,” then the CODE club at HBS is going for fluency.

  • Because the world needs great tech leaders

    Business leaders need a deep understanding of technology and management. In August 2017, Harvard Business School (HBS) and the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) launched a joint MS/MBA: Engineering Sciences Program to train future leaders of technology ventures.

Influencers

  1. Karim Lakhani

    Karim Lakhani

    Karim is the Charles E. Wilson Professor of Business Administration and faculty co-founder of the Digital Initiative at Harvard Business School, as well as the founder and co-director of the Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard.

  2. Shane Greenstein

    Shane Greenstein

    Shane is the MBA Class of 1957 Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and co-chair of the HBS Digital Initiative.

  3. Marco Iansiti

    Marco Iansiti

    Marco is the David Sarnoff Professor of Business Administration and co-chair of the Digital Initiative at Harvard Business School.

  4. Stefan Esposito

    Stefan Esposito

    Stefan is the Program Director of the Harvard Business Analytics Program. Previously, he oversaw course development at HarvardX, Harvard’s free online learning platform.