Experts
Nancy Koehn
Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School
Historically, it's not an uncommon problem - IBM came to it, McDonald’s has come to it, and Apple came to it. Big companies start off with verve and energy and aspiration and incredible values outside the marketplace that fuel their growth, the grow to the point that they’re no longer in tune with what really moved the enterprise forward in the first place. Read More
How does a leader decide whether to be lenient or to set an example? Nancy Koehn presents this question by drawing from a harrowing scene in Shakespeare's Henry V. Read More
Shakespeare's Henry V is a play full of great motivational speeches and inspiring leadership. Based on actual historical events of the 15th century, the play centers around the climactic Battle of Agincourt, in which King Henry led an army of greatly outnumbered British to victory over the French ... Read More
Nancy Koehn, historian at Harvard Business School, thinks it’s a generation that, before this recession, had not experienced failure. Read More
How can we harness the power of technology? Read More
The amount of time Americans devote to their communities is decreasing, says Koehn. Read More
The world needs to breathe. Read More
An anxious age in constant motion. Read More
HBS has some great leaders marinating. Read More
We should be talking about inequality, says Nancy Koehn. Read More
Koehn marvels at the new possibilities for business. Read More
The U.S. is not picking up the gauntlet of leadership. Read More
Nancy Koehn discusses the next stage of economic progress. Read More
To die well. Read More
Shakespeare and Middlemarch. Read More
A good sermon by Rev. Peter Gomes. Read More
Nancy Koehn sees life as a London sidewalk more than an MIT blackboard. Read More
Businesses need to figure out how to keep their female talent. Read More
Koehn admires Nelson Mandela and Bono. Read More
Using your strengths and your weaknesses. Read More
About Nancy Koehn
Nancy F. Koehn, an authority on entrepreneurial history, is the James E. Robison Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. Koehn's research focuses on leading in turbulent times and the social and economic impact of entrepreneurship.
She is currently working on a book about the most important leadership lessons from Abraham Lincoln and another on social entrepreneurs. Her upcoming book, The Story of American Business: From the Pages of the New York Times (2009), sketches some of the most important people and moments from the last 150 years of U.S. business history. Koehn's most recent book, Brand New: How Entrepreneurs Earned Consumers' Trust from Wedgwood to Dell (2001) examined six entrepreneurial visionaries who have created powerful brands and best-of-class companies in moments of great change.
Koehn consults with many companies on a range of issues including leadership development, effective brand stewardship, and customer relationship management.