In attempts to get more “liberal-arts students,” Harvard Business School has come up with a groundbreaking (in the sense that several other schools do it) program called 2+2. You can lock in a place at Harvard Business School as early as your junior year of college but you have to work for two years after school. Google is one of the 30 companies on board to help HBS attract a more diverse student body.

Translation - HBS needs more women. Figuring that its pitch to girls is already something along the lines of “You will find a husband, and we will accept you if you apply,” HBS is actually attempting some subtlety. The caveat of getting in is always, “All you have to do is facilitate our well-connected, severely under-sexed male student body, and settle on one big winner after two years.” The school figures those girls aren’t going to work after HBS (marriage) anyway, so they might as well get a couple years in before the great B-school hubbie hunt.

More : dealbreaker.com

Harvard Business School unveiled an initiative that will conditionally guarantee college undergraduates a place in its MBA program. The initiative, which the school described as a first-of-its-kind deferred MBA admissions program, is called HBS 2+2, and its designed to reach out to qualified college students, especially those who may not typically consider business as a career path. HBS 2+2 will give undergraduates a guaranteed place in a future Harvard Business School MBA class, contingent upon their graduation from college and the successful completion of two years of approved work experience, the school said. Undergraduates will be eligible to apply by July 1 after the conclusion of their junior year in college. (Globe Staff)

More : boston.com

Harvard Business School unveiled an initiative today that will conditionally guarantee college undergraduates a place in its MBA program.

The initiative, which the school described as a first-of-its-kind deferred MBA admissions program, is called HBS 2+2, and its designed to reach out to qualified college students, especially those who may not typically consider business as a career path, the school said.

HBS 2+2 will give undergraduates a guaranteed place in a future Harvard Business School MBA class, contingent upon their graduation from college and the successful completion of two years of approved work experience, the school said.

More : boston.com

Leading business strategist, Michael Porter, will present a programme covering corporate strategy and corporate social responsibility initiatives in Johannesburg on July 3, 2007.

Porter, who is head of Harvard Business Schools Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness, believes that corporations can use their charitable efforts to improve their competitive context - the quality of the business environment in the locations where they operate.

Source : marketingweb.co.za

Since the inception of the Web, online commerce has enjoyed hypergrowth, with annual sales increasing more than 25 percent over all, and far more rapidly in many categories. But in the last year, growth has slowed sharply in major sectors like books, tickets and office supplies.

Growth in online sales has also dropped dramatically in diverse categories like health and beauty products, computer peripherals and pet supplies. Analysts say it is a turning point and growth will continue to slow through the decade.

The reaction to the trend is apparent at Dell, which many had regarded as having mastered the science of selling computers online, but is now putting its PCs in Wal-Mart stores. Expedia has almost tripled the number of travel ticketing kiosks it puts in hotel lobbies and other places that attract tourists.

More : nytimes.com

You may think that being an energy executive—especially a manager in a leading oil company—might be the easiest job around. Just flip the production switch, and watch gas prices head toward $4 a gallon.

But students enrolled in Harvard Business School professor Forest Reinhardts course on the energy industry come away with a quite different perspective on the strategic and management challenges confronting energy executives today.

As demand continues to soar, where will new oil reserves be found? What bets are to be placed by industry leaders on alternative energy sources such as solar and wind? How will local residents feel about windmill farms on their horizon? What effects will regulators have on the energy industry in the future? What unexpected opportunities or obstacles will pop up along the way?

More : /hbswk.hbs.edu

Harvard student Meghan Pasricha has been selected as one of the top 10 college women in the U.S. by Glamour magazine and LOréal Paris. Pasricha, 21, is the daughter of Sadhana and Ashok Pasricha of Hockessin. She received her award on Wednesday for excellence in academics and for her leadership to decrease tobacco use at Harvard, in Delaware and in India.

Pasricha started her anti-smoking crusade because of her asthma and because she finds it hard to breathe in a smoke-filled room. Because of her involvement, her mother started an anti-tobacco club at Goldey-Beacom College.

I fell in love with the tobacco control movement because it is a place where young people can speak and are respected, Meghan Pasricha said. Tobacco control will not be effective if we dont get involved. If adults tell kids not to smoke, its not as effective as if kids tell them not to smoke.

More : delawareonline.com

The number of engineers graduating annually from U.S. universities trails the numbers of like graduates in India and China, a worrying statistic that presents the greatest single threat to American prosperity, says Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter, co-author of a Competitiveness Index produced by the national Council on Competitiveness.

While the U.S. still turns out highly educated graduates, other countries are doing a better job of modifying their educational systems to ensure that grads possess the skills they will need to meet the needs of shifting global economies, Porter says in a recent internetnews.com article.

According to UCLAs Higher Education Research Institute, the number of incoming U.S. college freshmen intending to major in computer science dropped by 70 percent between 2000 and 2005. Christine Bullen of the Stevens School of Technology Management says that pessimism after the dot-com bust and the inaccurate perception that the bulk of U.S. IT jobs are being shipped overseas communicated to young people that there were no career opportunities in IT.

More : itbusinessedge.com

There was a time in Henry Wilde’s life when he felt guilty about the privileges he had living in Naperville — loving parents, health care and a good education.

But Wilde says he found the best way to use his talents and opportunities is to help others and he has devoted his life to doing just that.

On Wednesday, Naperville North High School honored the 1993 alumni and co-founder of Acelero Learning with its Learners to Leaders award.

More : dailyherald.com

Hong Kong team wins WFU elevator competition

Students from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology took top honors in Wake Forest University’s annual MBA Elevator Competition for their plan for a device that distinguishes between acute bacterial or viral infections.

The Hong Kong team is the first international competitor to enter the seven-year-old event, during which budding entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to judges in a two-minute elevator ride meant to simulate the need to be clear and concise when dealing with investors.

A team from Wake Forest University also made the finals with its pitch for AudioFusion, which has a technology to retrain the brain to tune out tinnitus through a combination of sound therapy and directive counseling. Other finalists were from Harvard University and the University of Georgia.

More: bizjournals.com