Howard H. Stevenson papers

Overview:

Howard H. Stevenson (MBA 1965, DBA 1969), Sarofim-Rock Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus, began teaching at Harvard Business School during the Fall 1968 semester after finishing his Doctorate in Business Administration from HBS, which was conferred at official ceremonies in 1969. He spent two years teaching Business Policy before taking a leave of absence to work in the private sector as Vice President of Simmons Associates. Though he intended to stay in the private sector to pursue opportunities in real estate, in 1971 he was convinced to return to HBS to teach real estate. Over the next five years, Stevenson increased the number of sections of Real Property Asset Management, added the course Real Property Asset Development, and was joined by Professor William Poorvu. Stevenson and Poorvu wrote cases on real estate and developed the mantra of "people, property, deal, environment." Stevenson later adapted this mantra to "people, opportunity, deal, context" for courses on entrepreneurship.

Stevenson received tenure in 1978 and took a leave of absence to rejoin the private sector as Vice President of Finance and Administration for Preco Corporation. In 1981 Dean John McArthur offered Stevenson the opportunity to develop an entrepreneurship program; he returned to HBS as the first Sarofim-Rock Professor of Business Administration. During this time, Stevenson developed the academic study of entrepreneurship from the ground up, including case and course development, defining entrepreneurship as "the process by which individuals pursue opportunities without regard to the resources they currently control." At the same time, he focused on improving and enhancing the doctoral program. An important course within the doctoral program curriculum, Basic Readings in Administrative Theory (BRAT), helped shape his thinking and reinforced his belief that his job was to help mold student's attitudes. Three important concepts he tried to impart were: every situation can be improved (find a problem and then improve the situation); do something even if you don't have the requisite power or the resources (create change: if you have found a problem then you can do something about it); and the experts and the experienced might be wrong. According to Stevenson, these three principles defined his career.

Involvement in the Private Sector:

Howard H. Stevenson actively sought consulting opportunities in order to increase his understanding of real world problems. He searched for difficult cases that he could help solve as a way to develop his skills and his knowledge of how companies worked. The experience that Stevenson gained through these opportunities directly affected his teaching at HBS and helped him develop the groundwork for his real estate and entrepreneurship courses. He sat on the board of directors and held many committee roles for a wide range of corporations and nonprofit groups.

Stevenson was also a founding member of the Baupost Group in 1982 and served as its president for the first six years; he founded the company with Jordan Baruch, Isaac Auerbach, and William Poorvu. Stevenson served on the Board of Trustees of the Baupost Fund and the Board of Advisors of the Baupost Group, L.L.C. He worked with the firm while teaching at HBS.

Contributions to Harvard Business School and Harvard University:

At HBS, Stevenson was Chairperson of the Publications Review Board for the HBS Press and the Harvard Business Publishing Company, Senior Associate Dean and Director of Financial and Information Systems from 1991-1994, Chair of the Latin American Faculty Advisory Group from 1999-2001, and Senior Associate Dean and Director of External Relations from 2001-2005. During his chairmanship of the Publications Review Board, Stevenson was involved in the division of the Harvard Business Publishing Company from the HBS Press. He also helped generate a culture of innovation that led to widespread electronic distribution of materials.

As Senior Associate Dean and Director of Financial and Information Systems, Stevenson was involved in increasing faculty accountability and began the process of tracking faculty work and teaching loads. His decision to collect and analyze the physical measures of teaching and research, such as the number of students taught and articles written, led to an understanding of the productivity and contribution of HBS faculty.

Stevenson served as Chair of the Latin American Faculty Advisory Group during the founding of the Latin American Research Center. He was also involved in broadening partnerships with Latin American schools, improving education in Latin America, and re-pricing HBS cases that were sold to other schools.

As Senior Associate Dean and Director of External Relations, Stevenson played an integral role in the Campaign for Harvard Business School; he changed the way HBS conducted fundraising, focusing on the impact that each gift had on others and on connecting donor interests to tangible results at HBS. Stevenson was involved in the simplification of the HBS mission statement during the Campaign and took part in roughly 1,200 one-on-one meetings. The Campaign raised $600 million in five years.

Finally, as Vice Provost and then Senior Associate Provost for Harvard University Resources and Planning, Stevenson did for Harvard University what he had done for HBS during the Campaign for Harvard Business School: he focused fundraising efforts on discovering potential donors' charitable interests, linking them with existing and potential endeavors unique to Harvard University.

International Acclaim:

Stevenson received the 2010 Entrepreneur for the World Award in the Expert category from the World Entrepreneurship Forum. He was described by the Forum as the founder of entrepreneurship as an academic field and lauded for his pioneering research and course development at HBS, and for a body of work that has helped and influenced both academics and practitioners around the world. He also received an honorary degree from the Université de Montréal in 2007.