Issue 8

HLM HARVARD LEADERSHIP MAGAZINE ISSUE 8 | SPRING 2014

Better

not bigger How the founders of Vineyard Vines left Wall Street to create a feel-good apparel empire.

A Publication of the Leadership Institute at Harvard College

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HARVARD LEADERSHIP MAGAZINE SPRING 2014

HarvardLeadershipMag.org

HAPPY TO HELP

Masthead

happy to help I pulled into the restaurant Taco Joint with freshman Leadership Institute member Noah Yonack in Dallas, Texas over winter break. We were meeting with one of our high school teachers and mentors who shaped the way we viewed leadership.

A Publication of the Leadership Institute at Harvard College · Issue 8 · Spring 2014

Editorial Board Dean Itani Editor-in-Chief

We ordered our burritos and sat down across from him in the booth. “Thanks so much for taking some time to sit with us,” I told him from across the table. He answered, “My pleasure, any time. Always happy to help.”

Caitlin Pendleton Managing Editor Sadie McQuilkin Design Editor

Those last four words ended up being the topic of our discussion. Always happy to help. Always happy to give care. Will always care.

Neha Mehrota Director of Finance Kristina Garrido Director of Outreach

We talked about how leaders are much more than motivators or authoritarians. Leadership was all about giving care. As college students, we are constantly receiving care. From our families, from our teachers, from our advisers. But some time in our life, a switch is turned when we go from receiving care to giving care.

We go from being a son to being a father, from being an analyst to being a team leader.

This publication is full of care-givers. Some have been doing it for a while, like the founders of Vineyard Vines, Shep and Ian Murray. Some of them are extraordinarily young, like the founders of One Million Lights Philippines, Mark Lozano and Tricia Peralta, or the founder of Global Village Fruits, Annie Ryu ’13. These stories and more are just a few pages down.

The leaders in this publication have all made that switch from care-receiver to care-giver. And while this publication will not teach us how to make that transition, it shows the experiences of others giving care.

Our conversation with our teacher lasted a couple hours. We discussed the philosophy of Head, Heart, Hands: the three the concepts of leadership and have the vocabulary to talk about them (Head). Then they must internalize the practices and develop an emotional care to the communities that have shaped who they have become (Heart). Lastly, they must go out and get real experience leading and giving care (Hands).

This publication focuses on the Head. We hope these stories will help you take a step toward becoming a care-giver so you can and friends, and the Harvard community to become the best that they can be.

“Always happy to help.” The philosophy of leaders.

Dean Itani Editor-in-Chief HarvardLeadershipMag.org

EDITOR’S NOTE

Ethan Fried & Bethany Kanten HLM Online Editors Elizabeth Rosenblatt Section Editor

Staff writers Jay Chakravarty David Coletti Izzy Evans John Finnegan Enki Gjeki Christina Herbosa Tom Keefe David Kurlander Sarah Milkovich Brenna Nelsen Mary-Grace Reeves design Brian Chang photography Liesl Ulrich-Verderber (Head) Karim Pirbay business Summer Carter Amy Huang Sumire Hirotsuru Daniel Valenzuela advisors David Ager Adam Berlin Jon Doochin Loren Gary Anand Venkatesan

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16 AROUND CAMPUS 5 SOPHOMORE START-UP Nico Simko '16 and friends created a website to address Harvard's lack of a

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written by ENKI GJECI designed by CAITLIN PENDLETON

FEATURES 6 A CAPPELLA SUPERSTARS The Sing Off a cappella group inspires young artists through social media and encourages written by DAVID COLETTI designed by ELIZABETH ROSENBLATT

8 FIGHT AGAINST CANCER A Harvard group impacts the national Relay for Life organization amidst resistance from written by SARAH MILKOVICH designed by ELIZABETH ROSENBLATT

10 TRADEMARK TOURS Founder Daniel Andrews '07 tells how he grew his grassroots tour company into a written by BRENNA NELSEN designed by BRIAN CHANG

12 POLYPHONIC LEADERSHIP The maestro behind the Memorial Church University Choir: a lifelong dedication written by TOM KEEFE designed by SADIE McQUILKIN

14 CHABAD AT HARVARD How the orthodox organization Chabad has succeeded in reaching out to the entire written by DAVID KURLANDER designed by ELIZABETH ROSENBLATT and SADIE McQUILKIN

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16 A TASTE OF LEADERSHIP on starting a business and the local food written by JOHN FINNEGAN designed by SADIE McQUILKIN

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18 ONE MILLION LIGHTS A group of teenagers are changing that, one written by CHRISTINA HERBOSA designed by DEAN ITANI

SKILLS 10 DISNEY VILLAINS

20 THE RESILIENCY MODEL An HLS alumus explains resilience consulting, his unexpected career trajectory, written by IZZY H. EVANS designed by BRIAN CHANG and SADIE McQUILKIN

23 VINEYARD VINES FOUNDERS From Wall Street to Martha's Vineyard, the founders of Vineyard Vines have stayed true written by MARY-GRACE REEVES designed by SADIE McQUILKIN

26 SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP A recent Harvard aluma's quest to build an international company marketing an obscure

A look at Disney's nastiest characters and the leadership lessons we can learn from written by NEHA MEHROTA designed by DEAN ITANI

CONT ENTS

written by JAY CHAKRAVARTY designed by SADIE McQUILKIN HarvardLeadershipMag.org

SOPHOMORE START-UP

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“You can’t sell your roommate. For the rest, visit

Crimson

Exchange.”

BY ENKI GJEKI

ICO SIMKO ’16 FELT LIKE DAVID FACING GOLIATH.

K A R I M P I R B AY P H O T O

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Nico Simko, cofounder of Crimson Exchange, works from his dorm room on the website.

Crimson Exchange is a website designed to create a centralized market for Harvard students to sell and buy items like furniture or textbooks. When he came up with the idea, Simko had in mind the often annoying Facebook posts and mass emails at the beginning and end of each semester when students are trying to buy cheap textbooks and selling what they don’t need. Crimson Exchange provides an online solution by putting buyers in touch with the sellers instantly.

When they found out that CS50 – or, as Simko jokingly calls it, a “small venture at Harvard” – was launching a similar project, he and the rest of the Crimson Exchange team, including web designer Ved Topkar ‘16, coder Sami Ghoche ’16, and publicist Karim Pirbay ’16, were scared but also excited. Instead of seeing this competition as a step back, Simko realized that his “vision that there was a problem on campus was true.” He always felt that Harvard was missing a centralized market to make it easier for students to buy and sell items. The fact that there were other people also working on creating such a market was just another reassurance HarvardLeadershipMag.org

“How can you compete with CS50? They are not just a class, but an organization,” Simko, the founder of Crimson Exchange, said. After working for months on getting the website ready for release, he and the rest of the Crimson Exchange team realized right before their return to Harvard last year that CS50 was coming up with a very similar project called CS50 Market Place. It not only had a similar purpose as Crimson Exchange, but was also planning to be launched around the same time.

that other people felt this lack as well.

Before rushing to see CS50 as his competition, Simko reached out to the CS50 TFs to see if they wanted to talk and share ideas. After all, the CS50 Market Place was just starting out while they had been working on Crimson Exchange for months. According to Simko, it was only when they refused his offer to work together that he and the team realized they needed to start working very hard in order to gain more popularity with the students.

After that, the only strategy they employed when facing CS50 was simply, “Work harder.

Market better.”

Since both projects were being released at the same time, they had to make themselves popular in a very short period of time and could not have done it without the help of Pirbay, who is also Simko’s roommate.

Their marketing strategy, like many Harvard ventures, started out in their dorm room. Pirbay and Simko joked that they could sell anything on Crimson Exchange except each other. This sparked the idea for the posters that became quite famous around the campus: “You

can’t sell your roommate. For the rest, visit Crimson Exchange.”

While very simple, the posters were quite popular with the students. Crimson Exchange enjoyed over 15,000 page views in the first two days and 300 transactions in the first week.

But how did Simko come up with the idea for Crimson Exchange in the first place? While he had always wanted to start something on campus that would benefit other students, in January 2013 during winter break, he became even more personally motivated.

“My roommates emailed me and told me that our couch sucks. They wanted to buy another couch on IKEA but it [was] so complicated to sell it on campus,” he said. It is then that he realized that Harvard was lacking a simple market place that everyone could go to when they ever needed to buy or sell anything.

Crimson Exchange helped him realize many things about entrepreneurship. The source of entrepreneurship is “pushing forward, never stopping and organizing yourself,” Simko said. With Crimson Exchange, he wanted to see how it is to work (continued on page 29) HARVARD LEADERSHIP MAGAZINE SPRING 2014

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A CAPPELLA SUPERSTARS

PENTATONIX PHOTO

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PENTATONIX

The Collision of Business and Passion

BY DAVID COLETTI

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he lights die down, and suddenly, a group is plunged into utter darkness. The audience, eager for the group to begin,

sits impatiently and glares at the performers on the stage before them not yet noticing the sweat forming on the their foreheads. The other performers, sitting to the sides of the stage, look on uneasily. If this performance is stellar, as they anticipated it would be, they knew that their chances of success would substantially diminish. And then, one member lifts his head, puts the microphone to his lips, and begins emitting a low vocal bass that descends quickly, signaling the rest of the group to begin beatboxing, humming, belting, falsettoing, and whatever else they must do to produce one thing: music.

The show? NBC’s The Sing O. The group? Pentatonix. Their dream? Establishing careers in performance arts. But unfortunately in the United States, their dream of making a career in the performing arts is becoming less of a reality.

Music, fine arts, and performance arts have a stigma attached to them in 21st century America. This stigma suggests that pursuing careers in the arts is not a practical goal in life, which discourHarvardLeadershipMag.org

A CAPPELLA SUPERSTARS

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ages hopeful and young artists from doing what they love. Yet, very few people seem to be addressing this, which is why I have to explain how American society is contributing to the “arts stigma.”

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only 24, the group is providing innovation to There is no doubt that Pentatonix is the music industry and leadership that so many talented. But it is also clear that success on a hopeful musicians in the country need. In the show does not necessarily translate to success midst of the competitive atmosphere in which in the real world. There are a number of reality they work, members of Pentatonix use careful performance shows, such as American Idol, and creative approaches in the The X-Factor, and America’s Got Talent. But realm of social media. these shows are merely an illusion for young, A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to Pentatonix recognizes hopeful musicians. There are very few contesgo back to my high school in Boston, Massachu- the innovative importance tants on these shows who “make it big,” and setts. The topic of majoring in musical theater of social media with even so, there is no way to know how long they in college came up while I was talking to a few regards to connecting will remain in the eyes of the public. students there. “Yeah, you might as well burn with fans and making “A lot of artists do well on television $200,000,” said one student, while the other sure that they shows, but what happens afterstudents nodded their heads in agreement. A are recognized in wards? We do love music, but we have to make sure we are apfriend of mine who is currently studying at the the music industry. proaching it as a business.

Berklee College of Music in Boston was standing Nearly less than a year And an important way to next to me. Of course it hurt to hear that he was after winning on NBC, in a do this is keeping up basically wasting his life away. But, he assured Pentatonix’s first album ranked with fans through me this was not the first time he had heard such #14 on Billboard’s Top 200, and undermined and social media.” a claim. He sometimes feels ashamed when he on Youtube, Pentatonix currently looked down upon so America meets new people and has to pit his music major has almost two million subscribers long as the people in is a society against the likes of economics, microbiology, and more than 140 million views. question are not elevatbuilt or international affairs. We live in a world of “In today’s society, everyone goes upon competition, and in America, the music major to the internet, especially in America,” comes in last. says Avi, Pentatonix’s bass singer, “Looking economic success, and careers in In 2012, Newsweek posted an article listing things up on websites such as Youtube is the the arts is becoming less a part of this culture. the “Top 13 Most Useless College Degrees,” most effective way of seeing what you want.”

Hopeful musicians and artists need innovative claiming that the top four most “useless deBut the group does not just use social leaders in these fields who are able to keep up grees” are 1) Fine Arts, 2) Theatre Arts, 3) Film media as a means of demonstrating its talent; it with America’s competitiveness and who will and Photographic Arts, and 4) Graphic Design. connects to fans, says Kevin, and often, learns preserve art for art’s sake: Pentatonix is such a The ironic thing about the article, however, how it helps fans pursue their dreams. The leader. By utilizing the growing importance of is one of the topics under which the article is group reflects to me about how so many fans social media, Pentatonix is successfully comtagged, “But don’t let this article deter you from send them emails or Facebook messages relatpeting in a field that is severely undermined following your dreams.” For students who want ing personal issues and dreams of becoming and looked down upon as long as the people to pursue arts in the United States, the societal musicians. Because of this, Pentatonix is aware in question are not celebrities. And does this pressure to pursue something “legitimate” of how they must be careful in their relations discourage the group? Not according to Kevin: rather than something “useless” does hinder with fans and the music they produce: “Yes, the beginning was rocky. But we’re a them from even trying to reach their dreams.

“Music is tied to emotion; it is such an family. And we’re doing something that we love But Pentatonix, through it all, is proving integral part of the world,” says Avi. “But, not to do.” something otherwise. Pentatonix is a five person all music is pure or for the better. Music is just Think you have the right to tell them that a capella group and the 2012 winner of NBC’s as powerful to make a negative impact. You they are wasting their lives away? I didn’t think The Sing Off, an a capella performance-based have to make sure that you are not only making so. television show. With the oldest member being music about money or materialism.

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to emotion.

Their Favorites

competing

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Medley Daft Punk

Aha! Imogen Heap

Thrift Shop Macklemore & Ryan Lewis HARVARD LEADERSHIP MAGAZINE SPRING 2014

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FIGHT AGAINST CANCER

RELAY For Life For Hope For Harvard

BY SARAH MILKOVICH

his April, for the fourth year, hundreds of students will make their way around Harvard’s Gordon Track silently in candlelight. Though they each represent a different walk of life, they will unite again to walk together, to walk towards a cure.

Harvard students decided to take the fight against cancer into their own hands by founding their own Relay for Life Event in 2010. Since then, this small group has raised over $155,000 for the American Cancer Society (ACS), and has become the largest philanthropic event on campus, involving over 1,500 students in its cause since its inauguration.

For Eugene Vaios, Class of 2014, the Relay began long before he and a group of his classmates brought it to Harvard. After helping found a Relay for Life Event at Red Bank Regional High School in New Jersey, Vaios was struck by its absence at Harvard during his freshmen year: “I had lost a cousin of mine to pancreatic cancer not long after I arrived on campus. He was 37 years old, and he had two kids. I had been with him just a month before he passed away, so I was passionate about creating a Harvard Event.”

As is the case for many students involved in Relay for Life, Vaios’s dedication to the cause— pubbing Harvard lists until his classmates sign up as participants, building relationships with sponsors such as the Boston Red Sox and the New England Patriots, and planning a night to celebrate the fight—grew out of his desire to “give

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back and to honor who I had lost.” Vaios speaks on behalf of his team when he says Harvard Relay is about more than the numbers, “Really, our goal is to transform the collective potential of an undergraduate community into a beacon of hope.”

Vaios has had the chance to watch that goal come to fruition, as Relay has become a beacon of hope on Harvard’s campus, something that he says could not have been accomplished without “the hard work of all the people on the executive committee of Relay who really devote so much incredible time and sweat to bring the event to life.” He himself has been a part of this executive committee from the beginning, having served as Publicity Co-Chair his freshman year, then as Co-Director his sophomore and junior years, and now as a consultant for Relay’s Fundraising Committee.

The challenges facing Relay have not subsided in the past three years. According to the former Co-Director, “From the start we have been focused on how to strengthen donor participation and how to tell our community exactly what Relay for Life is.” And that is, in the words of Harvard Relay posters, “The Largest

Sleepover at Harvard,” “The One Night Stand you’ll Never Forget,” and “The Biggest Thing on Campus… That’s what she said.” Relay is not a charity 5k or a somber series of speeches. The all night walk-a-thon which raises money for cancer research, cancer awareness, and patient services, is an event in which, “students… create teams to raise funds for ACS throughout the year and then gather for an annual spring sleepover which is a symbol for all the hard work the students have put in to get to that moment and also a symbol of remembrance for all the people we’re honoring when we walk.”

Relay is, as Vaios describes it, a celebration.

While there are speakers to introduce the more reverent moments of the night, students attending can also expect a genuinely fun night: dance parties, a capella performances, eating competitions, movie screenings, bouncy castles, giant Twister games, and water pong tournaments.

But don’t let the great success of the April event fool you; Vaios reminds us, “Our progress has not come without great challenges.” Despite all the Harvard Relay for Life Board has accomplished, all the students it has added to its movement, and all of its admirable values, Harvard has not yet recognized Relay as an official organization on campus, in part because of its affiliations with the national ACS corporation.

“We’re hoping for more of a conversation with Harvard leadership, so that together we can overcome any barriers to full recognition,” Vaios says.

“We have a great event that’s raising

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FIGHT AGAINST CANCER

money for cancer that unfortunately has been denied recognition, while an Evening with Champions—a celebrity ice-skating event—and the Harvard Cancer Society, though similar but smaller organizations, have been acknowledged as official groups on Harvard’s campus. It’s unfortunate that students can’t even put down ‘Harvard Relay for Life’ in their yearbook bios as seniors, after having dedicated so much of their college careers to this incredible event.”

And yet, if anything, this environment of apparent disregard toward Relay has been an impetus for even greater victory. After all, these students aren’t involved to gain any personal recognition or compensation. “This is a very hardworking group of people,” says Vaios.

“They’ve all come here, not because they want to put something on their resume… That’s not their motivation. They’re doing this because of some more intrinsic motivation. Many have lost family members that they want to honor, and some have fought cancer themselves.”

The dedication of this “friendly, energetic, forward thinking” Harvard Relay family, as Vaios describes it, has been rewarded in greater ways than merely acknowledgment by the administration or paychecks. The Event was the first to use a groundbreaking online fundraising method that Vaios developed, Simple2Give, to augment its yearlong fundraising. Within three

HarvardLeadershipMag.org

months, with just 50 users, Simple2Give raised more than $1,000 for the Harvard Relay. Since its launch with the Harvard Relay, Simple2Give has spread to the larger ACS community and to multiple other charities.

“Simple2Give was inspired by the need to raise funds from college campuses while addressing the major issue, which is the financial barrier for students who want to give to charities but don’t have the money to do so. With Simple2Give, students can now raise funds at no cost to their time or wallet by simply shopping at their favorite online store.

Our partners include the largest online brands, comprising 90% of the e-commerce market, making this an easy solution for students. Most importantly, the platform is entirely transparent, allowing the non-profits, associations and student groups to audit the entire operation in real-time and manage it from their desktop.

The opportunities are limitless.”

Over the summer, Simple2Give partnered with the American Cancer Society, and was launched across 60 campuses in Massachusetts for their Relay for Life Events. The projected income for this year? Over one million dollars in new revenue.

Not unlike the challenges Harvard Relay has had to face, Vaios and the rest of the Simple2Give team have had to persevere through moments of discouragement. In addition to the struggles that face any startup, such as getting an idea off the ground and finding a client base willing to try something new, Simple2Give has had to “juggle the desire to really revolutionize college fundraising with the need to respect the protocols and never-ending red tape put in place by large charitable organizations and their legal teams.”

“Though we have been very successful,” says Vaios, “it has not been without challenges.

There have been times when we were not being respected or acknowledged for our hard work by these organizations, even though we had poured countless resources, hours, and sleepless nights into Simple2Give… That’s something we have had to deal with, to get up, brush ourselves off, and keep going. It paid off.”

Simple2Give has not only grown

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outside the Harvard campus, but is now being utilized by many other student groups here as well. “We’ve had some social groups on campus partner up with us to raise money. Some of the final clubs have joined, and fraternities and sororities are coming on board as well, because they see this as a fantastic way to raise money for cancer research,” Vaios says. Ultimately, Simple2Give can be a fundraising tool for any student group that has members who shop online. And that’s every group on campus. “This is a great way for them to raise revenue without putting an additional fee on their members, and Simple2Give can actually be used to replace the fees placed on members or serve as a scholarship fund.”

Vaios can foresee a future in which every Harvard student organization uses Simple2Give, “We would like to be the go-to organization for fundraising.” Although Relay for Life has yet to be added to the ranks of organizations recognized by Harvard’s Office of Student Life, the powerful fundraising extension they championed from the start has begun a promising season of growth which can be expected to benefit every campus group.

“This is really a testament to how incredible the Harvard Relay for Life Event is. Here is an organization that has not yet been recognized by Harvard University. And yet, together we’ve not only built the largest philanthropic event on campus, but with the help of Simple2Give, we’ve also created one of the most revolutionary technologies in online fundraising, that I think can really change the way all student groups at Harvard think about raising funds. Harvard Relay for Life really does embody all of the qualities Harvard is there to represent, and that is innovation, forward thinking, and giving back.”

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TRADEMARK TOURS

Hahvahd Tours: LIESL ULRICH-VERDERBER PHOTO

BY BRENNA NELSEN

AILED BY THE NEW YORK TIMES

H

AS “the Daily Show” of tradi-

tional college campus tours, the Hahvahd Tour has become a staple of Harvard campus life.

Donned with their straw hats, undergraduates give Cambridge visitors a theatrical tour of the campus and surrounding business community.

The company has expanded to offer tours of neighboring MIT, the Freedom Trail, and most recently a City Wine Tour in NYC. The enterprise—which in 2012 ran 2,050 tours —has come a long way since its start less than a decade ago. For Daniel Andrew ’07, founder and owner of Hahvahd Tours and its parent company Trademark Tours LLC, it was never originally about building a business. It was about some college kids trying to have a good time.

parts of the tour season. Even during big rush times, when tourists from all over the world flocked to Cambridge’s streets, the university was only conducting two tours a day, and none on Sundays.

While the university’s tours failed to cater to the capacity of tourists, they also lacked certain elements that Andrew thought would make them more entertaining and attractive.

"

The idea was that this will just be a really fun thing to do over the summer, and I’ll gain some experience, and it will be a really good story to tell at an interview some

A NEW KIND OF TOUR

As an undergraduate tour guide for the Harvard Information Office, Andrew garnered an appreciation for the university’s history and the city of Cambridge. He loved giving tours, but he saw that Harvard on its own was not doing enough.

Having spent the entire summer after his sophomore year on campus, Andrew recalls realizing how underserved the tourists were.

For starters, Harvard did not sponsor tours of the university during summer and other peak

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-Daniel Andrew

their own tours of the university. With no prior business experience, the duo trekked through Boston and advertised their services to hotel concierges. They hit over 60 hotels in the span of three days.

“That was when I knew I was on to something,” Andrew says. “Every single concierge said, ‘Oh my god. I’ve needed something like this for as long as I’ve worked here. Finally!’”

The duo pitched the tour as a liberal New Englander and a conservative Texan giving a taste of old school Harvard. While Andrew donned a baseball cap, Jones wore the trademark Harvard straw hat. Before long, the straw hat stuck, and both guys were wearing them on their co-lead tours.

“The idea was that this will just be a really fun thing to do over the summer, and I’ll gain some experience, and it will be a really good story to tell at an interview some day,” Andrew reflected. “But then, it grew a lot faster than I expected.”

ADMINISTRATIVE FRICTION “I had some really strong feelings about how the tours could be given, how the tours could be integrated with the business community around here,” Andrew says. “Just how they could be more fun, in general.”

The following summer, Andrew and his friend Jordan Jones ’07 decided to start offering

More than just local tourists took notice of the tours. Within three weeks, the pair found themselves handed Cease and Assist letters from Harvard University coupled with threatening letters from the Harvard’s Trademark Corporation. The pair had improperly used photos off the internet on their makeshift paper fliers. More importantly, though, they had HarvardLeadershipMag.org

LIESL ULRICH-VERDERBER PHOTO

TRADEMARK TOURS

A Hahvahd tour guide wears the signature straw hat. branded themselves as “The Harvard Tour,” and Harvard was not happy.

“I knew nothing,” Andrew says. “I knew nothing about trademark law or zoning. We just didn’t know anything. We were just two kids that were standing outside with printed brochures, handing them out.”

After three weeks of successful operation—the tours, offered three times a day, were averaging 30 to 40 customers per go around— Andrew and Jones were called in for a meeting with the Dean’s Office. But the pair had begun to do their homework. They looked into the administration’s accusations and quickly rebranded themselves as “The Hahvahd Tour.”

And while school rules stipulated that Harvard students were not allowed to operate independent business on campus during term time, the pair felt comfortably within their rights to run the tours during the summer months.

“I felt that Harvard played hardball, but that they were fair,” Andrew says. “We definitely weren’t given a free ride, but there was always a sense that logic and reason would prevail. You had to have some guts to push that envelope, but people listen.”

The pair laid their case to the administra-

tion. In the classic case of David and Goliath, it seemed that this duo of David’s had the law on their side.

“It was a pretty exciting meeting, because it became pretty clear they were going to let us operate,” Andrew says.

But the run-ins with the university were not quite over yet. While Andrew was under the impression they could operate as Hahvahd Tours, the University quietly registered a trademark on the name. Escalating the issue further, an unidentified Harvard employee had been sent to scope out the tours, armed with a hidden camera. The pair confronted the employee, who quietly handed over the tapes. But The Crimson, which had been covering the start-up of the student-run tours, ran an article on the incident. The story was then covered in The Boston Globe in a full front-page spread.

“That was when I really felt the tide turn,” Andrew said. “After that Globe article ran, we showed up the next morning and there were 20 people waiting for us for the tour. That had never happened before, we always had to hustle.”

Realizing its mistakes—and perhaps due to the fear of causing further bad publicity—the university agreed to allow the tours to continue to run in the summer months, but it still remained unclear what the group would do when school resumed in September. The tours shut down once school started, but Andrew filed an application with the university, hoping to allow the tours to start up again that school year.

Eventually, six weeks into the school year, the university conceded, allowing “The Hahvahd Tour” to operate on campus.

It was the first time in recent memory, perhaps ever, that the school allowed a studentowned business to operate on campus during the school year.

FROM SUMMER FLING TO FULL-FLEDGED

With approval for operations, Andrew now faced the task of turning a summer-fling startup into a full-fledged business venture.

2014 2006

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Tour guides when the tour started.

The company now employs over 50 Harvard students.

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2050

Total tours given in 2012 alone

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Years of operation (2006-Present)

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“We sat down at John Harvard’s and literally on a napkin, started doing math,” Andrew said. “If we hire this many guides and we run this many tours and we make this much revenue, can we make a profit? We kind of were like, I think we can, so okay, let’s do it.”

They recruited six more tour guides to help assist term-time operations. The company expanded its advertising, sought new markets, and worked to build on its existing foundation.

The business grew over the following weeks, months, and years.

“I didn’t have a great idea [on how to] raise money, get investors, have a board, have people advising me,” Andrew said. “It was just a bootstrapping thing. I’m from a small town.

My dad’s a minister. My mom’s a librarian. I didn’t have any access to running a business. I didn’t know what business was. You just learn all these things as you go.”

Andrew continued to grow the business after graduation, eventually buying out his partner and bringing in some business expertise.

The Hahvahd Tour has come a long way since that first summer in 2006. Other competitors have sprung up, but the tour still maintains a firm grip on the square’s tourism industry.

ENTREPENEURSHIP

“I was all kinds of things,” Andrew says of his undergraduate years. “I was pre-med for a year. I was pre-law. [But] by senior year, I was doing what I do now. I realized it was more fun.”

What was once a side job over the summer has now turned into a professional business and career. The Hahvahd Tour is a Cinderella story –a story of entrepreneurship that Andrew admits is not all that common at a place like Harvard.

“When you look at the history of Harvard, I think that the reason that Harvard hasn’t gotten a foothold into entrepreneurship is because of its history as the oldest corporation in the world,” Andrew says. “The irony is that there is the most vibrant local business community here out of anywhere in the United States. And only about a third of these [Harvard Square] businesses are chains, the vast majority of businesses here are locally run, locally operated.”

For Andrew, owning his own tour company has meant taking a step off the beaten track and exploring a new side of the business industry.

He’s found his niche, and he’s more than ready to see where the business takes him over the next few months, years, and throughout his career.

“I’m just an owner,” Andrew proudly says.

“A small business owner. I think that’s a title that doesn’t get enough street cred.”

SOURCE: HARVARD LEADERSHIP MAGAZINE SPRING 2014

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AROUND CAMPUS

POLYPHONIC LEADERSHIP

music

LIESL ULRICH-VERDERBER PHOTO

to his ears

Inside Memorial Church, Jones observes the organ from afar.

&

QA with Edward Elwyn Jones

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HARVARD LEADERSHIP MAGAZINE SPRING 2014

HLM: How did your career as a musician begin?

HLM: So many instruments. How did you get so

EEJ: I began my musical career at about eight, EEJ: I would have to say that the choir school family is not very musical at all, but a neighbor encouraged me to audition for the Llandaff Cathedral Choir School in Cardiff, the capital city of Wales, and after several rounds of voice I boarded at the school and received my schooling in addition to intensive music training in which we rehearsed and performed new Each student also developed a musical instrumy last year, I took up the organ, which had

students received an expectation of professionalism and excellence from an extremely young You look at many successful people in Britain and many can trace their childhood to the choir

You have to remember that boys at that age would much rather being playing soccer lot of coaching, and we became disciplined at training at least an hour a day, which is not HarvardLeadershipMag.org

POLYPHONIC LEADERSHIP

AROUND CAMPUS

As Organist and Choirmaster for Harvard’s Memorial Church, Edward Jones explains the leadership behind creating beautiful music.

BY TOM KEEFE

On any given weekday morning, Harvard Yard is a ghost town. Yet in the heart of campus, inside the glorious Memorial Church, a transcendent sound, a wall of polyphonic voices greets the day, raises the spirit, and envelops the soul.

Memorial Church, 8:45 AM. Edward Elwyn Jones (Ed) walks up the stairs from the choir room to Appleton Chapel.

Tall and slim, he sports a flowing black robe over a smart gray suit. As he ascends the stone steps, he hums softly to himself the piece he will soon conduct.

He reaches the organ, sits, and begins to play the day’s prelude for Morning Prayer service. A contingent of university staff, students, and Cambridge locals take their seats as the organ, a monstrous labyrinth of meticulously assembled pipes, reverberates throughout the arched ceiling of the chapel. Jones’ rather large hands coax the instrument with

proper tempo, cadence, and flourish, and a lilting, pleasant melody greets the day as morning sunlight, golden and fresh, streams through the enormous window at the front of the chapel and onto the congregation.

The piece over, Reverend Jonathan Walton leads the congregation in a reading of the psalm; then, it is time for the anthem, sung a cappella by the choral fellows. It is a piece by Thomas Tallis, written by the premier early English Church musician five hundred years ago: If ye love me, Keep my commandments, And I will pray the father, And he shall give you another comforter That he may bide with you forever, E’en the spirit of truth.

Ed Jones is the Gund University Organist and Choirmaster at the Memorial Church. Beyond the simple matter of playing organ, Jones is responsible for leading the entire music ministry for the church, a role that includes organizing

the Memorial Church University Choir (known affectionately as “UChoir”), directing the rigorous Choral Fellow Program and putting together several concerts throughout the semester.

For many familiar with the Memorial Church, the music ministry is perhaps the finest musical program available for Harvard affiliates on campus. The choir, which traces its roots back to the very first choir at Harvard, consists of 40 undergraduates, graduate students and professors. For those interested in honing their vocal technique, the church offers the rigorous Choral Fellow Program, in which 16 members sing morning services and receive intense vocal training through the church. The church boasts not one but two full organs, which attracts brilliant organists from all over the country to visit and perform.

Every day, something musical is happening at Memorial Church, and at the heart of this is Jones. I sat down to ask a few questions and hear from him how he leads this unique coalition of singers at Harvard.

experience of conducting the choir there was

in conducting at the Mannes College of Music

-

The church staff asked me to stay, and I have

discipline, needed for picking up an instrument but also any particular skill, came from this

HLM: And conducting? When did that begin?

EEJ: In high school, I had the good fortune to have directors who allowed me some autonomy to put together my own music groups, and so I was able to conduct at quite a young age, of course, but I received hands-on experience, After high school, I attended Cambridge University as an organ scholar, and I ran the HarvardLeadershipMag.org

were there for the love of singing, and I had to that I must allow the group to help direct the that I always held the best idea of how a song

HLM: So what brought you to Harvard?

EEJ: I came to Harvard in 1998 where I spent two years as organ scholar under my predeces-

HLM: How has your leadership style changed over the years?

EEJ: For one thing, my style has changed as time here I’ve made it a mission to expand my knowledge of church music, and I’ve worked to place an importance on new music in particu- (continued on page 29) HARVARD LEADERSHIP MAGAZINE SPRING 2014

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r e t n e C d r a v r a H A for the ty AROUND CAMPUS

CHABAD AT HARVARD

i n u m m o C h s i w e J ID

BY DAV

October 12, 2013 was like any other Friday night at the Harvard noshed and sang under the light

Orthodox attire - black top hats, bulky coats, and tallits. While the guests, who were almost invariably in far more secular business casual attire, ate and laughed, Rabbi Herschy Zarchi circled the room, shaking hands and engaging in focused conversation with seemingly every person present.

Zarchi appeared remarkably calm and collected while presiding over the banquet, often beaming and laughing heartily in conversation with the attendees. The scene was a perfect advertisement for Harvard Chabad and the larger movement, whose unique journey from relative obscurity and marginalization to center of college Judaic life appears near complete.

The focus on individual attention given by the entire Chabad House is palpable. Zarchi has an astonishing social memory and routinely asks questions like, “Is your throat feeling better?” or “How is the internship application

going?” to guests who have only visited once or twice. The result is an unexpectedly intimate and almost familial atmosphere.

Zarchi, bespectacled, youthful, and full of energy, sees room for growth despite the consistently packed Friday night dinners. Recently, the rabbi has recommended RSVPing through email; though those who forget to RSVP are just as welcome no matter how packed the house is. An avid and enthusiastic planner, Zarchi embraces the challenge of encouraging a predominantly undergraduate-age and often Reform demographic show up to dinner on Friday night. “All of our events have capacity crowds at the Chabad House. Give me a space twice, three times, four times the size, and we will fill it!” As it stands now, the house is gorgeous, made up of three immaculate floors. A basement houses restrooms and coatroom, the first floor - a small wooden synagogue, and the second - the dining room, kitchen, and residence.

The Chabad movement is a Brooklyn

LIESL ULRICH-VERDERBER PHOTO

Whenever a table completed a bottle of wine, a man or woman from the kitchen would replace it instantly.

Whenever one of the courses was completed, another would take its place. Matzo ball soup, roasted chicken, brisket, salad with mango, gefilte fish, sweet potato pie, cookies, and orzo are only a sampling of the dishes served. Most of those who brought the food were modestly dressed women in headscarves.

The men of the house wore traditional

NDER

KURLA

Students gather outside Widener Library in November for a Chanukah candle lighting with President Drew Faust.

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HarvardLeadershipMag.org

Heights-based group of Orthodox Jews who identify with the teachings of a particular paternal line of Russian rabbis. The last of the line, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who died in 1994, is thought by a percentage of Chabad to be the messiah (Moshiach) or to have some sort of significance to an upcoming Messianic movement. Zarchi commented upon Scheerson’s invaluable role in expanding the movement and acting as its centerpiece: “The Rebbe passed away in 1994 and his physical absence leaves an enormous void. However, his spirit, vision, and teachings continue to guide and inspire the movement.” The movement has spread to 70 countries with over 3,600 Chabad houses worldwide.

Zarchi is a member of the Chabad National Campus Board, in addition to his role as leader of the Harvard branch, and has given much of his life to spreading its tenets. “I was born into the world of Chabad and have been a part of it ever since. The world view, values and focus [of the movement] have not changed and remain to bring the beauty of Judaism imbued with the light and teachings of Chassidut, with unconditional love, to Jews everywhere,” he says.

The depth of his knowledge and passion for the movement, and larger Judaism, is clear in his teachings. At the dinner, he delivered a moving lecture before the main course was served about the week’s Parsha, or Torah portion, Lech Lecha. Zarchi, accompanied by his young son, who recited a prayer before the talk, delved into the text, which describes Abraham’s initial covenant with God and the beginning of the concept of the Israelites as God’s “Chosen People.” Bringing the text into the contemporary sphere, Zarchi offered a politically charged vision of the Jewish diaspora in which God elevated the Jews and punished those who persecuted them. Complete with allusions to World War II and Israel, the talk went right at the most discussed and difficult legacies of 20th century Judaism and offered an empowering vision of divine retribution.

The talk presented one of the fundamental tenets of the Chabad movement: A powerful love for the entire Jewish community, not just those who are Orthodox or directly involved.

Zarchi repeatedly made reference to the “unconditional embrace regardless of degree of observance or lack thereof.” The non-judgmental code of Chabad allows it to avoid the discomfort of proselytizing and pressure. Sophomore Jonathan Ascherman, a frequent attendee of Shabbat dinners, commented upon the positive attitude fostered by Harvard Chabad’s, saying that, “They are some of the most welcoming, friendly people on campus and will always be happy to host you. I think it will continue to be

HarvardLeadershipMag.org

AROUND CAMPUS

LIESL ULRICH-VERDERBER PHOTOS

CHABAD AT HARVARD

Harvard underclassmen talk and celebrate Chanukah with Chabad Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi; Drew Faust lights the Chanukah menorah at a Chabad ceremony. that ‘home away from home’ for me.”

Harvard Chabad first opened its doors in 1997 and, according to Zarchi, “its immediate success and explosive growth have set in motion a massive expansion of the establishment of permanent Chabad centers exclusively focused on College campuses.” Although a major exemplar and innovator in the present boom, Harvard’s Chabad was by no means the first House; UCLA’s Chabad, the first permanent collegiate installation, was founded in 1969.

The director, Rabbi Dovid Gurevich, stresses many of the same tenets and beliefs as Zarchi, citing the importance of a non-judgemental space and even sending a link to an informational site on the significance of the Moshiach.

Rabbi Gurevich also commented on the differences between Chabad attendees on the East and West Coast: “Generally, I think the East Coast Jews are ‘more Jewish,’ meaning culturally more aware and involved,” though also recognizing that the deviation in knowledge

only leads to “slight variations and adaptations of the approach.” Gurevich also stressed the desire for more financial and organizational support in far more direct ways than Zarchi’s desire for more space. Gurevich also acknowledged that the vision of “a more perfected messianic world” was a “bit utopian in nature,” but that the focus of the organization towards students was far more pragmatic.

Chabad isn’t just about formal Shabbat dinners. The House organizes challah baking on Thursday, Chinese food on Tuesday nights, and a community service initiative on Sundays called Friendship Circle, which encourages friendship between special-needs children and local students. The ability for men like Rabbis Zarchi and Gurevich to lead outposts of a movement that is relatively remote to many in ideology, strip it down, and leave an accepting, delicious, and vibrant student organization has truly shifted the college landscape in an unexpected and remarkable way.

HARVARD LEADERSHIP MAGAZINE SPRING 2014

15

FEATURES

A TASTE OF LEADERSHIP

LIESL ULRICH-VERDERBER PHOTOS

food for Farmstead Table’s citrus olive oil

thought

BY DAVID GRIEDER

F

OOD TODAY LACKS A FACE. Aside

from the off-putting grins of Colonel Sanders and Wendy, today’s logos are geometric, sleek, inhuman—the golden M, a red-blue rectangle, the Taco Bell— these are the images that jump to mind when our stomachs complain and our mouths start to water. But on November 4th, at the Leadership Institute’s Taste of Leadership panel, four local restaurateurs put a distinctly personal spin on what it means to succeed in today’s world.

For Ayr Muir, founder of the deeply familiar Clover Food Lab restaurant chain and food truck franchise, having a restaurant is “a people business.”

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HARVARD LEADERSHIP MAGAZINE SPRING 2014

“If you don’t have great people around you, you’re not going to succeed at all,” Muir said. “So you have to attract and train and retain really great people.”

Muir himself is one of those people, having graduated from both MIT and Harvard Business school, only getting into the restaurant business after having spent four years at McKinsey and Co. For Muir, the driving impetus beyond his entrepreneurship was the need to impact our environment. “I really wanted to do something about environmental issues, and I started reading, probably about six years ago, an article about food and the environment,” said Muir.

Muir said that he had not originally seen a restaurant as a way to make that impact. “The starting place… was this idea that the livestock industry is contributing more CO2 than all of our transportation,” he said. From there, Muir came to understand that the way he could effect

change was through entering into the business that facilitated those vast amounts of livestock and changing it from within.

“There’s no meat on our menu at all, but 90% of our customers are not vegetarian,” he said.

The chain, which now has five restaurants operating and seven food trucks, started out quite humbly.“I took a vacation from my job—took five weeks of vacation—and I got a job at Burger King and a job at Panera,” he said. “The only reason it was Burger King is because I had like six McDonald’s turn me down.” Apparently their managers didn’t think a Harvard and MIT graduate could handle the intricacies of the cash register.

“The first truck we opened, I ran it [alone] for 18 months,” said Muir. “I opened and closed it for 18 months, every single day, straight… It was just me. I was loading the truck at the beginning of the day, I was chopping up my vegetables at night prepping for the next day… You got to put in your HarvardLeadershipMag.org

time.”

Since that time, Muir has refused to relax the hiring standards he established at the beginning of his business, an aspect that he claimed has led to continued success and the development of those leaders who really stand out.

“If you’ve got awesome people, you want to protect them, and the worst thing is to bring somebody else in who’s not pulling their weight or is a negative influence,” he said.

Teaching one’s employees to take their own initiative, and better the organization in way’s he can’t, is for Muir one of his ultimate goals.

“I love the feeling when I can hand something to someone and they do it better than I can,” he said.

For Jason Bond, founder of Bondir, the restaurant business is about the people who exist in it.

“My job is still to create an environment [in which] the guests feel comfortable and feel happy and just will want to come back to, simple as that,” he said.

Bondir, a highly acclaimed restaurant located in Cambridge, also focuses on maintaining environmentally-friendly practices, branding itself as “sustainable modern American cuisine”. The restaurant, which contains only 28 seats, provides a unique experience to the modern day customer.

“To open a business,” said Bond, “you have to feel that you have something to say or something to add… you have to feel pretty confident that there’s a reason you should be doing this, particularly when things are really difficult.”

But Bond didn’t enter the world knowing exactly what he wanted to do. A former music major from Kansas, he started to develop his taste for cuisine in college.

“I didn’t have any job skills so I worked at restaurants, and I started to like it a lot,” he said.

“The last couple years of college I decided to assess my aptitude and where I was likely to be successful and decided that I wanted to cook.”

Since that decision was made, Bond, like the other panelists, faced a challenging road.

“I didn’t take a day off for two and a half years,” said Bond, “until I really trusted that a couple of people would make the decision I would make.”

Once you have those people, Bond advised, the challenge becomes “teach[ing] them how to think creatively. Don’t just stick them in a box.”

The restaurant business “is great if you’re a mother,” says Vicki Lee Boyajian, owner of Vicki Lee’s, a restaurant in Belmont, MA. “Because mothers have to coax people,” she explains, “and to me that’s what it’s all about.”

While Boyajian didn’t become a restaurateur to change the world, she shared a common passion with her fellow panelists of working with people.

HarvardLeadershipMag.org

FEATURES

LIESL ULRICH-VERDERBER PHOTO

A TASTE OF LEADERSHIP

Restaurant panelists discussed the business of cuisine at an event sponsored by LIHC on Nov. 4, 2013 in the Fong Auditorium of Boylston Hall.

“To me it is about bringing a quality, consistent, excellent product to the customers,” Boyajian said. “I love waiting on people and serving good food, so that’s what I’ll continue to do.”

But, while it might seem impossible to cultivate such a passion on one’s own, all four panelists admitted that their passions developed over time, after they first began to engage with the business.

Boyajian’s journey started early, during high school when she was asked to cook a massive meal for a trip she went on with her classmates.

“We sat down to eat the meal and they raised their glasses and said, ‘I think this is the field that Vicki should get into, and from that day on I went steadfast into this industry, and I never looked back.”

Since then, Boyajian has taken her powerful energy and focused it on maintaining that same drive day to day. “Show the employees the passion that you have.” said Boyajian, “You hope that what you’re doing everyday is leading these people to do the same thing.”

To Sharon Burns, co-founder of Farmstead

"

To open a business, you have to feel that you have something to say or there’s a reason you should be doing this, particularly when things are really

-Jason Bond Table in Newton, MA, a restaurant that focuses on providing American cuisine from local produce, connecting with your employees and customers means “you just have to be there with them and

share your thoughts with people.”

“If your staff is happy, that’s a big thing,” she said in an interview after the panel. “If your guests are happy, that’s another big thing… we work really hard to make sure that our staff really feels listened to.”

But before even entering into the “people business,” it’s imperative to have a reason for even trying. “We just always had a vision of a place, kind of small, where we could do everything ourselves, be able to control everything,” said Burns, “…and be able to just, from every single step of the way, just see it happen and make it come true.”

Success has not come without effort however, and lots of it.

For Burns, who started her business just over a year ago, that period of immense intensity has yet to end. “For the restaurant industry, the first few years are really tough,” she said. “All you can do is just go out and try to keep close to your vision.”

Until you get to that point however, the journey is a wild one.

“Most people start out in restaurants with almost no experience,” said Burns. “And then you just kind of move up through the stations… and each step is kind of an amazing new world that you didn’t realize existed before.”

While it might seem as though today’s culinary world has become entirely corporate, the people who gathered at this event didn’t shine with that chromium gleam, or muse about profit margins and investor relations. Instead, they chatted, they laughed, and they talked about an industry where people have always mattered, and always have to matter. These entrepreneurs found success in the personal side of business, in looking at the men and women who came to their tables and ate their food, and remembering that everyone has a face.

HARVARD LEADERSHIP MAGAZINE SPRING 2014

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FEATURES

ONE MILLION LIGHTS

A Brighter Future Laughed at for their youth and ambition, Mark Lozano and Tricia Perlta fought through adversity to bring solar powered lights to rural Filipino communities.

“W

BY CHRISTINA HERBOSA

We were young, but we knew that we wanted to make an impact. We were excited, but we didn’t really know where to start."

CHRIS YUHICO PHOTO

Sierra Fan, Harvard College sophomore lights. Fan passionately explains, “One Million that inhaling the fumes from kerosene lamp for and the liaison for One Million Lights PhilipLights’ impact is multifaceted as solar power four hours is equivalent to smoking two packs pines to its mother organization One Million helps on so many different levels, starting with of cigarettes, leading to respiratory illnesses.

Lights in Palo Alto, speaks to me over brunch in education – which is the most important.” BeKatigbak shakes his head as he extrapolates on Leverett dining hall. With a smile on her face, fore Fan could finish, Lance Katigbak, a Harvard the danger of kerosene lights, “Not only that, she poses the question, “I mean, what can you freshman and Head of Publicity for One Million but they are also extremely dangerous! A family do as a fifteen year old?” Well if you are Fan, Lights Philippines, jumps in proudly stating once told me about one night when their lamp Mark Lozano, Tricia Perlta, or a team member the facts, “After our distribution in one of the had fallen while they were sleeping, burning of One Million Lights Philippines, the answer is communities, the teachers reported a dramatic their whole house to the ground.” Furthermore, a whole heck of a lot! increase literacy rates!” Coincidentally, the it has been estimated that about one and half Founded in 2010 by Lozano and Perlta, community is named Rizal after one of the million people die from kerosene related injuOne Million Lights Philippines is a youth led greatest national heroes of the Philippines, Jose ries and illnesses. organization dedicated to improving the qualRizal, who believed strongly in the importance One Million Lights Philippines stems ity of life of Filipinos living in impoverished, off of education and the power of the youth. from the instantaneous connection of Lozano the grid communities by providing solar-powFan furthermore explained the far-reachand Fan during a Global Youth Leadership ered lights. As the only chapter nonprofit One ing effects that solar power lights can have Conference their freshman year of high school.

Million Lights, they share the common goal beyond their seemingly obvious benefits. For The conference inspired the young love-birds of providing healthy lighting to international, families living off of fifty pesos a day, a bottle of as they both returned home – Fan to Palo Alto, rural communities by replacing kerosene lamps kerosene that lasts about two days costs about California and Lozano to Manila, Philippines with solar lights. An astonishing fifteen million around ten to forty pesos. Kerosene lamps – both determined to make a difference in Filipinos lack access to electricity, leaving many pose not only an economic stress on families, people’s lives. Fan stumbled upon the organizawith the kerosene lamps as their only means to but also serious health and environment risks. tion One Million Lights while Lozano and his light. Lozano reveals the heart of their mission, The World Health Organization has estimated friend from home, Perlta, played with different “We believe that light is a environmental outreach basic necessity that must program ideas that could be catered to because it aids provide sustainable aid anyone and everyone to to Filipinos lacking basic survive… Light is powerful necessities. As Lozano and life changing.” and Fan’s young, longSince their first distance romance died distribution of lights in out, One Million Lights Catanduanes, Philippines, Philippines blossomed they have greatly impacted as Fan connected Lozano the lives of approximately and Perlta with One Milthirty thousand Filipinos lion Lights. from fifty communities Receiving support throughout their country form Palo Alto, Lozano, by distributing over five Members of 1 of 50 communities who have benefitted from the solar powered lights. Perlta, and Fan embarked thousand solar-powered on their uphill battle

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HARVARD LEADERSHIP MAGAZINE SPRING 2014

HarvardLeadershipMag.org

ONE MILLION LIGHTS

About the Philippines

FEATURES

27.9%

$390

15 million

of Filipinos are under the poverty line

Poverty line cut-off

Filipinos lack access

50

9,595 tons

Lozano answered, “I guess we just learned to filter out useless criticism and turn everything else into motivation to accomplish our goals.”

Through their resilience and passion, they prove that the youth can make a difference that really changes lives. Lozano explained, “Our age, our biggest challenge, became our greatest advantage. It became the fuel that inspired others to help out and support the cause.”

Perlta, Fan, and Katigbak believe that their age is what sets One Million Lights Philippines away from other organizations. Katigbak notes, “Most organizations are run by older people – which there is nothing wrong with that – but we don’t look down at the youth. We see them

as partners for nation building.” One Million Lights Philippines provides a means to empower high school and college kids while also allowing them to become more socially aware.

Fan believes a key to their success was that they had just enough idealism to keep them going, but not too much to make them completely unrealistic. Noting that none of them could have done this on their own, a key ingredient to the success of One Million Lights Philippines is their ability to bring their individual talents together as a team to transform their passions of making a difference into a reality.

About the One Million Lights Philippines

Over 5,000 lights distributed to communities across

CHRIS YUHICO PHOTO

to complete their first project in one of the poorest barangays in the Philippines. Due to their young age and lack of experience, they were consistently met with dismissive and discouraging attitudes from adults, companies, and organizations within the first few months.

Lozano and Perlta both agreed, “Our biggest obstacle is our age. People often associate our age with inadequacy and find it hard to treat us seriously.”

During one of their first presentations to a company, a man in the audience asked Lozano “Did you buy that suit just for this meeting?”

This was certainly not the first or the last snide comment that Lozano and Perlta received along the way. Asking Lozano how he handled discouraging and hurtful comments like these,

HarvardLeadershipMag.org

Filipino communities

of carbon emissions prevented from switch to solar lanterns from

Founder Mark Lozano

HARVARD LEADERSHIP MAGAZINE SPRING 2014

19

FEATURES

THE RESILIENCY MODEL

S K C SHO to the

MARKET

Harnessing change with CEO Dan Sharp

R

ESILIENCE. ADAPTABILITY. Innova-

tion. These three principles perhaps best define Dan Sharp (HLS ’59). An international leader in management consulting, Sharp has also been successful in many different fields, and to say his career has been incredibly diverse might be an understatement.

From the Peace Corps to Founding CEO of the Royal Institution of World Science Assembly to the founding chair of his company, Resilience LLC, Sharp’s professional depth and width are both remarkable.

But what sets Sharp apart from just another typical successful business leader is his attitude. Sharp lives his life and leads those around him with a commitment to understanding and embracing change. His decisions are governed by what he calls “lightning strikes”— unexpected events that inspire creativity and progress.

For Sharp it was supposed to simple; he was going to be a lawyer. This all changed when he heard John F. Kennedy’s original speech about the Peace Corps in 1960. It was at this moment when Sharp experienced his first “lightning strike.” Immediately inspired by such an innovative and brilliant idea, Sharp decided to take a gamble and abandon his life’s plan: if Kennedy were elected, he would ask his boss, California’s Attorney-General, for a six-

What is the resiliency model?

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HARVARD LEADERSHIP MAGAZINE SPRING 2014

month leave of absence to help start the Peace Corps. JFK went on to be the 35th president of the United States and Sharp fulfilled his promise. He was among the first employees of the Peace Corp, and was soon sent to Geneva with our UN Delegation, reporting to Adlai Stevenson, the US Ambassador to the UN. “50 plus years later, I’m still on that leave of absence,” jokes Sharp. Considering that he learned three languages (French, Spanish, and Portuguese), negotiated the first 5 treaties to start the Peace Corps, and helped draft the founding legislation, it was definitely a leave well taken.

It is fitting that Sharp embraces change so much, because one of his most important projects has been to help companies become resilient. Resilience LLC, which Sharp founded in 2010, provides “resilience consulting” to corporations, non-profits, and government organizations. The goal of Sharp’s resilience consulting is to strengthen companies from within to ensure that in the case of sudden unexpected shocks or changes in their business environment, they can respond quickly, efficiently, and even profitably.Sharp’s company has proved to be extremely effective. Some of Resilience’s clients have included IBM, BP, Xerox, and Emory University.

Resilience LLC believes there are many different types of shocks that can harm a

By Isabel H. Evans company or create opportunities. These shocks can be internal, external, or opportunistic (the rise of a new kind of technology, for example).

The most Sharpgerous and often catastrophic shocks are called “black swans.” Black swans are sudden, unexpected events that can drastically change the marketplace and even the world at a single moment. These can include tsunamis, terrorist attacks, oil spills, and global disease pandemics.

Currently, Resilience LLC places cyber attacks at the top of the “black swan” and “external threat” list. But internal cyber threats are even more likely and are often more serious than external ones. “Snowden’s revelations about the NSA are a good example [of a powerful internal threat],” says Sharp.

“The failure of resilience is worth noting,” says Sharp, bringing to attention BP and the oil spill disaster of 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico.

In 2007, three years before the crisis, Sharp was hired as a consultant to lead the internal BP team working on pandemic preparedness.

He soon came to a conclusion: BP had a global standard for pandemic preparedness, but was not resilient as a corporation.

Concerned, he asked a Senior VP to work directly with him to develop a BP specific version of Sharp’s work with other companies, to make BP more resilient. Unfortunately, the detailed plan was abandoned amidst the shuffle

1) External threats Possibly harmful threats imposed not within, but outside of an industry, such as - Industrial Espionage - Intellectual Property Theft -Competing Companies - Weather and Climate -Large Scale Health Issues HarvardLeadershipMag.org

FEATURES

THE RESILIENCY MODEL

Dan Sharp’s

DAN OSTROWSKI PHOTO

to find a new chief executive once Lord Browne, the CEO at the time, was fired. About two years later, the BP oil crisis happened and without a plan of resiliency, there was insurmountable environmental harm, lives lost, and billions of dollars worth of damage. It’s tragic to think it could’ve been avoided.

Sharp sees resiliency not just as a question of strengthening individual companies or organizations, but also as a way to improve the quality of life on a national level and ensure that disasters do not escalate. He refers specifically to the findings of the 9/11 commission that in the wake of 9/11 stressed the urgency of making the most important infrastructure in United States as prepared as possible for all types of situations.

“The findings show that 85-90% of the nation’s most vital infrastructure is in private sector hands, rather than the government,” notes Sharp.

While he does work with a wide range of groups, Sharp focuses primarily on the private sector because he believes its strength is crucial to enhancing national security and prosperity. He believes firmly in Frank Sinatra’s words in “Love & Marriage” when it comes to national and business resilience: “You can’t have one without the other!”

But Sharp does not only welcome future changes. He also values history and all the lessons that it can offer. As CEO of the Eisenhower Foundation from 2011 to 2013, Sharp expanded the educational foundation to reach a national level, offering interactive leadership programs and conferences to students, structured around Eisenhower’s most difficult decisions—the decision to send troops into Little Rock, for example.In order to be an effective leader in the future “there is a lot we can learn for today from past

Ever innovative, Sharp is currently the CEO of Resilience LLC. leaders’ successes and failures,” says Sharp.

The power of compromise and adaptability, while always pursuing the just decision, served as the foundation for his decisions. One of Sharp’s major goals, and what he pushes future leaders to embrace, is Eisenhower’s ability to “find common ground between people who disagree.” If only current political leadership on the Hill would also take this advice.As a demonstration of Sharp’s bipartisanship, he worked for the man who ran against Ike twice, Adlai Stevenson, and then ran two Eisenhower legacy organizations: The American Assembly (at Columbia University) and the Eisenhower Foundation.

But while Sharp encourages motivated Harvard students to learn from past legacies, he says “first and foremost, we must all be on the look out for those ‘lightning strikes’ and not shy away from them when they arrive.

“While sometimes the safe path seems the most appealing, change does not have to be terrifying. It can be exhilarating and lead you into a realm of promising possibilities.”

2) Internal threats Possibly harmful threats imposed within the industry itself, such as - Plant/equipment damage or failure - Sustained illness/death of key executives - Supply chain disruptors - Industrial action/Strikes - Industrial accidents HarvardLeadershipMag.org

career journey 1949-1954 Student, UC Berkley

1961-1968

1973 - 1988

Senior Staff and Director of Staff Training, the Peace Corps

Director, International & Public Affairs to Xerox

1987-2002

President & CEO of the American Assembly

2008 Forum Coordinator to the World Justice Project

2007-2009

Advisor to CollectiveIQ

2009-2010 President of Sharp LLC

2011-2013

CEO of the Eisenhower Foundation

2003-Present Founding CEO/President of Royal Institution World Science Assembly

2010-Present

Founding CEO of Resilience LLC

3) Opportunities Potentially beneficial changes that occur within an industry - New technologies/innovations - New georgaphical markets - New segment markets - Changes in government laws/policies/standards - New political leadership HARVARD LEADERSHIP MAGAZINE SPRING 2014

21

VINEYARD VINES FOUNDERS

FEATURES

Knot your average company With Vineyard Vines celebrating 15 years in the retail clothing business, founders Shep and Ian Murray reflect on their success.

BY MARY-GRACE REEVES

HEP AND IAN MURRAY TRULY LIVE

S

BY their company’s motto,

“Every Day Should Feel This Good.” In 1998, the brothers abandoned their corporate jobs to dive head-first into making their entrepreneurial vision a reality. The founders of the incredibly successful lifestyle brand Vineyard Vines recently took the time to meet with the Harvard Leadership Magazine to discuss taking risks to follow your passions, offer meaningful advice to student entrepreneurs, and reflect on the amazing growth of the company in the past fifteen years. Since 1998, their ties have been adopted by even Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and the company has grown to include over 600 employees and approximately 40 national retail stores. Yet Shep promises that the company works tirelessly “not to be bigger, but to be better.” Equally commendable to the dedication Shep and Ian Murray have exhibited in their work to develop Vineyard Vines is their devotion to giving back to the community, as reflected in the brothers’ personal philosophy, “Give back more to the community than you receive.”

At the start of their careers, Shep and Ian HarvardLeadershipMag.org

Murray could be found behind desks at their corporate jobs in Manhattan. Shep vividly recalls a catalyst of his decision to leave the corporate world and pursue Vineyard Vines. “I once had a review at my corporate job where my manager told me to think more ‘inside the box’.” Shep had recently graduated from

Martha’s Vineyard

Skidmore College (’93), while Ian had just graduated from Lafayette College (’97). The brothers view their first jobs as having shaped their approach to leading Vineyard Vines, vowing that they aim to encourage the creativity and contributions of all of their team members.

These entrepreneurial ideals continue to guide

the brothers in their positions. They recall their decision to instead think outside the box and embark upon developing Vineyard Vines as “freeing, but slightly scary.” Quitting their jobs on the same day, the brothers pooled $7,000 between them and set out to make Vineyard Vines a reality.

Founding their own company in their twenties, Shep and Ian recall that they entered the retail industry with virtually no experience in the field. However, the brothers turned their naivety in the industry into an asset that allowed them to stay true to themselves in developing products they felt people would enjoy, rather than feeling forced to follow trends. Fifteen successful years later, the brothers deem their earliest days with the company as the largest challenge they have had to overcome.

“At the start of Vineyard Vines, we encountered a lot of naysayers – people who we respected and loved who also warned us that things might not work out. If we had listened to everything they said, we wouldn’t be where we are today. The hardest part of being an entrepreneur is taking that initial risk.”

As students at their respective universities, Shep and Ian remember they were genuHARVARD LEADERSHIP MAGAZINE SPRING 2014

23

VINEYARD VINES FOUNDERS

V I N E YA R D V I N E S P H O T O

FEATURES

Shep and Ian Murray enjoy an “Every Day Should Feel This Good” moment in 2001. The original Vineyard Vines product, the men’s tie, continues to be a staple of the company’s collections. inely “work hard, play hard” students. They continue to live this way even as renowned entrepreneurs (both brothers bring duffel bags to work each day containing a bathing suit, flip flops, dress shirt, and tie, ready for any adventures the day holds). The Murray brothers’ entrepreneurial skills grew during their college years, as both were members of small business clubs. Ian additionally pursued his interest in music by playing in a band (he still continues to perform) while also handling the financial side of booking gigs. Shep’s experience leading an auto detailing business taught him early on about the value of networking, marketing, and entrepreneurship.

“We come from a long line of people who worked for themselves, so we didn’t envision Vineyard Vines specifically, but we knew at some point we might want to be entrepreneurs.”

The Vineyard Vines brand was inspired by Shep and Ian’s countless memories of family

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HARVARD LEADERSHIP MAGAZINE SPRING 2014

vacations on Martha’s Vineyard during the summer. The brothers’ sense of adventure parallels that of their parents, Stan and Nancy Murray, who were travel writers. In fact, the iconic pink whale brand logo resembles the

"

From the moment we pick up the phone, see our customers walk into one of our stores, or just pass them on the streets wearing one of our products, we treat them

-Shep & Ian Murray wooden whales their father carved at Martha’s Vineyard, a whaling village. In regards to their smiling logo, the brothers agree “We couldn’t

think of a better icon to represent everything our brand stands for.” While Shep and Ian are originally from Connecticut, they returned to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts to introduce their products. Almost instantly, the duo became well known for selling their colorful men’s ties (which started with just four designs) from their jeep on the beach.

The brothers jokingly recall that ties were the brand’s first product, made so they would not have to wear a suit and tie to work each day (as they had in Manhattan). While the Murrays continue to drive their old Jeeps, the company has grown exponentially to include product lines of patchwork totes, seersucker dresses and pants, and over 100 different styles of ties.

Today, there is even a Harvard University tie, complete with Veritas motto and ivy leaves on a crimson backdrop.

Shep and Ian cite the Vineyard Vines company mantra Everyday Should Feel This Good (#EDSFTG) as a common experience. “It’s that HarvardLeadershipMag.org

VINEYARD VINES FOUNDERS

FEATURES

“We couldn’t think of a better icon to represent

everything our brand stands for.” one moment when everything feels perfect – a day spent on the boat, an afternoon with the kids, or even just putting on your favorite polo and spending a lazy afternoon on the beach.” In regard to personal #EDSFTG moments along their business journeys, the brothers recall many rewarding aspects. Just this winter, Shep and Ian opened a new Vineyard Vines retail store in Chicago. Reflecting upon this experience, the brothers commented that they feel so fortunate to enter a new community, like Chicago, and encounter overwhelming support for the brand they have worked so tirelessly to build. In yet another recent milestone for the company, Vineyard Vines was announced as the “Official Style of the Kentucky Derby,” a partnership between Vineyard Vines and the Kentucky Derby continuing through at least 2016. The brothers energetically anticipate this growing partnership. “For us it’s a perfect partnership, since we have a lot of our different existing customer groups converging for one event. You have the collegiate fans in the infield, and then some of our older customers in the stands. The whole event combines sporting and merriment – things that really align with our brand.”

Looking at the past fifteen years, there is no doubt that Vineyard Vines will continue making strides in the future. While Shep and Ian admit that it is difficult to know exactly what is in store for the company in the next fifteen years, they look forward to continuing to do just what they are doing today. “The most rewarding part of what we do is having the ability to give back. We feel very strongly about supporting the communities that have supported us.” Indeed, Vineyard Vines is well-revered for the company’s role as a philanthropic leader.

Through their charitable campaign “Tied To A Cause: Making A Whale of a Difference,” Vineyard Vines has given back to countHarvardLeadershipMag.org

V I N E YA R D V I N E S P H O T O

-Shep & Ian Murray

The original Vineyard Vines retail store was the Murray brothers’ Jeep, as Shep and Ian began selling their ties on Martha’s Vineyard in 1998. less organizations including the United Service Organizations (USO), Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, Breast Cancer Alliance, Michael J. Fox Foundation, Sailing Heals, and Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, among many others. Vineyard Vines recently provided support on the Harvard campus, donating to the 2013 Harvard Dance Marathon to benefit Boston Children’s Hospital.

As is illustrated in the brothers’ easy-going, relaxed attitude during conversation, building a sense of a welcoming community within the Vineyard Vines brand is incredibly important to them. “Nothing feels better than being made to feel that you’re part of something, and that’s how we strive to make our customers feel.”

Truly, Shep and Ian Murray are normal guys who treasure spending time with family and friends boating, fishing, and just spending time

together. These are experiences their customers relate to well, and Shep and Ian’s amazing insight and incredible work ethic have enabled them to share this experience with their customers. Often, they are recognized by their customers, simply enjoying the very activities their brand was built upon. “From the moment we pick up the phone, see our customers walk into one of our stores, or just pass them on the streets wearing one of our products, we treat them like family.”

The Murray brothers are living proof of the value of hard work and pursuing your dreams. Their advice for undergraduates? “Lots of people have great ideas, but most of them never actually do anything about it.” Shep and Ian completely embraced their vision, had the courage to follow it, and have never looked back since.

HARVARD LEADERSHIP MAGAZINE SPRING 2014

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FEATURES

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP

A Fresh

Start

Annie Ryu’s plan to take jackfruit global

BY JAY CHAKRAVARTY

HOUGH MONEY DOESN’T GROW ON

T

TREES, JACKFRUIT DOES. Jackfruit,

a milky-juiced mulberry fruit found all across India, may be one of the world’s greatest untapped natural resources. Highly nutritious, the Jackfruit is packed with essential vitamins and minerals such as vitamin A, magnesium, potassium, fiber, and beta-carotene. Its abounding trees, which on average yield three tons of fruit annually, well position the Jackfruit to become a global agricultural staple. The Jackfruit is especially valuable given its hardy nature: it has been used as an intercrop to provide shade for more delicate crops given its exceptional ability to tolerate extended drought, its natural resistance to pests, and its overall low maintenance requirement. Given its outstanding nutritional content and humanitarian and

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HARVARD LEADERSHIP MAGAZINE SPRING 2014

agricultural potential as well as its delectability (the ripe Jackfruit’s taste has been described as a cross between a banana and a pineapple), it may seem surprising that the Jackfruit has not already established itself as a global commodity. That is the job of the entrepreneur. Annie Ryu ’13 has stepped forward to address this market opportunity by founding Global Village Fruit (GVF). She, her team, consisting of six interns, a board of advisors, and a CFO have set out to establish an international supply chain for distributing the Jackfruit on a global scale.

Ryu first recognized the Jackfruit’s potential after her sophomore year of college while providing healthcare alongside her brother Alex in Bangalore, India’s third most populated city. On her very first day in Bangalore, Ryu decided to explore the city and quickly experienced profound culture shock as she

encountered “cows sitting on the streets, dogs sitting on the streets, and so many people” in the crowded throughways of the city. Lying on the side of the street, interspersed between all the madness, she spotted “these strange green spiny objects,” which she initially mistook for an unknown local animal. Her brother explained to her that these strange objects were in fact Jackfruit, an edible, native Indian fruit. Ryu insisted on trying the fruit and upon her first bite, insisted that it was “the best thing she had ever tasted.” Perplexed as to how she had never seen or heard of this strange yet delicious fruit before, Ryu then set out to determine the true nature of this peculiar delicacy.

Her quest led her to a local Jackfruit aficionado, who then invited her to a Jackfruit festival in a neighboring rural area, an eighthour bus ride away. Ryu spent her first weekend HarvardLeadershipMag.org

FEATURES

PHOTO COURTESY ANNIE RYU

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Ryu in local garb surrounded by villagers in Bangalore, India, the city in which Ryu first discovered, tasted, and fell in love with the jackfruit.

in India at this event, meeting Jackfruit growers and venders as well as general enthusiasts from all across the region. The various exhibition stalls at the festival featured Jackfruit prepared in a variety of different products including as juice, fries, and even pastries. There were also competitions awarding prizes to the largest Jackfruit, sweetest Jackfruit, best Jackfruit product, and even the person capable of eating the most Jackfruit. Thoroughly intrigued, Ryu then continued her study by visiting various local “universities to meet with Jackfruit researchers, farms to meet with Jackfruit farmers, and processing facilities to meet with Jackfruit processors” in order to gain a deeper understanding of the level of industry, knowledge, and infrastructure already invested into the local Jackfruit market. Due to the itinerant nature of her work, Ryu estimated that she had spent many more days on overnight buses in India than she had at stable locations. Ultimately, Ryu’s travels and research convinced her that the Indian Jackfruit market “was in dire need of a strong international market connection.” Her objective to establish this network has given birth to Global Village Fruits.

Despite the glamour typically associated with entrepreneurship, establishing an entire company from scratch is no easy task. Ryu admits that it has been quite challenging to transition from “a simple idea that seemed to HarvardLeadershipMag.org

have a lot of promise” to the actual establishment of a living, breathing company. Though Ryu initially believed her greatest challenge would be sourcing the product and delivering it to target markets, marketing has in fact proven to be one of GVF’s greatest challenges. At first Annie “thought that it was going to be enough that this product benefits farmers so of course people would pull it off the shelves; if a product’s going to benefit farmers why wouldn’t you buy it?” Quickly she realized, however, that branding and marketing a product “is its own

"

If you always think it’s going to be easier than it is, you’ll keep pushing with more

-Annie Ryu

beast” that cannot simply rely on the fact that “it helps farmers.” Ryu has thus become heavily involved with the marketing aspect of her enterprise, a task that didn’t initially appeal to her.

The company has also grappled with constantly adjusting its financial projections to account for additional growth projections.

Ryu says, “We have been growing and progressing so quickly that updating our projections in order to keep them recent is always an issue.

There is the constant endless to-do list of running a start-up.” However, for Ryu the financial side has always been a lower priority; she anticipated that the clear lack of market competition would make growth easy. Since farmers in India are currently making little to no money off the Jackfruit, she knew that GVF would be able to buy their product at an appealing price and achieve profitability early on.

Before GVF, Ryu never saw business as being part of her future: “My background is from Rochester, Minnesota, a very healthcare oriented place. My parents always thought I was going to be a physician, and there’s this mindset that business is for people focused on making money so I never thought I was going to do anything with business. It [was] not really what I’m about. I have an internal aversion to focusing too much on the finances just because that’s just not what really motivates me.” Nevertheless, over time she has learned to embrace the marketing and branding as well as the publicity and distribution aspects of GVF to make the company viable and competitive.

Many of GVF’s struggles are associated with its identity as a social enterprise—an organization that “connects directly with farmers organizations and develop international supply HARVARD LEADERSHIP MAGAZINE SPRING 2014

27

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP

chains where there haven’t been international supply chains before.” Since there is no large-scale Jackfruit market, GVF faces many challenges that are not associated with more staple crops that are traded in bulk in international markets. More specifically, GVF has to determine which suppliers have high enough quality fruit that meets GVF’s high standards.

Given that GVF sources from small farmers in order to generate the maximum social impact, GVF must take special care to ensure that the conditions in which the fruit is harvested and processed are held to a certain set of standards, a task that would be much easier if it were to source its Jackfruit from large-scale growers and process its products from large factories whose frameworks are capable of ensuring quality products. GVF has responded to this challenge by providing training programs for the small-scale Indian farmers and for the processors with which it collaborates. Also, since GVF values environmental sustainability, Ryu’s team considers the sources of its processors’ electricity and has looked favorably upon those that employ “solar power or biogas production from the waste of Jackfruit to power the dehydration process.”

Another major challenge of GVF has arisen in regards to the factories in which the fruit is processed. Since the Jackfruit “has been so underutilized and under-researched internationally throughout its history,” it is difficult to obtain processing equipment specifically fit for processing Jackfruit. Ryu said, “To our knowledge there is no processing equipment has been developed specifically suited to the needs of Jackfruit.” Processors are often forced to use machinery designed for other fruits and machinery that is inappropriate for handling the starchy, fibrous flesh of the Jackfruit. GVF hopes that once global demand for Jackfruit

LIESL ULRICH-VERDERBER PHOTO

FEATURES

Ryu’s jackfruit is dried and packaged for distribution and consumption. reaches a certain threshold, developers will begin to manufacture specialized Jackfruit processing equipment.

Lastly, finding consistency amongst Jackfruit trees has frustrated GVF. Unlike other fruits such as apples and figs, which are predominantly the products of grafting, Jackfruit has not yet been effectively grafted. The fact that “there is a huge amount of genetic variation between Jackfruit trees unless they have been grafted” poses a significant problem to its product consistency. In the process of grafting, a plant is selected for its superior fruits and is appended to other plants to ensure consistently high quality. Ryu says, “That sort of thing hasn’t been done for Jackfruit, which is grown entirely organically; it just hasn’t been given the attention it needs yet.”

Despite the challenges faced and overcome by GVF, Ryu remains confident that it will ultimately realize its ambitious objectives; her

Jackfruit Nutrition Facts Serving Size: 1 cup (165 g) Amount Per Serving Calories: 157

Vitamin B-6 Total Fat

desire to make a large social impact, which drew her to the company in the first place, will always propel her to persevere. “I always thought it was going to be easier than it is. I’m aware that I still think it’s going to be easier than it is but if you always think it’s going to be easier than it is you’ll keep pushing with more optimism.” Ryu goes on to highlight that “we’ve made a tremendous amount of progress from the beginning until now; I mean it literally started as an idea with no traction and no experience backing it up, and now we’re here. I was just doing demos yesterday at a trade show with Whole Foods.”

GVF has finally achieved tangible commercial success: Whole Foods Market, an American supermarket chain specializing in organic products, commissioned GVF to place its first product, dried ripe Jackfruit, on the shelves of ten to twelve of the largest Whole Foods Markets in the North Atlantic region starting November 2013.

*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

Source: USDA

Vitamin C

25% 1% 37%

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HARVARD LEADERSHIP MAGAZINE SPRING 2014

HarvardLeadershipMag.org

CONTINUED STORIES

AROUND CAMPUS

POLYPHONIC LEADERSHIP continued from page 13

er-in-residence program here and now perform many pieces by our very own Carson Cooman I believe that we are privileged to support

In the America tradition, what I would call the “concert choir” tradition, a choir works on one piece intensely for weeks, maybe even for a semester, and it perfects every aspect—vowels,

make the people feel that they are doing it for

cons, and that is the struggle I’ve been working

art of conducting is to make the individuals of the group believe in the song and feel they are performing the piece their way while also working to guide everyone towards a collective vision

So we need to encourage this new kind of

What I’ve really tried to do recently is to be much more of a pedagogue in terms of teach-

the musicians I work with have years of training, and even if your direction is very nice, the conductor is implicitly criticizing how they make ers, in which you are actually telling them to

Additionally, one aspect of my leadership style that I have sought to develop is to remain cognizant of the fact that we are indeed gious or should be, but one of our primary goals is to lead the church congregation spiritually,

responsibility of the conductor, especially in an

has become a museum piece, a performance of the same canonical works over and over, which is great, but we also must be commit-

psalm texts we sing consistently as a choir says

Furthermore, I take seriously the idea that I am employed by the church, and that there students here sometimes have issues, and I really try to make them feel that they always have

intonation during rehearsal, but I have not lost sight of the fact that we have a lot of music to Now, I emphasize the big picture: What message are we trying to get across? What is the piece saying spiritually? Things must be together and the technical details have to be there, but we also want to capture the arch of the piece, and with only a limited amount of

Ultimately, you need to try to coax the best out of people and make them realize that what they do has the power to nourish themselves and HLM: You have a lovely wife and two sons to juggle work and family life?

EEJ: The church staff is very supportive about singer, works as well and travels often, but my

one of great challenges and one of the great at other times, just to allow the music and the singing to give them some space from rigors of I guess I have had to adjust my leadership to maintain the pace of my British, cathedral choir background while also fusing that style with the American way of doing things that we “cathedral” tradition, the choristers rehearse and perform a different piece of music every We get through a lot of music, which is fresh

cert, knowing that we have a concert coming up in two weeks, knowing that we have carols in little less than a month, and that everything needs to be done but not at the expense of lot of music in this choir, and, I think, at a very HLM: It is interesting to see you as a leader of voices. Is there anything especially unique about leading singers in particular?

I often feel like I am running from one thing to another, but I think that is simply the way it is family keeps my perspective balanced in the

HLM: Are you getting the kids into music?

EEJ: (laughing)

-

sure if they are going to be musicians, but they

SOPHOMORE START-UP continued from page 5

with a team—how to start something and see it through. The teamwork was crucial to him because “the thing that breaks most companies is the lack of good communication. People see things from different angles,” he added.

Although he came up with the idea, Simko realized almost immediately that he couldn’t implement it alone. He needed a team, including someone who could code. Simko had immediate access to someone who could not only code, but do it well—Ghoche, another friend of his.

Ghoche was the first person he contacted to ask for help, and he was immediately on board with the idea. When asked what he thought about the entire process of building the website, Ghoche simply says, “It was fun working with my friends.” Moreover, he adds, “It’s just a website. I still love CS50,” speaking of one of his favorite and most rewarding classes that HarvardLeadershipMag.org

he has taken thus far at Harvard.

While they had first planned to launch just in time for senior sales, the design was not at par with the team’s aspirations by May. It was the classic perfectionist’s struggle, launch now or wait until next year in order to improve upon the design even further. They decided to spend the entire summer working on it because launching a website that was not only easy but also fun to use was more important to them than the launch date.

Simko emphasized the incredible support he received from his teammates throughout the entire process. Topkar, for example, was responsible for the design of the website. Not only did he create a design that impressed the rest of the team, but he was able to finish it in three days.

The next step for the boys of Crimson Exchange is to make it a dynamic part of Harvard,

and they are taking serious strides to make sure that the website does not die once they graduate. Networking is a crucial part of their strategy. Simko hopes to soon start recruiting freshmen that he could train so they can eventually take over once the team graduates.

How has being a part of Crimson Exchange changed Simko’s vision of what he wants do in the future? “I wanted to test entrepreneurship, but I want to also make sure that I believe in what I do from the bottom of my heart,” he said.

Starting Crimson Exchange helped him realize not only how rewarding doing something that one truly cares about is, but also how incredibly satisfactory it is to be part of a great, dynamic team. In fact, other than organizing and pushing oneself to do more, teamwork is another one of his main ingredients in pushing any project to success and overcoming any struggle on the way.

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SKILLS

LESSONS FROM VILLAINS

7

Leadership Lessons from Disney Villains

BY NEHA MEHROTA

Cruella de Vil - 101 dalmations

Gaston - beauty and the beast

If there is one woman who is dead set in her ways, it is Cruella de

Girls want to be with him, and guys Unfortunately, what you have planned hardly ever goes according ball, don’t be stubborn in your ways but being too arrogant can lead you to underestimate your situation

challenge will introduce a new set of unforeseen problems that have to

Gaston’s case, there was no happy ending: he lost the girl and plunged

Ursula - the little mermaid Be original

While inspiration is important, true success lies in bringing something innovative crashing down when the shell that contains Ariel’s voice breaks, and Ursula is hard to maintain because there isn’t much room to grow due to an inherently PHOTOS COURTESY GOOGLE

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HARVARD LEADERSHIP MAGAZINE SPRING 2014

HarvardLeadershipMag.org

LESSONS FROM VILLAINS

SKILLS

Scar - the lion king

Don't throw someone under the bus

Scar, though, turns his back and blames the hyenas for Pride Rock’s ruin, and probably won’t be eaten alive like Scar, refusing to be accountable for your own

Evil Queen - snow white

Be comfortable in your own skin Focus on yourself before oth-

success is feeling assured of your the magic mirror that Snow White is the most beautiful in the kingdom, the Evil Queen plots against not good form to try to kill your More importantly, though, do not let others’ perceptions of you

Jafar - aladdin

Don't be power hungry Go into a challenge with the desire to improve yourself and help others rather than view it as your opporhonest intentions and real pas-

life rule, never take advice from a ally, if you see something other

Jafar’s ruthless quest for power leads him to wish that he were a

just want to take the next stop to

becomes trapped for eternity in a lies in his blindness to the fact that power by itself is ultimately useless

- sleeping beauty Don't take criticism personally

HarvardLeadershipMag.org

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