Shaping The Waves: A History Of Entreprenuership At Harvard Business School [Hardcover]

Jeffrey L. Cruikshank (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2005

In Shaping the Waves, Jeffrey L. Cruikshank recounts the evolution of entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School and among its graduates-a journey going back more than fifty years and involving many of the most influential business players of the second half of the twentieth century. Detailing dozens of stories of remarkable entrepreneurial ventures and the individuals behind them, Cruikshank describes the unique and powerful network that exists among HBS alumni-an active connection that bridges generations, fields of interest, and wide geographic boundaries.

Through these stories, the book illuminates the growth of entrepreneurship at HBS from sideline elective to influential management program, the waves of change leveraged by opportunistic alumni, the classic attributes of entrepreneurial success, and the many facets of the entrepreneurial process, from raising and deploying capital to managing and developing a business.

Offering a unique lens on an institution that has sown the seeds of entrepreneurship for decades, Shaping the Waves is a powerful testament to the many who have spotted, shaped, and harnessed change to improve our world.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jeffrey L. Cruikshank is President of the Cruikshank Company, Inc., and the author or coauthor of numerous business books, including several published by HBS Press.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 371 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press; 1st edition (March 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591398134
• ISBN-13: 978-1591398134
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #836,119 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm the author or co-author of numerous books of interest to managers. These include histories of the Harvard Business School, New England Electric, Cummins Engine Company, The Weather Channel, and Perdue Farms; a book on corporations and architecture for Herman Miller, Inc.; a history of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy; the definitive guide to art in public places (Going Public); and books on numerous other subjects, ranging from logistics in the Gulf War (Moving Mountains) to entrepreneurship (Low Risk, High Reward) to the inner workings of the commercial real estate industry (The Real Estate Game, and Creating and Growing Real Estate Wealth).

In 2005, I published my first murder mystery (Murder at the B-School). Another is in the works. (Thanks for your patience.)

I'm about to publish my first biography--The Man Who Sold America--which focuses on the life and times of Albert D. Lasker (HBR Press, summer of 2010). I think it's an amazing story, of interest to a wide range of people: advertising and PR executives, baseball buffs, students of American political history, people with an interest in bipolar illness, and anyone who likes a good yarn.

I'm a graduate of Amherst College and the Program for Management Development at the Harvard Business School. I worked as a consultant to a number of companies and schools in the Boston area in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1980, I became the editor of the Harvard Business School Bulletin, beginning a relationship with that school that has continued since then, and has led to many other engagements in the worlds of education and business.

In 1989, I co-founded Kohn Cruikshank, Inc., a Boston-based consulting firm that served corporate and institutional clients until September of 2001, when we moved to Milton, Massachusetts and became The Cruikshank Company, Inc. I've worked on capital campaigns and development-related work for Harvard Law School (two campaigns), MIT (two campaigns), the University of California at Berkeley, the Boston Athenaeum, Harvard's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the University of Massachusetts, Fenway Community Health, North Shore Medical Center, the Shackleton School, Milton Academy, Phillips Andover Academy, the Peddie School, Boston University, and many other institutions.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Shaping The Waves, March 7, 2006

By 

FARHAN PETTIWALA (India) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Shaping The Waves: A History Of Entreprenuership At Harvard Business School (Hardcover)

I received the book well in time and it is in an emmaculate condition. I would recommend if Amazon can put a plastic cover on the book in future, for the book to last longterm, with a small page marker.

1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but hardly flattering, July 18, 2005

By 

John Callister (Ithaca, NY) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Shaping The Waves: A History Of Entreprenuership At Harvard Business School (Hardcover)

The book presents Harvard MBA's as rather clueless individuals collecting a Rolodex of contacts but little else. Freshly minted MBA's take entry level jobs (which somehow lead to vice presidential slots within short order) because they claim they need to learn from experience and know nothing about management. Did they learn anything in Harvard Business School? Apparently not. Did they gain access to an incredible old-boy network? Certainly.