Nancy F. Koehn
Nancy F. Koehn is a historian at the Harvard Business School where she holds the James E. Robison chair of Business Administration. Koehn's research focuses on crisis leadership and how leaders and their teams rise to the challenges of high-stakes situations. Her latest book, Forged in Crisis: The Power of Courageous Leadership in Turbulent Times, spotlights how five of history’s greatest leaders managed crisis and, in doing this, accomplished extraordinary missions. She is currently working on a major study of civil rights leaders during the late 1950s and 1960s and what we can learn today from their bravery, commitment, methods and purpose. Koehn has written numerous books and authored HBS cases on Starbucks Coffee Company, Ernest Shackleton, Oprah Winfrey, Bono and U2, Whole Foods, Wedgwood, Estée Lauder, Madam CJ Walker, Dell Computer, and other leaders and organizations. She is currently writing an HBS case on John Lewis and the Civil Rights Movement and another case on John F. Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Koehn consults with many companies and speaks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Aspen Institute Ideas Festival and the World Business Forum. She has appeared on many television shows, including, "American Experience," "Good Morning America," "The PBS NewsHour," and A&E's "Biography.” She writes for the New York Times, the Washington Post, Huffington Post, and the Harvard Business Review and is a frequent commentator on National Public Radio and the BBC. In 2012, Poets and Quants ranked Koehn as one of the World’s 50 Best Business School Professors. Before coming to HBS, Koehn was a member of Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences for seven years, first as a graduate student in history and then as a lecturer in the History and Literature concentration and the Department of Economics. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Stanford University, Koehn earned a Master of Public Policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government before taking her MA and PhD in History from Harvard. Koehn lives in Concord, Massachusetts and is a dedicated equestrian.
8 Books Written
Forged in Crisis: The Making of Five Courageous Leaders
by Nancy F. Koehn
Rating: 4.0 ⭐
• 2 recommendations ❤️
A WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER“Five gritty leaders whose extraordinary passion and perseverance changed history…a gripping read on a timeless and timely topic” —Angela Duckworth, #1 bestselling author of GritAn enthralling historical narrative filled with critical leadership insights, Forged in Crisis , by celebrated Harvard Business School historian Nancy Koehn, spotlights five masters of crisis: polar explorer Ernest Shackleton; President Abraham Lincoln; legendary abolitionist Frederick Douglass; Nazi-resisting clergyman Dietrich Bonhoeffer; and environmental crusader Rachel Carson.What do such disparate figures have in common? Why do their extraordinary stories continue to amaze and inspire? In delivering the answers to those questions, Nancy Koehn offers a remarkable template by which to judge those in our own time to whom the public has given its trust.She begins each of the book’s five sections by showing her protagonist on the precipice of a great crisis: Shackleton marooned on an Antarctic ice floe; Lincoln on the verge of seeing the Union collapse; escaped slave Douglass facing possible capture; Bonhoeffer agonizing over how to counter absolute evil with faith; Carson racing against the cancer ravaging her in a bid to save the planet. The narrative then reaches back to each person’s childhood and shows the individual growing—step by step—into the person he or she will ultimately become. Significantly, as we follow each leader’s against-all-odds journey, we begin to glean an essential truth: leaders are not born but made. In a book dense with epiphanies, the most galvanizing one may be that the power to lead courageously resides in each of us.Whether it’s read as a repository of great insight or as exceptionally rendered human drama, Forged in Crisis stands as a towering achievement.
Polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton never achieved any of the goals he originally set for himself. But when confronted with crushing adversity, he inspired his men to work together to survive against incredible odds. While stranded on an ice floe 1,200 miles from civilization, Shackleton's discipline, fortitude, and heroism overcame months of hardship and peril to get all his men to safety. Here, in this short-form book, Harvard Business School professor Nancy Koehn writes that his is an example from which every leader can learn.
Brand New : How Entrepreneurs Earned Consumers' Trust from Wedgwood to Dell
by Nancy F. Koehn
Rating: 3.9 ⭐
Koehn (business administration, Harvard Business School) explores the connections between entrepreneurs and consumers, and the exceptional abilities of certain entrepreneurs to understand and capitalize upon the effects of rapid social, economic and technological changes on consumers' needs and wants. Six leaders of brand creation, from the mid-1700s to the present day, are Josiah Wedgwood, Henry Heinz, Marshall Field, EstTe Lauder, Howard Schultz, and Michael Dell. Koehn considers the role that these six individuals have played historically in creating new markets and affecting modern consumption, and she draws on their examples to find insights for today's brand builders. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Harvard Business School professor Nancy F. Koehn provides an inspiring example of a leader who leads not just from the head but the heart. Her Oprah Winfrey. Here, in this brief eBook, is how she built a media empire and the lessons you can apply to your own work and life.
The Power of Commerce: Economy and Governance in the First British Empire
by Nancy F. Koehn
Rating: 4.0 ⭐
What price do states pay for becoming and remaining world powers? Why did the first greatly expanded British Empire collapse so rapidly? Nancy F. Koehn here recounts the urgent challenges that confronted the British in the ten-year period following their overwhelming victory in the Seven Years War.
Oprah (Brand) Renew
by Nancy F. Koehn
Harvard Business School professor Nancy F. Koehn provides a powerful lesson on brand stewardship in time of crisis. Her Oprah Winfrey. When the integrity of your brand is in danger, Koehn advises, follow Oprah’s lead. Return to your core values. Level with your customers. Prove that you mean it.How would she respond, this thoughtful entrepreneur, who has used her empathy and vision and story sense of responsibility to create one of the most powerful brands in history? In the crucible created by the James Frey controversy, what kind of leadership would Oprah exercise?
Brand New **ISBN: 9781578512218**
by Nancy F. Koehn
百年商业头条：从 纽约时报 窥见美国商业繁荣之路
by Nancy F. Koehn
商业已经成为全球经济舞台上强大的“角色”之一，商业企业几乎可以影响我们生活的方方面面，它们决定着我们大部分人每天都离不开的技术、左右着我们的娱乐活动、我们对社会公平的看法以及我们对政治和经济形势的观点。商业经济影响力的广度和深度尚未表现出任何衰落的迹象，人们把商业视为新世纪的推动力量。上百年来，人们时刻关注着商业经济及商业企业的发展，而《纽约时报》对企业、公司及其领袖，以及公司竞争舞台的实时记录，让我们得以一览美国商业史的起落回合。《纽约时报》出色的商业报道帮助我们更好地理解美国商业史上激动人心的时刻，以及商业人士和商业事件对经济动荡时刻有着怎样的历史意义。同时，这本书中选编的报道覆盖面相当丰富：奋发图强、勇于开拓创新的企业家，各种技术突破，金融领域的成就、危机和丑闻，消费品数量和品种的大爆发，以及数不清的男男女女为了生存和生活、捍卫他们在瞬息万变的经济和社会中的地位所做的努力。《百年商业头条：从 纽约时报 窥见美国商业繁荣之路》从三个不同主题来描述美国商业的发展历程：现代企业从出现到成为推动社会发展的引擎；工作性质的不断变迁，成为塑造个体生活的主要力量；技术性创新和变革，成为撬动时代发展的杠杆。这几个方面为我们提供了一个广角镜，使我们得以观察某些重要人物和重要事件如何决定了美国商业史，而这反过来又会对我们的时代和我们所面临的机会造成怎样的影响。