Harvard Business School has announced the launch of a new executive education program designed for individuals charged with building new businesses within their company.

“Building New Businesses in Established Companies” will focus on the leadership, strategic decision-making, and cultural changes necessary for success in new initiatives, according to a statement announcing the news.

“To nurture successful, new enterprises within existing firms leaders must be ‘ambidextrous’ —equipped to explore innovative organic opportunities that can drive growth while leveraging the infrastructure of an established company and managing the demands of day-to-day business operations,” says Bruce Harreld, Senior Lecturer of Business Administration at HBS and faculty chair for the program.

“Executives will leave this program with a new understanding of how an entrepreneurial approach can create opportunities and how to overcome the cultural, organizational, and political obstacles often presented by large, established companies.”

This program will feature the case study method, faculty lectures, interactive classroom discussions, and a guest panel of executives who have had success in building new businesses within established companies and will be sharing their challenges, approaches and results.

“As companies seek innovative ways to unlock new sources of growth, HBS is proud to offer this unique executive education program that will help leaders identify new opportunities and provide insights on how to maximize them,” says Professor David Yoffie, Senior Associate Dean and Chair of Harvard Business School Executive Education programs.

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The MBA Oath has gained further traction among top business schools with the recent naming of Nitin Nohria as Harvard Business School‘s new dean. But not every elite B-school is on board with the formal pledge to “create value responsibly and ethically.”

In a recent post on the Yale SOM Community Blog, To Oath or Not to Oath, blogger Morgan explains that although organizations such as the Aspen Institute and Net Impact have strong ties to both the SOM and the Oath Project, the school has decided not to join the cause…for now.

“Last week, I organized a town hall meeting to discuss the possibilities and limitations of the Business Oath,” Morgan writes. ” Some 60 students and half a dozen faculty, including Dean Oster, spent their lunch hour discussing the oath’s merits and risks.  We didn’t reach a consensus, so we won’t join, nor formally oppose the Business Oath.  Future classes may decide to take a stance, but for now, the conversation has begun, and individuals can sign or not as they see fit.”

Here are some concerns that Yale SOM students and faculty have with a business oath:

• Will B-schools and individuals use the Oath as a way to demonstrate a commitment to ethics without taking the more difficult steps to actually reform their curricula or businesses?
• Will individuals feel falsely “inoculated” by the Oath, leaving them ill-prepared to deal with situational challenges that make choices difficult?
• What is the point of an Oath without some kind of enforcement mechanism?
• Is a “business oath” meaningless to many SOM students who aspire to be leaders in non-business careers?

The MBA Oath project may be just the start of a larger ethics overhaul in management education, in which case Morgan writes that the SOM should participate wholeheartedly and push the conversation to a deeper attention on business ethics.

For now though, the school is in a wait-and-see mode.

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The essay questions for Harvard Business School’s class of 2013 are now posted online along with the questions for recommenders.

HBS has remained fairly consistent this year. Most of the standard HBS questions are repeated, with a few new choices for the final two essays. Whereas last year’s questions asked about a difficult decision or writing a cover letter, you are asked about a frustration and how you would introduce yourself to your classmates this in this set of essay questions.

Set your strategy before you approach any set of MBA essays. For HBS, this is especially important because you have a choice of several questions to illustrate your candidacy. If you are working with a consultant, it’s a great idea to brainstorm about the best stories you have to demonstrate your important leadership, management, academic and personal qualities.

Harvard is interested in knowing how you work as a person, how you think, and what kind of leader you are. Community involvement and a broad international perspective are certainly valued, as you can see by the topics. Most importantly, specific and concise examples are the best way to demonstrate who you are. Without specifics, a claim to be a leader is empty. Also make sure to answer the question completely, but do not add extra information if it is not relevant. For example, HBS’ career vision essay does not ask you why you need to go to HBS to accomplish your vision. No need to add information that is not requested unless it ties in cleanly with the overall essay.

The limited word count for HBS essays forces applicants to be focused and concise. When you answer a question, think about a discrete example that can be efficiently described, leaving you room to discuss lessons learned. When choosing HBS topics, start with the two required questions and then work through the topics for the remaining two questions by referring back to your application strategy and the attributes and experiences you want to highlight.

Essay 1 (required – 600 word limit): What are your three most substantial accomplishments and why do you view them as such?

This is a great question to highlight a few important areas of your life, and the accomplishments should draw from your well-rounded life rather than just work. Try approaching this question from the “why do you view them as such?” and then working back to the accomplishment. While an incredibly impressive accomplishment is exciting, it’s most important to show the moments where you grew, changed or realized something crucial about yourself. If you were an Olympic gold medalist and didn’t explain why this accomplishment was meaningful, the question was not fully answered. Even a seemingly humble accomplishment can be illuminated with your own reflection. That being said, this is also an opportunity to share your own key achievements. Make sure you provide detailed information about your contribution to the achievement to highlight your ability to lead and achieve through your direct efforts.

Essay 2 (required – 400 word limit): What have you learned from a mistake?

Don’t be afraid to admit you make mistakes because the key part of this question is describing what you learned. The mistake itself is less important, though choosing a real mistake that is honest in nature (not morally ambiguous) is preferable. When thinking about a mistake you might discuss, refer back to your strategic plan and the key information you want to communicate to the admissions committee. Is there a learning that has impacted your life or carried a thread through your character, goals or accomplishments?

Essays 3 and 4: Choose two of the four following questions (400 word limit each)

1. What would you like the MBA Admissions Board to know about your undergraduate academic experience?

If you are younger applicant or had a particularly strong academic experience, this may be a smart choice for one of the two remaining essays. When choosing a topic, think about an academic experience that may have shaped your future career plans, or solidified a personal passion. If you studied a topic in college that relates closely to your long-term goals it may be a great way to discuss your plans in a different light than the career vision essay would allow. Make sure your focus is academic in nature, this question specifically asks about your academic experience while in undergrad, not sports or social activities.

2. What is your career vision and why is this choice meaningful to you?

It is telling that HBS does not require an answer to this question. While HBS is less focused on hearing about your goals and aspirations for a career after business school than other programs, this is a great essay to discuss what your dreams are. If you are a non-traditional or career changing applicant this would be a good choice as one of your optional essays, as you will be able to lay out your vision for a career if it is less than obvious from your prior experience. Pay close attention to the “career vision” part of the question – this indicates a long term passion in the career realm, not a goal to become a McKinsey consultant right after graduation. Also do not neglect the discussion of why this career vision is meaningful to you. This could include past experiences, your background, or personal history.

3. Tell us about a time in your professional experience when you were frustrated or disappointed.

Similar to the mistake essay, this is an opportunity to show how you handle challenging situations. Everyone faces frustrations and challenges at work, it is how you decide to react that creates learning and growth. Revealing your emotions and thought process in this essay will provide a window into how you process difficult experiences and emerge from them with a new direction.

When brainstorming for this essay think first about what you learned from the situation, and then work backwards to describe the circumstances and the initial frustration, that will help you see the whole situation from a more optimistic viewpoint.

4. When you join the HBS Class of 2013, how will you introduce yourself to your new classmates?

This is a great essay in which to demonstrate a personal side to your application. Think about the aspects of your life that will be of interest to your peers. Interesting hobbies, international travel, your cooking skills or wine knowledge are all great topics to use to show how you will fit in with the class of 2013.
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If you are feeling stumped by your application essays and need some additional guidance, check out our NEW series of essay guides for MBA applications. Columbia, Harvard, Kellogg, Stanford and Wharton available now. They are seriously terrific and we are proud to say that almost every person who has ordered one has come back for more!

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More and more companies want recruiters to bring in candidates with social media knowledge, but mere familiarity with LinkedIn, Twitter and the like is not enough. These are professional communications channels that require understanding of the technology and the community that uses it, Fiona Mackay wrote Tuesday in the New York Times.

“When it comes to interviewing younger graduates for social media-focused roles,” says Mark Begley, head of creative and design recruitment at the London-based recruitment company Major Players, “they might live and breathe this way of communicating in their personal lives, but the problem is that they can’t transfer this experience into the commercial world.”

To remedy that, several top schools–Harvard Business School, London Business School, INSEAD, HEC Paris–now include courses on social networks in their MBA curriculums.

Professor Andrew Stephen, an assistant professor of marketing at INSEAD, offers a hugely popular MBA elective called “advertising and social media strategy.”

Stephen’s classes combine original lectures, guest lectures and case discussions of recent social media marketing campaigns, and students must also participate in a team project developing and implementing social media marketing strategies for real-world clients, Mackay explains.

Classes in “Internet Marketing” at London Business School also revolve around real, hands-on projects with actual clients. There is little known for sure about what works, in terms of marketing strategies, on the Internet. For this reason the class at LBS also emphasized the importance of empiricism in online marketing strategy, professor Daniel Goldstein tells Mackay.

“MBA curriculums are geared toward students with business intelligence, knowledge of communication trends and a flair for innovation,” Mackay writes. “Social network courses aim to build on their existing skills to teach an understanding of social media, of how to build marketing strategies within social networks and of how to track their effectiveness.”

You can learn more about how business schools are responding to the demand for use of social media here.

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If you are feeling stumped by your application essays and need some additional guidance, check out our NEW series of essay guides for MBA applications. Columbia, Harvard, Kellogg, Stanford and Wharton available now. They are seriously terrific and we are proud to say that almost every person who has ordered one has come back for more!

We are on Facebook – join the Stacy Blackman Consulting group, or become a friend of Stacy Blackman.

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