Yale School of Management

This commentary originally appeared in Chief Executive. Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos, like Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, faced staff revolts, prominent resignations and thousands of readers canceling their subscriptions when his paper suddenly decided to drop political endorsements.‌ CEOs do make bold choices and reverse prior positions as market conditions and business priorities shift. As PepsiCo’s CEO, Indra Nooyi boldly shifted the company’s product mix to be more…

This commentary originally appeared in Corporate Board Member. As the 2025 proxy season launches, dual-class shares may once again become a common target of proxy ratings firms and activist investors. These reflexive critics miss the reality that dual-class shares can often be a vital protector of shareholder value and allow vital structural advantages such as:‌ More efficient capital allocation: Unlike virtually every peer, Berkshire Hathaway under Warren Buffett has never…

Q: How does Harrison Street approach investing?‌ Harrison Street is a traditional investment manager in the sense that we raise capital that we deploy by executing real estate strategies. What differentiates us is our demographic focus. Instead of the traditional commercial real estate sectors—office, retail, multi-family, industrial, or lodging—we look at areas with relatively inelastic demand tied to people moving through cycles in their life. Instead of multifamily, we invest…

Think local and escape echo chambers‌ Todd Cort, Senior Lecturer in Sustainability; Faculty Director, Sustainability Program, MBA for Executives; Faculty Co-Director, Yale Center for Business and the Environment‌ In 2025, I anticipate that climate action will go local. Sometimes we rely on national governments too much to take on the “big challenges” like climate change. I expect that we will see another wave of local and regional efforts to “green”…

This commentary originally appeared in Newsweek. As the media has been blanketed with well-deserved praise for President Jimmy Carter’s noble life, it feels as though everything has now been said... but perhaps just not yet by everybody. While I didn’t serve in the Carter campaign or in his administration, for a dozen years—from 1989 to 2001—I worked with him on various projects after he left office. He wanted to expand…

Thank you for tuning in this season on the Learning Through Experience podcast! In this season 3 reflection episode, I take a step back to reflect on the key themes, conversations, and experiences that shaped the show. This season featured several insightful and impactful conversations. I highlight discussions with guests like Lisa Lahey on overcoming change, Mark Brackett on emotional intelligence and attunement, Liliana Milkova and Jenny Frederick on the…

Writing has the power to transport us to the depths of the human experience – to illuminate the joys, sorrows and complexities that make us who we are. In this captivating final episode of Learning Through Experience Season Three, Amy Bloom and I explore the transformative power of the written word. Amy, an acclaimed writer and psychotherapist, shares a poignant reading from her memoir "In Love," which provides a deeply…

This commentary was adapted from episode 155 of the Health & Veritas podcast. Subscribe for weekly doses of expert insight on health and the healthcare industry.‌ It’s our last episode of the calendar year and in the spirit of the season, I thought I would share some positive news. In our Thanksgiving episode, I offered thanks for some of the many successes of the past year, and there are many…

The world is facing a “polycrisis”—a confluence of environmental and social issues that risk destabilizing the vital systems of human civilization. Our survival hinges on building resilience—the ability of systems to bounce back from shocks and ideally emerge stronger—within our ecological and social as well as economic and financial systems against the ramifications of the interconnected and mutually reinforcing challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution on one hand…

This commentary originally appeared in the Hartford Courant. The return of President Trump portends sweeping changes across many areas of economic policy, and those impacts will be felt by virtually every business sector and every region of the state. In fact, even beyond Trump’s broad economic pledges of tax cuts, deregulation, and tariffs, and beyond the President-elect promises to repeal his own cap on state and local tax deductions (SALT);…

January 02, 2024 Harness your own creativity, learn to leverage ChatGPT, and have some fun are three of the suggestions from our faculty to help you make your new year healthier, more rewarding, and more prosperous. January 19, 2024 The door plug that plunged from an Alaska Airlines aircraft in flight earlier this month was there to seal off an unused emergency exit. Amy Fraher, a Yale SOM lecturer and…

Q: You are co-authors of “Is Your Use of AI Violating the Law?” published in the Journal of Legislation and Public Policy. What is the aim of the paper?‌ Chertoff: The idea was to survey various ways in which artificial intelligence is impacting the legal landscape. What are the responsibilities of those developing AI technologies? What are the rights of those at the receiving end of decisions made or assisted…

In the aftermath of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s murder in Midtown Manhattan, the most popular posts on social media are ones which express support if not ecstasy over the brazen assassination. In fact, UnitedHealthcare’s own bereavement message online was cruelly mocked by 77,000 laughing response posts, SNL ran into massive viewer blowback after they ran a skit mocking the response to the murder, and the etchings on the cold-blooded murderer’s…

Imagine a world where education isn't just about information but about inspiring awe—a spark that transforms learning into discovery. This episode of Learning Through Experience envisions this future where teaching and learning are more collaborative, experiential and empowering, for instructors and students alike. As my guest Jenny Frederick, director of Yale's Center for Teaching and Learning, emphasized in our conversation: “When experiences bring the conceptual to life—like, wow, I get…

Earlier this year, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission adopted rules requiring public companies to disclose climate-related risks so investors can make informed decisions about them; meanwhile, more than a dozen states have gone in the opposite direction, arguing that public pension funds should only consider financial returns and passing legislation that seeks to prevent funds from boycotting fossil fuel investments or from making decisions based on ESG—environmental, social, and…

Howie and Harlan are joined by Aaron Kesselheim, a physician, attorney, and public health expert, to discuss the shifting legal landscape for healthcare regulation and his experiences serving on an FDA advisory committee. Harlan reports on the growing evidence of widespread health impacts from microplastics; Howie provides an update on the bird flu outbreak. Links: Microplastics “Landmark study links microplastics to serious health problems” “Microplastics: Are we facing a new…

What was the ACA intended to do?‌ If you go back to the beginning, healthcare reform was supposed to be a lot of different reforms rolled together. ‌ That included insurance reform, meaning that private insurance would be more consistent and meet a basic standard for essential items that must be covered by insurance. There was never a federal requirement for that before the ACA. Another goal was expansion—covering more…

This commentary originally appeared in Fortune. President-elect Donald Trump caught many by surprise last week when he announced plans to install far-reaching tariffs of 25% on Mexico and Canada and increase existing tariffs on goods imported from China by an additional 10% on his first day in office. During the campaign, “tariff man” had promised to enact such broad-based tariffs to increase federal revenues and punish countries for taking advantage…

Can green investors help contribute to climate-change solutions and simultaneously earn a higher return? While roughly 60% of asset managers who responded to a 2019 survey expected their environmentally and socially aligned investment portfolios to outperform the market over the following five years, academics report starkly divergent findings when it comes to whether investors are right to hold this expectation.‌ Yale SOM’s Theis Jensen was drawn to this thorny question…

This commentary originally appeared in Time. This week’s news regarding the Biden Administration’s effort to force Alphabet to divest Google Chrome is consistent with shared anti-big business sentiments in large parts of the Republican right. The attack on American pillars of U.S. prominence, including technology, the food industry, pharmaceuticals, financial services, and higher education—all the envy of the rest of the world—hints an anger that is now bringing together America’s…

What if listening could change everything? This raw and captivating episode with guest Avi Kluger reveals how listening and the “space between” people can unlock new ways of seeing, feeling and transforming, and profoundly reshape how we lead, connect and grow. A pioneering researcher in feedback and organizational behavior, Avi shares his personal journey to understand the power of listening and its potential to unlock unexpected depths in ourselves and…

Nearly a century ago, economist and Maryland congressman Clarence Long called the building industry “probably the most strategic single factor in making or breaking booms and depressions.” Since then, economists have tried to tease apart the complex relationship between housing markets and the economy.‌ Building permits give you a nice signal of investors’ beliefs about the local economy. It’s a connection between Main Street and Wall Street. A flurry of…

To many economists and policymakers, cash is a problem: cash transactions are harder to tax, it can be used by criminals, and those who keep their savings in it miss out on interest. Such concerns have driven recent arguments for demonetization, including a 2016 effort in India to remove some large-denomination banknotes from circulation. But for the consumers who use it, cash offers significant benefits: it is widely accepted, offers…

This commentary originally appeared in Time. The American democratic system worked even though the American Democratic party failed. Donald Trump was decisively reelected president by the largest popular vote and the most demographically diverse voting base in history without allegations of foreign election interference or domestic voting fraud. Kamala Harris performed worse than Joe Biden with Black voters, Hispanic voters, young voters, and women voters. There is hardly a major…

Q: Blood transfusions are so commonplace they don’t get much attention. Would you give some context on the importance of transfusions and the business of the blood supply? It is just expected that blood will be available for transfusion. Whether it’s cancer treatment, maternal postpartum hemorrhage, sickle cell, transplant surgery, anemia, or bleeding trauma from an auto accident or gunshot wound, they can all require substantial transfusions. The blood supply…

Learning through experience is dynamic, not static. As you’ll hear in this episode with artist Kim Weston, her photography is a way of deepening understanding of ourselves and the world around us, seen and unseen. Through compelling story and image, Kim takes us on a journey where each photograph tells a story of heritage, community and spirit. As she says, “Our ancestors are with us; the people we loved in…

This commentary was adapted from episode 147 of the Health & Veritas podcast. Subscribe for weekly doses of expert insight on health and the healthcare industry. For most of the 21st century, there have been 10,000 to 50,000 pertussis cases every year in the U.S. Pertussis, also known as whooping cough for its characteristic hacking cough followed by a whooping sound, is a vaccine-preventable illness that causes its most severe…

Political and business media, pundits, and experts continue to cite prediction market odds as a credible forecast for the upcoming presidential election, regularly pointing to betting odds on prediction markets such as Polymarket, Kalshi, PredictIt, and Interactive Brokers as a guide to who is up and down in the horse race—but that is a big mistake. It appears few journalists, pundits and experts have dug deep into how these prediction…

If you’ve ever been bothered by the feeling that your friends have more robust social lives than you do, you’re not alone. Lots of people feel that way, and, mostly, they—and you—are right. For decades, social scientists have recognized what’s known as the friendship paradox, which says that on average, the friends of any given individual have more friends than the individual does. But even if the phenomenon isn’t good…

It is difficult to find any similarities between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris in this heated electoral race. But there is one area in which there is a surprising amount of agreement: the need for the federal government to play an active role in encouraging investment in U.S. manufacturing. This bipartisan consensus reflects a growing trend among economists and experts, who are now revising the unfettered free-trade and laissez-faire attitudes…

This commentary originally appeared in Time. Just as the elimination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah a month ago catalyzed new opportunities for Mideast peace, the death of long-elusive Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar Thursday turbocharges the transformation of the Middle East towards a more secure and prosperous future. To appreciate the possibilities, it is vital to understand the significance of the Sinwar as a leader. There should be no doubt that…

Learning through experience requires us to shift from the purely intellectual to a more holistic engagement. I try to create that shift by opening each of my leadership classes with some form of art—a poem, a piece of music or a visual work. It’s a way of helping my students, many of whom are management or law students, executives, or leaders in their fields, step out of their typical "brain-bound"…

Let’s say that two entrepreneurs, a man and a woman, co-found a startup and raise venture capital. But the business struggles, and they shut it down and go their separate ways. Eventually, each of them independently forms a new business. Do these entrepreneurs have the same chance of getting venture capital funding for a second time? The answer is no, according to Yale SOM’s Heather Tookes, whose new research uses…

Conservatives often say that social media platforms are biased against their point of view. What did your research into the 2020 election find about whether that was true? Our research found that accounts sharing pro-Trump or conservative hashtags were suspended at a significantly higher rate than those sharing pro-Biden or liberal hashtags—they were about 4.4 times more likely to be suspended. At face value, this pattern could be interpreted as…

Current Topics menu All Topics menu Departments menu Collection No. 9 Two decades into the era of private space flight, companies are establishing ventures in low-earth orbit, sending private citizens into space, and pursuing exploration and development on the moon and beyond. We talked to Yale alumni and other leaders about how finance, law, and other day-to-day details of business get translated into space. Published October 15, 2024 Assembling an…

The brewing proxy fight between activist Starboard Value and pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has already taken a hostile turn. Anonymous sources have been disparagingly suggesting that Pfizer CEO Dr. Albert Bourla should be removed. After news reports suggested they initially sided with the activists, former Pfizer CEO Ian Read and former CFO Frank D’Amelio switched sides, abandoning their erstwhile Starboard allies and expressing their support for Bourla. Then, Starboard Value founder…

As we transition from “The Great Resignation” of 2022 to what might be called “The Great Layoff” of 2024, many companies are grappling with the challenge of reducing their workforce. While no layoff process can fully eliminate the associated pain, there are strategies to handle it with greater compassion and respect. Take Airbnb’s approach in 2020, for instance. Faced with the pandemic’s impact on the travel industry, CEO Brian Chesky…

This commentary was adapted from episode 145 of the Health & Veritas podcast. Trachoma is a disease I am certain I learned about in medical school and probably forgot sometime after I took part three of my boards in 1990. Why? Because it doesn’t occur in the United States—or at least rarely enough that I would never see it as a student or intern—and it is not a disease that…

Q: What is space law right now and what developments can we anticipate? Space law is a very underdeveloped field of international law. That’s understandable because until recently, activities in space were quite limited and primarily state led. The boom in commercial space companies and the plans by a number of nations to establish bases on the moon will necessarily lead to filling in the gaps, because the main legal…

Q: What questions have guided your career? The question I began with was, “What drives inequality in society?” Early projects led me to believe that the way organizations structure themselves and manage their employment relationships has a significant impact on why some people get ahead and some people don’t. At the time, organizations were getting essentially no attention from scholars interested in inequality, so it was an area where I…