Summer 2020 Issue

In March, as the COVID-19 outbreak began to upend the world, we set out to look for stories that would illustrate both the speed and breadth of the Stanford GSB community’s response to the pandemic.

It was an easy task, because the stories were everywhere.

Dean’s Letter

Values, Vision, and Historic Change

At their finest, institutions are places where people come together to take on generational challenges.

Responding to COVID-19

Stanford GSB had a single weekend to move its curricula online. To get it done, faculty and staff practiced what they teach: innovation.

How We Adapted

If you want to move a business school’s curriculum online in a single weekend, you better practice what you teach.

Eat, Sleep, Zoom

In the months since his company became a global verb, Zoom CEO Eric Yuan has never been busier. Or more exhausted. Or happier.

David Dodson, MBA ’87: What Matters to Me Now and Why

“I was forced to exchange something I had chased for years with something I now find matters more.”

Alumni & Students Take Action

Meanwhile, scores of students and alumni took steps to help those in need. People from all corners were doing impassioned work to help the school and society adapt.

Maker: AIDS Memorial Quilt — Sewing as a Catalyst for Change

“My greater hope,” Mike Smith says, “is that people will see what we’re doing and realize that they, too, can do something worthwhile — that it’s easy to be helpful if you want to be.”

Office Artifact: Sarah Soule’s Refrigerator Whiteboard

While sheltering in place, a Stanford GSB professor decided to write out equations in her kitchen — much to her cat’s confusion.

Redefining Success: Adopt the Journey Mindset to Move Forward

To sustain the behaviors that helped you reach a goal, think about the achievement as a journey rather than a destination.

Journeying Through the Pandemic

Mitigate the psychological trauma wrought by COVID-19 by making meaning out of tragedy.

Back to Class: Civic Workshop

A new course paired teams of students to work remotely with different organizations supporting coronavirus relief efforts.

Homecoming

Derrick Bolton returns to Stanford GSB with a new role — associate dean for external relations — and a new perspective.

The Super Power of Tomorrow? Being “Indistractable”

Learn how to take back control of your attention span.

That Money You Borrowed? Remember Who Owns It

A new study shows that many people go into debt because they disregard that the money is not really theirs.

How Narcissistic Leaders Destroy from Within

When the person at the top is malignant and self-serving, unethical behavior cascades through the organization and becomes legitimized.

Reading Through the Pandemic

A Stanford business scholar discusses the literature that can sustain us in a crisis.

The Crisis Management Playbook

When the coronavirus pandemic tanked the economy, we set out to compile a crisis-leadership handbook. Here, Stanford GSB experts discuss how to launch, adapt, listen, care, and shut down.

Launching

How to Launch in a Pandemic

Adapting

Beating the Pandemic by Design

Listening

The Crisis Leadership Playbook

Caring

Everything (and Nothing) Has Changed about Management

Leaving

The Graceful Exit

Panelists

Quotes from guest lecturers who remotely attended Stanford GSB’s Business and Society course, which was created for the Spring 2020 quarter in response to the COVID-19 crisis.