Krishna Palepu is the Ross Graham Walker Professor of Business at Harvard Business School (HBS) and teaches in the Executive Education Advanced Management Program (AMP). Below, Professor Palepu shares his thoughts on the unique nature of the AMP learning experience and how he engages executives in the classroom.
What motivates you as an AMP faculty member?
I want to have an impact. I know that the experienced executives who come to AMP will learn something new only when they can connect it to what they already know. In the classroom, I encourage them to leverage their past experience, to purposely consider an issue, and then to discover new ideas that change their view.
HBS stands for excellence—but excellence with impact. We have a global community that is working on cutting-edge resolutions to address some of the most pressing issues in the world. Through research and case writing, we put a spotlight on those issues, come up with new frameworks, enable students to advance their knowledge and skills, and set the stage for great solutions. That’s what has driven me every single day for 34 years. I park my car in the HBS lot each morning thankful that I have this opportunity to address meaningful issues and make an impact.
What makes AMP unique?
AMP is a global program. We attract the most senior executives from all over the world and from every sector of the economy. Participants benefit from interacting with a very diverse group of peers with profound experience.
In addition, AMP gives executives the opportunity to step back, reflect, recharge, and set themselves up for the next part of their career—for perhaps the last time in their working life. The curriculum is tailored towards executives with rich experience at this important career juncture.
How would you describe the AMP experience?
AMP can be somewhat disorienting at first, as it's unnatural for individuals at that age to come and live on a college campus with new people and be away from work and family. Participants are awestruck by the opportunity to attend AMP, but they're also unsure about whether taking so much time off is the right thing to do.
Interacting with a diverse group of high-performing peers forces participants to confront their assumptions, their biases, and their hypotheses about how the world works. In the classroom, my role is to draw out different perspectives and enable conversation to take place in a positive but hard-hitting way. Our participants are extremely intelligent people. When they hear others with good, articulate arguments that differ from their own, they are challenged to think in a different way.
If you're considering AMP, you will get the most out of the program if you are open to other viewpoints and are curious to learn. You will, of course, come in with strong convictions and want to confirm existing knowledge—but if you come to AMP only to confirm your views, you won't be taking full advantage of the program. Rather, you should challenge yourself to re-examine your thinking in the presence of highly accomplished individuals and faculty who are exposing you to different points of view.
What topics do you teach in AMP?
The class I teach for AMP deals with three questions. First, how do you measure performance? All executives are responsible for delivering performance, but you need to define the right metrics, which are aligned with your strategy and your business model. Next, how do you develop a winning culture that enables you to achieve your performance goals? And last, how do you manage your relationship with your board and shareholders? I want executives to leave AMP knowing how to build a performance culture in their company and then drive it throughout the organization, so people at all levels can achieve the goals they set for themselves, and company leaders can communicate effectively with the board and capital markets.
What happens in the AMP classroom?
With the HBS case method, learning happens organically through conversation. I'm not coming to class with a presentation and stating, "This is what you're going to learn today." The only control I have is in selecting the material and asking the right questions. Answers have to come from the class.
I draw executives into the discussion and enable them to engage with the challenges and share their experiences. My job is to stimulate their thinking. Once they're engaged, I find that they're very happy to jump in, debate, and discuss—executives like to talk, after all. But I hope they are also listening, because they can learn a great deal from their peers.
How do you prepare for an AMP class?
I want to make sure that there is a definite takeaway at the end of each session. In preparing for a class, I start with a key point and work backwards. I try to figure out what might be the right case to help me drive the issues to the surface, the right series of questions to ask, and the right kind of debate and controversy to generate. I spend a lot of time thinking about the process through which we can get to that learning point.
Leading a case discussion is like performing jazz. I have an idea of where I want to go, but there is a lot of interaction and improvisation along the way. I find that the discussion is different every time I teach a case, because the interaction depends on the participant mix and on who brought energy into the debate on a certain day. I have to work with the energy in the classroom because that's how people's ideas change.
To be flexible enough to lead this process, I have to know the material deeply so that I can follow the classroom dialog but still guide the discussion in the most productive direction. I work through the process ahead of time and think about the potential detours the discussion can take, which helps me drive toward that big "a-ha" at the end.
Do you have a philosophy that guides your teaching?
In AMP, I emphasize that we are trying to be actors—not analysts. Executives come to the program so that they can take different and better actions to drive success for their organizations. I'm reminded of a 1910 Theodore Roosevelt speech about the man in the arena:
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
It's so much easier to be a critic outside the action, but to be the one fighting the battle is tough. You make mistakes, you sweat, it's ugly, but you learn from your experiences and then you do it again. That’s my fundamental philosophy in the classroom—let's focus on action.