Passion and Purpose: Stories from the Best and Brightest Young Business Leaders

Globalization. Sustainability. Technology. Diversity. Learning. Convergence of the public and private sectors. These are the big issues on the minds of young leaders today—the challenges they most want to, and must, pursue.

In Passion and Purpose, dozens of recent Harvard Business School MBAs share personal stories on assuming the mantle of leadership in ways unlike any previous generation. In candid accounts of their successes and setbacks—from launching start-ups to taking on the family business to helping kids in the Arabian Gulf to harnessing new technology and developing clean energy—they reveal how the next generation of ideas, aspirations, and practices are shaping business and redefining leadership around the world.

Drawing on insights from a survey of 500 students from top U.S. business schools, Passion and Purpose provides an overview of big, hot-button issues, followed by firsthand accounts from young leaders who are tackling these issues head-on. Their personal stories are rounded out with broader perspectives from established luminaries in business, academia, and the public sector, including Dominic Barton (Managing Director of McKinsey & Company), Nitin Nohria (dean of Harvard Business School), David Gergen (CNN analyst, presidential advisor and director of Harvard’s Center for Public Leadership), Carter Roberts (CEO of World Wildlife Fund), and many others.

Passion and Purpose offers profound insight into the values and vision of tomorrow’s leaders, and inspiration and ideas for all aspiring leaders who hope to lead change in the world.