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HBS Think Tank on Energy: Recap

March 8, 2010 - 3:18pm — admin

On Thursday and Friday of last week, Harvard Business School and the Advanced Leadership Institute put on a Think Tank on Energy, discussing leadership in time and in scale.  The attendees and speakers ranged from current and former US Senators, governmental officials and cabinet mebers, representatives from the UN and European Comissions, as well as a smattering of venturecapitalists and industry professionals.  A wide variety of panels were held, often featuring speakers with very different viewpoints, and an overview of the Energy landscape was given. 

Key takeaways included:

  1. Put a price on carbon.  Nearly every speaker mentioned this at least once.  The most common figure mentioned was around $30 dollars -- below that threshold nothing would change
  2. The debate on climate policy needs to be re-framed.  Make it a business issue, an insurance issue, or a health issue, but talking about these will drive more action and the climate benefits will be follow-on benefits.
  3. Shifting your persp-ective will lend new insights.  Whether you look at different socio-economic starting points for the debate, or if you are identifying a different set of rooadblocks, looking at issues and opportunities ion a new light is key.
  4. "Everything looks like a failure in the middle" (Kanter's Law) - Everyone likes to be at the beginning or the end, and nobody like the middle. 
  5. Integrative vision is key to leadership.

For a detailed writeup of the conference, take a look at this speaker by speaker and panel by panel recap.

HBS and Advanced Leadership Institute Think Tank on Energy Recap