Start HBS

Karen Mills - Obama Administration, Harvard Business School

Listen Later

Today's guest is Karen Mills, a professor at the TEM (The Entrepreneurial Manager) unit at Harvard Business School. Karen was the administrator of the US Small Business Administration from 2009 to 2013, serving as a member of President Obama’s Cabinet. She is also a venture capitalist and private equity partner, and the author of Fintech, Small Business, & The American Dream. 

 

Topics:

  • How Karen drew inspiration from her entrepreneurial family
  • The impact of regional innovation clusters, and how she got her job at the SBA
  • The importance of small business lending to society
  • Karen's advice for people who want to work in the public sector
  • How automation will affect the future of work, and which industries it will show up in
  • Does fintech have an innovator's dilemma? Who might the eventual winners in that space be?
  • A lesson Karen had to learn the hard way

    • Quotes:

    "A meeting is not an outcome. Once you say okay, this is an outcome we want to get to, then we can say: how do we reverse-engineer success?"

     

    "Small businesses play a critical role in the economy and in the social fabric of our lives."

     

    "When your friend gets a great job, I say to everyone, think: good for them, irrelevant to me."

    ...more
    View all episodesView all episodes
    Download on the App Store
    Start HBSBy HBS Entrepreneurship Club
    • 5
    • 5
    • 5
    • 5
    • 5

    5

    25 ratings