About This Issue
Triage on Health Care System
By Kathleen O'Toole, Editor

In the winter of 2006, one of our sister publications, Stanford Medicine, asked on its cover if the U.S. health care system was a “ticking time bomb.” The magazine quoted experts, some of them from the Business School, who answered yes. But they also left me with the impression that we would likely cure diabetes or end the obesity epidemic before the bomb was defused.

Along came the 2008 presidential race and for a while, a national discussion about health care inequities, quality, and pricing problems gave me hope that reform would move to the front burner in 2009. It still may do so, but as I write this, the signs are not encouraging. That is why I am delighted to read on page 17 that faculty members Andy Grove and Robert Burgelman, along with some unusual suspects from the private sector, are prodding our MBA students to look at ways that an outsider industry might disrupt the status quo and give us reform alternatives not yet on the table.

It probably won’t happen tomorrow, but if Steve Jobs at Apple can disrupt and remake the music industry, perhaps some of our graduates will someday build a better health care delivery system. If you are spurred to activism on this issue, our story on page 14 outlines the tough issues that must be faced.

You might also start this magazine by sampling our story on the coffee industry in Guatemala. Author and first-year MBA student Blythe Yee and her companions who took the photographs provide a glimpse of the deeper learning that study trips give when students get their hands dirty at the first link in a supply chain. For another view of study trips, read on page 6 about alums who returned to Thailand to develop a basic business curricula suited to local conditions. They may be updating the Peace Corps, a model that another alum critiques, also on page 6.

With all the adventure in our revised curriculum, you might wish you were back here pulling an all-nighter with a pot of Guatemala’s Arabica. Cheers! (About This Issue)

Read Stanford.Business.Magazine.May.2008 Online

Salvaging U.S. Health Care 
Many small steps may be necessary to resuscitate the U.S. system. 
Coffee 101
On a study trip to Guatemala, students sample the socioeconomics of coffee. 
Eco-Friendly Business
A back-to-school session helps alums learn how to reduce their ecological footprint.

Mountaintop Leadership Lessons
Barely surviving an Andes plane crash and avalanche, Pedro Algorta, MBA ’82, discovered the value of teamwork.

Asia’s Future as High-Tech Innovator
Asian countries should develop their higher education systems to compete for global technology leadership.

Venture Capital in Asia
Faruq Ahmad, MBA ’76, reports dramatic changes in Asian venture capital investment.

Visit Stanford Graduate School of Business Website

The Stanford Graduate School of Business (also known as Stanford Business School or Stanford GSB) is one of the professional schools of Stanford University, in Stanford, California. It is one of the leading business schools in the United States.

The Stanford Graduate School of Business offers a general management MBA degree and thus does not offer degrees in specialized areas such as finance or marketing, although it does offer certificate programs in public management and global management. The school also offers the Sloan Master's Program, a full-time ten-month MS in Management for accomplished mid-career executives and entrepreneurs, and a Ph.D. program. The school also offers a number of dual degrees jointly with other schools at Stanford University including Education, Engineering, Law and Medicine. (Wikipedia.org)

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