What you'll learn

  • The business case to adopt a Culture of Health

  • The ways you are already involved in health, whether you realize it or not

  • How to implement a Culture of Health in your business to gain a competitive advantage

  • How to reduce costs, increase revenues, and enhance your business’s reputation using a Culture of Health

  • Real-world examples of Culture of Health implementation that could apply to your business

Course description

While the United States is one of the world’s wealthiest nations, it is far from the healthiest. Our nation’s burden of disease affects businesses every day, from sick employees and families reducing productivity and increasing costs, to product recalls and failures, to environmental scandals such as toxic chemical emissions harming communities and reputations.

Named Runner Up for Best Online Program of 2018 by ProEd, this HarvardX course is presented by leading faculty from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Harvard Business School and will provide businesses with strategies, tactics, and tools to gain a competitive advantage by implementing a Culture of Health to address these issues and stay ahead. Embracing a Culture of Health can improve your employees’ well-being as well as the health of your consumers, your communities, and the environment. A Culture of Health can help you to reduce costs, increase revenues and profits, and enhance your company’s reputation. 

For example, employees who work in a healthy and safe environment spend less time away from work for health reasons, decreasing interruptions, while increasing output and employee retention. When employees and customers spend less on health care, they have more disposable income to spend on non–health care needs, boosting the economy, and benefiting your business.

Strengthening your business using the Culture of Health approach will enhance the greater good by promoting well-being—benefitting society, your business and employees, your customers and communities, and you.

Course Outline

Introduction to the Culture of Health

Why should business care about good health? See how your business connects to health and well-being, and learn the Four Pillars framework. 

  • Lead Faculty: Howard Koh (HSPH, HKS) and Amy Edmondson (HBS)
  • Guest Faculty: John Quelch, Dean of the School of Business Administration and Vice Provost for Executive Education, University of Miami
  • Guest Speaker: Mike Critelli, Retired Chief Executive Officer, Pitney Bowes
  • Case Study: Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines

Pillar 1: Your Consumers’ Health

Why the health and well-being of your consumers and customers matter to the health and well-being of your business.

  • Lead Faculty: John McDonough (HSPH) and Jose Alvarez (HBS)
  • Guest Speaker: Troyen Brennan, Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, CVS Health
  • Case Study: H-E-B Creating a Movement to Reduce Obesity in Texas

Pillar 2: Your Employees’ Health

Why the health, safety, and well-being of your employees is about a lot more than just dollars and cents.

  • Lead Faculty: Glorian Sorensen (HSPH) and Robert Huckman (HBS)
  • Guest Speakers:
  • Mike Critelli, Retired Chief Executive Officer, Pitney Bowes
  • Dave Lagerstrom, President and Chief Executive Officer, TURCK Inc.
  • Nico Pronk, President, HealthPartners Institute; Chief Science Officer, HealthPartners, Inc.
  • Paul Terry, President and Chief Executive Officer, Health Enhancement Research Organization

Pillar 3: Your Community's Health

Why caring about the well-being of your host communities is vital for your business success.

  • Lead Faculty: Kasisomayajula Vishwanath (HSPH) and Raffaella Sadun (HBS)
  • Guest Speakers:
  • David Barash, Executive Director, Global Health Portfolio; Chief Medical Officer, GE Foundation
  • Lauren Smith, Managing Director, FSG
  • Jonathan Isaacson, President and Chief Operating Officer, Gemline, Inc.
  • Dan Rivera, Mayor of Lawrence, Massachusetts
  • Case Study: Business and Community Partnerships for Health in Lawrence, Massachusetts

 

Pillar 4: Our Environment

How addressing your environmental footprint can make or break your business.

  • Lead Faculty: Gina McCarthy (HSPH) and Cass Sunstein (HLS, HKS)

 

YOU

Does any of this involve Y-O-U? As a colleague, a spouse, a parent, a neighbor, and a leader? Y-E-S! 

  • Lead Faculty: Elizabeth Frates (HMS)  
  • Guest Speaker:
  • John Ratey, Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
  • Walter Willett, Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
  • Case Study: David Storto, Chief Executive Officer, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital

 

Measuring Your Success

How can your business measure your results in leading for better health and well-being?

  • Lead Faculty: Eileen McNeely (HSPH) and George Serafeim (HBS)
  • Guest Faculty: Tyler VanderWeele, Professor of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
  • Case Study: Flourishing Index

Leading for Change

Tools and examples of leading for improvement and change in your business. 

  • Lead Faculty: Sara Singer (Stanford University) and Rakesh Khurana (HBS, Harvard College)
  • Guest Speaker: Drew Faust, President Emeritus, Harvard University
  • Case Study: PepsiCo

Making It Happen

Practical ways to get started and to sustain progress in your business.

  • Lead Faculty: Howard Koh (HSPH, HKS) and Amy Edmondson (HBS)
  • Guest Faculty: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Ernest L. Arbuckle Professor of Business, Harvard Business School
  • Guest Speakers:
  • Byron Austin, Director, Social Impact and Responsibility North America at Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd.
  • Martin Lemos, Deputy Director at National Young Farmers Coalition
  • Mark Tulay, Program Director, Strategic Investor Initiative, CECP

Instructors

Harvey V. Fineberg Professor of the Practice of Public Health Leadership, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; Member of Faculty, Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University
Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management, Harvard Business School
Professor of Public Health Practice and Director of the Center for Executive and Continuing Professional Education, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University
Senior Lecturer of Business Administration, Harvard Business School, Harvard University
Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University
Albert J. Weatherhead III Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School, Harvard University
Lee Kum Kee Professor of Health Communication, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University
Thomas S. Murphy Associate Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School, Harvard University
Professor of the Practice of Public Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University
Robert Walmsley University Professor, Harvard Law School, Harvard University
Assistant Clinical Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Spaulding Rehabilitation, Harvard Medical School
Instructor of Exposure, Epidemiology and Risk Program, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University
Jakurski Family Associate Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School, Harvard University
Professor of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Professor of Organizational Behavior (by courtesy), Stanford Graduate School of Business, Stanford University
Marvin Bower Professor of Leadership Development, Harvard Business School; Professor of Sociology, Harvard University; Danoff Dean, Harvard College, Harvard University
Dean of the School of Business Administration and Vice Provost for Executive Education, University of Miami

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