Regaining Customer Love
Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs Invites
IN THIS EPISODE: Every organization begins by serving customers. Not all of them get it right — or keep it that way. So where does the customer relationship break down? In this episode, Denise Silber speaks with HBS MBA Caroline Evans de Gantes, a transformation leader who has spent more than two decades helping companies design strategy, culture, and operations around customer love as an organizing principle. Caroline recalls arriving at Harvard Business School in 2008 just as the Lehman Brothers collapse unfolded — an experience that shaped her leadership perspective: progress...
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When to Pivot, When to Quit
Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs Invites
IN THIS EPISODE: In this episode, Denise Silber HBS MBA welcomes Professor Daniel Elfenbein, a triple Harvard alumnus and entrepreneurship researcher at Olin Business School. Together, they explore the delicate balance entrepreneurs must strike between confidence and overconfidence, commitment and detachment, and the hard truth of knowing when to pivot—or when to quit. Dan shares insights drawn from his own entrepreneurial journey, research experiments, and global teaching experience. From biotech boardroom standoffs to mathematical models of founder behavior, he unpacks how emotions,...
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Meet Our Co-host: Philip Guarino
Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs Invites
Meet Our Co-host: Philip Guarino An interim executive and growth consultant to technology firms, Philip Guarino has over 25 years of experience as an executive and entrepreneur, having worked in over 50 countries and traveled to more than 120. Philip is the Chair of HarvardAE’s Paris Chapter. Fluent in five languages, he is a graduate of Harvard College and holds an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
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Meet Our Co-host: Denise Silber
Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs Invites
Meet Our Co-host: Denise Silber Denise Silber, a digital health pioneer and opinion leader, is the founder of Basil Strategies consultancy, of Doctors 2.0 & You conferences, and a new venture in Virtual Reality, VRforHealth. A multi-cultural American in Paris, Denise’s contributions to the development of digital health globally led her to receive France’s highest civil award, the Legion of Honor. A graduate of Smith College and a Harvard MBA, Denise is also a keynote speaker, author and vice president of Harvard Club of France. In this episode of HAE Invites meet our hosts, Denise...
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AI and the Future of Retail
Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs Invites
IN THIS EPISODE: In this episode of the HAE Podcast, host Philip Guarino sits down with James Sutherland, Founder & CEO of Autonomo Technologies, to discuss the rise of autonomous retail, the convergence of AI and consumer behavior, and how automation is reshaping global retail economics—from labor shortages to dynamic pricing and customer experience. GUEST BIO: James Sutherland is Founder & CEO of Autonomo Technologies, Europe’s leading autonomous retail company. James began his career at Mars Inc moving into large-scale food factory construction. After Harvard Business School he...
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Matchmaker!
Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs Invites
IN THIS EPISODE: In this episode, our host Denise Silber sits down with Shannon Lundgren — HBS MBA, entrepreneur, and founder of Shannon’s Circle — to explore what it means to build a business in one of the most personal industries: love. Shannon’s path didn’t follow the usual arc. After the Business School and a pivotal chapter working directly for Warren Buffett — where what impressed her most was his extraordinary kindness, and how he brought out the best in everyone by talking about their best qualities — Shannons Lundgren transitioned from corporate strategy to executive...
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Thought Leadership & the Start-up
Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs Invites
IN THIS EPISODE: In this episode, host Denise Silber sits down with Michaela Horvathova, co-founder of Beyond Education and alumna of Harvard's Graduate School of Education, to explore how building an innovative company demands more than a great product — it requires becoming a thought leader. Michaela’s journey is as global as it is inspiring. Despite not fitting into the traditional school system in Slovakia, Michaela earned a tennis scholarship to the U.S., graduated from Harvard, advised the Prime Minister of Slovakia, and co-founded a bold edtech startup helping schools adapt to...
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From Founder to Leader: Mastering the Scaleup Journey
Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs Invites
IN THIS EPISODE: Scaling a startup brings exciting opportunities—but also the challenge of increased complexity, slower decision-making, and the creeping risk of bureaucracy. In this episode, Artus de Longuemar joins host Philip Guarino to reveal how founders can delegate with confidence, maintain agility, and empower teams without losing control. They explore the psychological barriers to delegation, the shift from hands-on execution to strategic leadership, and how clear autonomy frameworks can drive success. Artus also highlights the power of inspiring content creation for platforms like...
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Digital Health: ROI is King
Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs Invites
IN THIS EPISODE: In a change of pace, host Denise Silber delves into her professional field, digital health, as she invites fellow Harvard alumna Dr. Ariel Dora Stern. Together they explore Dr. Stern's extensive and unique, research-based findings on what drives successful business models in healthtech. Dr. Stern combines her Harvard PhD, insights from her decade on the HBS faculty, and her prestigious position as Alexander von Humboldt Professor at Germany’s Hasso Plattner Institute to provide listeners with unparalleled expertise in the digital health business across the...
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Dancing with Robots : A New Entrepreneurial Frontier
Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs Invites
IN THIS EPISODE: Host Denise Silber sits down with Harvard alumna Dr. Merritt Moore, who is a quantum physicist, ballet dancer, educator and entrepreneur all at once! They explore her unique multi-disciplinary journey at the intersection of dance and robotics. Dr Moore reveals the challenges and triumphs of merging her two passions, and how her work offers deeper insights into human-machine interaction. Dr. Moore shares how she is creating a new industry by coding robots and performing as a professional ballet dancer on global stages. Dr Moore’s innovative teaching approach in...
info_outlineIN THIS EPISODE:
Every organization begins by serving customers. Not all of them get it right — or keep it that way. So where does the customer relationship break down?
In this episode, Denise Silber speaks with HBS MBA Caroline Evans de Gantes, a transformation leader who has spent more than two decades helping companies design strategy, culture, and operations around customer love as an organizing principle.
Caroline recalls arriving at Harvard Business School in 2008 just as the Lehman Brothers collapse unfolded — an experience that shaped her leadership perspective: progress comes from experimentation, learning quickly, and working closely with frontline teams. Drawing on transformations across industries known for difficult customer relationships, she shares what it takes to reconnect organizations with the people they serve.
From mobile phone insurance and broadband installation to the transformation of leading real-estate marketplace SeLoger within the Aviv Group, the conversation explores how leadership culture, incentives, and technology can be realigned around customers — and how doing so improves business performance. Throughout the discussion, Caroline shows that making customer love an organizing principle starts on Day 1.
GUEST BIO:
Caroline Evans de Gantès, a 2010 MBA graduate of the Harvard Business School, has over 20 years experience transforming offline industries by placing the client front and center. From insurance to telecommunications to real estate, Caroline has deployed this approach to transform culture, product, and strategy, and turn profits around. Most recently, Caroline led a transformation at SeLoger (a 30 year old French real estate marketplace) to 2X the growth rate and a great NPS (Net Promoter Score), through redesigning culture, organisation, and business model. She merged SeLoger, and other real estate companies in France, launched new services to take back market share from rivals and championed a customer-centric culture in France, Belgium, and Germany. The resulting business, Aviv, is the leading European real estate marketplace with 50M monthly active users. Caroline is originally from the State of Mississippi and has fashioned a career as the bridge between people and technology and the US and Europe.