Beyond the Case

14:36

The Humility to Ask, the Discipline to Act - Pedro...

Beyond the Case ·

2026/10/06

Send us Fan Mail When a fire devastated his family’s manufacturing facility, Pedro Barboglio’s first move was to call people who had survived the same crisis. Their experience helped him organise the response and restore production in roughly four weeks, a lesson in staying calm, acknowledging what you don’t know and asking for help. An IT engineer, founder of Remote Team Solutions and HBS OPM 68 participant, Pedro built his staffing business from a simple act of helping a friend establish a ...

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19:01

From Cleaner Air to First Homes: 30 Years of Purpose...

Beyond the Case ·

2026/10/05

Send us Fan Mail After 30 years in vehicle emissions testing and a business exit in financial services, Tenoch Ochoa is starting again, building a lending venture in California focused on helping Latino families purchase their first homes. He explores what it takes to enter an unfamiliar industry: a clear purpose, the willingness to learn, and the patience to move deliberately. His outlook was shaped by a childhood across Mexico and Japan, where navigating cultural differences and prejudice t...

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21:55

Prepare Today for Tomorrow’s Exit: Tax Planning and...

Beyond the Case ·

2026/10/01

Send us Fan Mail Vikas Garg built VG CPA PC from a basement practice in 2005 into a firm with offices in Virginia, Washington, DC, and New York. A chartered accountant, CPA and HBS OPM participant, he shares how becoming an entrepreneur changed his understanding of numbers and why tax planning, succession and exit preparation need attention long before they become urgent. Vikas recalls a Harvard lesson that changed his firm: having the courage to refuse a client’s demands when they compromise...

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21:35

The Quiet Influence of Spouses on a Family’s Legacy -...

Beyond the Case ·

2026/09/30

Send us Fan Mail Hassan Sheikh, a director at CCL Holding and Harvard Business School OPM 67 participant, lost his father at 21 but never doubted that his cousins would protect his place in the family business. That confidence came from years of shared meals, mutual respect, and relationships nurtured by the family’s women. He shares how four cousins learned to separate business disagreements from family relationships, rethink fairness, and prepare the next generation to earn responsibility. ...

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21:16

Personal Guarantees, Family Wealth, and Knowing When...

Beyond the Case ·

2026/09/28

Send us Fan Mail Henry Maksoud Neto took responsibility for his family’s Brazilian business facing roughly $250 million in debt, 600 employees, and a disputed succession. He shares the personal cost of trying to preserve a family enterprise, how emotional attachment can put family wealth at risk, and why succession cannot wait until the founder is gone. Henry also recounts the OPM conversation with Professor Ananth Raman that helped him regain his resolve, explaining why the program’s greates...

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22:48

From $2,000 to 2,000 Employees, and a Bigger Purpose...

Beyond the Case ·

2026/09/21

Send us Fan Mail Harvard Business School OPM alumnus Rajendra Bagwe co-founded Reliable Autotech in 1984 with just $2,000, helping build an engineering business with around 2,000 employees across eight plants. His struggles and the mentors who helped him navigate them inspired the Teaching Learning Community, a pro bono network of 1,500 entrepreneurs where mentees become mentors. Rajendra shares how global peers at OPM broadened his thinking, why Indian businesses often favor process improvem...

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40:26

From Poker to Entrepreneurship: Making Decisions...

Beyond the Case ·

2026/09/16

Send us Fan Mail Matt Widdoes’s journey from entrepreneurial parents and professional poker to leading growth teams and founding MAVAN reveals a consistent approach: pursue learning, build trusted relationships, and make thoughtful decisions without waiting for certainty. He credits mentors with shaping his career choices, including his decision to join OPM after a recommendation from Chris Yeh. Having completed Unit 1, Matt found unexpected depth in subjects he already knew and began protect...

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8:51

From Father-Son Partnership to a Tata Acquisition -...

Beyond the Case ·

2026/08/10

Send us Fan Mail This conversation with Prashant Kandoi is largely about family business, entrepreneurship, succession, values, and learning through experience. Prashant grew up watching his father build an electrical business from the ground up after leaving his job in 1983. Seeing his father work intensely made Prashant’s own path feel natural: he studied electrical engineering and joined the family business in 1992. A defining part of his development was his father’s willingness to give hi...

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24:23

The Power of Pattern Recognition - Richard Chen

Beyond the Case ·

2026/08/05

Send us Fan Mail In our living group, Richard was often seen as the wise one, the person we looked to for a thoughtful, well-researched view of a case. His reflections in this conversation reveal why: he has learned to turn experience into a personal philosophy for making decisions, recognizing patterns, and responding with greater clarity. One of his most powerful insights is that he is now “more lured to philosophies” than stories. Stories may inspire us, but principles help us act repeated...

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35:43

Becoming Who the Journey Requires - Jay Shah

Beyond the Case ·

2026/08/03

Send us Fan Mail Jay Shah’s journey reflects the power of combining deep expertise with curiosity, resilience and an openness to change. Influenced by his father’s commitment to excellence, Jay built a career at the intersection of architecture and technology, eventually creating Kaizen AI to improve real-estate design and decision-making. Along the way, he learned that innovation requires more than a strong product. It demands patience, human understanding, supportive relationships and the w...

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20:18

The Early Lesson That Made Me Rethink Wealth,...

Beyond the Case ·

2026/06/15

Send us Fan Mail Pedro Thompson's life philosophy was shaped long before he became a CEO, investor, or entrepreneur. Growing up in a family that had once been wealthy but lost everything taught him an early lesson that external success is fragile, while character, perspective, and inner conviction endure. In this conversation, Pedro reflects on how that experience transformed his relationship with money, risk, and ambition. He shares why having "enough" matters more than having everything, ho...

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25:58

Building With Family: Our Greatest Competitive...

Beyond the Case ·

2026/06/10

Send us Fan Mail At first glance, Minh Wilson's story is about martial arts. In reality, it's about family. The daughter of Vietnamese refugees, Minh grew up watching her parents sacrifice everything to create a better future for their children. When a martial arts instructor offered to teach her for free because her family couldn't afford classes, that single act of generosity changed the trajectory of her life. Decades later, she leads InCourage Martial Arts, a network of 26 schools committ...

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49:11

From One Idea on a Napkin to South America's Largest...

Beyond the Case ·

2026/06/09

Send us Fan Mail Dato's journey began at age 14 when he took a job at a parking lot and learned accounting simply because he wanted to understand how profits were calculated. From there, he built a successful career in finance, M&A, and investment management, spending years traveling internationally and working on complex transactions. Yet despite the professional success, he reached a point in 2014 where he realized he was missing the thing that mattered most to him: his family. A lunch ...

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18:10

What Happened When I Finally Bet on Myself - Sumit Sood

Beyond the Case ·

2026/06/08

Send us Fan Mail For 15 years, Sumit Sood built a successful career in global software sales, leading markets across the Middle East and India. By most standards, he had stability, a strong income, and a clear career path ahead of him. But at age 40, he made a decision that many professionals dream about but few actually make: he walked away from corporate life and bet on himself. Returning to a family business that his father and brother had started years earlier, Sumit brought a completely ...

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23:44

From Rap Battles to Boardrooms: The Road to 2 Grammys...

Beyond the Case ·

2026/06/05

Send us Fan Mail Djo Moupondo shares his journey from rapper to entrepreneur, investor, and business builder across multiple continents. Starting in the music industry, Djo learned early lessons about creativity, conviction, and spotting talent, skills that would later help him build businesses, invest in founders, and contribute to Grammy-winning success as a music publisher. Throughout the conversation, Djo reflects on the realities of entrepreneurship, including the moments when he questio...

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43:14

Don't Fall in Love With the Trade - David Halabu

Beyond the Case ·

2026/06/04

Send us Fan Mail David Halabu's career has been defined by disciplined reinvention. Starting as a trader, he learned to make decisions under pressure, manage risk, and separate emotion from outcomes. After recognizing that the post-financial-crisis environment was fundamentally changing the trading business, he pivoted into alternative investments, beginning with non-performing real estate loans and hard money lending. His early experiences as an LP during the 2008 financial crisis taught him...

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13:36

From Water Phobia to Kazakhstan's National Water Polo...

Beyond the Case ·

2026/05/29

Send us Fan Mail Kaiyr Kochshigulov shares an inspiring story of transformation, resilience, and leadership. Unable to swim until the age of 10 due to a fear of water, Kaiyr challenged himself to learn, discovered water polo, and eventually represented Kazakhstan's national team for six years. The discipline, teamwork, and mental toughness developed through sport became the foundation for his professional life. Kaiyr later transitioned from the technology sector into BI Group, one of Central ...

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31:45

What Do You Leave Behind Besides Money? - Koby Jones

Beyond the Case ·

2026/05/27

Send us Fan Mail This conversation is ultimately about the tension between achievement and alignment. Koby’s story begins as a classic success arc: high performer in global financial markets, top-ranked derivatives professional, climbing the corporate ladder. But underneath the external success was an internal conflict. He experienced severe anxiety in his early thirties and eventually realized the problem was not capability, it was misalignment. He no longer believed in the environment he wa...

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19:30

From Risk-Averse Lawyer to Entrepreneur - Lewis Ho

Beyond the Case ·

2026/05/25

Send us Fan Mail Lewis Ho’s journey is a story of reinvention, from a 25-year legal career built on risk management to entrepreneurship, robotics, and AI. Trained as a lawyer and eventually becoming partner at major firms, Lewis spent decades advising life sciences and technology companies on IPOs, M&A transactions, and intellectual property. By every traditional measure, he had achieved success. Yet he realized he had spent his career close to businesses without truly understanding what ...

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33:10

Designing an Intentional Life - Lauren Cohen

Beyond the Case ·

2026/05/23

Send us Fan Mail A special thank you to Professor Lauren Cohen for taking the time to join me on Beyond the Case and for continuing to inspire so many of us through the Harvard Business School OPM program. This conversation was a reminder that leadership is not only about building companies, it is also about intentionally designing the life around them. From growing up in a small farming town and discovering markets through a fifth-grade stock competition to becoming a professor at Harvard Bu...

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