Columbia Business School

06/02/2026

What's the best advice the Class of 2026 received around graduation?

🔹 Don't optimize for a life you don't actually want
🔹 Whom you work with matters more than what you work on
🔹 Don't mistake change for failure

At Columbia Business School's 2026 Commencement, alumni entrepreneurs Deepak Narula '89 and Cyrus Massoumi '03 expanded on these and other key points:

Deepak Narula ’89 and Cyrus Massoumi ’03 urged graduates to lead with purpose, resilience, and the courage to keep refining their path.

06/01/2026

"AI is to fire as educators are to Prometheus." That was just one takeaway from today's riveting symposium, “MBA Transformed? AI and Beyond.”

Columbia Business School convened faculty from some of the nation’s leading higher education institutions, including the Yale University School of Management, MIT Sloan School of Management, and more, to share bold experiments, practical tools, and big ideas for how to prepare the next generation of MBAs for an increasingly digital world.

As AI transforms how business gets done, business schools must reimagine everything from leadership strategy and entrepreneurship to tech applications and case studies.

This event was presented by the AI in Business Initiative at Columbia Business School: https://business.columbia.edu/ai-in-business

06/01/2026

The most revealing moment on an earnings call might not be an executive's answer, but instead the question they didn't see coming.

New research from Assistant Professor of Business Wei Cai examines how "curveball" questions expose uncertainty, test leadership under pressure, and shape market reactions. https://business.columbia.edu/insights/markets-executives-curveball-questions

05/28/2026

If you want to be taken seriously as a competitor in a crowded field, ambition alone isn’t enough. The leaders who advance fastest are those who back up their vision with action, accountability, and ex*****on, according to former Estee Lauder CFO Tracey Travis '86.

Here are the top lessons she learned over her decades-long career.

Former Estée Lauder CFO Tracey Travis reflects on how leading a struggling Pepsi bottling unit became the defining risk that shaped her path to global leadership.

05/22/2026

The Supreme Court's recent decision on affirmative action in education caused widespread confusion among corporate hiring managers—and ultimately had a chilling effect on hiring decisions, according to a recent Columbia Business School study.

Research from Adina Sterling, the Katherine W. Phillips Associate Professor of Business at Columbia Business School, offers new insights into the impact of the Court's decision and its significant unintended consequences so far. https://business.columbia.edu/insights/SCOTUS-admissions-policy-becomes-hiring-policy

05/21/2026

Where do investors go to talk shop?

ICYMI: 🎙️ The Value Investing with Legends Podcast features some of the biggest names in investing, sharing hard-earned lessons on markets, strategy, risk, and decision-making. This series brings listeners inside conversations usually reserved for Wall Street’s inner circle. Tune in now: https://business.columbia.edu/heilbrunn/resources/value-investing-legends-podcast

05/20/2026

"Rather than just texting with AI, what if we talk to it too?”

At Columbia Business School, students debate CAiSEY, a classroom prep partner that turns AI from a shortcut into a collaborator. Instead of giving them quick answers, CAiSEY pushes students to defend their thinking, consider new perspectives, and sharpen their arguments. And it works particularly well for brainstorming when students speak directly to it.

New research around the tech from Dan Wang, the Lambert Family Professor of Social Enterprise in the Faculty of Business, and Neelam Modi Jain, Postdoctoral Research Scholar in the Faculty of Business, shows that the way students interact with AI, and specifically by speaking to it instead of texting it, can dramatically affect how many ideas they generate. https://business.columbia.edu/insights/why-speaking-ai-may-be-better-brainstorming-CAiSEY

05/19/2026

Zocdoc and Dr. B founder and Columbia Business School MBA / EMBA graduation speaker Cyrus Massoumi '03 reflects on the worst advice he ever got. Listen up, grads! His answer may surprise you.

05/19/2026

“Global startup scaling gaps drive some of the big economic challenges around the world—and highlight the role of entrepreneurs in helping to overcome them," says Assistant Professor Dr. Nataliya Langburd Wright.

Why do so many startups emerge everywhere, but only a few scale into the next Google or Meta? Though innovation shows up around the world, massive success doesn't always follow. New Columbia Business School research explores what holds founders back outside traditional hubs like Silicon Valley.

Check out the findings here: https://research.columbia.edu/news/beyond-silicon-valley-rethinking-global-startup-growth-gap

05/16/2026

Congratulations to this year's Columbia Business School graduates!

“The world you’re stepping into is so different than when you were applying to school,” Dean Costis Maglaras told the graduates during today's ceremonies. “But at Columbia Business School, we embrace the future with curiosity.”

This morning, graduates in the MS and PhD programs heard from Distinguished Speaker Deepak Narula ’89, founder & co-CIO of Metacapital Management. And in the afternoon, graduates in the MBA and EMBA programs heard from Cyrus Massoumi ’03, founder of Dr. B and Zocdoc.

“No AI model will tell you what kind of life is worth wanting,” Narula told the Class of 2026. “Real learning happens when we are faced with adversity.”

And Massoumi advised: “Do not mistake change for failure. Sometimes change is an invitation. Start again, build again, and refine your formula."

Congratulations to Omar Besbes, the Vikram S. Pandit Professor of Business, Professor of Professional Practice Brett House, and Associate Professor Daniel Guetta as this year's faculty award recipients.

Today's student speakers included:
• Carl Blaine Horton ’26 PhD
• Zachary Costa, CPA ’25 MS
• Alexandra Garcia ’26 EMBA-NY
• Nathan Simantob ’26 MBA

Congratulations to this year's graduating class—be sure to visit us again soon!