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Jul 29, 2010

"There is the voice that everybody hears... saying to you, "You should do this, you should be this, you ought to, you got to." And then there is the still small voice- for some people not so small- inside every human being that calls you to something that is greater than yourself." --Oprah

Oprah: A Case Study Comes Alive

Intuitively, there's something very powerful about Oprah Winfrey. At least that's what Professor Nancy Koehn of Harvard Business School thought. Of the entrepreneur who juggles her own talk show, magazine, and book club, one might ask, What exactly is Oprah in the business of? Why is she such a compelling leader? According to Koehn, it boils down to two elements: Purpose and Service. "It is a story of leadership and collective commitment. It was clear that Winfrey's staff think, to a one, that they have a very important mission that they are fulfilling as an organization; and that they have very important precepts for how they execute and engage with that mission," she explains. "That combination of inspiration and humility I found absolutely compelling."