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Toto Wolff and the Mercedes Formula One Team

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Publication Date: February 01, 2022

Industry: Professional sports industry

Industry: Media, entertainment, and professional sports

Source: Harvard Business School

In December 2021, Toto Wolff, team principal and chief executive officer of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One team (the 'Mercedes team') is preparing for the start of the 2021 Formula One ('F1') season's last Grand Prix, in the United Arab Emirates. Everything the team has fought for this season is on the line. The Mercedes team is in an excellent position to win an unprecedented eighth consecutive Constructors' Championship, the award for the best overall team effort in F1. Meanwhile, driver Lewis Hamilton is tied with rival team Red Bull's Max Verstappen in points, and with another victory can clinch a record eighth Drivers' Championship, the award for the season's best driver. Win or lose today, the Mercedes team under Wolff's leadership has every reason to claim the title of most successful team in the history of F1, the world's most prestigious motor racing competition-and, with its remarkable seven-going-on-eight-year winning streak, perhaps in all of sports. Will Wolff again lead the Mercedes team to a win? What is the secret to his and his team's success? And with a new set of challenges on the horizon for next season-most notably, a major rule change governing aerodynamics that could upend the teams' competitiveness-how can Wolff and his team ensure that Mercedes stays at the top?

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Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff to teach at Harvard Business School

Toto Wolff is taking his F1 experience to Harvard Business School

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You can call Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff a lot of things.

Including Adjunct Professor.

Wolff and Mercedes announced on Tuesday that the team boss was appointed an Executive Fellow at the Harvard Business School. Wolff will serve as a guest lecturer alongside Professor Anita Elberse. Beginning in January the two will team up to teach a course titled “Mercedes F1: Leading a High-Performance Team.”

The announcement follows Wolff’s previous experience with Professor Elberse. The Harvard professor followed Wolff and Mercedes during the 2021 season, gaining behind-the-scenes access to the operation of a Formula 1 team. The result of that access was a Harvard Business School case study titled ”Toto Wolff and the Mercedes Formula One Team,” and Wolff appeared as a guest lecturer in March of 2022 alongside Elberse.

The pair then collaborated on an article for Harvard Business Review titled “Number One in Formula One,” where Professor Elberse distilled some of Wolff’s lessons on management. It began with this passage about Wolff and Mercedes:

While working on this project, I learned a great deal about the winning culture that characterizes the Mercedes team. In what follows, I have distilled my observations into six lessons for leaders hoping to cultivate their own winning teams, whether in sports or other realms. During my research I also came to understand how Wolff, with his mindset, values, and actions, shapes the culture at Mercedes. In fact, it was fascinating to discover how much his leadership traits map onto the culture he has fostered. There is a powerful message here for every leader—what you say and do comes to define the organization you lead—and so I aim, too, to highlight those connections.

Wolff had this to say about the course , which is aimed at first- and second-year MBA students. “I feel very honored and privileged to continue working with the incredibly bright young minds at Harvard”, outlined Wolff in the announcement. “Whenever I step on campus, I am inspired by the students’ curiosity and ambition, and I leave energized by the special learning environment they create together with the brilliant faculty.”

The announcement comes as Mercedes is hoping to close the gap to Red Bull and, frankly, Aston Martin at the top of the F1 Constructors’ Standings. Mercedes came away with double points in last weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix, but the team was hoping for more after bringing some upgrades to Baku. “Today was not a thriller,” said Wolff following Sunday’s Grand Prix. “There was very little overtaking even with a big pace difference. We headed into a sub optimum set-up direction during FP1 and by the time we realised it was too late, and the car was in parc fermé conditions. It’s the same for everyone though under this format.”

“The pace in free air today looked similar between ourselves, the Ferraris and the Aston Martins,” he added. “It was hard to tell who was ultimately quicker though, because with the difficulty of overtaking you are stuck where you are stuck. The Red Bulls meanwhile sailed away into the sunset on merit. If we can get the platform right though, I think we can close that gap this year. It’s not about adding points of downforce, more giving the drivers a car that they have confidence in.”

If Mercedes can deliver on that challenge, Professor Wolff will have quite a story to teach this winter.

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Mercedes boss Wolff to teach at Havard Business School

Toto Harvard Visit - Paul Ripke

Mercedes Formula 1 boss Toto Wolff has been appointed as an Executive Fellow at the Harvard Business School.

Wolff will serve as a guest lecturer alongside Professor Anita Elberse, where he will share insights on leadership, organisational culture, and personal effectiveness.

Elberse presented a Harvard Business School case study entitled ‘Toto Wolff and the Mercedes Formula One team’ after shadowing the team behind-the-scenes through 2021.

Wolff and Elberse will collaborate to deliver a short course for first- and second-year MBA students in January 2024 entitled ‘Mercedes F1: Leading a High-Performance Team’.

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“I feel very honoured and privileged to continue working with the incredibly bright young minds at Harvard”, said Wolff.

“Whenever I step on campus, I am inspired by the students’ curiosity and ambition, and I leave energised by the special learning environment they create together with the brilliant faculty.”   “We very much look forward to welcoming Toto back to campus,” said Elberse. “I have seen first-hand how much our students benefit from learning about Toto’s leadership journey and from his deep knowledge of what it takes to run a highly successful sports team. “With Toto on board, I am confident that we can make a profound positive difference in the development of the leaders of tomorrow.”

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Toto Wolff Makes a Pit Stop at HBS

On Wednesday, March 2, a crowd of Harvard students clusters around the newest Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One race car. Flown in from Luxembourg that morning, the silver and green race car, expected to be one of the fastest F1 cars this season, is parked outside the Harvard Business School’s Baker Library.

The library doors swing open. Harvard Way, bustling with excitement, falls silent. A figure almost as tall as the door, dressed in a navy blue trench coat, slowly emerges from the library. It’s the man of the hour — Torger “Toto” C. Wolff.

After an introduction from Professor Anita Elberse of HBS, Wolff — the Mercedes AMG-Petronas F1 Team’s Team Principal and CEO — faces the crowd of energized students and jokes, “I thought Harvard was a smart university, not a group of fans.”

The Mercedes F1 Team is the most successful F1 team in the world with eight consecutive world championship wins, a feat that has not been achieved by any other team. Wolff leads a team of 1,400 employees, including drivers Lewis C. D. Hamilton and George W. Russell.

In February of this year, Elberse, who teaches “The Business of Entertainment, Media, and Sports” at HBS, published a case study on Wolff’s team in which she analyzes the “secret to his and his team’s success.” She went to races in the past F1 season and interviewed people within the Mercedes organization, including the drivers.

“It’s really difficult to find a team that has won what is effectively a world championship eight times in a row,” Elberse says. “Usually complacency sets in, or some other factor makes it impossible for the team to perform at the highest level. We tend to see very short life cycles for teams, but [Wolff] has kept his team at the top for eight years now. I find that really fascinating.”

Elberse invited Wolff to be a guest in her lectures and teach the case study with her. Afterwards, they led a meet and greet with the broader Harvard community, giving students the opportunity to view the Mercedes Team’s newest F1 car and ask Wolff questions.

During the Q&A period, Wolff answered questions on a variety of subjects, from racial and gender diversity in F1 to rivalries within the sport to his leadership skills.

However, he reveals that he was not always the confident leader he is now. “I remember distinctly a moment in my 30s when I was a guest at the Monte Carlo Grand Prix and I felt so shit because all these people were so successful and working in Formula One and I couldn’t imagine myself in that environment,” Wolff says. “I think we should speak about it. I think we should seek help.”

Wolff’s commitment to mental health awareness resonated with many students in the audience. Sean P.L. Finamore ’23, the Co-Founder and Vice President of the Harvard Undergraduate Automotive Society says, “I think that was particularly powerful for me, hearing him say that, and also being able to relate to a lot of those feelings.”

Hiromu R. Rose ’22, Co-Founder and President of HUAS, was surprised at how many people came to the meet-and-greet. “I was very excited about [the turnout] because it shows that we do have a lot of interest and traction for future events,” Rose says.

After almost 20 minutes of jumping around with my hand raised, I was chosen to ask Wolff one of the last questions of the day. In a 2019 interview with BBC, Wolff said “relentless curiosity” drives him to keep winning — how, I asked, does he maintain his curiosity?

“I try to be curious like a child every day,” Wolf answered.“Every day the world opens up in front of us. We just need to have open eyes and be curious about it.”

Toto to Teach at Harvard

Toto Wolff, the Co-Owner, CEO and Team Principal of the Team, has been appointed an Executive Fellow at the Harvard Business School where he will serve as guest lecturer alongside Professor Anita Elberse.

The role will see Toto share insights on high-performance leadership, organizational culture and personal effectiveness, gained in one of the world’s most competitive industries, with the School’s MBA students.

A former racing driver turned investor, Toto has become one of the most successful leaders in world sport, guiding the Mercedes team to eight Formula One Constructors’ Championships and seven Drivers’ Championships in his ten years at the helm. Toto's partnership with the Harvard Business School will further its mission of educating and inspiring the leaders of tomorrow.

Throughout the 2021 F1 season, Harvard Business School professor Anita Elberse gained behind-the-scenes access to the Mercedes team to observe how they prepared for, competed in and analyzed their performance in races. The result was a Harvard Business School case study entitled ‘Toto Wolff and the Mercedes Formula One Team’ which Wolff has since helped teach to MBA students on campus.

The pair also collaborated on a popular Harvard Business Review article ‘Number One in Formula One’, in which Professor Elberse distilled Toto's leadership philosophy into six lessons to help managers develop a winning culture. In January 2024, Toto and Elberse will team up to deliver a groundbreaking short course for both first-year and second-year MBA students, “Mercedes F1: Leading a High-Performance Team.”

“I feel very honored and privileged to continue working with the incredibly bright young minds at Harvard”, noted Toto. “Whenever I step on campus, I am inspired by the students’ curiosity and ambition, and I leave energized by the special learning environment they create together with the brilliant faculty.”

"We very much look forward to welcoming Toto back to campus,” said Elberse. “I have seen first-hand how much our students benefit from learning about Toto’s leadership journey and from his deep knowledge of what it takes to run a highly successful sports team. With Toto on board, I am confident that we can make a profound positive difference in the development of the leaders of tomorrow.”

Harvard Business School’s Executive Fellows program aims to create a community of practitioners who, alongside their faculty partners, contribute to the School through a rich set of activities. “HBS is fortunate to be able to benefit from this dynamic partnership of Anita and Toto; I am confident it will be a spectacular experience for the students,” said Professor Len Schlesinger, Chair of the Practice Faculty.

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Toto Wolff to teach MBA course at Harvard Business School

Mercedes formula 1 team principal toto wolff has extended his relationship with the harvard business school by becoming an executive fellow and guest lecturer..

The Austrian will teach a course for first and second year MBA students course under the title Mercedes F1: Leading a High-Performance Team.

The course will take place in January 2024, taking advantage of a rare relatively quiet period in Wolff’s usually hectic schedule as boss of the Brackley organisation.

Wolff will teach the course in conjunction with Professor Anita Elberse, with whom he has worked closely in recent years.

Dutch-born Elberse followed Wolff and the team during the 2021 season, studying the way he operated, and wrote a case study called 'Toto Wolff and the Mercedes Formula One Team', which led to previous appearances by Wolff at the university’s campus in Massachusetts.

The pair also collaborated on an article in the prestigious Harvard Business Review called 'Number One in Formula One', which encapsulated Wolff’s approach to leadership in six lessons.

The Executive Fellow role is granted to people working in various areas who are willing to teach in their spare time alongside their day jobs.

When Wolff speaks, people listen.

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

"I feel very honoured and privileged to continue working with the incredibly bright young minds at Harvard,” said Wolff.

"Whenever I step on campus, I am inspired by the students' curiosity and ambition, and I leave energised by the special learning environment they create together with the brilliant faculty."

"We very much look forward to welcoming Toto back to campus," said Elberse. "I have seen first-hand how much our students benefit from learning about Toto's leadership journey and from his deep knowledge of what it takes to run a highly successful sports team.

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“With Toto on board, I am confident that we can make a profound positive difference in the development of the leaders of tomorrow."

Professor Len Schlesinger, Chair of the Practice Faculty, said: "HBS is fortunate to be able to benefit from this dynamic partnership of Anita and Toto; I am confident it will be a spectacular experience for the students.”

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F1’s billionaire team boss Toto Wolff lands new Harvard Business School role

Toto Wolff wears a jumper around his neck in the paddock. Zandvoort September 2022.

Mercedes principal, and Harvard’s newest Executive Fellow Toto Wolff will look to shape the leaders of tomorrow when he teaches at Harvard Business School.

The Austrian investor has become one of the most recognisable figures anywhere in the world of Formula 1 as the team principal and one-third owner of the Mercedes squad.

Having started his F1 journey with the purchase of shares in Williams, Wolff went on to invest in a Mercedes team which re-wrote F1’s history books under Wolff with a string of eight Constructors’ titles in a row from 2014-2021, plus seven Drivers’ crowns in that time.

And with Formula 1’s popularity now at an all-time high, a surge largely originating from the success of Netflix’s hit docuseries Drive to Survive, it has helped bring a new level of value to the current 10 teams, with Wolff recently joining Forbes’ list of world billionaires for the first time.

Now, Wolff will look to use all of his experience to help the aspiring leaders of tomorrow, having been appointed an Executive Fellow at the Harvard Business School, where he will also be a guest lecturer alongside Professor Anita Elberse.

Leadership, organisational culture and personal effectiveness are the areas of expertise which it is anticipated Wolff will be able to offer great insight for the students, as from January 2024, Wolff works alongside Elberse to deliver the ‘Mercedes F1: Leading a High-Performance Team’ course to first and second-year MBA students.

The door between Mercedes F1 and Harvard is not a new one to open though, as prior to this professor Elberse has been behind-the-scenes at Mercedes analysing their operation at race weekends.

This ‘Toto Wolff and the Mercedes Formula One Team’ case study has since been taught, with Wolff’s involvement, to MBA students, while Wolff’s leadership philosophy also went into Elberse’s ‘Number One in Formula One’ Harvard Business Review article designed to help managers progress.

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“I feel very honoured and privileged to continue working with the incredibly bright young minds at Harvard,” said Wolff.

“Whenever I step on campus, I am inspired by the students’ curiosity and ambition, and I leave energised by the special learning environment they create together with the brilliant faculty.”

Wolff is also putting all of his leadership skills to use in the effort to return Mercedes to winning ways in the world of Formula 1.

F1 2023 has started with a W14 challenger which, like its predecessor, is not worthy of returning Mercedes to the title picture where they crave to be.

A new-look W14 is expected to arrive for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola, as Mercedes head in a different direction in pursuit of runaway leaders Red Bull.

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• Co-Owner, CEO and Team Principal of Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula 1 Team
• Former Racing Driver
• Investor and Founder of a Tech-Focused VC Firm in Austria
• Harvard Business School Case Study "Number One in Formula One"

Motorsport executive, VC investor, and former racing driver Toto Wolff delivers star power balanced with expertise in high-performance leadership and organizational culture . Toto is the Co-Owner, CEO, and Team Principal of the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team. A former racing driver turned investor, Toto started his career by founding a tech-focused venture capital firm in Austria. He entered F1 with an ownership stake in the Williams F1 Team in 2009, before acquiring a 30% stake (now 33%) in the Mercedes-Benz works team in 2013. Toto has since led the team, featuring the most successful F1 driver of all-time, Lewis Hamilton, to unprecedented heights, winning eight Constructor World Championships and seven Driver World Championships .

Toto’s high-performance leadership philosophy was the subject of a Harvard Business School Case Study in 2022, “Number One in Formula 1.” He regularly visits Harvard to work with MBA students and teach the case study, leading discussions on high-performance leadership and organizational culture. In 2024, Toto will help teach a Harvard Business School course alongside professor Anita Elberse , focusing on how he has led the   Mercedes   AMG Petronas   Formula 1   team to historic success. Toto is also an Associate Fellow at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School where he imparts lessons on entrepreneurship and innovation, as well holding an Honorary Doctorate from Cranfield University. In sought after talks, Toto leverages his understanding of winning culture, team leadership, and personal effectiveness .

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• Harvard Business School

A Fireside Chat with Toto Wolff

In this engaging and informative fireside chat conversation, motorsport executive, VC investor, and former racing driver TOTO WOLFF shares captivating stories from the racetrack and powerful insight into his high-performance leadership philosophy.

In Conversation: Harvard Case Study on High-Performance Leadership

Through his high-performance leadership, TOTO WOLFF has kept the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team at the top of fierce competition for almost a decade. Wolff’s leadership lessons were the subject of a Harvard Business School Case Study in 2022, “Number One in Formula 1.” In this riveting talk, Toto motivates audiences with his lessons in high-performance culture, team leadership, and personal effectiveness.

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Toto Wolff is the Co-Owner, CEO and Team Principal of the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team. A former racing driver turned investor, Toto started his career by founding a tech-focused venture capital firm in Austria. He entered F1 with an ownership stake in the Williams F1 Team in 2009, before acquiring a 30% stake in the Mercedes-Benz works team in 2013. Toto has since led the team, featuring the most successful F1 driver of all-time, Lewis Hamilton, to unprecedented heights, winning eight Constructor World Championships and seven Driver World Championships. Toto’s high-performance leadership philosophy was the subject of a Harvard Business School Case Study in 2022.

• Around town
• Introspection
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Toto Wolff Makes a Pit Stop at HBS

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On Wednesday, March 2, a crowd of Harvard students clusters around the newest Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One race car. Flown in from Luxembourg that morning, the silver and green race car, expected to be one of the fastest F1 cars this season, is parked outside the Harvard Business School’s Baker Library.

The library doors swing open. Harvard Way, bustling with excitement, falls silent. A figure almost as tall as the door, dressed in a navy blue trench coat, slowly emerges from the library. It’s the man of the hour — Torger “Toto” C. Wolff.

After an introduction from Professor Anita Elberse of HBS, Wolff — the Mercedes AMG-Petronas F1 Team’s Team Principal and CEO — faces the crowd of energized students and jokes, “I thought Harvard was a smart university, not a group of fans.”

The Mercedes F1 Team is the most successful F1 team in the world with eight consecutive world championship wins, a feat that has not been achieved by any other team. Wolff leads a team of 1,400 employees, including drivers Lewis C. D. Hamilton and George W. Russell.

In February of this year, Elberse, who teaches “The Business of Entertainment, Media, and Sports” at HBS, published a case study on Wolff’s team in which she analyzes the “secret to his and his team’s success.” She went to races in the past F1 season and interviewed people within the Mercedes organization, including the drivers.

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“It’s really difficult to find a team that has won what is effectively a world championship eight times in a row,” Elberse says. “Usually complacency sets in, or some other factor makes it impossible for the team to perform at the highest level. We tend to see very short life cycles for teams, but [Wolff] has kept his team at the top for eight years now. I find that really fascinating.”

Elberse invited Wolff to be a guest in her lectures and teach the case study with her. Afterwards, they led a meet and greet with the broader Harvard community, giving students the opportunity to view the Mercedes Team’s newest F1 car and ask Wolff questions.

During the Q&A period, Wolff answered questions on a variety of subjects, from racial and gender diversity in F1 to rivalries within the sport to his leadership skills.

However, he reveals that he was not always the confident leader he is now. “I remember distinctly a moment in my 30s when I was a guest at the Monte Carlo Grand Prix and I felt so shit because all these people were so successful and working in Formula One and I couldn’t imagine myself in that environment,” Wolff says. “I think we should speak about it. I think we should seek help.”

Wolff’s commitment to mental health awareness resonated with many students in the audience. Sean P.L. Finamore ’23, the Co-Founder and Vice President of the Harvard Undergraduate Automotive Society says, “I think that was particularly powerful for me, hearing him say that, and also being able to relate to a lot of those feelings.”

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Hiromu R. Rose ’22, Co-Founder and President of HUAS, was surprised at how many people came to the meet-and-greet. “I was very excited about [the turnout] because it shows that we do have a lot of interest and traction for future events,” Rose says.

After almost 20 minutes of jumping around with my hand raised, I was chosen to ask Wolff one of the last questions of the day. In a 2019 interview with BBC, Wolff said “relentless curiosity” drives him to keep winning — how, I asked, does he maintain his curiosity?

“I try to be curious like a child every day,” Wolf answered.“Every day the world opens up in front of us. We just need to have open eyes and be curious about it.”

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