What it takes to maintain momentum and customer trust when scaling a complex transformation.
How do you scale innovation in a fragmented system you don’t fully control? That is the challenge Highland Electric Fleets faced as it worked to replace diesel school buses with electric vehicles across the United States. While Highland provided financing, infrastructure, and fleet operations, success depended on external partners, including manufacturers, utilities, and districts. Delays and disruptions forced the company to stay nimble and deliver under pressure.
In this episode from 2025, Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Highland Electric founder and CEO Duncan McIntyre join host Brian Kenny to discuss the Harvard Business School case, “‘The Wheels on the Bus’ Go Electric: Highland Electric Fleets and Partners,” and what it takes to scale a climate solution while sustaining momentum and coordinating across public and private sectors.
ROBIN PASSIAS: Hi, Cold Call listeners it’s show producer Robin Passias here to introduce a special back to school replay of our 2025 episode, “Partnerships Power Highland Electric’s Expanding Fleet of School Buses.” Since we last spoke with CEO Duncan McIntrye and Professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Highland Electric Fleets has continued its mission of electrifying school bus routes across America. They’ve celebrated 10 million electric school bus miles spanning more than 100 school districts, recently adding electric school buses throughout Topeka, KS and New Orleans, LA.
As you consider your back-to-school routine with your own families—and here at Harvard Business School we welcomed more than 900 new MBA students to campus last week—we hope you enjoy this replay about the case study, “The Wheels on the Bus Go Electric.” Happy back to school season!
BRIAN KENNY: Welcome to Cold Call, the podcast where we dive deep into the stories behind groundbreaking Harvard Business School case studies. As we sit down to record today’s episode, there’s a hint of autumn in the air in Boston, and children across the US are getting ready to start the new school year, which, for many begins by climbing aboard a big yellow school bus, the largest transportation fleet in the country. Today we’re diving into a case that explores how one organization is attempting to transform that fleet from diesel to electric. It’s a story as much about reimagining American infrastructure as it is about leadership, and complex partnerships. We’ll talk about innovation, public-private collaboration, policy incentives, and the immense logistical challenges of scaling a climate-friendly solution that affects the lives of millions of children.
And we’ll hear what it takes to maintain momentum, and customer trust when the road to change gets bumpy. Today on Cold Call, we welcome Professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter, and case protagonist Duncan McIntyre to discuss the case, “The Wheels on the Bus Go Electric, Highland Electric Fleets and Partners.” I’m your host Brian Kenney, and you’re listening to Cold Call on the HBR Podcast Network. Rosabeth Moss Kanter studies, and writes about strategy, innovation, and leadership for change. She has written innumerable articles, cases, and books on those topics, including her book, Think Outside the Building, How Advanced Leaders Can Change the World One Smart Innovation at a Time. Rosabeth, great to have you back on Cold Call.
ROSABETH MOSS KANTER: Thanks Brian. It’s a total pleasure.
BRIAN KENNY: Duncan McIntyre is the founder and CEO of Highland Electric Fleets. He’s the protagonist in today’s case. Duncan, thanks for joining us. This has got to be a very busy time for you.
DUNCAN MCINTYRE: It is, Brian, thanks for having me. I love being the protagonist. Appreciate it.
BRIAN KENNY: It’s a good title to have the protagonist as opposed to the antagonist. We don’t invite them on the show, so it’s great to have you here. Obviously, I hinted about the fact the school year’s about to start, those buses are going to be all over the roads pretty soon. Most of us remember them as big, bumpy, uncomfortable lurching vehicles. So, I think what you’re attempting to do, Duncan, is really improve that experience in a multitude of ways. So, why don’t we just dive right in. Rosabeth, I’m going to start with you, and ask you what drew you to write the case, and why do you see Highland as a compelling study for business leaders? And importantly, what is your cold call when you start the discussion in class?
ROSABETH MOSS KANTER: So, I’m very interested in innovations that can make a huge difference, not just a small difference. And so I was looking for climate solutions with very big potential for scaling, and that also would not meet with public antagonism that would delight people rather than scare people, which has been one of the change problems around a very big existential threat we face. And so Highland popped up in a conversation with one of the investors who had been in an HBS program, whom I knew, who was telling me about this. And I got incredibly excited because of the potential for not only being a scalable climate solution that could be a profitable business at scale, or even before scale, and could impact the lives of so many children. And I thought of children as change agents we never tap who tell their parents who parents get delighted, and can therefore build a future that’s the future they want.
We know that young people are most interested in climate more than older generations. And so I love the idea of Highland, which is built on a lot of complex partnerships, and getting those school systems who are getting ready to have the buses, and by the way, Duncan’s buses had to be in place months ago in order for the school districts to be ready for back to school day. And so the cold call is a crisis that faced Highland when one of the largest customers, and largest school districts in the US wasn’t getting the buses in time, and had to quickly buy 80 diesel-fueled buses. Oh, my gosh. And were saying they had to look at alternatives, and maybe they would not go forward with the contract with Highland. So, I say to the students, you’re Duncan McIntyre, what do you do?
BRIAN KENNY: That’s a leadership crisis in the works right there. So, I’m sure we’re going to talk a little bit about that. Duncan, let me turn to you. The case, I think, quotes you as saying something to the effect of one of the motivators for starting Highland was that your child was at about eye level with the exhaust pipe of a school bus, and that made you think about this. Maybe you can talk a little bit about the motivation behind what you’re doing, and what you’re trying to achieve with Highland.
DUNCAN MCINTYRE: I’m happy to. Yeah, you’re spot on. I think the journey started for me when I recognized that our son, a second-grader at the time, his mouth was literally at the same height as the tailpipe on a diesel school bus. The source of poor air quality in urban areas in our country, and globally is not from power plants anymore. It’s from tailpipes, it’s from our transportation infrastructure, and predominantly it’s from diesel tailpipes. The reality is I recognized that we had the technology to fix this, and shift it. Battery electric vehicles were getting more mature. The technology was being adopted by big bus, and truck manufacturers, global companies like Daimler, and Navistar.
