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Harvard Business School (HBS) was founded in 1908 when it established the world’s first MBA programme with a faculty of 15, 33 regular students, and 47 special students. The School’s mission is to educate leaders who make a difference in the world, and they serve tens of thousands of students on their MBA, Executive Education, Online and Doctoral programmes. Since the 1920s, the case method has been the foundational teaching practice at HBS. Wallace B Donham became dean in 1919, and it was through his leadership and vision that the case method was formally incorporated into the HBS curriculum. A graduate of Harvard Law School, lawyer, and HBS professor, Donham believed in the instructional value of placing students in the role of protagonists solving real-life business problems. He also recognised that while law schools could rely on centuries of common law cases, no such body of work existed for teaching business. Dean Donham directed the Bureau of Business Research at the School to research and write case studies for use in their curriculum, and in 1921 they published their first case, General Shoe Company by Clinton P Biddle. HBS marked the centennial of the case method in 2021, and its commitment to the case method is unwavering, with 500 cases read during a two-year MBA programme, and 55% of cases that were published in the financial year of 2021 being globally oriented. Case writing is still a vital force behind research at HBS. HBS case studies have helped refine the skills and business judgment of tens of thousands of students, practitioners, and academics across the world. The School is continually expanding and refreshing course content as HBS faculty write new cases that span the globe, industries, disciplines, and organisational forms in the public, private for profit, and non-profit spaces. As its faculty continues to develop case studies, the School is shaping business learning and educating future leaders in a positive way for years to come. A vast array of case-writing support is available to HBS faculty. Support is provided by case writers who work as individual research associates or are available on a project by project basis through the School's on-campus Case Research and Writing Group and eight regional research centers (Asia-Pacific, California, Europe, India, Japan, Latin America, Harvard Center Shanghai, and Istanbul). Harvard Business Publishing (HBP), a not-for-profit, independent corporation that is an affiliate of Harvard Business School, distributes the School's collection of articles, books, case studies, simulations, videos, learning programs, and digital tools. Since 2023, The Case Centre has received 218 new cases for distribution from HBS authors. In total the collection available through The Case Centre numbers 13,080 cases, many with accompanying instructor materials, software and videos. 354 of those are prize-winning cases. |
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“The case method enables students to learn to interpret and analyze information, consider alternatives, decide on a plan of action, and persuade others about their point of view. Students learn how to learn. To practice drilling down to the root cause of issues, asking questions, and listening to others' viewpoints. It educates for judgment at a moment when business leaders are being asked to help address society's most pressing problems, economic inequality, a global pandemic, and a changing climate. These skills are more vital than ever.
"While cases may look different in the future, embracing more interactive technologies, incorporating more real time information, the fundamental approach of discussion, debate, and deliberation undoubtedly will last well into the next century too.”
Professor Srikant Datar
Dean
Harvard Business School
Speaking on the occasion of the case method centennial in 2022.
