100 YEARS OF CASE METHOD TEACHING & LEARNING

The 2021-22 academic year marks the 100-year anniversary of the introduction of the case method at Harvard Business School. Dean Srikant Datar celebrates this milestone with a look back at the first case, and casts forward to how this enduring teaching method might evolve.

Celebrating 100 Years of Case Method Teaching & Learning

Every HBS alum knows that the Case Method is the core of the HBS pedagogical approach. And everyone who has sat in a chair in any program at HBS knows that participating in a case discussion is the heart of the learning experience everyone shares. We all remember those amazing discussions about specific cases that were formative in our journeys to become business leaders and shape the organizations we lead. And we all remember the anxiety waiting for that dreaded day of the “cold call” and the “opportunity” to open the case discussion. Everyone remembers how we felt both before and after our opening.

So where do cases come from anyway? Where do these ideas come from? What is the process by which ideas are selected and developed? What about your experiences in your career? Is there a case lurking somewhere in your past? Want to learn more about how cases are developed and whether your idea has potential?

Join us in a discussion led by Carin Knoop, David Lane, Professor Warren F. McFarlan and Professor Joe Bower to learn more about the “black box” that transforms business situations into the learning opportunities that aspiring business leaders experience and how your experience might become one that many will benefit from.

Participants must register by NOON on January 18th to receive details on joining the discussion. The Zoom link will be sent out 24 hours before the event.

BIOS

SPEAKER

Joseph L. Bower

Donald K. David Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus

JOSEPH L. BOWER, Donald K. David Professor Emeritus, has been a leader in general management at Harvard Business School for 51 years. He also served on the faculty of the Harvard Kennedy School during its first decade. He has served in many administrative roles including Senior Associate Dean. An expert on corporate strategy, organization, and leadership, he has devoted much of his teaching and research to challenges confronting corporate leaders in today’s rapidly changing hyper-competitive conditions. Professor Bower has been active in the development of institutions and programs. Between 1968 and 73 he helped establish the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Vienna, Austria. In 1978, he founded the Program for Senior Managers in Government as a joint program of Harvard Business School and the School of Government; and in 1995 he founded the General Manager Program at Harvard Business School. He was deeply involved in the efforts to build the new joint MBA-MPP degree program offered by the Business School and the Kennedy School of Government.

SPEAKER

F. Warren McFarlan

Albert H. Gordon Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus

Professor McFarlan earned his AB from Harvard University in 1959, and his MBA and DBA from the Harvard Business School in 1961 and 1965 respectively. He has had a significant role in introducing materials on Management Information Systems to all major programs at the Harvard Business School since the first course on the subject was offered in 1962. He has been a long-time teacher in the Advanced Management Program; International Senior Managers Program; Delivering Information Services Program, and several of the Social Sector programs. He is currently teaching in several short Executive Education programs.

MODERATOR

Carin-Isabel Knoop

Executive Director of the Harvard Business School Case Research & Writing Group

Carin-Isabel Knoop is the Executive Director of the Harvard Business School Case Research & Writing Group. She’s written cases on managers and leaders all over the world across functions and industries for decades. Carin co-authored the book, Compassionate Management of Mental Health in the Modern Workplace​ (with Dean John Quelch, Herbert Business School, University of Miami), and her articles have been published in Africa, Europe, the U.S., and Latin America. She champions diversity of thought, adaptability, and human sustainability at work while working closely with public and private organizations, student groups, and employee benefits organizations to promote Mental Health by All and For All. She has an undergraduate degree from the University of Texas and an MBA from the Harvard Business School (HBS).

The event is open to all US and Canadian clubs.