Harbus

Issue date: 12/8/08 Section: News

What kind of year was 2008 and what does it tell us about the world we currently live in? Along with 9/11, 2008 will be remembered as the year that defined this decade. Hence, understanding the events, and more importantly, the themes that have shaped this year for the Harvard Business School community can be both instructional and illuminating activity.

When you look back at the 13 issues the Harbus has published since September, four main themes emerge:

- The blessings and burdens of the HBS Image highlighted by Philip Delves Broughton's Ahead of the Curve and the Japan Trek Fiasco;
- The Financial Crisis, which is essentially the first real challenge to the prevailing capitalist world order in a quarter century;
- The inspirational ascension of Barack Obama to the Presidency of the United States;
- And the unprecedented yearlong HBS Centennial celebration that culminated in the three-day Business Summit last October.

There are many things we can learn from the year that was. One of these is that with great admiration comes great expectation.

When Professor John Deighton led the case discussion of "HBS in 2008" for my section last April, he stated in no uncertain terms, "We've (HBS) never been stronger. We don't really have any competition. We can get anyone (faculty) we want."

The latest MBA benchmarking data corroborate Professor Deighton's points completely. The two most prestigious MBA rankings put HBS #1 (US News and World Report) and #2 (BusinessWeek). The yield (percentage of students who are offered admissions and accept) of the 2010 class is the highest of any graduate school in history: 91%. The HBS endowment stands at a staggering $2.8-billion and routinely outperforms the S&P 500. In fact, one insight that came out of the discussion of the Centennial case was that HBS could offer the MBA program for free to all its students if it wanted to.

And yet, what greeted both ECs and RCs when they returned to campus after summer was the media frenzy surrounding Ahead of the Curve and how the HBS alumni who wrote the book characterized the school as "the Caldron of Capitalism" that was nothing more than "a factory of unhappy people." While some admitted that there was a measure of truth to what Delves Broughton wrote, most students were flabbergasted by the conclusions the book made and the HBS biases it perpetuated.

Then, the Harbus published the a series of stories on the Japan Trek Fiasco and just like that, the focus of the HBS community moved from the actions of a former student to a current one and the implications these had on future graduates. The whole affair disillusion many and even made some like Adam Ireland question the system of Community Values that governed the school. Had the system ceased to function effectively?

Continued...

Page 1 of 4 next >

Article Tools

FRONT PAGE