Harvard’s CORe Takes Case Method To Masses

“IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT THEORY”

Successful, yes…but also robust. That’s particularly true, says Francis, for students who lack a business background or (like her) worked full time and was active in her community. She even admits to struggling a bit with economics, even though that was her major at Spellman College a decade earlier. “Many of the concepts I learned in economics had faded away. Many in my peer group came from backgrounds like the arts and the humanities. For us, it was definitely challenging because we had to re-learn or learn for the first time those business concepts.”

The CORe platform also includes several bells-and-whistles to boost engagement. One is what Mullane calls “guard rails,” which keep cohort members going at the same pace. “We do require students to take quizzes at the end of each module by deadline and that has the effect of keeping students working through the material together so they can be helping each other,” he notes. “It also keeps people from racing ahead. We call it “gated,” where you can race ahead to the gate, but you’re going to have to wait there before you go on to the rest of it.” This also fits the mandate established by HBX. “Because CORe is case-based and you learn though discovery, the course is linear in nature,” he adds. “You can’t bounce around. So things are revealed to you as you click through the material.”

The program also is highly visual in nature, which was a boon for Rajendran, who describes himself as a visual learner. “One of the things that shocked me was that instructors would use a lot of graphics and visuals to illustrate their points. If you take a course in accounting and economics, you have a lot of formulas and tools to memorize. The graphics helped to cement things in my head.”

During courses, Francis reveled in playing with interactive tools that would show how changing one variable would impact another. However, it was the strong use of video in CORe that made the content pop for her. “On the platform, the way that the concepts are taught to us is that you have a bit of text detailing the concepts and then immediately after reading the text, there is a video. It may feature a CEO explaining how that concept is presenting itself in their business. That’s how it brings economics to life. It’s not just about theory, but how that economic concept applies to business.”

CORe CUTS FIRST SEMESTER LEARNING CURVE

Indeed, CORe graduates were able to apply some of what they learned right to their work. Francis, for one, applied the concept of hypothesis testing to determining if she should implement an online video library and, if so, how should she organize it to make it easily accessible to users. “In the past,” adds Rau, “I ran a lot of reports with a lot of data. After taking the course, I was able to tell a better story with it. I was able to explain it to people. I was able to build a story around the data.”

The coursework also made Rau more curious about business operations and led her to probe into issues more deeply. “For the most part, it gave me a nice foundation before business school,” she says. “I gained the vocabulary, so I was able to come in and hang in there with CPAs and private equity people. It taught me to ask better questions in the actual work environment. I learned the lingo, so I could ask more credible questions and build better rapport with higher-ups.” It also made Francis more effective early on at Booth. “The biggest return on investment was how much time I saved during my first quarter of business school,” she says. “I don’t need to learn every business topic for the first time.”

CORNERSTONE OF AN HBX PORTFOLIO THAT INCLUDES LIVE CASES

Alas, CORe is just one part of the HBX experience. The program also offers a standalone Disruptive Strategy course taught by the legendary Clayton Christensen. In November, it launched Leading with Finance, a 30-to-35 hour course taught by Mehir Desai that covers everything from financial analysis to capital allocation. Early in 2017, HBX will also roll out a negotiations course, followed by courses in general management and entrepreneurship. In addition, it holds HBX Live sessions, where viewers can experience a live case study from the comfort of their home.

There are several developments occurring behind the scenes as well. For example, Mullane notes that they are working feverishly on new technologies to better fulfill HBX’s mission of tying the case method to revolutionary technologies to provide a real world experience. “An example in our negotiations course is what we call pathing, where we put users on a different experience within the platform based on, for example, whether they are a buyer or a seller in a negotiation. That way, they can actually negotiate with each other in their experience since they’re very different. It also has a lot of application for courses beyond negotiation as well.”

“I KNEW THIS IS WHAT I WANTED TO DO”

However, CORe remains the centerpiece of HBX – and it comes highly recommended by its alumni. Rajendran commends the program for the quality of its instructors, which includes strategy guru Bharat Anand and V.G. Narayanan, chair of HBS’ MBA elective curriculum. That said, he reserves his highest praise for Janice Hammond, who taught him analytics. “What I loved about her teaching style was she was so engaging and enthusiastic about what she was teaching. That was effective in the way I absorbed concepts. Jan can get very technical with formulas, but the way she illustrated ideas through cases like Amazon and Caesar’s Palace made me more interested.”

For Rau, CORe validated that business school was the right path for her. “Coming from a non-traditional background – being an engineer in the tech world – this gave me more confidence that this was something that I could do. It was more approachable. It made it easier for me because I knew this is what I wanted to do. There was no uncertainty for me when I was doing my application.”

Mullane views the program as a high end bargain, a “Godsend” in particular for students missing a strong business discipline on their resume. “It’s self-contained, covers the major disciplines, and gives you practice in the case method, which is applicable anywhere. It’s just incredibly impactful for people who are looking to enter an MBA program.”

DON’T MISS: HARVARD BUISNESS SCHOOL’S CLASSROOM OF THE FUTURE OR HARVARD’S ONLINE HBX PROGRAM IN BIZ GOES GLOBAL