A Century Of Cases: Harvard Marks 100th Birthday Of The Case Method

THE GLOBAL SPREAD OF THE CASE METHOD

Since the first case study’s conception, this method’s been widely adopted across the globe.

Shortly after the first case study was written in 1922, 93 universities adopted the first HBS casebooks, marking the beginning of the growing interest in discussion-based learning. A year later, two-thirds of HBS courses used the Case Method approach. By 1939, over 15,000 cases were produced. By the time the U.S. entered WWII in 1941, HBS paused the MBA program to transition to Wartime Schools. Two years later, 600 cases had been written for classroom instruction of military personnel. “The fact that the faculty were able to pivot and write hundreds of cases for the army shows the amazing flexibility and durability of the Case Method,” says Linard.

A few years later, in 1954, the Case Method began to grow on a global scale with the introduction of the Summer Case Writing program. This encouraged professors from other universities to learn about the method and apply it to their own teaching. Then, in 1957, the first directory of cases was published with 32 business schools. That same year, the Ford Foundation gave $120K to help support development of an Intercollegiate Clearing House for the distribution of cases, through which cases developed at HBS and other schools were cleared for use in any school. In 1964, the Case Method entered the digital era with the introduction of the first computer on the HBS campus. Then, between 1964 and 1965, the Ford Foundation gave HBS a grant of $170K to be used in developing Case Method teaching materials for countries overseas. In 1967, the Ford Foundation gifted more – this time, $1.2M in to continue supporting training of case method teachers.

TEACHING THE CASE METHOD TODAY

To this day, the school runs seminars for faculty to teach the Case Method. “There are so many faculty around the world who want to use the Case Method,” says Narayanan. “We’re trying to scale it up and see if we can go digital to have a broader impact.”

Since the cases have turned digital through Harvard Business Publishing, distribution has become much easier – as well as adoption of the teaching method. “They’re now available in different languages and can be printed locally,” continues Narayanan.

PLEDGING TO REFLECT DIVERSITY

According to Wise, in the early years cases were written by the Bureau of Business Research, which was a research arm of the school. Then, it transitioned to faculty writing the cases. Now, each case is written by one or more professors, often with the help of research staff who assist with reviewing the cases and getting them published with Harvard Business Publishing.

But during the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, Narayanan says that HBS students held a mirror up to the school, reflecting back to them the work that needed to be done to rewrite cases to include diverse protagonists. “We realized our cases weren’t inclusive,” he explains. “Our students expect to see role models in these cases.”

Shortly after the murder of George Floyd in 2020, Harvard created an Anti-Racism Task Force, which identified work required in seven key areas: curriculum, research and dissemination, faculty and doctoral, students and participants, staff, business engagement, and organization and culture. In the curriculum stream, the goal was to develop more cases with Black and other underrepresented minority protagonists. A year later, over 70 cases featuring Black protagonists were written, as well as over 90 cases featuring Latinx, Hispanic, Asian, Asian American, Native American, or other indigenous people. These numbers continue to grow.

“Faculty pledged to reflect the diversity of our society in our cases,” says Narayanan. “We’re going to be more intentional about having more diverse protagonists joining us, and we’ll be holding ourselves accountable. There will be measurement of these changes and public disclosure.”

THE FUTURE OF THE CASE METHOD

Aside from increasing the level of representation in the cases, Narayanan expects the Case Method to continue to evolve over the next few decades.

While HBS Online was introduced in 2013, the school introduced a hybrid classroom to the curriculum following the onset of covid-19 in 2020. “The hybrid classroom means that people can be remote and still participate in case discussions,” says Narayanan. “We didn’t have that ability for the majority of the first 100 years of the Case Method.”

“If our mission is to educate leaders who make a difference in the world,” continues Narayanan, “those leaders include people who cannot come to Boston. The Case Method can bridge those gaps of geography and time, and that’s very powerful.”

Since covid, they’ve been inviting alumni to participate in the case discussions remotely. Plus, the case studies have become longer and more data-rich. The school also now has video cases and simulations, where the protagonists join them through Zoom or in-person. “There’s been a dramatic increase in the number of case discussions where the CEO of the company or the entire leadership team joins the students for the case discussion,” he continues. “One hundred years ago, we clearly weren’t bringing in protagonists as often.”

GOING DEEPER: THE HBS ARCHIVES

For HBS alums, the Case Method provides a visceral memory of their learning experience. “That classroom feeling is still very alive for them,” says Wise. “It’s a powerful learning tool.”

“HBS alumni will almost always have a favorite case they reflect on,” adds Linard.

Linard explains that what’s shown in the exhibit is just a small percentage of the Case Method material; while it covers the main highlights of the past 100 years, there’s much more to learn. “To gain more insight about the Case Method, there’s a huge amount that’s available to the community through the archives,” she says.

Learn more about Harvard’s new exhibition on the Case Method here.

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