Lessons from the Classroom
There are 35 articles for this feature.
What new ideas and concepts are emerging from Harvard Business School classroom discussions, case studies, and course design work? In "Lessons from the Classroom," HBS faculty discuss how classroom work and discussions inform their ongoing research and help shape the business curriculum.
Building a Business in the Context of a Life
| Published: | October 13, 2011 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | Lessons from the Classroom |
| Forum: | open for comment; 10 Comments posted |
Careers rarely run on a track from Point A to Point B—life experiences often change our goals. At Harvard Business School, Senior Lecturer Janet J. Kraus teaches students to take a life plan as seriously as they would a business plan.
Business Plan Contest: 15 Years of Building Better Entrepreneurs
| Published: | August 18, 2011 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | Lessons from the Classroom |
| Forum: | open for comment; 1 Comment posted |
Since 1997, Hundreds of student-entrepreneurs have tested their ideas at Harvard Business School's annual Business Plan Contest. Here is what they have learned about success, failure, and themselves. From the HBS Alumni Bulletin.
Perfecting the Project Pitch
| Published: | August 11, 2011 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | Lessons from the Classroom |
| Forum: | open for comment; 8 Comments posted |
Entrepreneurs may be great innovators, but not necessarily great presenters. Associate Professor Thomas Steenburgh teaches them the fine art of product pitching.
Fame, Faith, and Social Activism: Business Lessons from Bono
| Published: | June 20, 2011 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | Lessons from the Classroom |
| Forum: | open for comment; 20 Comments posted |
Many executives struggle to balance work, family, and community, but for rock star Bono the effort is spread across the globe. In the HBS case "Bono and U2," professor Nancy F. Koehn discusses key business lessons to be learned from the famous band.
Twenty-first Century Skill: Trading Carbon Credits
| Published: | June 8, 2011 |
|---|---|
| Paper Release Date: | October 2010 (revised) |
| Feature: | Lessons from the Classroom |
| Forum: | open for comment; 7 Comments posted |
As cap and trade becomes an increasingly popular mechanism for governments to cut corporate pollution, students at Harvard Business School use a simulation to learn how it works. An interview with professor Peter Coles.
Teaching a 'Lean Startup' Strategy
| Published: | April 11, 2011 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | Lessons from the Classroom |
| Forum: | closed | 56 Comments posted |
Most startups fail because they waste too much time and money building the wrong product before realizing too late what the right product should have been, says HBS entrepreneurial management professor Thomas R. Eisenmann. In his new MBA course, Launching Technology Ventures, Eisenmann introduces students to the idea of the lean startup—a methodology that has proven successful for many young high-tech companies.
Creating the Founders' Dilemmas Course
| Published: | February 7, 2011 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | Lessons from the Classroom |
| Forum: | open for comment; 12 Comments posted |
In HBS professor Noam Wasserman's second-year MBA course, Founders' Dilemmas, students study the quandaries that virtually all entrepreneurs will face when trying to realize the dream of launching a start-up—from deciding when to start the company to learning how to make a graceful exit. Guest speakers discussing their experiences include All-Star pitcher-turned-entrepreneur Curt Schilling and Tom & Tom, the Nantucket Nectars guys.
Published in 2010
Data.gov: Matching Government Data with Rapid Innovation
| Published: | November 16, 2010 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | Lessons from the Classroom |
Data.gov is a young initiative of President
Venture Capital's Disconnect with Clean Tech
| Published: | October 18, 2010 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | Lessons from the Classroom |
| Forum: | closed | 18 Comments posted |
Clean-tech start-ups depend on patience and public policy to thrive—the Internet models for VC funding don't apply. That's why Harvard Business School professor Joseph Lassiter is making an unusual recommendation to his entrepreneurship students: Spend a few years serving time in a government job.
HBS Introduces Marketing Analysis Tools for Managers
| Q&A with: | Thomas J. Steenburgh |
|---|---|
| Published: | August 16, 2010 |
| Feature: | Lessons from the Classroom |
The tools can help managers inform decisions on market analysis, breakeven analysis, customer lifetime value, profit and pricing, and analyzing the competitive environment. Interview with Tom Steenburgh.
Published in 2009
HBS Begins Teaching Consumer Finance
| Q&A with: | Peter Tufano |
|---|---|
| Published: | October 28, 2009 |
| Feature: | Lessons from the Classroom |
Last spring HBS became the first top-ranked U.S. business school to offer a course in consumer finance. Professor Peter Tufano talks about the course and his determination to make consumer finance a broadly accepted academic pursuit. From the HBS Alumni Bulletin.
Published in 2008
'Ted Levitt Changed My Life'
| Published: | December 17, 2008 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | Lessons from the Classroom |
Many students say legendary Harvard Business School marketing professor Ted Levitt changed their lives inside his classroom and out. "Ted Levitt was the most influential and imaginative professor in marketing history," HBS professor and senior associate dean John Quelch eulogized on the occasion of Levitt's death in 2006. Colleagues and students remember a life and times. From HBS Alumni Bulletin.
How Many U.S. Jobs Are 'Offshorable'?
| Published: | December 1, 2008 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | Lessons from the Classroom |
Some 900 Harvard Business School students were asked to recreate a study assessing the potential "offshorability" of more than 800 occupations in the United States. Their findings: It might be a larger number than we thought.
Chris Christensen: Legend of the Classroom
| Published: | April 16, 2008 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | Lessons from the Classroom |
Professor C. Roland ("Chris") Christensen was the maestro of Harvard Business School's case method of teaching. Over a career spanning half a century, Christensen made his colleagues better teachers, and his students better leaders. From the HBS Alumni Bulletin.
Published in 2007
Teaching The Moral Leader
| Q&A with: | Sandra J. Sucher |
|---|---|
| Published: | November 19, 2007 |
| Feature: | Lessons from the Classroom |
In The Moral Leader course at Harvard Business School, students exchange their business management case studies to discuss some of the great protagonists in literature. Professor Sandra Sucher discusses how we all can find our own definition of moral leadership.
The Evolution of Apple
| Published: | July 25, 2007 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | Lessons from the Classroom |
Apple's continuing development from computer maker to consumer electronics pioneer is rich material in a number of Harvard Business School classrooms. Professor David Yoffie discusses his latest case study of Apple, the 5th update in 14 years, which challenges students to think strategically about Apple's successes and failures in the past, and opportunities and challenges in the future.
Teaching the Next Generation of Energy Executives
| Published: | June 11, 2007 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | Lessons from the Classroom |
A new generation of energy industry managers will make decisions that affect the quality of life for hundreds of millions of people. At Harvard Business School, students in professor Forest Reinhardt's Energy course are learning the complexities and realities of developing and implementing strategy in such a complex environment.
"UpTick" Brings Wall Street Pressure to Students
| Published: | February 12, 2007 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | Lessons from the Classroom |
Money managers work in a stressful, competitive pressure cooker that's hard to appreciate from the safety of a business management classroom. That's why HBS professors Joshua Coval and Erik Stafford invented upTick—a market simulation program that has students sweating and strategizing as they recreate classic market scenarios.
Published in 2006
Surviving Success: When Founders Must Go
| Published: | October 4, 2006 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | Lessons from the Classroom |
At some point, a start-up's founder usually cedes CEO responsibilities to a seasoned manager. But what roles does the founder assume next? Professor Noam Wasserman discusses a recent case study and what students learn from it in the classroom. From HBS Alumni Bulletin.
Mixing Students and Scientists in the Classroom
| Published: | September 6, 2006 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | Lessons from the Classroom |
In his course on commercializing science and technology, Lee Fleming combines students from business, engineering, law, science, and medicine. The result: Ideas for products from scale-eating bacteria to quantum dot cancer treatments.
