Harvard dials Indian schools for case studies

In a first, publishing arm wants 15 case studies from two management institutes.

Harvard Business Publishing (HBP) India, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation, will, for the first time, take 15 case studies from two Indian B-schools.

HBP publishes management content for academics, students, and professionals.

“For the first time HBP would be accepting Indian case studies and adding them to its existing collection of 8,500 cases. We will market these case and make them available in other parts of the world. Many are interested to know and learn what's happening in India,” Ray Carvey, Executive Vice President, Corporate Learning, told Business Standard.

While Carvey did not reveal which B-schools HBP is in talks with, sources said one of the B-schools is the Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Management (IIM-B).

Confirming the development IIM Bangalore Director, Pankaj Chandra said, “This arrangement would allow us to disseminate our case studies to global B-schools. This reflects the quality of work happening in India.”

IIM-B would be signing an agreement with HBP in the next three months. HBP has reviewed around eight case studies done by IIM-B faculty members so far with few more to be reviewed shorlty.

IIM-B has been working with HBP for over past six months on refining the case studies done by its faculty members. “HBP’s editorial board suggested some changes in the case study which we have made in a few with few more to go,” said an IIM-B faculty member.

IIM Bangalore has also signed a memorandum of understanding with Canada-based Richard Ivey School of Business to co-brand its case studies.

HBP distributes these case studies to various B-schools it has academic relationships with. B-schools on the other hand are paid royalty on the published cases.

Case studies are widely used across B-schools to teach students how to assess business situations to facilitate decision making. During the course of any two-year management programme, students may use as many as 800 case studies.

A case study is a detailed account of any company, industry, or project over a given period of time. The content may include information ranging from company objectives, strategies, challenges, results, legal frameworks, recommendations, etc. Case studies may be brief or extensive, ranging from four pages to 30 pages or more.

HBP is also looking at strengthening its corporate learning programme in India.

HBP’s corporate learning programmes, Leadership Direct — virtual classroom and Harvard Managementor — online learning, are already in India with a growing customers base.

At present India contributes around 4 per cent to HBP’s total revenue and the company sees this growing up to 6 per cent in the next three years. Europe represents around 14-15 per cent of its revenues.

HBP says it is looking at developing more resources in the Indian subsidiary.

“India is an important opportunity for us and we value the leadership and management development opportunities here. We think we can have a real economic and intellectual impact in the countries we serve,” added Carvey.

HBP has more than doubled its corporate learning client base in the last one year. “Over all our business has grown 20 per cent and we can grow much faster but our emphasis is on quality than quantity. At present HBP serves around 30 companies,” said Carvey.