IESE instructors are known for their personal attention to students.
Harvard Business School is a scary judge of talent. In business, the alumni roll alone boasts iconic names like Bloomberg, Dimon, Sandberg, and Schwarzman. Within academia, HBS faculty has authored 80% of cases used in business schools worldwide. In other words, the program’s influence is immeasurable. For many schools, it remains the standard used to measure themselves.
One of those programs is IESE Business School. Nestled in the hills overlooking the Catalan Mediterranean, IESE is more of a sprouting sibling than a raging rival. In 1963, HBS partnered with the fledgling program, teaching IESE the craft behind the case method. In the process, HBS helped IESE launch Europe’s first MBA program and grow into the executive education space. Over time, IESE emerged as one of the truly international business schools, featuring locations in five continents and alumni in over 100 nations.
In turn, IESE paid the ultimate tribute to its mentor: it eclipsed HBS as the top executive education program in the world.
IESE AND HARVARD RANK AMONG THE TOP PROGRAMS FOR FACULTY QUALITY
In 2017, IESE showed just how far it had come in 50 years. For the first time, it earned a higher score than Harvard Business School for faculty quality in the annual Economist survey, which targets current students and recent graduates. On a five point scale, where five is a perfect mark, IEESE notched a 4.69, edging out HBS by just .05 of a point. While this difference may be statistically insignificant, it further cemented IESE’s credentials as a big time player. Considering that Darden, IESE, and Harvard produced three of the five-highest marks for faculty, it also indicates just how popular and effective the case method is with MBA students.
Some might argue that HBS taught IESE too well. In the end, this Boston-to-Barcelona success story is based on executing a proven formula. In both programs, great teachers are paired with great students in a structure where, as the saying goes, “everybody teaches and everybody learns.” This comes from the full-on commitment given to the case method by the schools.
Harvard Business School’s Jan Rivkin
At Harvard Business School, Jan Rivkin is the C. Roland Christensen Professor of Business Administration and Senior Associate Dean for Research. In a February interview with Poets&Quants, he hesitated to describe the case method as better than other teaching methods. Instead, he views it as “distinctive,” a key strand of the HBS DNA whose ongoing popularity is tied to both strategy and culture.
“There is an Integrated and different set of choices that our business school has made,” Rivkin points out. It pervades the school; we’ve been doing it for decades.”
FROM LEAN BACK LECTURES TO LEAN FORWARD CASES
What makes the case method so distinctive? Julia Prats, the MBA Dean at IESE, views it as a process for making decisions – a means for confronting problems that empowers students as they move into internships and extracurricular activities.
“The approach is more centered on understanding how to first analyze a problem and second go to the different criteria used to solve the problem,” she explains. “You go through the scenarios and look at the alternatives before finally making a decision. After that, you reflect on the effects of these decisions on the people involved.”
The case method is night-and-day from the lectures that first-years attended as undergrads. Rivkin calls such classes “lean back experiences,” where students become passive learners who just absorb what’s said instead of contributing to a larger dialogue. In contrast, Rivkin brands the case classroom as a “lean forward experience” – an ever-changing dynamic where students enrich each others’ learning.
“You’re constantly on your toes; you’re listening to your prof, but mostly to your peers,” he shares. “You’re raising your hand and getting called on. You’re speaking and trying to draw others to your point of view. You’re deciding whether what others are saying is persuasive. You’re deciding what you would do as a case protagonist. And then you’re reflecting on what you learn. Throughout this, you are thinking for yourself. You’re an active learner – and that makes all the difference I believe.”
AN UNPREDICTABLE ENVIRONMENT WHERE THE PROFESSORS LEARN TOO
It also makes class time unpredictable. In a traditional lecture, Rivkin notes, the content is delivered in a logical and linear fashion. At Harvard Business School, a case-driven class will encompass 90 high achievers who reprsent a mind-boggling diversity of backgrounds. That means all bets are off on where a discussion will ultimately end up.
Harvard Business School case classroom. © Natalie Keyssar for Harvard Business School 2013
“At any moment, you can go from a classmate who founded a nonprofit to one who fought in Afghanistan to another who worked in the White House or did deals on Wall Street,” he says. “They might take the conversation in wholly unanticipated directions. That creates engagement. When students come to class, they don’t know what’s going to happen that day. That’s exciting. All they’re sure of is that they’re going to learn something important. That kind of lean forward versus lean back is really very different, along with the predictability versus the element of surprise.”
Such surprises are welcomed by HBS faculty. Rivkin admits that students often raise thought-provoking questions or issues that professors can overlook in preparation. In fact, Rivkin has turned some of these ideas into new research and coursework. He cites one student during a competitive strategy course. At the end of one module, the student wondered why all the cases on change initiatives started after companies had incurred billion dollar losses. Instead, he wanted to learn about companies that’d chosen a different path before they needed to change.
“I thought to myself, ‘I don’t have a great answer,’” Rivkin admits. “That led me to look for companies that changed before they had to. Turns out, this is a very deep type of challenge and one that was largely unexplored. If I was sitting there lecturing about change, I never would’ve discovered that opportunity.”
Go to Page 3 to see student and alumni survey scores given to 25 top MBA programs on faculty quality.
Graduates celebrate Commencement Day at Harvard Business School
CASE METHOD SIMULATES THE GENERAL MANAGER ROLE
The case method is also an example of form meeting function at HBS and IESE. Both schools subscribe to a general management philosophy. As a result, the cases often complement – if not simulate – the roles that students will ultimately play after graduation.
“We believe it trains people to do what general managers do all day long in that part of the job,” argues IESE’s Prats. “It puts you in a real situation and asks you to play the role of the protagonist. I think it is very effective because, at the end, it is like you were in a small trial and you can learn how to act and react. It’s not just a story. It’s not something where you can play around and just give opinions. It is a very different thing that requires you to be well-prepared. It is something where people change their mindsets.”
Rivkin agrees that the case method mimics the processes followed and tradeoffs weighed by general managers in making decisions. “Before class, you have to confront a messy set of facts; discern the facts, problems, and opportunities; consider alternatives in your own mind; and come to an initial point of view on what you can and should do. During class, you have to listen to what others think; try to draw others to your suggested course of action; consider alternatives again enriched by others’ perspectives; choose a course of action; and after class you have to ask yourself, what did I just learn?”
CASE PREP TAKES A TON OF WORK
In repeating this process case-after-case, Rivkin believes students are following a regimen that strengthens those “muscles” that they’ll be calling on over-and-over in their careers. “For helping groups learn to balance arguments, make difficult judgments and act in uncertainty and think for themselves, it is a pretty good way of going about things,” he adds.
On the surface, a student-centric model would seem to be a breeze for faculty. Instead of being the proverbial “sage on the stage” who devote hours to organizing densely-researched lectures, a case professor can simply act as a devil’s advocate who guides the discussion with the occasional question or observation. Nothing could be further from the truth, says Rivkin. For one, it ignores the process of researching and writing the case itself, which is standard for HBS professors. The behind-the-scenes preparation is equally arduous – but in a far different way than preparing a lecture.
IESE Business School campus in Barcelona, Spain
“With a lecture, you have to figure out what you’re going to say,” Rivkin notes. “When you’re preparing a case discussion, you’re trying to figure out all the possible things that a student might say. You’re trying to devise questions or craft a conversation that will lead to meeting the teaching objectives. So it is really putting together a puzzle. If the student says X, for example, what question do I come back with and how do I put that together into something that delivers a particular idea? That’s a very different task and underlying skill set.”
Even more, the case method requires a tremendous trust and in students – and vice versa. The case method takes time to internalize, meaning discussions may be uneven at first. It also demands talented teachers who can shepherd students to the right destination – the one where students can hold each other accountable to raise their performance across the board.
CASE PROFESSORS GET TO KNOW STUDENTS…BEFORE THEY ENTER A CLASSROOM
It’s a delicate balance. And that’s why case professors go the extra mile in their preparation, always coming to class knowing which students can bring the greatest value to discussions. That’s critical in a program like HBS, where half of grading is based on participation – and the classrooms include scribes (and software) that track who said what.
“The professors here memorize the names and backgrounds of students for their classes before the first day,” says Rivkin. “On my wall, there are giant printouts of two sections of students with their faces and names. That’s my wall decoration. For most faculty, this is what is on their walls. I have a habit of looking at that before I go to teach. So there are a lot of little things that are done in very distinctive ways.”
Of course, being associated with the Harvard brand doesn’t hurt either. With alumni often strategically located throughout leading industries, regions, and companies, Rivkin adds that the HBS faculty often find doors opened when it comes time to conduct research and write their vaunted cases.
INTENSIVE FEEDBACK AND MENTORING BRING NEW PROFS UP TO SPEED AT IESE
“Our faculty get out into the world a lot. There is a tremendous blessing in that we can get into most organizations. They trust us. That means our faculty tend to have an orientation to practice, particularly the practice of general management. So we go into the classroom a little bit different as a consequence.”
Still, IESE and HBS professors don’t just walk into a classroom and shine. It takes time. More important, it requires high expectations and constant development reinforced by structure. At IESE, Prats believes her team can take a talented academic and turn him or her into an excellent teacher within 3-5 years. That’s because the school is serious – dead serious – about promoting teaching excellence.
IESE’s Julia Prats
It starts with intensive training. New professors will regularly attend classes taught by senior members of the department, says Prats. Along with gaining a feel for what works, new hires spend time with these professors after class to ask questions and test drive ideas. These seasoned professors will also return the favor, sitting in on new professors to offer regular documented feedback. In addition, IESE will formally pair a senior and junior professor together. This fosters a mentoring relationship, Prats notes, where up-and-coming professors absorb the formal frameworks and savvy to become as successful as their experienced peers in the classroom.
TEACHING THE TEACHER
How serious is Harvard Business School about teaching? It actually runs a program called START, which Rivkin describes as orientation for incoming faculty on case method teaching. “Most of it is taught in cases,” he says, “so we have cases about situations that arise in class. We discuss them as a group.
There is an institution here called the Christensen Center for Teaching and Learning. These are professionals who do nothing but help our faculty become better at teaching.”
The support doesn’t stop there, either. “One thing that may not be clear from the outside: There is a tremendous amount of infrastructure behind teaching at HBS,” Rivkin explains. “Along with writing our own cases, we teach almost all courses by cases. The students and faculty both get very good at it. Then, we have teaching groups. Every first year required course is taught by a team of 5-10 people – and those people get together about once a week to discuss what they’re going to teach in the coming week, share ideas, and work on their craft. Our classrooms are even set up to facilitate case method discussion.”
Like at IESE, senior faculty takes responsibility for formally mentoring junior faculty. Look no further than Rivkin himself. “Today, I spent 8:30-10:00 this morning sitting in on a colleagues’ class taking notes and then debriefed with her on how the class had gone, what I thought she’d done great, and what she might want to work on. Later today, I have a videotape of a faulty member that I’ll be looking at too.”
Go to Page 3 to see student and alumni survey scores given to 25 top MBA programs on faculty quality.
IESE Case Classroom
WE CAN TRAIN THEM HOW TO TEACH
At HBS, there is a saying that “teaching is teachable.” It is a concept that IESE has taken to heart as well. When it comes to screening hires, Prats looks for qualities that can easily translate to becoming stellar teachers. That starts with the capacity to conduct good research, she says.
“We want professors who can develop own theories, models and ideas,” she states. “Our school is very good at developing good teachers because we have a group of senior professors who devote their time to helping junior professors become better teachers through the case method. I’m not concerned when I interview a potential professor who is a good researcher. I can see if it will work by the way they present themselves and relate to people.”
HBS follows a similar approach according to Rivkin. Although the program projects each candidate’s teaching ability, the administration is under no illusion about how inexact a science it is. This uncertainty, however, comes with a caveat. “I think our ability to predict that is limited,” Rivkin concedes. “I think our ability to influence it when people are here is considerable.”
INCENTIVES DRIVE BEHAVIOR
Not surprisingly, HBS has found the faculty incentive system – popularly known as tenure – motivates faculty to adopt, in Rivkin’s words, “a distinctive style of teaching.” Part of that stems from how different HBS’ promotion standards truly are from peer programs, which targets a rather narrow audience.
Iconic Baker Library on the Harvard Business School campus. Photo by John A. Byrne
“If you publish enough great articles in top journals and you’ve had a great enough impact on your scholarly field, you’ve got tenure,” Rivkin says. “There are some teaching criteria as well, but basically your audience is scholars. That’s a really hard standard to beat. If you look at the promotion rates at the top business schools, they’re low.”
In contrast, Harvard Business School has broadened its tenure criteria to encompass three audiences: scholars, educators, and practicing managers. The expectation, says Rivkin, is that non-tenured faculty will make a “profound impact” on at least one audience and show the potential to have similar influence with another.
“What does that mean,” Rivkin asks rhetorically. “Assume your audience is scholars; you need to demonstrate your potential influence on educators at other schools or practicing managers. If you chose the former, everything you do will have an orientation towards the practice of education. That has a profound impact on what happens in the classroom. For example, if you’re oriented towards practicing managers, you’re going into that classroom with a greater knowledge of how managers actually behave. If you’re oriented towards educators, you’ll be asking yourself, ‘How do I teach this class in a way that I can teach other instructors on how to teach the class?’”
“IT’S TOUGH LOVE, BUT IT’S UNAMBIGUOUSLY LOVE”
While the HBS culture values teaching excellence – and professors take great pride in their craft – Rivkin believes this second audience compels professors to use the classroom as a vehicle to boost their influence. “I don’t think it is the teaching standard itself that promotes distinctive teaching,” he claims. “I think it’s the fact that we have the second audience test in the tenure process, so our faculty care deeply about their ability to influence educators and practicing managers… Our tenure system indirectly promotes excellence in teaching.”
Which faculty members personify the best that these programs have to offer? Rivkin was initially hesitant to cite one professor out of a dream teaching roster that boasts stars like Rory McDonald, Lauren Cohen, and Clayton Christensen,. Eventually, he chose Frances Frei, who is currently on two year sabbatical as a senior vice president at Uber, where she is charged with turning around the culture. Not only is Rivkin a huge admirer of Frei’s research, but he believes that her underlying virtues are representative of the faculty as a whole.
“What Frances brings is a combination of high standards and deep devotion,” Rivkin observes. “With high standards, she asks hard questions. She does so bluntly. If I say something silly, she respectfully tells me so. If you say something brilliant, she celebrates it with you. If you are not paying attention in class, she will [come to you on it]. You always know where you stand with Frances. On the other hand, she exudes devotion – she cares deeply that you are learning. It’s tough love, but it’s unambiguously love.”
It is the pairing of these two qualities that resonates with HBS students — and makes the case method all the more potent. “I’m hesitant to compare our students to children, but there is a parenting analogy here,” Rivkin adds. “If you have deep devotion without high standards, you’re going to spoil kids. If you have high standards without deep devotion, you have overbearing parents and frightened kids. If you have high standards and high devotion, then you’ll have students who’ll believe they can go out and do important and special things and then they’ll go out and do them.”
IESE’s Miguel Anton
“SOMEONE WHO CARES FOR ME”
At IESE, Prats also struggled to choose just one professor who embodied the best of the program. Instead, she listed a trio of master teachers in Heinrich Liechtenstein, Miguel Anton, and Elena Reutskaja. For Prats, these professors – and the rest of the IESE faculty – share three qualities in common.
“What they do very well is take what is complicated and make it easy to understand. They are continuously giving one-on-one feedback and that needed personal attention. And they demand great work and that their students are prepared.”
Most important, Prats asserts, the faculty cares about the students professionally and personally. “These are very critical years for students. They are changing careers, going from one country to the next, so there are many things going on. Having someone who is not just a pure teacher, but a mentor to help with their own careers and to understand themselves is very important. Our faculty does that. That’s why there is a sentiment here among the students that there is ‘Someone who cares about me.’”
It is this caring, more than anything, that is at the root of the faculty’s popularity with IESE students. “If you care – if you have that genuine interest – then you will do things,” Prats adds. “You will innovate, you will try to make things easier for them and help them to grow. Your research may be fantastic, but having a good class and students who are happy is very fulfilling. It doesn’t require money. This fulfillment is something that comes from the inside.”
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