The Role of the Faculty

Teaching an HBS case is an unpredictable business. There is no familiar lecture to deliver, and no telling quite which way the conversation might turn. Recent events in the business world may cast the case in an entirely new light. Thus, just as students must prepare intensely for every class, HBS faculty spend a great deal of time preparing for each class as well, alone and in teaching teams, even for cases they wrote themselves or have taught many times before. And because students bring so much new energy and insight to every discussion, case teaching is a process of constant intellectual renewal and growth in which the teachers can learn as much as the students do.

The hallmark of the HBS faculty—and what students remember and value most—is their extraordinary passion, commitment, and skill as teachers. Our faculty members are famously "close to practice": Many serve as business leaders, entrepreneurs, consultants, and board members in their own right. Drawing on that experience as well as their intellectual rigor, they have produced some of the most influential business research in the world, and they write by far the greatest number of cases used in business classrooms around the globe. Yet they truly come alive in the classroom, pursuing their mission to educate the next generation of leaders who will make a difference in the world.