What knowledge is useful?
Dean Kim Clark on faculty career paths
Transcript
It goes back to the tradition in academia is you start in your discipline; you grow in your discipline. And unless you become an administrator, that’s what you do.
But at HBS, because the boundaries are a bit fluid, and there’s a lot of focus on practice, which isn’t organized like the academy’s organized, we get faculty career paths that look strange. You know, people start here, they teach in this, and then somebody says, “How about do you want to work with me on this?” And then there’s some paths that go like this. And you end up with people who have taught lots of different things, have been involved in all sorts of different projects, and they’re—and it’s energizing for people.
It keeps people alive, and their minds working for a long time.