In an interim and internal report on the Turkish program, written in 1957, the involved HBS faculty members stressed that it was far too soon to draw definite conclusions about the effectiveness of the program. Nevertheless, the report's unnamed authors wrote, it seemed useful to make some preliminary observations.

First, the Turkish business community had countered the expectations of some in the U.S. by being very frank, forthcoming, and helpful, despite the fact that Turkey had "suffered from a rather indiscriminate application of the theories of foreign experts."

Second, the case method definitely worked in the Turkish classrooms. The mix of teaching materials, though, needed tweaking. In the first two runs of the program, the cases were split approximately 50/50 between Turkish and U.S. cases; in the future, that mix should move to two-thirds Turkish, 20 percent U.S., and 10 percent European.

The authors then went on to make general observations about the do's and don'ts of helping schools overseas:

"One of the unstated assumptions which underlies this whole experiment is the belief that it is desirable for part of the activity of the universities of a country to contribute directly to the preparation of young men and the development of older men for industry. If the universities remain aloof and uninterested in the economic growth and welfare of the country, their functions are limited. Indeed, there is some evidence that the universities may develop people who, although they wish to enter business, are so inadequately prepared that they are incapable of becoming constructive members of the business community, and in a few instances may actually do damage to the economic development of the country . . .

"The overriding consideration has to do with how to leave in a particular country a way of thinking that is useful, that can be continued and enlarged after the withdrawal of U.S. personnel. This implied the development of new concepts and relationships that were not hitherto in existence."

Of course, the authors noted, it often proved helpful to U.S. companies to find a congenial university and a congenial group of business people in place. "But such efforts," they cautioned, "must first and foremost be focused on the present indigenous problems, rather than merely imposing U.S. techniques and practices."