The Case Method
About 80 percent of the classes in the MBA program are taught using the case method, a practical approach to learning, where students work under the guidance of a faculty member to address real business problems in all their innate complexity and ambiguity.
HBS faculty and others have written more than 400 cases on healthcare, and new cases are continuously added to the mix. In addition, HBS cases are used at numerous medical schools and schools of public health because they are current, provide excellent examples of "real life" situations, and clearly capture the intricacies and complexities of the healthcare industry.
Popular healthcare cases include:
- Instituto Clinico Humanitas
by Richard Bohmer and Gary Pisano
Instituto Clinico Humanitas is a newly built private hospital, south of Milan, Italy, that has attained unusual profitability while treating public system patients. The hospital was built and is managed by Techosp and is a subsidiary of Techint, a global engineering and consulting firm. Techosp created a design and management system that emphasizes optimizing patient throughput and utilization of all of the hospital's facilities. Physicians are all fully employed and have a significant financial incentive to maximize efficiency. The executive team is now considering whether to affiliate with the University of Milan medical school and, in effect, become Italy's first private academic medical center. The general manager must consider the effect of this affiliation on the hospital's
performance. The purpose of this case is to examine an approach to managing clinical care delivery that emphasizes operations management of the resources that support clinical care processes, rather than the explicit management of those processes themselves.
- Children's Hospital and Clinics
by Amy C. Edmondson, Michael Roberto, and Amy Tucker
This case describes the major phases of an initiative designed to transform the organization and enhance patient safety. It raises interesting questions about how to encourage candid discussion on failures, while continuing to hold people accountable for their performance. The objective of this case is to teach students how general managers can design and lead transformational initiatives that reshape an organization's processes and cultures, while creating an environment that enhances the firm's learning and problem-solving capabilities.
- Paul Levy: Taking Charge of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
by David A. Garvin and Michael Roberto
On January 7, 2002, Paul Levy became CEO of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a troubled organization in serious financial difficulty. This multimedia case describes the situation Levy inherited, his negotiations prior to taking the job, and his first six months as CEO. Designed to illustrate how a talented CEO takes charge of a troubled organization and begins the turnaround process, the case allows students to discuss leadership style, management philosophy, the change process, communications strategy, and decision making.
Click here to see a clip from this multimedia case.
- Corporate Venture Capital at Eli Lilly
By Richard G. Hamermesh, Ron Laufer, and David Lane
In late 2005, Darren Carroll, in his new position as senior managing director of New Ventures at Eli Lilly and Company, is assessing the overall effectiveness of the company, whether it is sufficiently aligned with Lilly's overall strategy and whether any changes are needed to make Lilly Ventures more effective. Simultaneously, he is reviewing a particularly interesting, and potentially problematic, investment that is being proposed by Lilly Ventures that involves an international, early stage chemistry-engine technology company. This multimedia case reviews the role of corporate venture capital and its history at Eli Lilly while also presenting a challenging venture investment opportunity. The objective of the case is to understand the role of corporate venture capital in the
healthcare industry.
- Battle of the Bulge--Private and Public Solutions to the Problem of Obesity
by Regina E. Herzlinger and John McDonough
This case describes the different business models for diet firms, ranging from food (Slim-Fast) to services (Weight Watchers) to physician-overseen regimens (Dean Ornish). It requires students to evaluate and choose between different approaches for the dietary regimen of Dr. Robert Atkins. Students will learn to conduct industry analyses and to understand the forces and business models appropriate for the treatment of obesity.
- GlaxoSmithKline: Reorganizing Drug Discovery (A)
by Robert S. Huckman and Eli Peter Strick
This case describes the reorganization of drug discovery at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) following the formation of GSK from the merger of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham. This reorganization placed nearly 2,000 research scientists into six centers of excellence in drug discovery (CEDD). Each CEDD focused on a small set of therapeutic areas and possessed decision rights over the progression of pharmaceutical compounds through the early stages of development. It addresses issues about the benefits of focus vs. diversification in R&D, the role of decentralized vs. coordinated decision making, and the importance of alignment between the structural and infrastructural (e.g., performance incentives) aspects of an operating model. Using the empirical context of mergers in the
pharmaceutical industry, the case allows students to build broader insights about the interaction between organizational form and operating performance.
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There are over 400 healthcare cases actively in use at Harvard Business School Publishing.
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