Carl Kester, Deputy Dean of Academic Affairs
at Harvard Business School

Response to BusinessWeek Editorial • October 16, 2009

Carl Kester, Deputy Dean of
Academic Affairs at Harvard
Business School

In his discussion of the financial crisis ("Wall Street Run Amok: Why Harvard's to Blame," October 5), Charles Green unfortunately opts for a simplistic analysis that is short on facts and clouded by his nostalgic memories of what business was like in the 1970s-a time that many observers might not remember as the epitome of the "good old days."

Although it is currently fashionable to blame MBAs for the financial crisis, in the long run it is neither very helpful nor reasonable. There is, in fact, plenty of blame to be shared - from bankers and mortgage brokers to economists and government policy makers, all with a variety of degrees from numerous colleges and universities following their names.

Business today is global, complex, and highly competitive. Contrary to Green's assertion, there is considerably more integration among courses in the HBS curriculum than there was when he and I were students here. Back then, business functions were taught in "silos" in our first-year core curriculum. Today, students have two required courses in their first year that are explicitly devoted to the manager as integrator and jointly taught by faculty from different fields of expertise. In addition, there are a number special days built into the curriculum that look at important topics from a variety of viewpoints, including an in-depth examination of the global economic crisis.

Green implores us to "bring back Joe" - his shorthand for the protagonist executive featured in our cases-, who he says, is "reportedly gone". I am happy to say that reports of Joe's - and Jane's - demise are mistaken. Real people making real life business decisions remain the heart and soul of the case method. Last year more than 80% of the cases taught in the required finance course, for example, featured protagonists making decisions. This is typical of our curriculum.

He also laments that HBS professors are now more likely to be "professional academics" who are less likely to have studied or worked in the business world. The fact is that today the vast majority of HBS faculty members are grounded in business via real, on-going relationships with people practicing business; some acquire it by serving on boards, some by advising corporations big and small, most develop a deep appreciation for best business practices through their case writing and course development activities. Today, forty of our 242 faculty (16.5%) had substantial business careers before they began teaching here versus just 10% in 1977. Of these, 27 held C-level positions in organizations ranging from high-tech start-ups to Fortune 500-sized companies in the U.S. and abroad.

Perhaps most troubling are Green's assertions that HBS has somehow become dehumanized during the past three decades and that "business ethics is an oxymoron." Had he delved deeper, he would have learned that both our cases and our way of teaching them still focus on the primacy of people and the importance of relationships. Teams accomplish much more in business than individuals; accordingly, all our students are assigned to small groups ("learning teams") that function as study groups and teams for executing group assignments. He would also have understood that a course in Leadership and Corporate Accountability is one of the anchors of our first-year required curriculum. The impact of that course is reflected in part by the actions of our students who authored an MBA oath last June that has been embraced by students at HBS and other institutions.

Finally, Green describes a utopian place where "the focus on competitive relationships is no longer useful". Today, more than ever, business is a competitive endeavor. At the same time, management is a more collaborative endeavor. At Harvard Business School we embrace both of these truths in preparing our students to become successful leaders in business and social enterprise. We may not always get it entirely right and we need to continually monitor the balance, but neither the business world nor this business school is as black-and-white as portrayed by Charles Green.