Harvard Business School Dean to Step Down

HBS Strategic Priorities under Dean Kim B. Clark

Among Kim B. Clark's major strategic priorities for Harvard Business School since assuming the role of Dean in 1995 have been the following areas:

Leadership and Values
Dean Clark has placed a strong emphasis on integrating ethical principles into all aspects of the HBS experience. In addition to establishing a clear set of community standards, the School launched the Leadership and Values Initiative (LVI), led by students and in partnership with faculty and staff, that organizes discussions on topics involving ethical issues and moral dilemmas. LVI brings a variety of guest speakers to campus each year.

Beginning in 1988, all first-year students took a required module in Leadership, Values, and Decision Making in which they developed an ethical framework to use as a guide in decision making. A new required full-semester course on Leadership and Corporate Accountability, under development since 2001, was introduced in January 2004. It provides students with an understanding of the legal, ethical, economic, and social responsibilities of organizations and their employees.

During 2002-2003, HBS convened a series of high-level workshops on Corporate Governance, Leadership, and Values that brought selected leaders from business, government, and academia together with HBS faculty to discuss the underlying circumstances, policies, and structural problems that led to the very public series of corporate scandals. The goal of the effort was to complement other field-based research at the School aimed at providing new ideas and insights to help executives, legislators, and other decision makers restore faith in the country's economic system.

As part of his personal commitment to integrity in leadership, Dean Clark has worked to make the HBS community a living model of an ethical organization, and he has spoken out publicly at the National Press Club and elsewhere on the importance of instilling a clear set of values in all organizations.

Technology in Education
Since introducing the case method to management education in 1925, Harvard Business School has been a pioneer in exploring innovative and more effective ways to teach. And throughout its history, the School has placed a very high priority on developing faculty with first-rate teaching skills and a commitment to creating a transforming educational experience in the classroom. Within this context, Dean Clark has invested significantly in information technology at HBS to allow the faculty to broaden and deepen the learning experience using the latest advances in technology and courseware.

Among the materials created with the support of the School's Information Technology Group have been a state-of-the-art course platform; on-line study guides; interactive computer-based tutorials; exercises; simulations; on-line polling exercises; and multimedia case studies. Nearly half the faculty have developed or taught these materials, which have not only enriched and enhanced the student experience, but also laid the foundation for a continuing stream of further innovations that will advance the art of teaching. At the same time, HBS has made its classrooms the most technologically sophisticated in the world, with a full complement of multimedia capabilities, satellite links, video cameras, and wireless internet access.

Global Initiative
Launched in 1996, the Global Initiative builds on Harvard Business School's long history of involvement with the international community to work even more closely with a growing range of companies, universities, and governments worldwide to address the rapidly evolving demands of an increasingly global marketplace. Central to the School's strategy has been the establishment of research centers in the Asia Pacific (Hong Kong and Tokyo), Latin America (Buenos Aires), Europe (Paris), India (Mumbai), and California (Silicon Valley). At each center, an executive director and staff of researchers develop mutually beneficial ties between the School and leaders of industry, academia, and government in the region, creating a network of relationships that spans the globe. This effort weaves the work of the School into the fabric of these societies, helping faculty to learn about the latest business developments and best management practices wherever they occur, and to develop an expanding spectrum of international cases. Faculty also work closely with local educational and research institutions to understand emerging regional challenges.

In parallel with this effort, HBS offers a growing array of executive programs tailored to the needs of leaders in such regions as the Middle East, South Africa, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. Other efforts are directed at helping senior business professors in emerging economies learn the HBS approach to case writing, field-based research, and case teaching, with a key goal of fostering joint research in each region.

Entrepreneurship
HBS has a rich legacy of involvement in the field of entrepreneurship. It offered the first course in the subject taught at any graduate school of business in 1947, and entrepreneurship has been a part of the curriculum since 1956. Moreover, a great many HBS alumni have distinguished themselves as successful entrepreneurs. Today, thanks to the research of HBS faculty, entrepreneurship has emerged as an approach to managing that is useful to organizations of all sizes and stages of development. Dean Clark has supported efforts to expand research in this important field and to further integrate these lessons into the curriculum.

Since 1995, the School has increased the number of faculty with a primary focus on entrepreneurial leadership from 6 to some 30 professors, and the number of MBA courses has grown from 6 to 22, including a required course for first-year students. To complement work in the innovative Route 128 region of Boston and other seats of entrepreneurship around the world, the School established the California Research Center in Silicon Valley in 1997, which has already helped faculty develop more than 100 cases. In 2003, HBS dedicated the Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship on campus, made possible by a gift from Arthur Rock (MBA 1951), a pioneering San Francisco-based venture capitalist. The Center helps coordinate interdisciplinary work in entrepreneurship from across the entire School, supporting research and development of course materials, while encouraging further outreach and interaction with entrepreneurial individuals and organizations around the world.