Dear Friends,

FY20 was a year unlike any other. The barriers that typically separate the key spheres of our lives—work and home, professional and personal—became porous and fuzzy. Yet the challenge we faced was crystal clear: delivering on our mission in the face of an emerging global pandemic. In this report, in addition to our deep dive into the School’s financial health, you will see examples of how the HBS community approached this challenge with creativity and resolve.

Our commitment to making a difference in the world was evident on so many dimensions. Harvard Business Review’s circulation climbed to 340,000, the highest in its 97-year history, evidence that the Publishing group continues to produce insights that shape management practice. The Business and Environment Initiative extended its wide-ranging efforts on climate change with an interactive exhibit exploring how it affects business innovations. The US Competitiveness Project leaned into the contentious political climate with a report detailing the structural failures in the US political system and how they are holding the country back from achieving much-needed progress.

The pandemic required us to confront a host of questions. What kinds of insights does a business school have to share on a medical crisis? How can a School whose learning model relies on intensive, in-person classroom discussions continue to operate in a remote world? How important is a physical campus in a virtual world? In each instance, we are finding the answers. Our capacity for innovation was never more important as when we transitioned from the classroom to online learning in the span of just two weeks. Our faculty’s intellectual ambition has never been more apparent, as colleagues wrote new articles and cases, launched lecture series, and wrote opinion pieces on the impact of the pandemic on business and society. And none of this would have mattered, were it not for the adaptability of students, faculty, and staff to shift from doing everything on campus to doing most everything remotely, including important milestones such as doctoral thesis defenses, commencement, and reunions.

As I write this, I am mindful of the fact that the School has withstood other great challenges—wars, political strife, acts of terrorism—and not only survived, but often emerged even stronger. I am optimistic that in the years to come the School will be fundamentally changed for the better. And I am ever mindful that all of our efforts, past and future, are made possible by our incredible and generous alumni. For that support I am deeply grateful, as I know our next and new Dean, Srikant Datar, will be.

Nitin Nohria
Dean of the Faculty