From Scholarship to Impact

• The case method continues to prove its staying power, adapting through disruption while sharpening the reasoning, judgment, and communication skills tomorrow’s leaders need.
• Faculty face a new urgency to translate research into the classroom, recognizing its potential to shape not just corporate strategy but society at large.
• An abundance of knowledge is positioning faculty as learning architects who help students ask sharper questions and apply insight with purpose.

Transcript

Ellen Desmarais: [00:10] At Harvard Business Publishing, I get asked a lot if I think the case method is going to thrive in the AI era, and we absolutely believe so. The case method has been an enduring pedagogy for over 100 years. It was introduced into business schools in 1922.

[00:30] I believe a reason why something endures is because it can survive and thrive through disruption, innovation, and transformation, which is very much the era of business we are living in. The other important thing is that the case method teaches durable skills that are fundamentally important right now.

[00:47] Students are pressed on their critical reasoning. They are taught about judgment, they're taught how to defend an argument, and they have to do all of that with a focus on actually communicating, live in a classroom.

[00:58] I'm hearing a lot of talk about relevancy for the future, giving students hands-on experience, and closing the loops from learning to doing much faster. And I think the case method can be central to that because it forces students to learn in the context of a real-world situation, adopt an executive mindset right away, and be less concerned with understanding theory and more with putting it into practice.

The case method teaches durable skills that are fundamentally important.

[01:25] This is an era where everybody's being pressed to make decisions faster. And the closer we can get to shortening some of those loops, not only for the value of the students so that they see the relevancy of the research showing up in their classrooms, but for those enterprises who are eager to be applying the insights for the future, it sort of pays off across everybody.

[01:45] Obviously, a core part of this for faculty as they're developing research is how it fits into their own classrooms. We think that's a great opportunity for faculty to actually think about how their research can have an impact very quickly.

[01:59] If they're not able, perhaps, for their research to turn into immediate learning for the classroom, that's an opportunity for their own classroom to be a learning lab for them. There are moments about transformation and disruption, and the applicability of insights to the future is one of the key lenses we see business scholars focusing on.

[02:21] The other question that they can be putting to themselves is, does this thing that I am researching turn into a recommendation that I can make to the CEO of a company, head of an NGO, or to a government official? We think it's important for business scholars to have not only the lens of what's important to the business world, but also what could potentially be important and valued for society at large.

One thing about this moment, where we're seeing such an increase in information and knowledge, is that students need help understanding what to do with that knowledge.

[02:45] We're collectively and globally facing sort of new and unique issues every day, so the opportunity for business schools to be the ones to bring new solutions and new insights to market will be tremendously valued. We think it'll be important for business schools to consider what this transformation means for their classroom and educational experiences.

[03:07] So, how do you build in these learning loops early and fast into business school programs? How do you perhaps need to change a mindset from being content distributors to being application developers? This is less about disseminating knowledge, but one thing about this moment, where we're seeing such an increase in information and knowledge, is that students need help understanding what to do with that knowledge.

[03:35] This might be the era where it's more important to be teaching students the questions to be asking rather than pushing them to answer questions. We see that we'll potentially have applications too, for how business schools think about the roles of their faculty.

[03:49] It'll be important for faculty to think of themselves as facilitators of the classroom experience and learning architects. What are the new or different experiences that can be put together for students in order to develop them for this new and hopefully exciting future?