Harvard unit will train B-school professors

Harvard Business Publishing (HBP), a wholly owned subsidiary of Harvard University, plans to train about 80-100 professors from business schools in India next year.

Ray Carvey, executive vice-president and chief operating officer, HBP, said professors from Indian schools will primarily be trained in the case study method, which “focuses on decision making, increasing the competency, and problem solving ability of students.”

“The case study method was started at Harvard Business School and all our courses use it. As the faculty makes contact with several students, training the faculty in better usage of this form of teaching can help to a large extent in enhancing the skills of students,” he said.

HBP will conduct 2 seminars next year, training about 40-50 professors at a time.

According to Vinay Hebbar, managing director, HBP India, the top business schools in India use the case study method extensively, but there has been a challenge of access to high-quality India-specific cases.

“Harvard’s Research Centre in India has developed some 50 India specific cases,” said Carvey.

Harvard has developed cases on the Indian Railways, Tata Nano, the Dabbawala service, Dharavi slum development project, Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospital and NGO Pratham.

Similarly, to help build talent at the organisational level, HBP has created a programme called Harvard ManageMentor, consisting of about 44 modules on leadership, performance management, coaching, etc, which are sold to corporates, said Carvey.