Why Yes... HAH-vahd....Indubitably!

Really?! Really?! I hate to call it like it is (but I actually really love it), but I just get the feeling that Harvard, HBS in particular, is not even trying anymore. They've just recently announced their new curriculum known as "FIELD" (Field Immersion Experiences for Leadership Development). Nitin Nohria, who became dean of HBS in July of 2010 claims that, "if it works, the FIELD method could become an equal partner to the case method".

Nitin sees this as a solution to the hordes of MBA-ers that graduate knowing a massive body of knowledge but fail at the actual application of this knowledge to... you know.. tangible things. (Any one feel like MBA-ers are getting a bad rap for their inability to perform in real life? I feel like MBA-ers are like the consultants of the academic world.) Any way. So let me summarize what I've learned from this article, HBS has not defined what the second year will look like (I swear this is what it says in the article), but they have decided that the first year will have three elements: team building exercises ("Students take turns to lead a group engaged in a project such as designing an "eco-friendly sculpture". They learn to collaborate and to give and take feedback"....what?), students will be sent to work for a week with one of more than 140 firms in 11 countries (pretty standard and existent in most MBA curriculi), and finally, the students will be given eight weeks and seed money of $3,000 each to launch a small company. The most successful ones, as voted by their fellow students will get more funding.

Okay, so this last component is pretty interesting, although it doesn't seem that radically different than the existing case competitions out there (which give a lot more seed money, btw), but this component is a little bit more interesting because it is an obvious ploy of Harvard's to lure away the VCs from startup/braintrust/black hole of VC funding that sits across the way.... a little school called MIT's Sloan.

I have to be honest, I don't know whether or not to laugh or cry when I read this article. In some ways, Harvard is obviously trying to keep things exciting and "cutting edge", so I have to give them a little respect for that. On the other hand, I just really don't know if half-heartedly recycling other concepts and then combining them into one "program" (because let's be real only half of the program has actually been developed) is the way to do it. So, more than ever my dear fellow MBA-ers, good luck!