What's in it for the Company?

RESEARCHERS PREPARING case studies for the Business School can spend as long as six months working on each report. And the process is extremely time-consuming for the executives being case-studied.

But Michael J. Roberts '79, a 1983 Business School graduate who has spent much of his time in the last two years writing cases, says that many of the small company presidents he works with when researching a case equate their help on a case to an alumni donation.

"It's just one more thing they can do to help the school," says Roberts.

One of the corporate heads Roberts worked with was Arthur S. Lukash Jr., president of Micromold, a small plastics manufacturer in Yonkers, N. Y. Lukash, a 1964 B-School graduate, says he wanted to help out students when he agreed to let the B-School do a case on his business. "I saw no benefits to the company. What I thought I was doing was helping to train the students," Lukash says.

When the Micromold case was ready to make its debut in the classroom, Lukash flew up to Cambridge and watched the second-year M.B.A.s dig into his case.

"It was certainly a great deal of fun. It was also interesting to see the different points of view from the students," the executive says.

Another business executive who found a student view on his company's problem refreshing is William J. Ryan, head of Gillette's personal care department.

"The student analysis brings a different perspective to the business situation," Ryan says.

Ryan, who has seen eight Gillette cases hashed over in B-School classrooms, says the Boston-based conglomerate usually opts to disguise employee names and company figures that may reduce Gillette's competetitive edge in the market. "Sensitive figures, such as profit statistics, will be modified for security reasons," he explains.

The 1960 H.B.S. graduate adds that participating in cases gives Gillette a chance to "show [its] flag." Being the subject of a B-School study helps raise his company's profile and is sometimes instrumental in recruiting Harvard graduates. As Ryan puts it. "It's very good to be involved with the Harvard Business School."

In addition to lending information to the B-School for a case study, some corporate empires use case studies to teach their employees management and other business skills. Joanne Segal, administrative director for the B-School's division of reasearch, says International Business Machines, General Electric and Digital Equipment Co. buy cases from the B-School.

At I.B.M., up-and-coming business managers study cases, says Gerald F. Hill, the company's college relations representative. "We use [the case study method] primarily for the pragamtic approach. The theoretical knowledge is behind our employees in college," Hill says.