In First, BYU To Use HBS Case Studies

When former Harvard Business School (HBS) Dean Kim B. Clark ’74 took over as President of Brigham Young University in Idaho (BYU-Idaho), he brought over a new vision for the Mormon school.

Now, he’s also bringing over an entire library: BYU-Idaho has been using case studies from Clark’s alma mater since January, and is the first university to be given a site license for all of HBS’s electronic materials.

“BYU is a first mover in this, because of Kim Clark’s understanding of the repository,” said Ellen J. Gandt, the director of higher education marketing at HBS Publishing.

According to Gandt, approximately 30 other universities worldwide have been granted partial site licenses, but BYU-Idaho is the only university that has been given access to the entire collection.The repository includes the famous collection of HBS cases, Harvard Business Review articles, press books, multimedia cases, simulations, tutorials, and modules on corporate training, Gandt said.

The move is part of Clark’s effort to introduce HBS’s case study method to BYU-Idaho undergraduates.

Chair of the Business Management Department at BYU-Idaho Craig Bell said that the school is moving its entire system towards a more active learning model that encourages participation in field work, consulting projects, cases, and online tutorials.

“The textbook is on its way out,” he said.

Associate Dean of the College of Business and Communication at BYU-Idaho Robyn Bergstrom said that a group of BYU-Idaho faculty recently made a trip to Harvard “to learn about the case method.”

“So far [the HBS cases] have blessed our campus,” she said. “My students have enjoyed it immensely.”

According to Gandt, the one-year agreement is only an experimental license. Both sides are monitoring usage and possibilities for improvements, she said. The students will pay per usage of materials from the HBS repository, but because of the bulk deal struck by BYU-Idaho, contents of the library will be available at lower costs.

Discussion of the arrangement began with Clark’s arrival to BYU-Idaho in the summer of 2005, Bell said. According to the most recent HBS Annual Report, HBS Publishing brought in 33 percent of the school’s revenue in the 2006 fiscal year. During this period, the organization sold nearly 7.5 million cases and almost 1.5 million books.

—Staff writer Daniela Nemerenco can be reached at dnemeren@fas.harvard.edu.