Through 2 years at HBS, we read approximately 500 cases. Each day, we put ourselves in the shoes of the protagonist, staring out some window contemplating a make or break situation for his or her business. The case method is core to the HBS learning experience where the vast majority of classes from finance to leadership, accounting to marketing are taught in the case method. When you do anything 500 times, there just is a way of doing things and HBS molds a strong culture of classroom norms.
Though not every class is taught using the case method at the GSB, I was excited to see the Stanford take on the case method. Culture definitely extends to the classroom. Where the HBS classroom is a confrontational performance conducted by the professor and governed by strong norms, the Stanford case classroom is a comparatively informal, highly interactive lecture discussion with higher levels of agreement between students and a more central role of the professor as a source of content knowledge.
The Classroom
The tiered classrooms with name cards are set up similarly. GSB has 4 rows with approximately 75 students while HBS has an extra back row often referred to as the Sky Deck bringing the total classroom size to about 95. While seats are assigned for both schools, in the first year at HBS each section sits in the same classroom with the same assigned seats, changing once at the end of the semester. The schools put different weights on the role of participation in classroom with participation typically counting for around 15–20% of the final grade at Stanford versus 50% at HBS.
Guest Rituals
A guest in the Stanford classroom is anonymous. After emailing the professor for permission to bring a guest, we got to class early and Carol introduced me to the professor. I found an empty seat in the back row and that was it. A group of visitors with name tags who I assume were prospective students sat in the back corner. The guy next to me wondered if I was in this section.
At HBS, guests have a ritualized experience. Though each section determines its own unique norms most sections end up doing something similar. Guests sit in designated seats typically in the front couple of rows on the side. Before the case begins, the professor invites hosts to introduce all guests to the class. All the guests get a round of applause while parents and partners get a standing ovation. During class, if the hosting student makes a comment the whole class claps. Your mom will think you are on your way to becoming a Baker Scholar. Mine did.
Carol’s comments: Some professors at the GSB will introduce guests before the class starts, but it really depends on the professor. At HBS, it was funny how the section and the professor tried to make the student look good in front of their guest, either asking them an easy question or clapping afterwards, even if the comment was mediocre.
Agree or Disagree
The core of the case method is the classroom discussion where students discuss the business issues facing company leaders. Here the classroom discussion is more reflective of the cultures of the schools. I attended Stanford’s first year required strategy class, Strategic Management.
The first thing that struck me was how agreeable the Stanford classroom is. Part of this seemed to be a function of the professor who wasn’t actively encouraging disagreement. During the class there was only one short exchange over a point where several students disagreed. From my experiences outside the classroom, there is more of a cultural preference not be adversarial and that extends to the classroom. Where in an HBS class a student question on a matter of judgement or opinion would likely be put to another student which then leads to debate, here the professor is very willing to answer the questions directly.
The HBS classroom is predicated on disagreement. Professors step back and play the role of synthesizers or directors and more seldomly answer questions themselves directly. Professors actively encourage students to take a stand and for others to rebut or build on those points. Things can get heated in the classroom and sometimes those discussions continue after class but everyone remains friends afterward. There is the occasional complaint that the professor doesn’t confirm whether the answers are right or not, so the students can be left feeling unsatisfied. But then again business is a lot more grey, rather than black or white anyways.
A GSB student’s perspective on the HBS case method:
Before coming to the GSB, I don’t think I really understood when people said, “HBS does the case method, but Stanford doesn’t. Well sort of. They do half cases and half lectures.” What I can tell you is that in most of the courses I’ve taken so far at the GSB, most have at least have a case component, even if they aren’t explicitly using the case method. This could mean that the class discussion is focused on a particular business situation, but it can involve discussing the case in a lecture format or solving quantitative problems.
However, the biggest difference is that the case discussion at the GSB is not as formalized and ritualized as it is at HBS. I sat in on an Entrepreneurial Finance course at HBS, and it definitely felt like it was more of a performance. There was more back and forth discussion among the students, and the discussions were often more argumentative. There were also many “characters” and “personas” that people put on in class, such as being the contrarian, the finance bro, or the goody two shoes, but then after class people went back to normal. I imagine that getting really close to your section allows you to really understand your classmates perspectives and not be afraid to push back or share an outlandish view.
By the end of my first quarter at the GSB, I found that students in my section were more comfortable sharing opposing viewpoints, which led to engaging discussions and memorable comments. Although I like being able to meet students from other sections in this second quarter, the case discussions don’t feel the same as when discussing comfortably with your homeroom.
Overall, you can’t really go wrong either way in regards to the case method. At both schools, you’ll read interesting cases and be bored by others. Courses aren’t really supposed to matter in business school anyways, right? Either way, we hope this helps explain some of the nuances in the case method between schools. To our friends at GSB and HBS, what has your experience been like with the case method?
