The HBS Case Method

The HBS Case Method

Have you ever worked with a group of people trying to solve a problem? There are different opinions, different considerations, and each person’s perspective provides a different angle on the problem.
Ultimately, you must decide a course of action. There’s no right answer, but you have to confront the complexities of the choice you make. What if that room was filled with people from diverse industries, functions, countries, and backgrounds? All trying to analyze a problem and make a decision? Every day? That is what the case method at HBS prepares you to do. Experience case method firsthand with a Class Visit.

How the HBS Case Method Works


  1. Read and analyze the case. Each case is a 10-20 page document written from the viewpoint of a real person leading a real organization. In addition to background information on the situation, each case ends in a key decision to be made. Your job is to sift through the information, incomplete by design, and decide what you would do.
  2. Discuss the case. Each morning, you’ll bring your ideas to a small team of classmates from diverse professional backgrounds, your discussion group, to share your findings and listen to theirs. Together, you begin to see the case from different perspectives, better preparing you for class.
  3. Engage in class. Be prepared to change the way you think as you debate with classmates the best path forward for this organization. The highly engaged conversation is facilitated by the faculty member, but it’s driven by your classmates’ comments and experiences.

    HBS brings together amazingly talented people from diverse backgrounds and puts that experience front and center. Students do the majority of the talking (and lots of active listening), and your job is to better understand the decision at hand, what you would do in the case protagonist’s shoes, and why. You will not leave a class thinking about the case the same way you thought about it coming in!

    In addition to learning more about many businesses, in the case method you will develop communication, listening, analysis, and leadership skills. It is a truly dynamic and immersive learning environment.
  4. Reflect. The case method prepares you to be in leadership positions where you will face time-sensitive decisions with limited information. Reflecting on each class discussion will prepare you to face these situations in your future roles.
500
Cases read during the two-year MBA Program
55
%
Cases published in FY21 were globally oriented

Student Perspectives

“I’ve been so touched by how dedicated other people have been to my learning and my success.”
Lauren Buchanan
MBA 2021

Faculty Perspectives

“The world desperately needs better leadership. It’s actually one of the great gifts of teaching here, you can do something about it.”
Jan Rivkin
Senior Associate Dean Chair & MBA Program

Alumni Perspectives

“You walk into work every morning and it's like a fire hose of decisions that need to be made, often without enough information. Just like an HBS case.”
Abby Falik
MBA 2008
Founder & CEO, Global Citizens Year

Celebrating the Inaugural HBS Case

“How do you go into an ambiguous situation and get to the bottom of it? That skill – the skill of figuring out a course of inquiry, to choose a course of action – that skill is as relevant today as it was in 1921.”
Jan Rivkin
Senior Associate Dean Chair & MBA Program