“If it works, the FIELD method could become an equal partner to the case method,” Harvard Business School (HBS) Dean Nitin Nohria told the Economist in a recent interview. The FIELD method (Field Immersion Experience for Leadership Development) is a new practical addition to HBS’s curriculum, a radical departure from a course of study that until now has been based exclusively on discussing cases written by professors in classroom settings, according to the Economist report.
Nohria arrived at HBS in July 2010 determined to see that HBS students get more in the way of practical application of management skills than just what they gain from summer internships with prospective employers. As a result, this year’s incoming class will serve as guinea pigs for the new FIELD method, which will include three elements as part of the first year, the Economist reports.
First, they will participate in a team-building exercise in which students take turns leading a group project loosely based on ones used in the U.S. army. Second, students will travel to work for a week with one of more than 140 firms in 11 countries. Finally, HBS first-years wil be given eight weeks and $3,000 worth of seed money each to launch a small company. What will happen in the second year of the new FIELD course remains to be determined.
Some have expressed skepticism about elements of the new curriculum component. “The literature suggests that an immersion experience needs to be at least 2-3 weeks and be backed up with time in the classroom,” management guru Pankaj Ghemawat told the Economist, raising questions about how effective a one-week work assignment overseas will be. And the faculty vote in favor of trying the new field method was “as enthusiastic as you could get from a faculty,” Nohria told the Economist, noting that it gave approval for a “delicate experiment for 3-5 years to see if we can move the needle.” The case method, by comparison, took 13 years to develop.
Notably, the new course adds 10 to 15 percent to the $84,000 HBS students currently pay per year of study. For the time being, HBS is bearing this additional cost as it figures out what works, the Economist reports.
For the full Economist story, click here.
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