“It’s the Cake that People Come to Eat”

New business school deans typically take 18 months to introduce the first changes into their schools. But Harvard Business Schools new dean, Nitin Nohria took only six months to start shaking things up at HBS since he began his tenure last July. As the new dean explains, In the end, its the quality of the educational experience that brings people together. All that other stuff is the icing on the cake, but its the cake that people come to eat. And Nohria is clearly changing HBS cake recipe. Three recent articles in Poets and Quants highlight the way in which Nohria has transformed one of the top business schools in the country: The Reinvention of Harvard Business School focuses on Nohrias appointment of unlikely professors to take on chair positions and other programmatic changes, such as introducing an eight-day global internship in the first year. The article also profiles Nohria and explains why these changes are dramatic for Harvard. The Four Curriculums of a Great MBA looks at how Nohria utilized a study done by a Harvard professor analyzing the impact that HBS had on its graduates. The study arranges HBS impact on students into four categoriesacademic, social, career, and culturalmirroring the four curriculums that Harvard offers. The Five Priorities of Nitin Nohria examines how Nohria moved forward with changes based on his five priorities, better known as the Five Is for Innovation: Innovation Tackling the fact that some companies no longer see enough added value in MBAs by bringing change to Harvards program through adding a field method to complement the case method Intellectual Ambition Although faculty has already contributed to many of the most important management concepts, Nohria wants to ensure the faculty continues to bring forward new ideas. Internationalization to increase its international impact, Nohria feels the school must expand its international base. Inclusion Nohria wants HBS to be a home for all; therefore, he has spearheaded many new inclusion efforts, the first of which is to look at the challenges facing women at HBS. Integration HBS already collaborates with other departments at Harvard, but in the future they are going to be breaking down [more] logistical barriers. For HBS applicants all three PQ articles are a must read. Primary take-aways: If you are coming from blue chip firms and fields, dont be confident that you have it made. You will still want to show an innovativeness and international outlook that perhaps wasnt quite as important 2+ years ago. As always, make sure you dont simply mouth the mantra. Show that you have lived as many of the 5 Is as you can, that you walk the walk. If you thought your non-traditional background reduced your chances at HBS, think again. The program has become more inclusive in more than just gender and ethnicity. On a personal note, I found Nitin Nohrias Four curriculums very close to the critical elements I have been urging you to focus on for years, both in deciding where to apply and attend and in responding to Why School X? questions. I have focused on: recruiting and career opportunities (Nohrias career), the curriculum (academic), co-curricular activities (social) , and, personal preferences (cultural). Its nice to know Dr. Nohria has been reading this blog. 🙂 By Linda Abraham, Accepted.coms president and founder.