Harvard debate

This is referring to the ongoing debate on the relevance of Harvard. Harvard is not glamour. It is sheer hard work. I landed at Harvard Business School, with over 100 managers, directors, army leaders, bureaucrats, from 55 countries to school for eight weeks. First surprise: Clergyman John Harvard, whose name the University bears, bequeathed only £779 (50% of his estate), but also 400 books. Thus, the Harvard monogram proclaims, “Books tell the truth.”

Second surprise: Harvard is a monastery. Wake up at 5.30 am, exercise; breakfast at 7 am, classes from 8 am to 4/5 pm. Dinner at 6.30 pm. Then, living-group homework between 8-11 pm. Later, revise next day’s case-studies. To sleep five hours, was a pure aspiration. Weekends involved incremental classes, meetings, working-dinners. We read cases during mealtimes, in taxis, even at the barbers.

The Professors were brilliant. Professor Yoffie taught us to encompass the strategy of corporations, in one simple line. Nobel Prize laureate Robert Merton explicated causes leading to financial meltdowns. Prof. Vietor reduced country budgets to ordinary balance sheets. “Identifying a consumer need is the seed of successful businesses,” opined Prof. Quelch. It was an intravenous injection of concentrated knowledge.

Prof. Kotter lectured a whole day on leadership. Then counselled, even though we may learn 7,000 new ideas at the course, on return we should focus on just two. His ultimate warning was, “If I meet you at some airport, five years hence, I will only ask you, “What are you doing in your life?””

Rajendra Aneja,

Mumbai, India