If Harvard succeeds, it will transform the way business is studied in B-school and corporate classrooms around the world, because last year alone it sold 4.8 million case studies to outsiders. At the same time, Clark is making critical alterations in the MBA curriculum. He has been pumping up the international content of Harvard's coursework. More classes are team-taught by faculty from different disciplines, and there are more group exercises to help students develop teamwork and leadership skills. As recently as three years ago, some MBAs complained that they participated in just three group assignments over two years.
Students now say they have as many as two dozen team projects the first year.
To help spur such innovations and speed decision-making, Clark has decentralized authority, ditching committees and task forces where proposals often languished for months or years. Clark is even changing the way the school screens applicants. Under fire for churning out investment bankers and consultants, Harvard had dropped the test, which measures analytical skills, in the belief that it favored students who would choose those careers. But graduates continued to shun Corporate America, while the school lost a key tool for gauging applicants. Although many of these moves will merely bring Harvard abreast of competitors, Clark is winning plaudits for style and content.