If you’re researching online business courses, one crucial question to ask is, “Who will I learn from?”
At Harvard Business School Online, you can learn vital business skills from HBS and Harvard faculty, as well as business leaders who’ve overcome challenges in their careers. This integration of real-world business scenarios—known as the case method—is one of the factors that makes HBS Online courses unique.
Here’s a primer on the case study method, the types of industry leaders you can learn from in HBS Online courses, and how to get started.
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DOWNLOAD NOWWhat Is the Case Study Method?
The case study method, or case method, is a learning technique in which you’re presented with a real-world business challenge and asked how you’d solve it. It enables you to practice perspective-taking, decision-making, and self-confidence in uncertain circumstances. Originally developed for the HBS master of business administration (MBA) classroom in 1922, HBS Online adapted it into an engaging, interactive learning experience in 2014.
In the HBS Online course platform, you learn about cases from the business leaders who experienced them. Ranging from ethical dilemmas and managerial decisions to risk assessment and culture challenges, they present situations you could encounter in your career.
For each, you’re prompted to consider what you would do in the business professional’s position. Upon submitting your answer, you find out how your peers approached the case and discuss it. Finally, you discover how the business professional handled the situation and the takeaways they gleaned.
HBS Online’s course catalog contains more than 100 interviews with business leaders. Here are seven types you can learn from.
Learn more about HBS Online's approach to the case method in the video below, and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more.
View Video7 Types of Industry Leaders You Can Learn from at HBS Online
1. C-Suite Executives
Even the highest-ranking professionals at successful global organizations face relatable business challenges. One type of industry leader you can learn from in HBS Online courses is C-suite executives, often from recognizable companies, including:
- Hubert Joly, president and CEO of Best Buy, in Business Strategy
- Mia Mends, CEO of Inspirus and Sodexo Benefits and Rewards Services, USA, in Leadership Principles
- Oona King, vice president of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) at Snap, Inc. and former chief diversity officer at Google, in Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability
- Jim Mullen, former CEO of Biogen Idec, in Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability
- Kasper Rorsted, CEO of Adidas, in Strategy Execution
- David Rodriguez, executive vice president and global chief human resources officer at Marriott, in Strategy Execution
- Laurence Debroux, chief financial officer at Heineken, in Leading with Finance
- Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Moderna, in Design Thinking and Innovation
As they describe taking on new leadership roles, designing codes of conduct, managing acquisitions, turning around plummeting financials, and making difficult decisions about a product’s future, you can take their perspectives. How would you tackle their challenges with the information available?
2. Entrepreneurs
Another group of leaders you can learn from is entrepreneurs. Through starting and running businesses—some of which have grown into successful companies—entrepreneurs face unique challenges.
For example, Songe LaRon and Dave Salvant, co-founders of Squire, detail their struggle to find product-market fit in Launching Tech Ventures. In the same course, Lindsay Kaplan, chief brand officer and co-founder of Chief, explains her company’s process for raising venture capital funding.
In Entrepreneurship Essentials, Scott Cook, founder and chairman of Intuit’s executive committee, wrestles with those challenges, too. He talks about venture capital failures, recovering from near bankruptcy, and building a business through bootstrapping.
Whether you’re an aspiring or a seasoned entrepreneur, want to join or invest in startups, or aim to learn from those who’ve built businesses from the ground up, HBS Online offers cases that fit the bill.
Related: 3 Inspiring Success Stories of Entrepreneurs Who Turned Ideas into Triumphs
3. Nonprofit Leaders
Nonprofit leaders offer a unique perspective.
In Power and Influence for Positive Impact, Lia Grimanis, CEO of Up with Women, explains how she started and sustained her nonprofit, which helps shift power back to women and gender-diverse individuals fighting homelessness and poverty.
When close to bankruptcy, what resources would you leverage? Through the frameworks the course presents, you can discover the sources of power Grimanis tapped into to keep her nonprofit afloat.
4. Early- and Mid-Career Professionals
While many professionals you learn from in HBS Online courses are executives, founders, and organizational leaders, several are early- and mid-career professionals. The challenges they face may be more relatable to where you are in your career—or hope to be soon.
For instance, in Leadership Principles, Gonzalo Muñoz, corporate strategy lead in the leadership development program at Amadeus, describes leading a new, geographically dispersed team comprised of three employees with starkly different backgrounds. As he approaches this leadership challenge, you can consider how you’d handle it.
Related: 6 Tips for Managing Global & International Teams
You can also learn from Bailey Richardson, former community team member at Instagram, in Launching Tech Ventures as she grapples with the ethics of working in the “attention economy.” Her reflection can spark ideas for how you’d approach similar dilemmas.
5. Investors
In several HBS Online courses, you can learn directly from investors—whether you aspire to fund a venture or become an investor.
One example from Sustainable Investing is Nancy Pfund, founder and managing partner at DBL Partners. DBL, which stands for “double bottom line,” was one of the world’s first impact investing firms. Its strategy was to pursue both long-term financial performance and positive environmental, social, and economic (ESG) impact. In the course, Pfund faces the question of whether to invest in a new sustainable coffee roaster company given the risks and potential positive impact.
If you’re an entrepreneur aiming to learn about how investors select startups to back, Launching Tech Ventures features several venture capitalists, including Anna Palmer, general partner at Flybridge Capital and co-founder of XFactor Ventures; Daniel Cohen, general partner at Viola Ventures; and Sarah Tavel, general partner at Benchmark.
Related: How to Create a Term Sheet for Investors
6. Harvard Business School Faculty
The faculty teaching HBS Online courses are also all leaders in their fields. HBS Online’s catalog features courses taught by more than 20 professors, including:
- HBS Dean Srikant Datar, who teaches Design Thinking and Innovation
- HBS Online and Executive Education Senior Associate Dean V.G. Narayanan, who teaches Financial Accounting
- The late HBS Professor Clayton Christensen, who coined the theory of disruptive innovation and whose legacy lives on through Disruptive Strategy
Additionally, HBS faculty are often featured in each other’s courses to discuss their areas of expertise. For instance, HBS Professor Amy Edmondson, who’s faculty chair of the Credential of Leadership, Impact, and Management in Business (CLIMB) program and teaches the course Dynamic Teaming, is also in Management Essentials, taught by HBS professors Joseph Fuller and David Garvin.
Through HBS Online, you can learn from these educators wherever you are in the world.
7. Harvard Faculty
Taking an HBS Online course doesn’t mean you’re limited to learning from HBS faculty. Professors from other parts of Harvard are often included in courses for their expertise.
For instance, HBS Professor Julie Battilana, who teaches Power and Influence for Positive Impact, is also the Alan L. Gleitzman Professor of Social Innovation at the Harvard Kennedy School. The course also features HKS Lecturer of Public Policy Robert Livingston, who speaks to businesses' power to systemically overcome inequity.
How to Learn from Leaders
To learn from industry leaders, research courses that use the case method. Then, consider your goals and what skills you need to reach them.
HBS Online courses feature the case method and span eight subject areas:
- Business essentials
- Leadership and management
- Entrepreneurship and innovation
- Digital transformation
- Strategy
- Marketing
- Finance and accounting
- Business in society
If you want to further your education beyond one course, explore:
- Learning Tracks, which enable you to earn a Certificate of Specialization by completing three courses in a subject area
- Credential of Readiness (CORe), which combines three business essentials courses—Business Analytics, Economics for Managers, and Financial Accounting—with a final exam
- Credential of Leadership, Impact, and Management in Business (CLIMB), a comprehensive program for new and experienced leaders that includes seven courses—spanning leadership, management, finance, strategy, personal branding, dynamic teaming, and leading in the digital world—and a capstone project
However you learn with HBS Online, you’ll gain insights from world-class faculty and industry leaders.
Are you interested in discovering how HBS Online can help advance your career? Explore our course catalog and download our free guide—complete with interactive workbook sections—to determine if online learning is right for you and which course to take.
