Founded in 1908, Harvard Business School, known as the capitalist West Point Military Academy, is the most famous institution in the United States for cultivating business management talents.

According to statistics, one-fifth of managers in the top positions in Fortune 500 companies in the United States graduated from this college.

For more than 100 years, Harvard's MBA has become a symbol of power and money, and has become the dream degree of many young Americans.

Harvard Business School is one of the nation's premier institutions of higher learning, with a special collective spirit that transcends the boundaries of disciplines, a distinctive mission and an extraordinary school ethos that have an impact beyond words.

The case teaching method is the heirloom of Harvard College, and each case is described as a real problem that the business will encounter, sometimes the case deliberately does not give due information, and sometimes deliberately gives more.

At the end of every case, you are always asked, "What do you say you should do?"

The essence of case law is not to make students memorize the content, but to force them to think hard and think hard. Certainly not endless thinking. The next morning, they had to go to class with a plan of action.

The case method trains the art of decision-making, and is intended to train students to make decisions under unsatisfactory conditions.

An important factor in the success of the case law is the quality of the students.

The business school divides the new students into 9 classes from A to I, with 90 students in each class, with fixed classrooms, and classes are arranged according to the background, experience, strengths, and interests of the students.

Harvard's pace is intense, and it is bound to be so, and it is not easy to cultivate a general manager-style talent in just two years!

The value of Harvard education lies in condensing the experience that usually takes years of work practice into a two-year course to "mature" students who are not deeply involved in the world.

Over the course of two years, the students analyzed more than 800 cases.

These business cases were developed and designed by professors from Harvard University, graduates of Harvard University, and other relevant researchers.

In order to ensure the diversity and comprehensiveness of these cases, all cases are carefully discussed before they are formally included in the curriculum.

A case usually consists of two or three 80-minute lectures.

At the beginning of each lesson, the professor assigns a student to come up and explain the case, analyze the problem and propose the means to solve the problem, or point out the methods and ways to achieve the company's goals, usually for 10 to 20 minutes.

Harvard Business School's case study teaching is not a teaching to find the right answer, and there is no absolute right answer to many problems, but only a specific method that may be correctly handled and solved, and whether the solution to the problem is right or wrong is only a difference in the individual's understanding and judgment of the business situation.

Before Yang Fei came, he had learned about the teaching methods of HBS from the side, and also looked for relevant case books to watch and learn.

However, it was shallow on paper, and when it came to class, Yang Fei realized that what he saw in books was not the whole picture, and he couldn't learn all the knowledge.

Typically, HBS students will receive their upcoming cases one week in advance.

After receiving the case, students will meet with their respective "study groups".

A so-called "study group" is a group of peers from different faculties and backgrounds who exchange notes, exchange opinions, and propose the best solution to a case problem.

In Yang Fei's study group, there is Linda, a new friend I met at the opening ceremony yesterday, and the daughter of the president of the American side of Procter & Gamble Greater China.

If I remember correctly, Yang Fei heard her say that she was a freshman.

And Yang Fei is a freshman in the first year of research.

For such a mysterious grouping, Yang Fei didn't know anything and didn't dare to ask anything.

Because it was just the beginning of the school year, the first case was brought up on the same day.

The first case goes like this:

Somewhere in Africa, there is a city built in an underground tunnel, which is one of the world's largest diamond mining bases.

The tunnel is a mile deep from the rocky surface and is home to more than 20,000 souls.

The miners spent 12 hours in the mine, on all fours, with their heads touching the top, slowly drilling a metre-high space with a steam drill bit. Everything mined by the miners had to be pulled vertically upwards for a mile to get out. The miners carried about 40 pounds of equipment, and the mine was hot, humid and noisy.

Seventy percent of the workers employed by the mining companies are illiterate, speak nine different languages, none of which are official.

On average, dozens of miners die in this mine every year, and when a mining disaster occurs, hundreds or even thousands of miners are killed.

The case concludes with the question: "What would you do if you were the head of this mining company?"

HBS faculty members must approach companies and obtain approval to study and publish a case when researching a case.

Companies often provide data, reports, and memoranda to assist with research.

Usually, the protagonist of the case or the representative of the company will be present in person for the case discussion.

There is no standard answer to this kind of discussion, which is very different from the domestic test-oriented education.

In China, we see a question, what needs to be done is to do everything possible to solve it and find the correct answer.

The case teaching method is to let students make many decisions in the case, so that the decision becomes a habit.

After the professor presented the case, the class had a heated discussion.

Those who can come here to go to school are not fuel-efficient lamps, they have the most active brain cells, and they also have a mouth like a river.

The case discussions are based on the principle of "no right answer" and aim to maximize students' creativity.

However, there will always be some wrong answers to any question, and professors can use their expertise to supplement the relevant baseline knowledge to students.

The professor asks questions and makes comments, and the students analyze and give opinions, or play the role of a case.

When a debate becomes off-topic, lengthy, or offensive, the professor needs to step in to get the discussion back on track.

Yang Fei had never seen such a class.

At first, he was shocked.

Even if you want to speak, you must first raise your hand, ask for the teacher's consent, call your name, and then you can stand up and speak, otherwise, no matter what you say, it will be regarded as impolite and disrupt the classroom order.

Watching his classmates sit in their seats, discuss loudly, express their opinions, and compete with professors, Yang Fei seemed to have discovered a new continent.

It turns out that the class can still be taken like this?

Yang Fei was trying to adapt to this rhythm and environment, but before he could react, he was named by the professor:

"Yang Fei, I have read your resume, you are the owner of a company, you should have your own unique views on business management, may I ask, do you have anything to say about this case?"