Dean Nitin Nohria is an amazing dean. We are really lucky to be one of the first classes to graduate with him leading the charge. He can always be seen around campus with a smile on his face, talking to students and faculty members alike, always energetic, always engaged - a true role model for the entire HBS community.
Some of the most valuable pieces of advice regarding the HBS experience are contained in the following letter that he sent to all of us as we started the journey. I still keep it my room to this day. The letter is accurate, reflective, inspiring and something that all incoming HBS students should keep in mind over their two years:
Dear HBS Class of [ ]
This semester, I'll be joining each of your sections for a lunch discussion. I'm very much looking forward to these sessions. My hope is that they will be interactive; I'm as curious to learn about you, why you've chosen to come to HBS, and what you would like to get out of your experience here as I imagine you are about the School and what it is like to be dean.
In thinking about how we might best structure our time together, I decided to share with you the welcome talk I didn't give. It builds on the discussion my colleague Frances Frei started in Burden Auditorium. It also builds on the work of my colleague Scott Snook, who a few years ago followed 50 HBS MBA students from the time they were admitted until after they graduated.
I believe Scott's framework for characterizing the MBA experience might provide an interesting way to begin our conversation when we meet.
Scott's research revealed that most students actually experience four curricula when they are here at Harvard Business School: an academic curriculum, a social curriculum, a career curriculum, and a cultural curriculum.
The academic curriculum is perhaps the most obvious, and it encompasses everything that makes the HBS program unique: the case method, our two year program and its structure of a required and an elective year, even our distinctive classrooms. Through daily situations where students are asked to put themselves in the shoes of a leader, to learn conceptual frameworks and tools, to bring their own experiences to bear, and to develop the ability not only to persuade but to listen, our hope is that they will become more adept at analyzing and acting in complex managerial situations. Scott's study showed that what students got out of the academic curriculum was correlated heavily with what they put in, particularly along the dimensions of preparation (How disciplined were the students?), participation (Did they learn to listen and participate thoughtfully?), and reflection (Did students find time to reflect on the learning from a given day?).
The social curriculum is a second powerful dimension of the HBS experience; it comprises the relationships – from friendships to business partnerships to even marriage – students form during their time on campus that quite literally shape the rest of their lives. During the first year, the section is where many of these relationships take root, but other opportunities to connect include
learning teams, clubs, sports, field studies, and the business plan contest. Here, Scott's interviews showed that students experienced the greatest satisfaction when they focused on the depth and quality of the relationships they formed. Moreover, students who stretched themselves – who sought out people unlike themselves, with different viewpoints or backgrounds – found their time at HBS most enriching.
The career curriculum includes all of those activities students undertake as they refine their career goals and ambitions. Nearly 85% of students who attend HBS do so wanting to change at least one dimension of their previous employment, whether it be industry, function, or location.
Scott's research found that students who invested the time in doing this – who explored the myriad opportunities available to them (through talks and events, meetings with career coaches, club activities, discussions with faculty, or field studies, for example), who focused on their long term aspirations rather than their next job, who pursued the job they wanted rather than what they thought their classmates expected or coveted – found it to be a remarkably important and meaningful component of their experience at the School. Those who approached the career curriculum in a more narrow sense of chasing what they perceived to be the hottest jobs, with the (currently) hottest companies, in the (currently) hottest industries, looked back on this process with less satisfaction, and in many cases disappointment.
Finally, the cultural curriculum refers to the surprisingly powerful and largely unconscious process through which students learn what it means to "become" a Harvard MBA. Their very identities – what they are supposed to value, personal definitions of success, how they are expected to talk, dress, socialize, and even vacation – all become unwitting targets of cultural persuasion. Many of these cultural transformations are intentional and healthy; others are not.
HBS is what sociologists call a "total institution" – one where the lines between work and play, public and private, and formal and informal blur. As a result, many students find themselves caught up in what they experience as a powerful herd-like movement that sweeps them along in ways and to places that they never intended. Students who fared well in the cultural curriculum did so by finding creative ways to remain grounded, and to refine and maintain a sense of self through personal relationships and important activities within and beyond HBS.
As I hope you can see, there's a lot to think about here (and some not-so-thinly veiled advice in Scott's findings). Does the concept of four curricula resonate with your own experience thus far?
In Frances's vein, I'd like to hear about your hopes and fears on these dimensions; we also can talk about ways to ensure that you achieve the former and avoid the latter. I also, of course, am happy to answer any questions you have about the School. I very much look forward to meeting with you soon.
Sincerely,
Dean Nitin Nohria
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