I see much value in opinionated books, they are great at starting conversations. Bearing that in mind I will say that I enjoyed Duff McDonald’s The Golden Passport. He describes the history of Harvard Business School (HBS) and he isn’t afraid to give his thoughts. What then can we learn from a case study of the Harvard Business School?
What The History Tells Us
Some of what he says will resonate widely. It was charming that HBS leaders thought building up a case collection would be a temporary endeavor. They would soon be done and use the same cases forevermore. All of us have problems seeing the future. The HBS founders might have been shocked by the continuing large, but necessary, investments in producing new case material. (I’d love to use a 100-year-old case in an MBA class and see how the students react.)
Some of what he says is more controversial. He isn’t 100% positive about all (Harvard) business school professors. To him, some shape knowledge but most “are simply fellow travelers” (McDonald, 2017). He also has problems with leadership studies. He describes character as “essentially code for ‘similar to us'” (McDonald, 2017). (I must confess to not being impressed with most leadership discussions I have seen). McDonald also seems hostile to quantification, and especially those who attempt to maximize shareholder value.
Case Study Of Harvard Business School
McDonald isn’t a fan of the case method as he thinks students draw conclusions from too little evidence. I worry that he does the same at times. Even when I agree with him I’m not sure someone who didn’t agree would be convinced. Indeed, some of the people he writes about surely won’t feel, likely with some justification, that their portrayals are fair. Michael Jensen is probably his villain, but Michael Porter doesn’t come across as well as Michael Porter might hope he would.
Despite some reservations, I will say that it was a fun book overall. A couple of great lines I would emphasize. Firstly, satirizing MBAs who tend to specialize in big picture strategy he says:
…actually doing things is for suckers; the real heroes in business are the ones with the big ideas, not the ones who actually carry them out.
McDonald, 2017
It certainly is a worry that if everyone is a leader I’m not sure who is following.
We’ll Get To Ethics Eventually
My favorite line seemed like an excellent summary of what I find frustrating in academia. He found a remark in the Harvard papers.
The school has been considering the study of ethics for more than 50 years and is actively addressing it now.
McDonald, 2017
Academics are like Ents; they really don’t like to be hasty.
For more on leadership see here, here, and here.
Read: Duff McDonald (2017) The Golden Passport: Harvard Business School, the limits of capitalism, and the moral failure of the MBA elite, Harper Business.