How Many Mistakes Can You Find In This Case Study? B-School Asks

Last year, Harvard Business School spent $26.6 million developing new case studies, which it relies on for most of its teaching. With 2.5 million copies of its case studies supplied every year to business schools worldwide, the B-School is the world's chief supplier of case studies.

Unfortunately, Harvard Business School, like the rest of us, isn't perfect.

Two weeks ago, the school's Division of Research, which supervises the writing of the studies, offered a $50 gift certificate for B-School books to the student who finds the most errors.

In those two weeks, errors were found in 28 cases. About a quarter of those wouldn't have been found without student help, according to Judy Uhl, Division of Research director.

Uhl said that although her department works with faculty members to develop the best materials for the cases, it doesn't have the resources to edit all the cases students use. Students study about 13 cases per week.

"Unlike other institutions, Harvard develops its own materials, and because the business world changes so rapidly, we constantly have to produce new cases. Each year faculty members and research assistants develop some 500 new cases, of which we can edit only about 15 percent," Uhl said.

The new program, which is co-sponsored by the Women's Student Association (WSA), also targets typographical, grammatical, and numerical errors, in addition to sexist language in the case studies.

Aileen Greenberg, the WSA's student liaison to the Division of Research, said her group several years ago discussed a plan to have students edit the case studies in response to what it perceived as a sexist bias, a suggestion incorporated beginning this year.

On October 24, the WSA distributed a letter to all B-School students announcing the editing campaign. The group also enclosed a form to record any errors found in the cases.

The WSA collates the student's forms and reports errors to the Division of Research, who ask faculty members for permission to make the corrections. All students reporting errors remain anonymous.

Happy Quotes

Faculty members and students have praised the program. Professor of Business Administration Thomas McCraw said, "Good editing is necessary in case studies just as it is in other publications."

Second-year student Maury Peiperel, publisher of the weekly student newspaper, the Harbus. "I am often appalled by the use of language in the case studies. Although I don't question the intrinsic quality of the cases, the editorial standards are often poor.