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The History of the Case Study at Harvard Business School

• 28 Feb 2017

Many first-time HBS Online participants are surprised to learn that, often, the professor is not at the center of their learning experience. Instead of long faculty lectures, the HBS Online learning model centers on smaller, more digestible pieces of content that require participants to interact with each other, test concepts, and learn from real-world examples.

Often, the professor fades into the background and lets the focus shift to interviews with executives, industry leaders, and small business owners. Some students might be left thinking, "Wait, where did that professor go? Why am I learning about a grocery store in Harvard Square?"

In the words of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy , “Don’t panic.” These interviews, or cases, feature leaders at companies of all sizes and provide valuable examples of business concepts in action. This case study method forms the backbone of the Harvard Business School curriculum.

Back in the 1920s, HBS professors decided to develop and experiment with innovative and unique business instruction methods. As the first school in the world to design a signature, distinctive program in business, later to be called the MBA, there was a need for a teaching method that would benefit this novel approach.

HBS professors selected and took a few pages to summarize recent events, momentous challenges, strategic planning, and important decisions undertaken by major companies and organizations. The idea was, and remains to this day, that through direct contact with a real-world case, students will think independently about those facts, discuss and compare their perspectives and findings with their peers, and eventually discover a new concept on their own.

Central to the case method is the idea that students are not provided the "answer" or resolution to the problem at hand. Instead, just like a board member, CEO, or manager, the student is forced to analyze a situation and find solutions without full knowledge of all methods and facts. Without excluding more traditional aspects, such as interaction with professors and textbooks, the case method provides the student with the opportunity to think and act like managers.

Since 1924, the case method has been the most widely applied and successful teaching instrument to come out of HBS, and it is used today in almost all MBA and Executive Education courses there, as well as in hundreds of other top business schools around the world. The application of the case method is so extensive that HBS students will often choose to rely on cases, instead of textbooks or other material, for their research. Large corporations use the case method as well to approach their own challenges, while competing universities create their own versions for their students.

This is what the case method does—it puts students straight into the game, and ensures they acquire not just skills and abstract knowledge, but also a solid understanding of the outside world.

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From inquiry to action, harvard business school & the case method, homepage section.

Since the 1920s, the case method has been the foundational teaching practice at Harvard Business School (HBS). Based on participant-centered learning, the instructional approach facilitates discussions about real-life problems encountered in business, to prepare students for roles as leaders, managers, and decision makers. The case method encourages students to plan a course of inquiry—analyze, listen, compare other perspectives—and choose a course of action. For over 100 years, HBS has been an innovative leader in the development and refinement of teaching with the case method, helping to shape business education programs and business leaders around the world. “While cases may look different in the future,” HBS Dean Srikant Datar observes,  “the fundamental approach of discussion, debate, and deliberation will undoubtedly last into the next century.” 1 Drawing on materials from the HBS Archives, From Inquiry to Action explores the introduction of the case method in the teaching of business administration and highlights the School’s early contributions that have led to the enduring influence of this participant-centered teaching practice.

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1 Dean Srikant Datar in “Dean Datar Introduces the Case Method Centennial,” 2021.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI1-K2nECTo. Accessed 2/2/22.

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What the Case Study Method Really Teaches

• Nitin Nohria

Seven meta-skills that stick even if the cases fade from memory.

It’s been 100 years since Harvard Business School began using the case study method. Beyond teaching specific subject matter, the case study method excels in instilling meta-skills in students. This article explains the importance of seven such skills: preparation, discernment, bias recognition, judgement, collaboration, curiosity, and self-confidence.

During my decade as dean of Harvard Business School, I spent hundreds of hours talking with our alumni. To enliven these conversations, I relied on a favorite question: “What was the most important thing you learned from your time in our MBA program?”

• Nitin Nohria is the George F. Baker Professor of Business Administration, Distinguished University Service Professor, and former dean of Harvard Business School.

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What is the Case Study Method?

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Overview dropdown down, celebrating 100 years of the case method at hbs.

The 2021-2022 academic year marks the 100-year anniversary of the introduction of the case method at Harvard Business School. Today, the HBS case method is employed in the HBS MBA program, in Executive Education programs, and in dozens of other business schools around the world. As Dean Srikant Datar's says, the case method has withstood the test of time.

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How Cases Unfold In the Classroom

How cases unfold in the classroom dropdown up, how cases unfold in the classroom dropdown down, preparation guidelines expand all collapse all, read the professor's assignment or discussion questions read the professor's assignment or discussion questions dropdown down, read the first few paragraphs and then skim the case read the first few paragraphs and then skim the case dropdown down, reread the case, underline text, and make margin notes reread the case, underline text, and make margin notes dropdown down, note the key problems on a pad of paper and go through the case again note the key problems on a pad of paper and go through the case again dropdown down, how to prepare for case discussions dropdown up, how to prepare for case discussions dropdown down, read the professor's assignment or discussion questions, read the first few paragraphs and then skim the case, reread the case, underline text, and make margin notes, note the key problems on a pad of paper and go through the case again, case study best practices expand all collapse all, prepare prepare dropdown down, discuss discuss dropdown down, participate participate dropdown down, relate relate dropdown down, apply apply dropdown down, note note dropdown down, understand understand dropdown down, case study best practices dropdown up, case study best practices dropdown down, participate, what can i expect on the first day dropdown down.

Most programs begin with registration, followed by an opening session and a dinner. If your travel plans necessitate late arrival, please be sure to notify us so that alternate registration arrangements can be made for you. Please note the following about registration:

HBS campus programs – Registration takes place in the Chao Center.

India programs – Registration takes place outside the classroom.

Other off-campus programs – Registration takes place in the designated facility.

What happens in class if nobody talks? Dropdown down

Professors are here to push everyone to learn, but not to embarrass anyone. If the class is quiet, they'll often ask a participant with experience in the industry in which the case is set to speak first. This is done well in advance so that person can come to class prepared to share. Trust the process. The more open you are, the more willing you’ll be to engage, and the more alive the classroom will become.

Does everyone take part in "role-playing"? Dropdown down

Professors often encourage participants to take opposing sides and then debate the issues, often taking the perspective of the case protagonists or key decision makers in the case.

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A Better Way to Teach History

One professor is borrowing a method from Harvard Business School to engage students and inspire better decision-making skills.

In a spacious classroom in Aldrich Hall on the Harvard Business School campus, 100 students are passionately discussing a case called “Battle Over a Bank.” But these aren’t MBA students deliberating over how much the government should regulate the financial sector. This group of mostly undergraduates, guided by the award-winning Harvard Business School professor David Moss, is diving into the fierce 1791 debate over whether the Constitution could be interpreted to allow the fledgling U.S. government the power to form a bank at all.

This class, “History of American Democracy,” is no pedestrian historical survey course. It uses the case method—the business school’s signature teaching technique—to immerse undergraduates (as well as a limited number of HBS students) in critical episodes in the development of American democracy.

The field of history is often dismissed as dull, but educators like Moss are experimenting with innovative teaching strategies to teach history in a way that is effective, exciting, and productive. There’s “Reading like a Historian,” based at Stanford and aimed at the K-12 level, which explicitly hones the ability to take primary sources and interpret, construct meaning, recognize competing narratives, and contextualize as a historian would. “Reacting to the Past,” started at Barnard College by Mark Carnes, is a student-centered college curriculum consisting entirely of role-playing games. “Facing History and Ourselves,” which grew out of a course focused on the Holocaust, uses a multi-pronged approach to get young people in grades six through 12 thinking about the ramifications of genocide and mass violence as a way of reflecting on moral choices they themselves face in their own lives.

History education generates heated controversy among educators and policymakers. There is a long history of tension over which historical facts children should be learning in school and when, whether a particular set of proposed standards is too patriotic, too multicultural, or whitewashes uncomfortable truths. Controversies over the content and nature of what children are learning often fall along political lines: The Michigan State Board of Education recently delayed voting on its new social-studies standards because of a controversy over whether liberal bias was behind proposals to include civil rights in the curriculum before high school, while in Texas, critics repeatedly accuse textbook authors of reflecting conservative political views in their coverage of topics such as religion or slavery.

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Perhaps the most major current-day divide falls along the lines of content versus skills: Should history classes be about acquiring facts and information, or should they emphasize historical thinking abilities and processes? And if the latter, which skills and how might they best be taught? While a positivist view of history—the 19th-century notion that history was akin to a science, and that the accumulation of historical facts would eventually lead to an objective understanding of events—fell out of favor long ago, this idea seems to remain the operative assumption behind traditional history curricula that emphasize content, chronology, and comprehensiveness.

According to Bob Bain, a professor of history and education at the University of Michigan and faculty lead on the Big History Project , the debate over factual content versus skills—one that has actually waxed and waned ever since history emerged as a field of study a century and a half ago—pertains to a false dichotomy. “You can’t do historical thinking without facts, and you can’t acquire stuff without some sort of historical thinking,” he points out. A good history teacher can teach both effectively, agrees Elaine Carey, a history professor at St. John’s University and the former vice president of the teaching division of the American Historical Association. She emphasizes that teachers can teach “skills through content,” and that you “can’t understand historical continuity if you don’t have historical knowledge.”

The case method goes beyond historical skills and factual content; it aims to hone decision-making skills. Each case is a concentrated story about a specific episode in history. Students are asked what they would have decided had they been, say, an advocate arguing for compulsory public education in 1851, or Theodore Roosevelt deciding whether to intervene in a dispute between labor and industry in 1901. It’s not until after they have fully discussed the case that the historical outcome is revealed to them. (Class participation, even though it is mandatory, is enthusiastic: “We can have 40 hands in the air at any given moment,” Moss tells me.)

Few students think about history that way, according to Moss. Instead, they’re often taught that “what happened is what happened.” Unlike with many history courses, where students look back at historical events students in Moss’s course “play history forward. If you were in that place as that voter, that labor leader, or that congressperson, what decision would you have made?”

One of the reasons American children often appear to struggle in history, Bain says, is because their knowledge is primarily assessed through multiple-choice tests. Multiple-choice assessment, by nature, often privileges factual content over historical thinking. “If you’re testing historical content out of context, that might explain why they don’t do so well,” Bain says. He advocates embracing the use of narrative—even if that narrative is flawed or one-sided. “The grand narrative is pejorative to many in the historical profession—people say that it tries to inculcate a particular viewpoint in kids. But having a big picture or story is cognitively critical to historical knowledge.”

Similarly, history textbooks appear omniscient and objective, and tend to gloss over competing narratives. But educators say that understanding whose narrative is being told helps students to engage with it; even if it is wrong or they disagree with it, the narrative provides context and a more effective way to learn and remember. “The argument I make all the time is, it’s like if I were to ask someone to assemble a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle without the box-top picture of it. You could of course eventually put it together but the effort to match shapes and colors on each piece would be monumental, and you’d likely give up quite quickly. Such is what happens to many kids in school.”

It’s difficult to track down research corroborating the academic benefits of the case method, but anecdotal evidence speaks to its power. Moss tells me he has observed the results of story-based teaching in his classroom. “People remember cases incredibly well—and often at a level of detail that’s almost shocking. Stories stick in the mind, and when you learn history with a focus on particular stories it’s much easier to remember the pieces around them.”

David Kaufman, a student who took the course last year, says that discussing history through a series of cases allowed the students to “focus a lot more on the process than on, say, the actual legislative result, which I think was much richer.” It is well known that stories aid learning because of how memory is structured. The cognitive psychologist Jerome Bruner wrote of two modes of knowing: paradigmatic and narrative; with the latter, attention and emotion influence the strength of a memory. Stories activate emotion, which helps students stay engaged and remember. They also feed the human need to fit things into a coherent structure in order to make meaning of them.

All this makes the case method promising for high school, too, and some of Moss’s cases were indeed adopted for use by history teachers at public and private high schools in a pilot program beginning early last year. One of the participants, Eleanor Cannon, a history teacher at St. John’s School in Houston, expressed astonishment at how students who never thought of themselves as history types before grew to love history. “I’ve never had this experience as a teacher before, and it’s explicitly due to the case method—it’s a game changer.” Rather than merely know which decisions historical figures made, her students now understood why. Facts she had taught multiple times, such as that the Constitution was not handed down intact by the founders but emerged from a protracted period of intense tumult, debate, and compromise, made visceral sense now after students read and discussed a case on James Madison and the making of the Constitution. (As one student told Cannon, “I didn’t realize how much they argued!”)

Moss compares immersion in case after case to batting practice that helps train judgment. The idea is to help students develop an instinct for how to respond even to problems—whether they be furor over same sex marriage or a massive financial crisis—that feel unprecedented. Through sheer repetitive exposure to problems and problem-solving, students learn the art of decision-making—and develop better judgment—in “much the same way as you might learn a language. It’s not an algorithm, it’s the development of an instinct—at least in part,” says Moss. They also provide historical perspective when looking at problems today.

Take the current debate over immigration. Although none of Moss’s cases focuses principally on immigration, themes of exclusion/inclusion are woven throughout, potentially reminding readers that unpleasant historical episodes have happened again and again. A group of people will become accepted into the fold, only to see the fire turned on another one; who the “threatening” outgroup is always changing. “You can see it as deeply disturbing,” Moss says, “that there always seemed to be an outgroup that some Americans looked down upon, but you could also see that there is an ongoing process of expanding tolerance, over time. This doesn’t create an excuse for bigotry—absolutely not—but it does give you a little hope that when there is bigotry it’s not necessarily permanent; there is a chance to get past it, group by group, with the result eventually being a broader, more tolerant society.”

One of Moss’s arguments about democracy is that it is far more complex than people tend to realize—that “it is not a machine built to specification.” Instead, democracy can be understood as a living organism that thrives on productive tension, engagement, and change. Without movement, it would die. Moss mentions the de facto national motto first suggested in 1776 by Benjamin Franklin: E Pluribus Unum . “Out of many, one.” Franklin saw difference that achieves common purpose as a core strength of the country. If one were to apply this analogy to history, ongoing debates about how to teach it only enhance the field—as long as educators remain committed to the same shared goal of helping students understand the past in order to face the future. “The best ideas come out of tension, out of disagreeing,” Moss tells his students. “Tension is what ensures the best ideas win out.”

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Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Case-Based Teaching & Learning Initiative

Teaching cases & active learning resources for public health education, teaching & learning with the case method.

2023. Case Compendium, University of California Berkeley Haas School of Business Center for Equity, Gender & Leadership . Visit website This resource, compiled by the Berkeley Haas Center for Equity, Gender & Leadership, is "a case compendium that includes: (a) case studies with diverse protagonists, and (b) case studies that build “equity fluency” by focusing on DEI-related issues and opportunities. The goal of the compendium is to support professors at Haas, and business schools globally, to identify cases they can use in their own classrooms, and ultimately contribute to advancing DEI in education and business."

Kane, N.M. , 2014. Benefits of Case-Based Teaching . Watch video Watch a demonstration of Prof. Nancy Kane teaching public health with the case method. (Part 3 of 3, 3 minutes)

Kane, N.M. , 2014. Case teaching demonstration: Should a health plan cover medical tourism? . Watch video Watch a demonstration of Prof. Nancy Kane teaching public health with the case method. (Part 2 of 3, 17 minutes)

Kane, N.M. , 2014. Case-based teaching at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health . Watch video Watch a demonstration of Prof. Nancy Kane teaching public health with the case method. (Part 1 of 3, 10 minutes)

2019. The Case Centre . Visit website A non-profit clearing house for materials on the case method, the Case Centre holds a large and diverse collection of cases, articles, book chapters and teaching materials, including the collections of leading business schools across the globe.

Austin, S.B. & Sonneville, K.R. , 2013. Closing the "know-do" gap: training public health professionals in eating disorders prevention via case-method teaching. International Journal of Eating Disorders , 46 (5) , pp. 533-537. Read online Abstract Expansion of our societies' capacity to prevent eating disorders will require strategic integration of the topic into the curricula of professional training programs. An ideal way to integrate new content into educational programs is through the case-method approach, a teaching method that is more effective than traditional teaching techniques. The Strategic Training Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders has begun developing cases designed to be used in classroom settings to engage students in topical, high-impact issues in public health approaches to eating disorders prevention and screening. Dissemination of these cases will provide an opportunity for students in public health training programs to learn material in a meaningful context by actively applying skills as they are learning them, helping to bridge the "know-do" gap. The new curriculum is an important step toward realizing the goal that public health practitioners be fully equipped to address the challenge of eating disorders prevention. "Expansion of our societies' capacity to prevent eating disorders will require strategic integration of the topic into the curricula of professional training programs. An ideal way to integrate new content into educational programs is through the case-method approach, a teaching method that is more effective than traditional teaching techniques." Access full article with HarvardKey . 

Ellet, W. , 2018. The Case Study Handbook, Revised Edition: A Student's Guide , Harvard Business School Publishing. Publisher's Version "If you're like many people, you may find interpreting and writing about cases mystifying and time-consuming. In The Case Study Handbook, Revised Edition , William Ellet presents a potent new approach for efficiently analyzing, discussing, and writing about cases."

Andersen, E. & Schiano, B. , 2014. Teaching with Cases: A Practical Guide , Harvard Business School Publishing. Publisher's Version "The class discussion inherent in case teaching is well known for stimulating the development of students' critical thinking skills, yet instructors often need guidance on managing that class discussion to maximize learning. Teaching with Cases focuses on practical advice for instructors that can be easily implemented. It covers how to plan a course, how to teach it, and how to evaluate it." 

Honan, J. & Sternman Rule, C. , 2002. Case Method Instruction Versus Lecture-Based Instruction R. Reis, ed. Tomorrow's Professor . Read online "Faculty and discussion leaders who incorporate the case study method into their teaching offer various reasons for their enthusiasm for this type of pedagogy over more traditional, such as lecture-based, instructional methods and routes to learning." Exerpt from the book Using Cases in Higher Education: A Guide for Faculty and Administrators , by James P. Honan and Cheryl Sternman Rule.

Austin, J. , 1993. Teaching Notes: Communicating the Teacher's Wisdom , Harvard Business School Publishing. Publisher's Version "Provides guidance for the preparation of teaching notes. Sets forth the rationale for teaching notes, what they should contain and why, and how they can be prepared. Based on the experiences of Harvard Business School faculty."

Abell, D. , 1997. What makes a good case? . ECCHO–The Newsletter of the European Case Clearing House , 17 (1) , pp. 4-7. Read online "Case writing is both art and science. There are few, if any, specific prescriptions or recipes, but there are key ingredients that appear to distinguish excellent cases from the run-of-the-mill. This technical note lists ten ingredients to look for if you are teaching somebody else''s case - and to look out for if you are writing it yourself."

Herreid, C.F. , 2001. Don't! What not to do when teaching cases. Journal of College Science Teaching , 30 (5) , pp. 292. Read online "Be warned, I am about to unleash a baker’s dozen of 'don’ts' for aspiring case teachers willing to try running a classroom discussion armed with only a couple of pages of a story and a lot of chutzpah."

Garvin, D.A. , 2003. Making the case: Professional education for the world of practice . Harvard Magazine , 106 (1) , pp. 56-65. Read online A history and overview of the case-method in professional schools, which all “face the same difficult challenge: how to prepare students for the world of practice. Time in the classroom must somehow translate directly into real-world activity: how to diagnose, decide, and act."

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The Case Study Teaching Method

It is easy to get confused between the case study method and the case method , particularly as it applies to legal education. The case method in legal education was invented by Christopher Columbus Langdell, Dean of Harvard Law School from 1870 to 1895. Langdell conceived of a way to systematize and simplify legal education by focusing on previous case law that furthered principles or doctrines. To that end, Langdell wrote the first casebook, entitled A Selection of Cases on the Law of Contracts , a collection of settled cases that would illuminate the current state of contract law. Students read the cases and came prepared to analyze them during Socratic question-and-answer sessions in class.

The Harvard Business School case study approach grew out of the Langdellian method. But instead of using established case law, business professors chose real-life examples from the business world to highlight and analyze business principles. HBS-style case studies typically consist of a short narrative (less than 25 pages), told from the point of view of a manager or business leader embroiled in a dilemma. Case studies provide readers with an overview of the main issue; background on the institution, industry, and individuals involved; and the events that led to the problem or decision at hand. Cases are based on interviews or public sources; sometimes, case studies are disguised versions of actual events or composites based on the faculty authors’ experience and knowledge of the subject. Cases are used to illustrate a particular set of learning objectives; as in real life, rarely are there precise answers to the dilemma at hand.

Our suite of free materials offers a great introduction to the case study method. We also offer review copies of our products free of charge to educators and staff at degree-granting institutions.

For more information on the case study teaching method, see:

• Martha Minow and Todd Rakoff: A Case for Another Case Method
• HLS Case Studies Blog: Legal Education’s 9 Big Ideas
• Teaching Units: Problem Solving , Advanced Problem Solving , Skills , Decision Making and Leadership , Professional Development for Law Firms , Professional Development for In-House Counsel
• Educator Community: Tips for Teachers

Watch this informative video about the Problem-Solving Workshop:

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The Case Study method: 100 years young

On its 100th anniversary, the discussion-based learning method keeps evolving

Case study discussions can also take place in a variety of different contexts, whether studied in person, in hybrid formats or through our virtual classroom.

May 3, 2021

This year commemorates the 100 th anniversary of the first written case study, produced by Harvard Business School back in April 1921. IESE joins in the celebration because it’s one of the academic institutions that has helped spearhead the use of the case method outside the U.S. , educating more than 60,000 professionals with this methodology and producing around 6,200 original cases through more than 60 years of history.

But what is the case study method exactly, and why is it still relevant now?

The main reason the case method is still relevant today is that it works. It’s a dynamic, practical way to study, which puts students in the shoes of senior executives, allowing them to practice solving real-life business problems and making strategic decisions.

It is also an example of a learning methodology based on the exchange of ideas and debate. At IESE, we recognize that the best way to learn is through interacting with others, and having your perspectives and assumptions challenged and stretched . The case study is one example of how we do this, alongside a variety of other discussion-based learning methodologies , such as business simulations, coaching or experiential learning.

For the case method, this means that passively sitting in a lecture room doesn’t cut it. Instead, all participants are required to discuss and reflect on the issues at hand. Here, the professor acts more as a facilitator, guiding the conversation and teasing out the various ethical and business implications of each case. The discussions also draw upon the diverse industry experiences, cultural backgrounds and mindsets of each individual in class, further enriching the learning process.

New content and formats, same impact

Throughout the last 100 years, the case method has been able to adapt with the times by constantly evolving . Indeed, in the last three years, 200 new cases have been written by IESE professors on the most pressing issues happening now. An example of this is the case of how Barcelona-based Vall d’Hebron University Hospital managed the first wave of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Our cases also have a distinct international perspective, reflecting the diversity of the school, faculty and students. While many assume most case studies just focus on big North American companies, at IESE our cases cover not only big name companies like YouTube and Spotify but also companies in emerging countries and young startups. We also have one of the largest collections in the world of Spanish-language cases.

Having a diverse set of cases to study – and a diverse student body to discuss them with – is the key to encouraging those lively and enriching debates that are so crucial to broadening participants’ perspectives.

In addition to content, nowadays cases are available in a variety of formats , such as audio cases that allow participants to listen to a case as they would a podcast, and simulations, among others.

Case study discussions can also take place in a variety of different contexts, whether studied in person, in hybrid formats or through our virtual classroom. This reflects the fact that today’s managers require educational solutions that allow for flexibility , but that also guarantee interaction with others and personalized follow-up.

IESE has one of the largest collections of Spanish-language cases in the world. The full catalog is available in the IESE Publishing online store, which also distributes the cases of 15 leading universities. Here, we present some of the more recent challenges from cases that we have produced .

“At IESE, our focus is on delivering the best learning experience possible, regardless of the format or context. As technologies advance, the case method also continues to evolve. Yet the essence of how executives learn best – and the value that comes from sharing knowledge and exchanging viewpoints with a diverse set of peers – remains the same,” said Prof. Julia Prats .

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How the HBS Case Method Works

How the Case Method Works

• Read and analyze the case. Each case is a 10-20 page document written from the viewpoint of a real person leading a real organization. In addition to background information on the situation, each case ends in a key decision to be made. Your job is to sift through the information, incomplete by design, and decide what you would do.
• Discuss the case. Each morning, you’ll bring your ideas to a small team of classmates from diverse professional backgrounds, your discussion group, to share your findings and listen to theirs. Together, you begin to see the case from different perspectives, better preparing you for class.
• Engage in class. Be prepared to change the way you think as you debate with classmates the best path forward for this organization. The highly engaged conversation is facilitated by the faculty member, but it’s driven by your classmates’ comments and experiences. HBS brings together amazingly talented people from diverse backgrounds and puts that experience front and center. Students do the majority of the talking (and lots of active listening), and your job is to better understand the decision at hand, what you would do in the case protagonist’s shoes, and why. You will not leave a class thinking about the case the same way you thought about it coming in! In addition to learning more about many businesses, in the case method you will develop communication, listening, analysis, and leadership skills. It is a truly dynamic and immersive learning environment.
• Reflect. The case method prepares you to be in leadership positions where you will face time-sensitive decisions with limited information. Reflecting on each class discussion will prepare you to face these situations in your future roles.

Student Perspectives

“I’ve been so touched by how dedicated other people have been to my learning and my success.”

Faculty Perspectives

“The world desperately needs better leadership. It’s actually one of the great gifts of teaching here, you can do something about it.”

Alumni Perspectives

“You walk into work every morning and it's like a fire hose of decisions that need to be made, often without enough information. Just like an HBS case.”

Celebrating the Inaugural HBS Case

“How do you go into an ambiguous situation and get to the bottom of it? That skill – the skill of figuring out a course of inquiry, to choose a course of action – that skill is as relevant today as it was in 1921.”

Prepare your students to navigate business challenges by immersing them in real-world scenarios.

Transform business education

Bring excitement into your classroom with engaging case discussions and introduce students to the challenge and fun of making important decisions.

Illustrate business concepts

Help students learn by doing with over 50,000+ cases featuring real-world business scenarios spanning across multiple areas of business.

Encourage new ways of thinking

Student build confidence and critical thinking skills while learning to express their ideas and convince others, setting them up for success in the real world.

Explore Different Types of Cases

Find cases that meet your particular needs.

New! Quick Cases

Quickly immerse students in focused and engaging business dilemmas. No student prep time required.

Traditional cases from HBS and 50+ leading business schools.

Multimedia Cases

Cases that keep students engaged with video, audio, and interactive components.

Search Cases in Your Discipline

Select a discipline and start browsing available cases.

• Business & Government Relations
• Business Ethics
• Entrepreneurship
• General Management
• Human Resource Management
• Information Technology
• International Business
• Negotiation
• Operations Management
• Organizational Behavior
• Service Management
• Social Enterprise

Case Teaching Seminar

Register now for our Teaching with Cases Seminar at Harvard Business School, held June 21 - 22 . Learn how to lead case discussions like a pro and earn a certificate from Harvard Business Publishing.

Fundamentals of Case Teaching

Our new, self-paced, online course guides you through the fundamentals for leading successful case discussions at any course level.

Case Companion: Build Students’ Confidence in Case Analysis

Case Companion is an engaging and interactive introduction to case study analysis that is ideal for undergraduates or any student new to learning with cases.

Discover Trending Cases

Stay up to date on cases from leading business schools.

Discover new ideas for your courses

Course Explorer lets you browse learning materials by topic, curated by our editors, partners, and faculty from leading business schools. 

Teach with Cases

Explore resources designed to help you bring the case method into your classroom.

Inspiring Minds Articles on Case Teaching

Insights from leading educators about teaching with the case method.

Book: Teaching with Cases: A Practical Guide

A book featuring practical advice for instructors on managing class discussion to maximize learning.

Webinar: How ChatGPT and Other AI Tools Can Maximize the Learning Potential of Your Case-Based Classes

Register now.

Supplements: Inside the Case

Teaching tips and insights from case authors.

Guide: Teaching Cases Online

A guide for experienced educators who are new to online case teaching.

Educator Training: Selecting Cases to Use in Your Classes

Find the right materials to achieve your learning goals.

Educator Training: Teaching with Cases

Key strategies and practical advice for engaging students using the case method.

Frequently Asked Questions

What support can I offer my students around analyzing cases and preparing for discussion?

Case discussions can be a big departure from the norm for students who are used to lecture-based classes. The Case Analysis Coach is an interactive tutorial on reading and analyzing a case study. The Case Study Handbook covers key skills students need to read, understand, discuss and write about cases. The Case Study Handbook is also available as individual chapters to help your students focus on specific skills.

How can I transfer my in-person case teaching plan to an online environment?

The case method can be used in an online environment without sacrificing its benefits. We have compiled a few resources to help you create transformative online learning experiences with the case method. Learn how HBS brought the case method online in this podcast , gather some quick guidance from the article " How to Teach Any Case Online ", review the Teaching Cases Online Guide for a deep dive, and check out our Teaching Online Resources Page for more insights and inspiration.

After 35 years as an academic, I have come to the conclusion that there is a magic in the way Harvard cases are written. Cases go from specific to general, to show students that business situations are amenable to hard headed analysis that then generalize to larger theoretical insights. The students love it! Akshay Rao Professor, General Mills Chair in Marketing at the University of Minnesota

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