HBS = Case Studies overload, the corporate type of cases....
1. It is really how for driven and greedy, (please don't neg me), people to channel their energy into money making, as that is the emphasis.
2. The brand power. It will unlock you doors just b/c of the name, especially in the corporate world. Think of it, nobody will get fired b/c they hired a Harvard grad, just as as nobody will get fired b/c they use java, or xml.
3. Connections. Lot of smart people, and some of them will be bound to be somewhat important one day, so they can help you out. the proverbial old-boys-club kinda of thing. This was true, especially during the wall street's financial bubble madness.
If you are looking into technology/mobile/internet companies, I am not sure I could recommend it. HBS doesn't quiet get tech. Since you are working with case studies, you by default are looking/studying the past, and not the future.
For traditional businesses, yes. Fedex was started there (as a class project), so my favorite dessert place (Finales).
Disclaimer: I haven't gone to HBS, but I know people that have, and have been to few of their classes as an observer, and took some classes at Harvard Extension. (part of fas, not hbs), but who were taught by HBS professors..
HBS has an Entrepreneurship Club which holds a yearly Entrepreneurship Conference, and it is definitely part of the curriculum, but in the past the real emphasis has been on assimilating MBA students into mainstream corporate culture, and not as much on starting new businesses. That may change now that the economy has shifted somewhat dramatically.
Anyone interested in HBS should read Philip Delves Broughton's book "Ahead of the Curve" about his experience there.
Much of the MBA class is Consulting & Investment Banking types, but there are plenty of entrepreneurs & future entrepreneurs at Harvard Business School.
I'm an HBS'er who has also started 3 companies over the past few years (including one while at HBS). I'd say HBS definitely emphasizes supporting entrepreneurship, but it's not the way that you'd expect. HBS is a great place to start a company not so much because you learn about entrepreneurship in the classes as much as the place is so well setup as a platform to support people starting companies.
Yes, HBS is all about the case method for its classes. It's actually a great way to learn. It is very time consuming, all-encompassing, and incredibly powerful if you commit yourself to it rather than blow it off the way many post-consulting, post-finance students may. The case studies will give you some tools that are really helpful in organizing a business, but they will not show you how to do it. The only way to learn how to start a company (in my opinion) is to actually do it yourself. The reason HBS is a great place to start a company is that you have access to all of Harvard, MIT, Babson, Boston University, several world-class hospitals, and many venture capitalists in the Boston area. HBS offers a protected time where you can get successful entrepreneurs (your professors, case protagonists who come in, classmates, etc) to help you come up with ideas, get in contact with people, and create something of enduring value. You are surrounded by classmates from any industry you could imagine who are connected at the very top who are excited to just have lunch and talk about whatever you want to talk about.
While it's true that many people out of HBS go to work at a company, the statistics show that more than 50% of HBS graduates ultimately do start their own companies, often only a couple years after leaving HBS. If you look at the sorts of companies they start there are many really great companies, not just random me-too sorts of small tech companies based on relatively thin IP.
I think it's really easy to dismiss a place like HBS as a place that just churns out consultants and crappy I-bankers. In all honesty I looked at HBS, and MBA programs in general, like that a few years ago too. I was a techy who thought most business people only had a limited amount to add to any true entrepreneurial endeavor. I still think that's the case for many business types and surely HBS still pumps out its fair share of consultants and crappy-douchebag I-bankers. Nevertheless, there are also some world-class entrepreneurs there. People who will and have changed the world in far more significant ways than most technical folks who think the way I used to will ever really appreciate.
Also, just for the record, I know there are a group of HBS'ers who do read HN regularly and have attended Startup School. I for one have not signed up for hndir.com yet and I'm guessing most of them haven't either. I have my yahoo mail account that I'll use to sign up for random sites, but I'm a bit more selective about how I use my .edu account and it's not clear from the website that they won't use this for spam. Overall I like the idea though. Just my 2 cents.
