Harvard's Case Study Empire

The speakers discuss competing with Harvard Business Review's case study business, which generates significant revenue by selling business case studies to universities for classroom use.

Key Points:

• Current Market Dominance:

  • Harvard controls 80% of business school case study market
  • Sells 15-18M case studies annually
  • Revenue of $262M (2019), with ~$200M from case studies alone
  • Serves 4,000 universities

• Business Model:

  • Professors have university credit cards on file
  • Click-to-purchase system for bulk ordering ($10-20 per case study)
  • Recurring revenue as schools purchase yearly
  • High revenue per employee ($582k)

• Market Entry Challenges:

  • Harvard brand credential matters more than content quality
  • Professors prefer Harvard case studies due to perceived value
  • "Nobody gets fired for buying Harvard" mentality
  • Harvard has massive resources ($40B endowment) to compete

• Potential Opportunity:

  • Focus on technology sector case studies
  • Target both schools and companies for management training
  • Create more current, cutting-edge content
  • But must overcome Harvard's brand advantage