MBA News: HBS Begins to Address the Financial Crisis

In this morning’s Harvard Crimson, readers will find an article on HBS’s attempts to alter and “freshen” their courses to address the roots and causes of the financial crisis. According to the article, HBS students in the required first-year course “Business, Government, and the International Economy” will read cases on the demise of the Icelandic banking system and on broader impacts of the crisis on the developing world. In addition, HBS has added a second-year elective called “Managing the Financial Firm,” which will have guests speakers, including Wall Street analysts and SEC officials, and is adapting its courses “Creating the Modern Financial System” and “Consumer Finance,” adding new cases.  Some have already complained that this is only a minor shift, but they have to start somewhere. Don’t they?