Harvard Business School Executive Education 2021 Study Exchange Report / Kazushige Sakai

Experiencing the Case Method at Harvard Business School on the 100–year Anniversary, with World Class Executives.

On October 31 2021, the day I had been looking forward to finally arrived. “Changing The Game”, one of the most famous executive programs in Harvard Business School, opened on site after 2 years of online sessions only, due to COVID-19.

Changing The Game is a famous program known for negotiation training, where students will develop the psychological insights and practical skills needed to bargain more effectively, make better decisions on the spot, build win-win relationship and consistently deliver results. This program is also presented by world famous professors, Prof. Max Bazerman, Prof. Deepak Malhotra and Prof. Guhan Subramanian.

I originally planned to take this program before graduating from NUCB BS in 2019, however, the program I applied for in my NUCB BS stay was changed to an online session due to COVID-19. Since I thought it should be more valuable for me to take the program on campus rather than online, meeting the other students from different countries in the world in person, I decided to postpone it until the class returned on campus again, in the centenary year of the introduction of the case method at Harvard Business School. It was my later discovery that the HBS program would be tough due to the high competences among many applicants from all over the world, and without a recommendation from NUCB, I probably could not have an opportunity to in such high competences.

The campus and facilities were well kept safe from COVID-19 and every student were required to take the vaccine before arriving at the campus. HBS also provides every student with a PCR test for free. These well established safeguards make everyone feel comfortable and be able to focus on the program.

The class had 68 people from 27 countries and was organized by the executives from the various backgrounds and careers, a director of large company, an entrepreneur, a family business owner, a doctor and an investment banker. The program of Changing The Game includes a variety of simulations from one on one to three on three team negotiations in addition to regular case studies and discussions.

Every student actively participated in the class, and I was astounded and overwhelmed by their influential comments and their confident attitude during discussions, which gave me lots of inspirations and deep insights every day.

Then, while advancing the group session and simulation in the class we got to know each other well and made great networks out of the classroom.

It is obvious that the negotiation strategy in the program brings me practical thinking and skills in my business, then I feel this experience has raised my negotiating ability, which can make my own career more successful. My learning in HBS helped me to see my career in a new light, which gave me a great opportunity to think how to establish win-win partnerships in business and to obtain truly meaningful results though negotiations.

Study Abroad Experience

Of course, over the 4 classes we were able to deeply study various themes, but what was most valuable was being able to meet people from several countries. When I first applied for the program, I anticipated that I would only be have superficial interactions during online lessons and it would be difficult to develop lasting relationships afterwards. However, once the class commenced, there was a great deal of emphasis on mutual interaction between students and I had many opportunities to talk with students from other countries. Not only that, some students even contacted me individually after class, and some were also interested in internships at the company I work for.

For me, initially thinking there may be little to gain from not being able to take classes in person on campus due to the pandemic, what I learned through this "online" study abroad was beyond my imagination. In addition to this, in each class, various current affairs issues progressing in real time, including the COVID situation, were included as themes in each class, building a high quality program. I would like to make use of the experience I gained in the short but intense time of four weeks in my future career. 4 weeks may be a short time, but in this intensive period I gained much experience which I hope to utilise in my career going forward.