“The Indian market is growing rapidly.” Would business owners decide to expand to India if they believed solely in these words?

Have you heard about the “field,” a trending topic in Harvard Business School, the mecca of MBAs? An MBA can easily be associated with intense discussions surrounding a “case study,” but what is beginning to gain attention as a new management education method is the “field study.” In its background is the practical (field) study in India and South America that Harvard Business School has been conducting with all full-time students in the first-year of its MBA program in recent years.

Returning to the previous subject, when you hear the words, “Rapidly Growing India,” don’t you arbitrarily make a fascinating assumption that the local logistics infrastructure is made up of asphalt like that of Japan? But by visiting the location and observing it, it is possible to understand a reality that is much more complex and unimaginable with macro statistical figures alone.

The more business schools put case studies into practice, the stronger they must feel the limitation of only studying in the classroom. How field studies such as the above are incorporated into MBA education will likely be a key issue in the future.