It used to be that, if you wanted to learn by the famous Harvard Business School case method, you had to spend two years of your life and well over $100,000 to attend the famous Boston institution and study 3 'cases' a day in order to gather the instincts and experience of a storied Harvard Business School graduate. 

This is no longer the case.  There are many business schools around the world who have adopted, in part or altogether, Harvard's case method to teach business.  Even fairly well-known quantitative schools, such as the University of Chicago or the MIT Sloan School , have adopted cases as a part of their core curriculum.

What is the Case Method?

The case method, founded in 1912 at Harvard Business School , uses actual business 'cases,' or examples, in order to give students the tools they need to analyze a situation, understand a problem and come up with the solution.  The case method allows students to simulate a business experience with all of its complexities, and without actually having to be the manager in place in order to make the decision.

Harvard Business School's method of learning through cases was founded on the principle that, by analyzing true business problems every day, their aspiring MBA's could gather decades of business experience in only a couple of years, and gain confidence in how to analyze a problem and present a solution to their peers.

The Case Method is Really Simulation.

So the case method is, at base, a way to distill the everyday world for people involved in business and give them a series of problems to solve that parallel what they would find in their future business careers.  The elements of the Case Method are what we find in any good simulation: understanding the environment, presenting challenges, collaborating with teammates who can bring their point of view, and working together with others in order to solve problems in a reasonable way.

As in any simulation, there is never the same 'roadmap' of problems or situations, and there is never one sole 'best' solution to complete the task.  As in real life, the simulation incorporates the variability of the environment and other humans who are involved—both on the friendly and 'enemy' sides—and the unpredictability that can accompany such decisions.

The

Best Way

to Simulate these Days is Online.

In 1912, when Harvard developed the first cases, the only way to share these experiences was through the written word.   Modern methods use the Internet in a massively networked way to involve people from around the world.  Internal logic in each game allows complex situations to arise as the students or game players interact.  These tools have enabled the Harvard case method to be brought to modern times, enabling interaction that was not possible in previous times.

One of the first truly interactive methods based on the case method is at the Informatist

(www.informatist.net ).  The tools presented there allow students to work together in a fully interactive environment.  Learning business can be fun with the internet tools present on the Informatist website.

It used to be that, if you wanted to learn by the famous Harvard Business School case method, you had to spend two years of your life and well over $100,000 to attend the famous Boston institution and study 3 'cases' a day in order to gather the instincts and experience of a storied Harvard Business School graduate. 

This is no longer the case.  There are many business schools around the world who have adopted, in part or altogether, Harvard's case method to teach business.  Even fairly well-known quantitative schools, such as the University of Chicago or the MIT Sloan School , have adopted cases as a part of their core curriculum.

What is the Case Method?

The case method, founded in 1912 at Harvard Business School , uses actual business 'cases,' or examples, in order to give students the tools they need to analyze a situation, understand a problem and come up with the solution.  The case method allows students to simulate a business experience with all of its complexities, and without actually having to be the manager in place in order to make the decision.

Harvard Business School's method of learning through cases was founded on the principle that, by analyzing true business problems every day, their aspiring MBA's could gather decades of business experience in only a couple of years, and gain confidence in how to analyze a problem and present a solution to their peers.

The Case Method is Really Simulation.

So the case method is, at base, a way to distill the everyday world for people involved in business and give them a series of problems to solve that parallel what they would find in their future business careers.  The elements of the Case Method are what we find in any good simulation: understanding the environment, presenting challenges, collaborating with teammates who can bring their point of view, and working together with others in order to solve problems in a reasonable way.

As in any simulation, there is never the same 'roadmap' of problems or situations, and there is never one sole 'best' solution to complete the task.  As in real life, the simulation incorporates the variability of the environment and other humans who are involved—both on the friendly and 'enemy' sides—and the unpredictability that can accompany such decisions.

The

Best Way

to Simulate these Days is Online.

In 1912, when Harvard developed the first cases, the only way to share these experiences was through the written word.   Modern methods use the Internet in a massively networked way to involve people from around the world.  Internal logic in each game allows complex situations to arise as the students or game players interact.  These tools have enabled the Harvard case method to be brought to modern times, enabling interaction that was not possible in previous times.

One of the first truly interactive methods based on the case method is at the Informatist

(www.informatist.net ).  The tools presented there allow students to work together in a fully interactive environment.  Learning business can be fun with the internet tools present on the Informatist website.

Well-known business schools have developed simulations of actual business plans for decades.  The Harvard Business School-developed "Case Method" began in 1912, and has been honed to the point that there are over 30,000 business 'cases' which are in active use today at Harvard and many other business schools around the world.

The business simulation game presented at ( www.informatist.net ) does what the Harvard case method does, but in a way that involves thousands of high school and college business students in a fun, online, massively participatory way that allows many people from around the world to learn about business and have fun at the same time.

The Case Method—the First Business Simulation.

So how did the case method teach business to the last few generations?  A business case developed an understanding of a particular business—the 'set-up,' which gave the business student a way to understand the business and environment.  The case then developed a problem facing a particular manager—let's call him Mr. Smith, who may be running a production plant in a facility far from headquarters.

In a typical case, Smith might be sitting at his desk at 10 o'clock at night, worrying about a problem that he must solve.  It could be related to production problems, labor problems or a competitive onslaught that is difficult to respond to.  The business school student must understand the problem, quickly evaluate the key factors of the business involved, and come up with a solution to the problem that makes sense to those in the business school class. 

In many cases, the case was written based on actual decisions that needed to be made by mid-level and high-level managers in real companies.  And many of these managers would attend the business school class in order to understand how the business school students would formulate, analyze and propose solutions for the problem.

The Informatist Mimics Business School Case Methods.

The developers of ( www.informatist.net ) developed a method that parallels the case method used at Harvard Business School and many other business schools around the world.  They knew that in a game simulation environment the student would naturally take in the components that he or she needed to know in order to bring a solution to the problem.  Unlike a business school case, where the student might have to read 50 or a hundred pages, the Informatist method allowed students to learn the data they needed to succeed almost by osmosis—they absorbed a lot of information without realizing that they were doing so. 

Having fund and learning business at the same time—the Informatist is both fun and a learning experience at the same time.

How can you teach business principles to high school students?  It is so far from the experience of high school students and their teachers, that it is difficult to imagine how students can obtain direct exposure to the issues that businessmen face every day.

Fortunately, many high school students are exposed to massive online gaming, and are used to the challenge and excitement of working with other people their own age around their world through their broadband connection.  Such games as Halo, Age of Fantasy and the like allow teenagers to interact to resolve issues with people they've never met.

Working with online business simulation.

Up to the present day, there were few options available to teenagers wanting to learn about business.  About the only option available was online Monopoly with up to four participants—a game developed in the 1930's, and hardly a learning tool to prepare teenagers for the challenges of modern business life.

During the same time that social sites were building (My Space, the Sims, and others), there were no sites that gave students the 'real' feeling of business simulation.  The technology was built apace, but the elements of fun and mass participation didn't seem to be available.

Business is about collaboration and team-building.

Business simulation needs to have a strong human component in order to be successful.  Fred Xue, the founder of Informatist.net, responded to this issue as he and his colleagues looked for ways to teach business to high school and college students.  "We were genuinely puzzled at the lack of teaching tools for students to learn business," he said.  "We knew that business problems require interaction, and our idea was to use the tools developed for massive online gaming to introduce business principles to students."

We learn through playing.

What children call 'playing' is actually hard-wired into our mental architecture, and allows us to learn while having fun at the same time.  It is clear that students are exposed to business principles by rote, with dry presentation of business law, accounting and business analysis that, while accurate, does little to expose the student to the real-world lessons of the world.

Young children play together for hours at a time.  They are learning social interaction and relating with others.  High school and college students do the same thing with their collaborative courses.  While children call this 'playing,' society terms what we do in school 'learning.'  There's not much difference between the two.

Business Simulation s Provide Real-World Experience.

Playing a business simulation game, such as ( www.informatist.net ) gives students the ability to learn the principles of business while, at the same time, having a chance to socialize with people they've never  met before.  This parallels the experience that students have during a 2-year course of MBA business, in which students collaborate to come up with good business solutions in competition with other groups which are trying to succeed in resolving business problems.  'Playing' a business game is actually a great way to learn how business really works.

Traditional methods of teaching don't work for business-oriented students. Although they must learn a panoply of legal, accounting and other specialties, a dry recitation of business techniques doesn't have much application to the real world. As a result, many business courses are turning to computer games online with massive participation to teach the fundamentals of business to the latest generation of participants. Continuation of 'the Case Method' under Another Name. The idea behind business simulation is quite simple: create an online virtual reality which brings together many of the complex interactions between individuals that we find in the 'real' business world. Playing any online game is fun and involving; playing a business 'game' online also helps us to learn a lot. Business games are a continuation of what is called the 'case method,' or the creation and solution of business cases that parallel real, live business situations. For decades, business school students and professors wrote cases according the the Harvard Business School 'Case Method,' which allowed students to discuss the problems amongst themselves and come up with group solutions. Students learned quickly that there is no 'right' solution, but rather many 'good-enough' solutions to real-world business problems. They also learned to develop an instinct on approaching and solving real-world business problems. How to Participate in a Massively Online Business Game. Until recently, only online Monopoly offered the opportunity to try one's hand against others—hardly a real-world simulation. There's now a free, online, massive participation business game called "Informatist," which can be reached at informatistThis site allows you to register under an assumed name and to get started right away! One of the most interesting parts of informatist is that you have a chance to play with and against real-world budding businesspeople from around the world. Although the site is in English, it attracts students from Europe , China and Southeast Asia in a way that allows you to learn business practices in a whole new way. More than a recitation of dry business principles, Informatist brings together like-minded high school and college students to learn important business principles.