Harvard Business School Press: The Preeminent Business Publisher

Harvard Business School Press or HBSP is the publishing arm of Harvard Business School Publishing. It is a not for profit organization and is an owned subsidiary of the well-respected and admired Harvard Business School. The profits earned from the sale of its publications are used for funding research performed at Harvard Business School.

Harvard Business School Press is actually a large corporation that encompasses the group that publishes books often used in the Harvard Business School itself. The sole shareholder of HBSP is the Dean of Harvard Business School.

Harvard Business School Press was founded in 1984, 76 years after the establishment of Harvard Business School. Its main purpose is to publish and provide business books not only to its students but also to entrepreneurs and organizations. Due to the high quality of its publications and the stringent standards it has maintained over the years, Harvard Business School Press has become a very influential force in the business world. It is touted as one of the best sources of business ideas and has been involved in the implementation of many of the most prevalent business concepts today.

Mission and values

Harvard Business School Press aims to contribute to the improvement of management and business practices by developing media services and products that provide organizations and individuals with valuable ideas and concepts. Their goal is to become the top choice as a publisher by content providers, experts and authors who provide influential ideas in both business and management.

A meticulous process of editing

Harvard Business School Press is highly distinguished in the field of publishing due in part to its exacting editorial process and practices. In order for a manuscript to see print, it is reviewed, assessed and edited by some of the industry's most respected experts and peers. Only the best and most reliable publications are then released for distribution.

Key publications of Harvard Business School Press

Harvard Business School Press is the publisher of the preeminent Harvard Business Review. This publication is one of the top magazines on general management that provides research-based articles and information. It has one of the largest readerships in the industry and is well-respected by business experts and academics. To date, its circulation is about 240,000 (for the English language publication) and has 11 editions licensed, including releases in German, Portuguese and Chinese.

This is the same publication responsible for introducing certain business terms to the lexicon, such as: 'glass ceiling', 're-engineering', 'globalization', 'core competence' and 'strategic intent', among others.

Some of its leading titles include: Michael Watkins' 'The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels', Huselid, Becker and Beatty's 'The Workforce Scorecard: Managing Human Capital to Execute Strategy', Robert Kaplan and David Norton's 'The Strategy-Focused Organization' and 'Strategy Maps' and 'How Customers Think: Essential Insights Into the Mind of the Market'.

Harvard Business School Press also publishes works by its faculty, including books, manuals, working papers, published articles, case studies, course notes and teaching notes. The Press also accepts manuscripts from other writers and academics outside its educational system and also allows requests and offers to translate any of its publications. Case studies may be requested from the Press' case collection but they are strictly for educational purposes only and will not be released for research or media distribution.

Harvard Business School Press has approximately 400 book titles already in print.
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How to Find the Best Business Schools

You are in the workplace and you find that you are working hard for average pay, but you don’t feel that you’re advancing or learning new things; you feel that you are stagnating and are losing your touch on things, or that you are not as fast and as adept, or even as up-to-date on trends as you once were. You are in your final months as an undergraduate, and you have a fairly vague idea of where you want to be in the future: running a business or being part of one, and earning more money thanks to your knowledge and education. In either case, you may want to look for a business school to help you out and make you achieve your dreams – but what are the best business schools?

Despite all the lists and compiled school summaries that you will find both online and offline, the best business schools are really those that will help you succeed in the line of business that you want to get into. There are many different business schools out there with many different specialties, so if you are looking for the best business school to go to as you want to advance your career, or get into the workplace, you will need to know what exactly it is that you want first. Are you going to be doing accounting and auditing? Will you be running a business, managing people, hiring people, handing out salaries or wages, or overseeing processes?

Once you know what it is that you want to do, then you can pick out the best business school for you. True, there are the top tier business schools such as Wharton and Harvard, but consider other smaller business schools that might not be as well known, but are experienced in teaching the business aspects that you want to know more about. In particular, if you can find information on alumni of the school, see if their interests and credentials match yours. You might also want to check if the business school to which you are applying is accredited, as this can be an important benchmark of school and curriculum integrity.

You may also want to consider either a live classroom or distance education as the mode of instruction. If you opt for the live classroom, you will have the convenience of really going back to school and not having a headache over the computer programs and computer-based texts that distance education schools will employ. On the other hand, a distance education program will allow you to go to school even while you are based at home, or while you are still on the job, so that you do not have to go through the inconvenience of having to actually return to school. Look for schools that offer the mode of instruction that you need.

Moreover, look for schools that will offer you financial and job assistance. You can have scholarships or even fellowships to go to business schools, and often, the best business schools receive a lot of funding that will be shunted into their scholarship or fellowship program. Once you graduate, some schools will also offer you job hunting assistance, and others, as they are allied with companies, will actually give you placement.

These are only a few things to watch out for as you look for the best business schools. For more information, look for these schools online, and start planning your future in detail. Once you know what you want, you can find the best business school for you.
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Criteria for Ranking Business Schools

How credible are those Business School Rankings? How do they come up with the top Business Schools in the land?

Business School Ranking is an effective tool used by many in searching for the right Business School. Most people rely on these data to determine if their chosen school is the school of their dreams. You're probably wondering what specific criteria/standards they use in ranking Business Schools and who are responsible for measuring them?

The Economist and Financial Times provide individual rankings of Business Schools. All of them use various criteria if a Business school deserves to be on the A-list or receives a failing grade. Other providers are BusinessWeek, Forbes, and Wall Street Journal.

The Economist

It conducted an Economist Intelligence Unit Survey of more than 200 senior executives. They came up with the following ten significant areas for selecting an open-programme provider

* Content and internationalism of the programme
* Faculty quality
* Provider's Amenities
* Quality of fellow participants
* Level of post-course support for partcipants
* Capable of demonstrating an impact back in the workplace
* Cost/value for money
* Wide range of courses
* Maintaining an ongoing relationship

Based on the aforementioned criteria, open programme participants were asked to rate those schools that they attended and eventually came up with top eight business schools.

Financial Times

They used twenty criteria to determine their rankings. The first eight criteria are based on alumni survey, the second nine criteria came from business schools' survey and the basis of last three criteria is on research survey.

Alumni Survey

* Weighted Salary
* Salary percentage increase
* Value for money
* Career progress
* Aims achieved
* Placement success
* Alumni recommendation
* International mobility

Business School Survey

* Employed at three months
* Women faculty
* FT doctoral rating
* International faculty
* International students
* International board
* International experience
* Languages
* Faculty with doctorates

Research survey

* FT research rating

According to Dr. N.M. Kondap, vice-chancellor of NMIMS University, "Surveys are conducted using different metrics and parameters. Some amount of discrepancy also occurs during the assessment of the survey which is reflected in the results."
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