HBR-A Course Designed To Get Students Hired - Harvard Business Publishing Education

7/1/2021 A Course Designed to Get Students Hired | Harvard Business Publishing Education
COURSE DESIGN
A Course Designed to Get Students Hired

Readying Students for the Workforce Means It’s Time to Lose the Lecture
by Johannes Kern
June 11, 2021
A
few years ago, ahead of some upcoming on-campus recruitment activities at the university
where I teach, a Fortune 500 company’s human resources team asked various of their
corporate departments how many new graduates they would like to hire. The answer from the
company’s logistics teams? “Zero.”
Considering the well-known talent shortage in logistics and the organization’s growth, this was a
surprise. Pressed further, these teams reluctantly admitted that graduates’ skill sets were simply not
meeting their requirements. Or, as one executive bluntly put it, “Graduates don’t know anything
useful.”
While alarming, this response is not uncommon, with studies showing a significant gap in the
perceptions of workplace readiness among employers as compared to students and university
Help
administrators. With this in mind, I began to develop a new format for a supply chain management
(SCM) and logistics course for my master’s students at Tongji University in China. It had to be different
https://hbsp.harvard.edu/inspiring-minds/a-course-designed-to-get-students-hired?cid=email%7Cmarketo%7C2021-07-01-july-inspiring-minds-digest%7C1225409… 1/13
from the lectures commonly taught, especially in Asian countries, so I asked myself: What would make a
course better in preparing students for post-graduation success and ensuring they can apply skills that
employers cared about? The course would need to cover a broad range of topics—beyond what a
capstone project or internship may provide—but also focus on specific competencies that challenge
students beyond a traditional lecture.
Within two years, I had piloted a revamped, highly tailored case-based course that combined group
work, student presentations, and direct feedback from industry experts. The cases covered a wide range
of topics and content that students might encounter in their careers, but it also introduced them to skill
sets and tools for success in the workplace—both now and in the future.
Through this process, I found that exposure to relevant literature and talks with industry experts helped
place students at the center of the curriculum.
The Challenge of Relevance

Informed by research across disciplines on how students learn and the competencies they need for the
future, I envisioned a course styled very differently from those based on lectures. Instead, students
would work on multiple cases that touch contemporary issues and gain feedback directly from industry
professionals in a challenging setting where they could learn from each other. With a case-based
approach, I wanted to address three key areas: the competencies we should be teaching, particularly
creative problem-solving, developing judgment, and dealing with uncertainty; the way we conduct our
teaching to foster deeper learning of the content; and the content itself.
Competencies we should be teaching. Based on input from a large group of international

stakeholders, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Future of
Education and Skills 2030 project identified competencies that students need to thrive well into the
future. According to the OECD analyses, students must be able to create new value, which requires
creative thinking, curiosity, and a global mindset. Students also must learn to reconcile conflicts,
tensions, and dilemmas; become more adept in handling trade-offs; and deal with change, diversity,
ambiguity, and uncertainty. This requires critical thinking, including a sense of self-awareness, self-
regulation, reflective thinking, and learning-to-learn skills.
“To better prepare students for their futures, educators must

rethink the competencies we are teaching, the way we conduct
our teaching, and the content we use in the classroom.”
The way we conduct our teaching. Cognitive scientists found that students learn content best when
they engage in activities similar to the everyday activities of practitioners who work in a particular
discipline. This deeper learning requires students to relate new ideas to previous knowledge and
experience. Learners can then recognize interrelated conceptual systems and look for patterns and
underlying principles—very different from relying on rote memorization—and embrace mental struggle
rather than passive consumption. Learners evaluate new ideas, relate them to conclusions, and
generalize and apply them to a broader range of contexts. Along the way, students put into practice the
people-oriented skills needed to process feedback from others.
The content we are teaching. I love case teaching. It leads to experiences that sharpen pattern
recognition, encourages the transfer of experience-based knowledge from all participating students,
and sharpens students’ judgment skills. It is a beautiful simulation of a business setting, and it helps
students apply knowledge. If you haven’t tested it yet, I challenge you to give it a try—you just don’t get
the same level of interaction and engagement from students in a traditional lecture.
One immediate issue with using cases was simply finding the cases themselves. There were just too few
cases originating in Asia in the logistics and SCM arena—cases, for example, covering the Europe-Asia
rail connection, innovative packaging solutions to address the price hikes for corrugated packaging, or
the challenges of implementing trucking platforms in China. However, when graduates enter the labor
market, these will be the types of issues they may face.
One Solution: Surfacing Current Cases and Bringing Them

to Life
To combat this issue, I created this new case-based course by first tapping into my network to find
industry professionals interested in contributing their experience and directly interacting with
students. I also focused on the cases themselves. I began by looking at the various elements of an
international supply chain with warehouses and air, sea, rail, and truck transportation. I then discussed
current challenges and topics of each element with industry professionals. Out of the most suitable and
interesting points, I then created seven mini-cases together with the experts who highlighted those
areas. For the pilot class, we covered these mini-cases (Figure 1).
Source: Kern, Johannes. Logistics and Supply Chain Management Based on Chinese Cases. Class lecture at
Tongji University, Shanghai, China, September, 2019
Figure 1: The seven cases taught in Professor Kern’s Logistics and Supply Chain Management
Based on Chinese Cases course covered specific points across the supply chain.
Course Schedule
To cover a wide range of cases and give students sufficient opportunities to practice their skills, I set up
a demanding course schedule that alternated between case presentation and debriefing (Figure 2).
Case introduction. In the first week of case work, I introduced the company and provided the case
information. Then the students had seven days to analyze the case and prepare a solution presentation.
Student presentation. The second week, the company representative joined us in the classroom to
listen to each group’s presentation and share how the company actually addressed the case.
Debrief. The following week, the students and the lecturer jointly debriefed the cases, and student
groups received in-depth individual feedback. Students also received a brief introduction to the
company for the next case and started a new round of problem definition, determination of alternative
solutions, and selection of the most suitable options.
Source: Kern, Johannes. Logistics and Supply Chain Management Based on Chinese Cases. Class lecture at
Tongji University, Shanghai, China, September, 2019
Figure 2: A sample week-by-week class schedule for Professor Kern’s Logistics and Supply
Chain Management Based on Chinese Cases course.
On case presentation days, student groups presented their solutions. The company representatives,
along with other students, could ask questions and challenge assumptions, which created a demanding
environment. You could often feel the tension for students, exhausted from polishing their
presentations the night before, as they gave it their all in the classroom. As one student observed after
presenting on how Cargill should address a price surge for raw material in its packaging, “The
boardroom may be more unforgiving, but this classroom is certainly not far behind.”
In addition to critical thinking and interdisciplinarity, the classroom provided a controlled way to learn
how to respond to challenges and learn from “constructive failure.” After a presentation from the
company representative, students often stayed to further discuss the presented case details and learn
more about the company and the expert’s experiences.
“The boardroom may be more unforgiving, but this classroom is

certainly not far behind.”
The following week was the time for feedback on the presentations. This session included pointers on
topics such as slide design, presentation techniques, and providing feedback. It was also the chance to
jointly review presentation grades and analyze what worked and what did not. Once the next case was
introduced, it was then all about individual group feedback. Feedback on the presentations by students,
the company representative, and the lecturer (anonymously where appropriate) was shared.
Throughout the course, students made observable improvement in giving and receiving feedback, as
well as the topics they judged as improvement-worthy.
Following recommendations laid out in Teaching with Cases: A Practical Guide, I split the students’ final
grade between group assignments—based on content, delivery, organization, and participation—and
individual class participation in terms of quantity and quality.
A Focus on Collaboration and Group Work
The company experts. Inviting an outside expert to the classroom can have its own challenges,
whether in person or remote (this pilot took place pre-pandemic). Industry professionals often have an
ambivalent view of working with universities. On the one hand, they like to share their expertise with a
captive audience of spellbound students; they value contributing to the next generation’s education and
tapping into a pool of skilled graduates. However, they may worry about unforeseen workload, student
presentations not meeting expectations, or even lengthy, burdensome internal approvals during the
creation of the case.
To allay their concerns and reduce the barriers to participation as much as possible, I found ways to
simplify the process:
■ I met with each expert personally. We discussed a recent challenge that fell within the course
scope. In this meeting, I also got details for their company introduction, and we set a time for
them to come to the classroom.
■ I briefly documented the case in a few PowerPoint slides and obtained (anonymized) data where
helpful to minimize the visiting expert’s workload.
■ Because I created my own mini-cases for use in specific and small settings of students, a
cumbersome internal release process for company information provided was typically not
needed.
■ I asked experts to appear in the classroom only once—a time commitment that even busy
logistics heads were able to carve out of their schedules.
The student teams. Recognizing the many benefits of group work, I set up student teams to present
the cases. However, to give each group a fair chance at success, the team design, class size, and
classroom setting had to be carefully considered. In this program of about 25 students, I limited the
groups to between five and seven team members. Cohesion is one predictor of an effective team, with
drivers such as regular and frequent member interactions, opportunities for success, and challenging
objectives and competition. Member similarity is considered another factor in cohesive teams; however,
this must be balanced by the advantages of putting together a diverse team—an experience that can be
transformational for students.
For this pilot, all classes were held in person, so students interacted with each other and the industry
expert in the classroom. However, virtual coursework using this model would certainly be feasible for
executive or MBA programs.
“The goal is to create an environment where debate flourishes,

students feel encouraged to support and challenge each other,
and the group stays focused and moves forward.”
Evaluations and Critiques
Of course, in the workplace, it is not necessarily the best idea that wins—it is often the good idea that is
best presented. Meaning, purely focusing on content may not be rewarded sufficiently. To account for
this subjective assessment, the group assignments were evaluated by all participants, and the final
presentation grade was weighted equally among the assessments of the industry expert, the lecturer,
and the sum of all students. One welcome effect was that all students listened attentively to all
presentations and were held responsible for giving in-depth feedback about the presentations,
presenters, and presentation styles.
Student Response to the Course

Student feedback to the course was overwhelmingly positive. It received the highest marks for relevance
across all compared classes. Students pointed to the strengths of the course, including the real-life
insights about companies and their issues; the “different types of cases”; the “very strong skill
development (presentation, critical thinking, feedback, etc.)”; and the “really good preparation for the
‘real’ business world (working under pressure with tight deadlines, being challenged).” They appreciated
the “real life cases and professional input and feedback,” the “practical insights from industry
participants,” and the benefit of “experience to put on [a] CV.”
Areas for improvement were around the “pretty intense time demand” and the hope for “a bit less
workload.” Students advised their peers to take the course, “be prepared for hard work and an intensive
learning experience (both personally and professionally),” and “get ready to work under pressure.” In
terms of student group work, they did note some “clashes… due to different work dynamics and work
ethics,” so “be patient with your opinion and with team members” and “see this course as a chance to
learn for your future working life.”
The Instructor’s Changing Role

Changing the class’s format, of course, also changed the role of the lecturer. Like a facilitator, the
instructor now guides and manages the class sessions. The goal is to create an environment where
debate flourishes, students feel encouraged to support and challenge each other, and the group stays
focused and moves forward. It also means that instructors must accept that they do not have all the
answers.
This new role requires its own set of competencies: effective moderators tend to let their personalities
shine through and exhibit sensitivity, insight, empathy, and warmth, as well as listening and analytical
skills. A moderator-lecturer must take this approach believing that students, regardless of level of study,
experience, or background, bring wisdom—or at least a valuable perspective—to the classroom. It is also
vital to understand the case well enough to inform and guide discussion, including deciding where more
information is needed and when to move on.
Finally, it requires the self-discipline to control personal reactions. Once lecturers begin forcing their
own viewpoints on the class, the course dynamic is quickly transformed and risks returning to a front-
line teaching approach. By avoiding these traps, the course can instead engage an instructor’s curiosity,
and lend itself to fascinating insights into current industry challenges and the solutions and
presentation approaches that resonate with students and practitioners.
Going Forward: Students at the Center of Curriculum

While I am not advocating that the course model I’ve shared should replace all classes, I do believe it
can add tremendous value to existing curricula—and better prepare students for their future of work. At
a time in which business classrooms are competing with online credentialing taught by some of the best
in the field, the traditional university has an opportunity to balance standardized courses with the type
of tailor-made offerings modeled here.
This requires putting students at the center of the curriculum and rethinking the competencies we are
teaching, the way we conduct our teaching, and the content we teach. The opportunity is there to
deliver an experience that can transform students into professionals ready to tackle the diverse
challenges they will face.
Explore more
CASE TEACHING CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT COURSE DESIGN EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
Johannes Kern is an affiliated professor of

supply chain management at Tongji
 University, China, where he researches 
buyer-supplier relationships and the digital
transformation of logistics. He also supports
international companies in China to optimize
their whole supply chain, including sourcing,
transportation, warehousing, and
production.
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7/1/2021 A Course Designed to Get Students Hired | Harvard Business Publishing Education

A Course Designed to Get Students Hired

The Challenge of Relevance

Competencies we should be teaching. Based on input from a large group of international

“To better prepare students for their futures, educators must

our teaching, and the content we use in the classroom.”

One Solution: Surfacing Current Cases and Bringing Them

“The boardroom may be more unforgiving, but this classroom is

A Focus on Collaboration and Group Work

“The goal is to create an environment where debate flourishes,

Evaluations and Critiques

Student Response to the Course

The Instructor’s Changing Role

Going Forward: Students at the Center of Curriculum

CASE TEACHING CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT COURSE DESIGN EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING

Johannes Kern is an affiliated professor of

Resist Old Routines When Returning to Campus

What Career-Focused Curriculum Looks Like

My Fixation on Time Management Almost Broke Me

HARVARD BUSINESS PUBLISHING

Harvard Business Review

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