Harvard Business School Case Study

by George Fletcher

Michael Porter's think tank at the Harvard Business School is called the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness (ISCC). That is the organization that is managing the EDA funded Cluster Mapping Project, of which New Carolina is a team member.

Dr. Porter teaches one course at Harvard on regional competitiveness. That course is licensed to almost 100 Universities around the world through an organization called the Microeconomics of Competitiveness (MOC). The Moore School at USC is a member of that consortium. Every year representative of the MOC go to Harvard in December to get an update on research and recent ISCC activities.

Last weeks, Dr. Jorge Ramirez from ISCC was in Columbia to collect information on a case study for the MOC. This study will review all activites of New Carolina since Dr. Porter was here in 2003. The idea of the case study is to provide the facts of the situation and the students will provide approaches to the problem. A separte document will be developed for the faculty saying what actually happened.

This is an incredible opportunity for New Carolina and the State of Scuth Carolina. Probably 10,000 students a year will review clustering activities in South Carolina and think through what should be done to advance these clusters. Ed Sellers and I have been invited to address the MOC reps in December.

Thanks to Ed Sellers, Amy Love, Chad Prosser, Scott Carlberg, Neil McLean, Steve Warner, Jim Reynolds and Don Herriott for taking the time to speak with Jorge Ramirez. We gave him detailed information on the other clusters and there may be follow-up.

The case will be available to groups around the world for purchase. The work of the hundreds of New Carolina volunteers will be memorialized.