Harvard Business School tops many ratings of  business schools in the United States and even the world. Its graduates are paid more than the graduates of almost all, if not all, of the major graduate business schools in the U.S. Among its alumni are a “Who’s Who” of CEOs of America’s largest companies. Yet, for some reason, the Harvard Business School needs to advertise to interest new students.

In its latest marketing campaign, the Harvard Business School’s advertising department has been promoting its “Executive Education ” program. The ads have a great deal in common with those for financial newsletters. People who are interested are asked to give the school their names (first name, last name, and prefix), their current title or position, the name of their companies and the countries in which they work. The Harvard Business School even wants  e-mail addresses, an asset which might allow the institute of higher education to promote itself at later dates.

The reason to give the information to HBS is, among other things, to learn to “Practice Under Pressure.”

After all of the fields of information are filled out by an interested party, the new message is “Thank you for your interest in Harvard Business School.”

HBS does offer people who have given their information a bit of a virtual tour via a “Learn More” link. Unfortunately, the link does not work. So much for the marketing training the school is supposed to offer.

The only way left to find out the benefits of HBS is to go the the school’s website — HBS.edu, without any help.

HBS.edu does not say much about the institution’s advantages, at least not at first. Most of the homepage is devoted to an analysis of “Entrepreneurship,” women’s Olympic sports, how to follow HBS on Twitter, the benefits of reading The Harvard Business Review, a piece on “Racist Umpires and Monetary Ministers,” some faculty blogs, profiles of alumni and a promotion for the institution’s Executive Education Program.  Fortunately for those who are interested, there is a “tour” of the campus. This tour is barely more than a Google Map of the campus with locations of, among other things, dining and medical facilities.

Perhaps HBS has trouble getting qualified students, which was almost certainly not a problem in the past. The mighty have fallen.

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.