The business of business education produced another year of strong results for HBS during fiscal 2008, which ended last June. Applications for the core MBA Program reached a five-year high of 8,661, and the percentage of admitted students who enrolled hit 91 percent, the best results ever. Executive Education programs drew a record 9,345 participants. And Harvard Business Publishing sold 8.2 million cases and over 2 million books, peak figures for both. These and many other details are laid out in narrative, charts, and graphs in the newly released HBS Annual Report 2008.

The School’s unique business model produced a third consecutive year of double-digit revenue growth despite a slowing economy. That model is based on faculty research that brings professors into contact with business leaders across the United States and increasingly around the world, facilitated by six global research centers. The intellectual capital generated by this research is transformed into programs and products offered in a competitive marketplace by Executive Education and Harvard Business Publishing (HBP). The income generated by these twin business activities in turn funds faculty research, completing the cycle and beginning it anew.

Total revenue for fiscal 2008 increased by $46 million to $451 million, up 11.4 percent from the previous year. Executive Education and HBP revenues rose by a combined $26 million to $245 million, and together produced 55 percent of the School’s income. Endowment income and unrestricted current-use gifts accounted for 24 percent of total revenue, MBA tuition and fees 18 percent, and housing rentals 3 percent.

The School ended the year with 219 full-time faculty and 1,146 full-time administrative staff.

In his overview of HBS’s finances, CFO Richard Melnick (MBA ’92) took a cautious view of the current fiscal year, noting the dramatic economic decline that began last fall. “Given the exposure of the HBS business model to the economic environment, our operational and financial plans for fiscal 2009 are grounded in caution and geared toward flexibility,” he wrote. The fiscal 2009 budget anticipates revenue growth of just over 6 percent, sufficient to balance the budget.

In an introductory Q&A, Dean Jay Light addressed the impact of the global economic crisis on HBS. He noted that the School’s faculty, students, and alumni must be engaged in an effort to analyze the crisis and adapt the curriculum to reflect changes in the culture of how business is done. “We have begun this important work already,” he added.

Operationally, Light said the School “will continue to ensure that our educational programs and the faculty’s research remain strong. We will make important incremental investments to offset the effects of the downturn (for example, increasing our support to students in their job searches). Finally, we will seek out opportunities to strengthen our long-term position.”

To read the entire forty-page report, including details of the School’s strategic funding priorities, visit www.hbs.edu/annualreport/2008/.

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