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Making the Case for Maine: HBS Club and State's CEO Discuss Business Issues
Since the case method was introduced to management education by HBS in the 1920s, its approach to understanding business through real-world examples has been employed in thousands of classrooms throughout the world. Last May, the HBS Club of Maine took this tried-and-true learning tool into new territory by drafting a case study about the business potential of their state. At an event held in Falmouth attended by Maine Governor Angus King, HBS professor D. Quinn Mills, HBS professor emeritus (and Maine resident) Wickham Skinner - who led the discussion - and eighty HBS alumni and their guests, participants addressed both the positive and the negative factors that business encounters in a state best known by the nickname inscribed on its license plates: "Vacationland."
"The whole discussion was predicated on a very simple premise: the state of Maine is antibusiness," says Christina Lane-Merrill (MBA '82), marketing strategist and director of research at ViA Marketing & Design, a strategic brand management company based in Portland. President of the newly reinstated HBS Club of Maine, Lane-Merrill is one of three hundred HBS alumni who reside in Maine. She is committed to expanding business opportunities in this scenic northeastern state that has traditionally been associated with tourism, logging, and a single company - L.L. Bean. "The dialogue has begun on how to make the state more hospitable to business," Lane-Merrill says, "and the state government is very interested in bringing business here."
With this in mind, Lane-Merrill organized the May event and crafted the case about Maine, titled "The Way Business Life Should Be?: An HBS Case Study on the State of Maine," which is a play on the state's motto, "The Way Life Should Be." The case highlights Maine's positive draws for new business, including location, lifestyle, a loyal and dedicated work force, and a sophisticated fiber-optic telecommunications system. It also lays out the problems that new businesses face, such as high taxes and a lack of capital and properly skilled workers. The case stimulated debate among Maine's business leaders and entrepreneurs, who left the event with a clearer understanding of the problems that keep Maine from attracting new business. At the end of the discussion, Governor King spoke about his commitment to increasing business in Maine and encouraged attendees to continue to work on making a difference.
Energized by the event's success, Lane-Merrill is planning future meetings to discuss common business goals at the state level and to stimulate networking among HBS alumni. In the spring, the club will host a gathering that will focus on the geographic strengths of the state in an effort to "put Maine on the map," Lane-Merrill says. "Maine is the heartland of the North Atlantic. We are interested in building business strategies for the state based on that fact."
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