Nobody can call Stanford the Harvard of the West anymore. That nickname became obsolete a few months ago, when the venerable Eastern university established a beachhead here in Silicon Valley. That's right: The Harvard Business School now has a branch research center at 3000 Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, ground zero for the high-tech, biotech and venture capital industries.
Harvard prides itself on the case-study method, and it seems a whole lot of interesting cases are unfolding in the Valley. The center houses faculty and graduate students who are studying local companies. School officials say the center's location reflects the fact that economic power is no longer concentrated in the East.
Harvard's move seemed "natural" to Michael Spence, dean of Stanford's Graduate School of Business and himself a former Harvard professor. After all, he says, consider the networking potential: "There is substantial interest in jobs in technology companies."
