1.    Who is the primary customer in each of these charts?

In designing the appropriate structure for this enterprise, it is important to note that many of its programs, departments, and activities are tightly intertwined. For example, research conducted by faculty members is the basis for case studies, HBR articles, course material taught to doctoral, MBA, and executive education students, and online courses offered through HBSi and HBX. Managing such a complex network of individuals, knowledge, and programs presents unique challenges and issues for the school’s administration. In particular, allocating resources in such a tightly inter-connected environment is extremely difficult—it is often impossible to determine the value of a specific research project across the various HBS offerings. In addition, clearly defining a primary customer has presented issues for HBS administration: is it students, the research community, alumni, or employers? This complexity has led to HBS maintaining its historic functional organization structure in which faculty members and staff are organized into units by knowledge specialty (accounting, finance, strategy, etc.).