Harvard Business School Publishing Corp. on April 15 announced the commercial launch of the first multimedia case study developed at the Business School. Delegates to the annual meeting of the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) had a chance to see the product first-hand in a computer lab installed for the conference by Microsoft Corp. and COMPAQ Computer Corp.

AACSB members attending the meeting got a copy of the CD-ROM containing the multimedia case study, "Pacific Dunlop," written by David M. Upton, associate professor of technology and operations management at the Business School. Attendees also had several opportunities to see the multimedia case in action, accessing the Pacific Dunlop case and other multimedia simulations and products in sessions presented by Judy Uhl, director of the case studies unit at Harvard Business School Publishing Corp.

More than 90 of them traveled to the Business School campus on Monday for a presentation in the school's state-of-the-art computer laboratory in Shad Hall, where they learned about the innovative courseware platform used by students and faculty, in a presentation by the School's chief information officer, Susan Rogers.

The Pacific Dunlop case tells the harrowing tale of the newly appointed Australian manager of the Pacific Dunlop textiles sock factory in Beijing. The CD-ROM contains short video clips of interviews with the manager and other Pacific Dunlop officials discussing day-to-day plant management.

"When you see the video version you really see that the manager is under pressure," says Upton, a driving force behind many of the technological tools for learning that have been implemented at the Business School. The case study also contains video footage of the factory itself, showing the equipment in operation, as well as simulations and worksheets to enable students to model manufacturing processes in the abstract.

"In traditional printed case studies, we have to rely on the text to create a picture in the student's mind,Ó Upton said. ÒNow, we have much richer media available to do this for us."

The Pacific-Dunlop case is the first in a series of multimedia case studies being developed at the Business School. This endeavor is part of the School's goal to achieve leadership in using technology for management education. A pervasive example of this technological emphasis in the School's recently redesigned and expanded MBA program is its Web-based curriculum, which organizes and delivers customized information and course content to students via their computers.

Harvard Business School Publishing Corp. is a not-for-profit, wholly owned subsidiary of Harvard Business School that extends the School's educational mission by disseminating information on management research and practice in a variety of mediums: books, case studies, the Harvard Business Review, videos, software, and multimedia products.