While Clark says that all the outside work professors take on is carefully weighed for its potential educational benefits, Kester says professors do not always expect to glean material they can use in the classroom. But “you never know when that opportunity will arise,” he says.

And in December, HBS added another commitment to its plate full of outside programs intended to educate business leaders.

In December, HBS and Stanford’s Graduate School of Business announced the creation of a joint online business venture that will offer business management courses online. This long-distance alliance, they say, will create the “world’s premier source of online management education.”

—Staff writer Juliet J. Chung can be reached at jchung@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Sarah A. Dolgonos can be reached at dolgonos@fas.harvard.edu.