RETAIL : Taco Bell Serves as Model in Harvard Program for Its Business Graduates

File it under: Taco Bell goes to Harvard.

Irvine-based Taco Bell was one of six U.S. companies to go under the microscope during a Harvard Business School case study program that on Feb. 4 was beamed to 6,000 Harvard business graduates at 60 locations worldwide. The session was co-sponsored by the Harvard Business School Assn. of Orange County.

Businesses were selected because of their reputations as companies that have achieved what the business school described as “breakthrough service.” Three professors who led the session explained how “exemplary service can lead to dramatic improvements in bottom-line profits despite economic conditions,” according to a Harvard spokeswoman.

Nearly 200 people, including Harvard graduates and members of the general business community, watched the case study from Taco Bell’s headquarters. “This was the first one,” a Harvard Business School spokeswoman said. “It was an experiment to see what it would be like. . . . It was successful enough that there probably will be more of them.”