Once you get past Google, it's hard to think of a major American institution that is as successful as Harvard. Like the other élite private universities, only more so, Harvard, having started as a tiny colonial school for ministers, has become enormous and rich. It is renowned all over the world. It isn't exactly a business, but if it were, its ability to raise its prices and see demand consistently increase would be remarkable. General Motors would love to have Harvard's magic brand identity and inexhaustible customer loyalty.
And yet when Lawrence Summers took the helm at Harvard in 2001, the...