IIRC Harvard Business School tracks attendance, students have name plates, and get cold called.

I’m not sure you can do the cold calling thing at a public school. Everybody at HBS signed up for that, public school kids did not.

Every school (and many university professors) does "cold calls" in Italy, as far as I know; scheduled oral examinations are the exception, not the rule, before university. Not knowing the answer at a random university lecture doesn't generally impact your grades, however, because in most cases those are 100% based on a final (often oral) exam.

I wouldn't argue that it is a system without issues but it's still better than rote essay writing.

Yet, much of the education received is of case studies & frameworks, there is some technical content such as finances, supply chains, and balance sheets, but most of what's taught is equiv. of “what did you think about this or that?” and your simple participation in this inward thinking is what goes into your grade.