Article from Economic Times: India the big topic in B-schools abroad

MUMBAI: In the 1960s and 70s, Japan was the headline grabber when it came to business studies and the 1990s belonged to China. Could this be the decade of India?


"While the vulnerabilities exist, this is the most exciting time," says CK Prahalad, professor of business administration, corporate strategy and international business at Michigan Business School, who is ranked among the world's most influential management thinkers. "Five years from now people from around the world will come and benchmark with India."

Prahalad isn't a lone bull – not any longer. Tick off the top 10 campuses in the US and you can bet India's on their minds.

"India's hot," admitted Patrick Harker, dean of The Wharton School during a recent chat with The Economic Times .

"Certainly we do view India as a place of leading-edge business practice, which we hope to understand better," agrees Robert Dolan, dean, University of Michigan Business School (MBS). Reason enough for MBS to be the first Ivy League to set up a research centre in India later this year.

The signs have been there for some time: In 1991 when India's liberalisation began, interest was low.

"It was a closed and regulated economy that did not have a big impact on the global stage," says Robert M Conroy, research professor, Darden Graduate School of Business.

By the mid-90s India's potential to deliver world-class products in a global market were proved by the software boom and the emergence of players like TCS, Infosys and Wipro.

Since then, potential and performance have snowballed – making the country important for two reasons: first, the ability to provide a non-saturated mass-market opportunity for products and services (what Prof Prahalad may describe as the Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid) and second to participate in the global restructuring of industries, driven by the communication technology revolution that's allowed India to harness its competitive advantage, people.

"How this convergence of policy and technology will play out in the future is a trend of critical importance to not only global businesses, but also to very traditional domestically-oriented firms and managers," says Conroy.

So, at MBS the India-global nexus will be researched through its soon-to-be-set-up India centre, as reported by ET on January 5, 2003.

MIT's Sloan School of Management has initiated research on professional outsourcing, under 'The Productivity from Information Technology' (PROFIT) Initiative.

Led by Lester C Thurow, professor of management and economics and Amar Gupta, co-director, PROFIT Initiative, this will analyse the impact of outsourcing of professional services on various constituencies in the developed and developing environments.

At Harvard Business School, Tarun Khanna, professor, strategy unit, is focussed on entrepreneurship in India, building the Indian MNC, role of the diaspora and China-India comparisons.

"Understanding India is much more central today to businesses in the West than it was five years ago," says Khanna, adding that his recent research focused on India and with comparisons to China have drawn "enormous worldwide interest".

Last August, Khanna and Yasheng Huang, professor at MIT Sloan, co-authored 'Can India Overtake China?' in Foreign Policy magazine, which considered the effects of the different development models embraced by "the world's next major powers".

Some Indian companies have been quick to pick up and capitalise on the academic interest.

"I don't think there's any large B-school that hasn't had TCS or Wipro coming and talking to them. Now, students are asking 'Why are we not joining these companies if they are growing at 30-40%?’” says Prahalad.

Wipro is a regular feature on campus, with Azim Premji, Vivek Paul and other top managers taking the stage at Kellogg, Wharton, Harvard, MIT Sloan, Columbia, Berkeley, Cornell and Carnegie Mellon, with more requests flowing in.

"They have shared their experiences on topics like outsourcing, entrepreneurship, quality imperatives, talent transformation and other thrust areas," says Sangita Singh, chief marketing officer, Wipro Technologies. "That's got people interested in outsourcing at close quarters."

Visits from students and faculty have also seen a surge since the beginning of '03.

From theory to practice, India is seeping into the MBA and executive education curriculum at these schools.

"Business executives are fascinated and concerned about offshoring. Most don't understand the phenomenon at a deep level, but awareness has really grown in the past year," says Robert Kennedy, associate director, CSIB group, The William Davidson Institute, MBS.

Some executive courses at Michigan now include a session specifically on India (alongside China, Brazil and perhaps Russia); and many of the international business programmes now include material on the globalisation of service activities. Darden is currently in the process of developing study material and expertise on India for its MBA and executive programmes.

"Overall, we believe managers need to understand how global trends can impact their businesses today and in the future. India has emerged as an important challenge and opportunity for all managers and if we are to be a truly global B-school, this must be reflected in everything that we do," says Conroy