Idea Whose Time Has Come

Raj Sinha Pramath

Description

Ten years ago, the founders of the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad articulated a vision that was as daunting to execute as it was simple to state: to build a world-class business school in India. The rest is history: within a decade the ISB grew from a start-up venture to globally top-ranked business school, named among the top twenty business schools in the world three years in a row, with the distinction of being the youngest business school ever to enter the world top twenty rankings. An Idea Whose Time Has Come traces the ISB s eventful history and also examines the reasons that account for the institute s success. What emerges is a tale of perseverance and dedication, of challenges met and rewards reaped, and of an unshakeable idea that was painstakingly transformed into an invincible institution. It is no wonder that the ISB continues to attract thousands of confident, purposeful men and women every year and moulds them into talented professionals.

Sujets

• Gestion et management
• Economics

Informations

• Publié par: Penguin Books Ltd
• Date de parution: 01 septembre 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9788184754742
• Langue: English

Extrait

PRAMATH RAJ SINHA
An Idea Whose Time Has Come
The Story of the Indian School of Business
Contents
Dedication
Prefatory Note
Foreword
Preface
1. The First Steps
2. Building an Institution
3. A World-Class Business School
4. Educators and Thought Leaders
5. India s Future
6. Reflections
Bibliography
Copyright Page
To the students, faculty and administrators of ISB, past, present and future.
The ISB stands for the belief that business is a force of good. Thank you for living that belief and making an idea whose time has come timeless.
Prefatory Note
Fifteen years ago, in 1996, a small group of Indian businessmen came together in pursuit of a shared dream. I was fortunate enough to be one of that group. I remember the atmosphere very clearly. We knew exactly what we wanted, what we thought India needed: an international business school that could one day take its place in the ranks of the best business schools in the world, yet at the same time have a uniquely Indian flavour. We hoped for an institution that would help educate and train the next generation of Indian business leaders by bringing the best of global business thinking to India. We hoped, too, that we could create an institution that would act as a kind of portal, a place where Indian scholars and those from elsewhere in the world could meet and share ideas.
We faced a formidable task. None of us had ever been involved in a project like this before. In hindsight, we made some mistakes in planning and building the institution that the world knows as the Indian School of Business (ISB). When the idea was first made public, reaction was mixed. Some people in India were sceptical: could we possibly reach the ambitious goals we had set ourselves? Others questioned whether the model we had decided to adopt was the right way to run a business school. After all, we were going against the perceived wisdom about business education in India; were we right to do so? And sadly, we ran up against entrenched opposition from bureaucrats who saw our project as a challenge to their own power.
As the German poet Goethe once said, Dream no little dreams. Our dream was a big one, we knew this. But we held on to it nonetheless, and five years later in 1991, after a series of adventures that are recounted in this book, ISB opened its doors. Ten years on, we can look back and see that most, if not all, of our dream has been realised.
What made the difference? Certainly it was not us. That little group that met in 1996 has grown since, but our contribution was merely to provide part of the funding and to generate ideas. The real heroes of this story, the people who made ISB happen, are the administrators and workers, the teaching and research faculty and above all the students, without whom ISB would not be what it is. This book tells their story.
The book was written in part to celebrate the achievements of those who have helped to build ISB and turn it into a world- class institution. But as Pramath says in his own preface, it is also in part a reflection. After ten years, it is time to look back and consider how far we have come and what has happened along the way. The road to our present success has been by no means smooth. A number of vicissitudes have had to be overcome. And one thing that is certain is that there will be more problems and challenges in the future. This book, therefore, is a kind of useful summing up, part progress report and part reflection on the challenges of the past. I very much hope that future generations of scholars and administrators will read this book and ponder on how ISB came to be and what its values are and, perhaps, see a little reflection of themselves in the mirror that the past holds up to them.
Let me end on a personal note. I am immensely proud and honoured to have been associated with ISB for all these years. And yet, I also feel humble. The success of ISB is not the work of any one individual. It is the work of many, working willingly and selflessly to make a dream turn into reality. To all those who have been associated with ISB and especially Rajat Gupta, the founding chairman of ISB, I salute you. You have made history. Let us hope that the next ten years are as exciting and fruitful as those just past.
Adi Godrej Chairman, ISB
Foreword

Life is a journey-and this can also be said of the Indian School of Business. The last fifteen years with ISB has been one of the high points of my life-an emotional rollercoaster, full of ups and downs and an experience, in real time, of building an institution. Along the way there have been many moments of truth, many inflexion points and many opportunities to take the roads less travelled. I want to thank Pramath for letting me share some of these reflections even though all of them have been well developed in the book itself.
The first moment of truth was when, after a few months and a couple of meetings, the idea transformed from a Department of Management Studies (with a Master of Business Administration programme) at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi to an independent, world-class business school. Did we really understand what we were embarking upon? We were idealistic entrepreneurs for whom nothing was too difficult. But I must say this confidence was certainly coloured by fear of failure and uncertainty. This feeling was accentuated by the difficulty of the idea of a business school without a mother university. Who do we get as academic partners and how do we get them? Will a world-class academic institution agree to do this essentially pro bono? So, another moment of truth was when Kellogg and Wharton accepted, soon to be followed by the London Business School (LBS). This initial idea of world-class academic partners has been successfully tested again recently as Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Tufts and Institut Europ en d Administration des Affaires (INSEAD) have joined. Getting one of them to join hands would have been a coup, but six outstanding institutions was beyond my wildest dreams. And, who could have predicted a model of visiting faculty from these and other institutions would form a sustained and excellent teaching resource?
Then there was the small matter of financial resources. Who would fund such a start-up? Can we raise the initial funding and, more importantly, can we build a sustaining financial model? The initial board members provided generous seed funding. We attracted lots of additional funding and were feeling euphoric, but the dot.com bust put us in somewhat of a crisis. I constantly worried whether we could build the infrastructure needed, could we sustain the initial losses. And there were a lot of sceptics. After the first few years of anxious time, it all worked out. What sustained me through this difficult time was Gandhiji s thought: If the cause is right, the means will come.
Building a world-class institution would surely require the commitment of many, many leaders. I was obsessed by the idea of a broad group of business and academic leaders working together to create and build ISB. From the very beginning I was never disappointed. We were able to attract the best group of global business leaders to contribute their skills and resources. The Executive and Governing Boards of ISB were the envy of any business school in the world. Initially, I thought we would get a low acceptance rate, but almost everyone we asked agreed to join. That was a sweet moment of truth.
From the very beginning I had the idea that a world-class school must have an iconic campus. Some of my colleagues did not want to devote so much money to hard infrastructure.
After some debate, we agreed it was not an either/or, and we must build a world-class campus. Often architecture plans look good on paper, the real product is a notch below. In this case, when I first saw the campus, it took my breath away-the final product was a lot better than the blueprints and models would suggest-it is the most beautiful business school campus I ve ever seen. This decision was also an important inflexion point in our journey.
The other thing that sticks in my mind is open debate and decision-making in our board. Over the years it has evolved to a culture of constructive debate, of compromise and, of course, constantly striving towards excellence and impact. The business leaders are always pushing, and the academic leadership is thinking about whether many programmes are doable as well as the pace of growth. This creative tension has led to outstanding decisions, and this journey as Chair of ISB has been personally very rewarding.
One other moment I cannot forget is the discussion about admission policy, fees, scholarships, etc. Early on we took the decisions that admissions would be needs blind and meritocratic. This was tested a few times by some of our important supporters. We stood our ground, and there is no problem now. A system of loans and scholarships is in place to make needs blind a reality. With high fees this could have become a school for the rich, but it is not so-an excellent and critical choice for us.
The approaching graduation of the first class brought placement into sharp focus. We could have shied away from our deep involvement and blamed the worldwide recession. But, instead we redoubled our efforts. The personal involvement of the dean in every graduating student s placement, a board committee, including myself, meeting every week and the help of all our board members earned a 100 per cent placement-an incredible achievement under the circumstances.
A few other moments worth remembering are the visits by business and political leaders of world stature. It is incredible that the school has received the last two chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh, a President of the United States, the current and previous prime minister of India and many, many more. Each of these visits is a moment to remember, and we shoul