ISB: From concept to execution

Rajat Gupta
Chairman, ISB

The largest post-graduate management programme in India, the largest executive programme in Asia, a favourite hunting ground for the world’s best companies, a reputation for excellence, a vibrant futuristic campus that welcomed President George Bush recently.

The Indian School of Business (ISB) in Hyderabad, India, has come a long way in the last five years, and the journey has only just begun.

The story of ISB exemplifies leadership – if leadership is about being far sighted, in believing in an idea and making others believe in it, innovating constantly and taking risks, collaborating across boundaries, overcoming constraints, bringing together multiple stakeholders, and achieving breakthrough performance.

The idea was born in 1996. I discussed it with several corporate leaders in India and everyone thought it was an exciting proposition. We wanted to build a unique institution that would meet international standards of quality along every dimension.

We saw the changes that were beginning to take place in this part of the world and knew that it would lead to an increased demand for leaders and qualified business professionals. Globalisation, which was already gaining momentum, would call for increased mobility of capital, resources, and knowledge, which in turn, would enhance the demand for leaders with a global perspective.

Our objective was to offer an international quality business education at around one-third the costs of a premier school in the US or Europe. Being world-class meant being globally recognised, becoming one of the top-ranked business schools in the world. This implied that it would have to be privately funded and completely autonomous.

The first step was to find the support and endorsement of corporate leaders. We created a core team of domestic corporate leaders who were keen to be associated.

Besides their staunch belief in the concept and strong financial support, they invested something immeasurably valuable – their time; time to scout for a location; time to work out capital requirements; time to convince others about the idea.

We also found support with several Indians living abroad, who had studied at world-class institutions and were keen to help establish one in their home country.

Next, we knew the idea would require the support of leading academicians. An International Academic Council was set up to design the curriculum with inputs from the board.

By November 1997, we had garnered the support of The Wharton School and the Kellogg School of Management — two leading and competing schools, a feat never ever accomplished before.

In December ’00, London Business School also joined the group. In 1998, we created an International Governing Board of CEOs and business leaders of some of the most respected Indian and multinational firms.

A historic global-local, corporate-academia partnership was thus formed and we together started the ISB project. We set ourselves the challenging goal of commencing the first class in July ’01.

We realised that attracting top-notch faculty and building a pool of resident faculty would take a long time. We got around the challenge by inviting faculty from the top 20 schools to teach here. A unique visiting faculty model was thus created.

Several people felt the model was not sustainable, but it has in fact turned out to be the biggest attraction — a stellar group of faculty that no single school can provide. We continue to pursue our objective of creating a pool of top-notch resident faculty. We now have twenty resident faculty members.

In India and Asia, people normally complete their master’s degree immediately after their undergraduate degree. Taking a break from a career to go back for another year of advanced education requires a break from tradition and a change in mindset. It called for tremendous effort in convincing people to change.

This emphasis on work experience has also helped build one of the school’s greatest strengths. It has created unprecedented diversity with students coming from a wide range of backgrounds...officers from the armed forces, officers of the Indian Administrative Services (IAS), college professors, doctors, airline crew, television reporters, professional models, architects, deep sea divers, and many more. We have also done well on gender diversity, attracting about 20% women to our programme.

While this opportunity to switch careers or to find a higher paying job at the end of the programme is a value proposition that the ISB offers to students, delivering on this proposition has not been easy.

The first year was the biggest challenge, as we had to convince companies to not only recruit students from a new school, but also to recruit them for middle and senior management positions.

We also started our executive education programmes in our first year – another unprecedented move. Most institutions launch their executive education programmes once the post-graduate programme is established. We saw executive education as a channel for spreading awareness about the school – thus attracting students and recruiters.

Another distinctive element was infrastructure. While the general view was that infrastructure was less important, we maintained that it was critical as it would be the physical representation of our ‘world-class’ theme. We created a state-of-the-art infrastructure that would ensure international standards of living and recreation.

We set ourselves the task of creating a national treasure. We have been fortunate in mobilising the passion, the resources, and the commitment of many to make this possible. We know we have to continuously innovate to grow to the next stage. The journey, as I said, has just begun.