Part Three: ISB Explains Why It Exists
HYDERABAD, INDIA 7:01 PM, Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Its been a busy first day at the Indian School of Business! Highlights include: a full campus tour, meetings with administrative/admissions deans, a class viewing, and a tour of Infosys Hyderabad campus (simply stunning).
The best part of the day for me happened in the morning, when ISB Deputy Dean -- Deepak Chandra -- explained ISBs history and future plans. It was from this session where ISB made the case for why it exists.
Mr. Chandra made a compelling argument that prior to ISBs founding, there were no Indian management programs that could compete at a global level to the traditional top-tier MBA programs (e.g. HBS, Stanford GSB, Wharton, LBS)I absolutely agree. But furthermore, the worlds top business schools in the developed nations have been primarily engaged in research that addressed management/business practices that are more applicable to developed nations vs. emerging nations.
ISB is carving out a unique role in the global MBA ecosystem: it is a management education program that is niche focused on developing management training and research specifically for people leading businesses in emerging markets. Mr. Chandra and his colleagues believe that being a great manager/entrepreneur/leader in a developing economy requires a distinct set of skills that are different from what youll need in managing organization in developed economies. So if youre a student who intends to make a career in emerging markets, ISB should be a viable option given its niche focus on these kinds of markets.
I believe that ISBs laser focus on emerging marketing management education is pretty interesting. However, it has a lot of work to do in effectively communicating this unique angle for its MBA programtoday was the first time I had this explained to me well.
How does ISBs niche focus resonate with you? Is this an attractive value prop for an MBA program?
A few pictures I took from the day:
[caption id="attachment_31252" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="The main atrium of ISB."]
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[caption id="attachment_31253" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="ISB's library."]
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[caption id="attachment_31254" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Walking around ISB's campus."]
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