Harvard developing case study on leadership during Taj terror attack

Harvard Business School (HBS), the world’s leading business institute, is charting out strategies to engage more with executives, faculty and students in India, says Rohit Deshpande, Sebastian S Kresge Professor of Marketing at HBS.

He spoke to DNA about how exactly HBS will plan its India initiatives; how even HBS, like Indian schools, is facing a faculty crunch; and why students of foreign origin at HBS are increasingly wanting to start their careers in India. Excerpts from the interview:

In what manner is HBS planning to engage with the faculty and student community in India?
We recently had a programme aimed at training the trainers so that they can then impact the students. At HBS we have something called GCPCL (global colloquium for participant centered learning) for training the faculty. It works on the multiplier effect principle—that one faculty makes contact with say at least 500 students and thus can influence those many. This is the need of the hour as the faculty-student ratio is highly skewed with limited faculty to train innumerable students.

The programme we recently had, which was a mini GCPCL, was put together jointly by us, faculty from IIM Bangalore and Indore, and the Case Research Society of India (CRSI). It saw faculty from schools like IITs, IIMs, ISB, SP Jain, Welingkars, as well as heads of corporate training from companies like Tata, SBI and RBI closely interacting with one another. The goal is to build a management education infrastructure on a national footing.

Which new initiatives is HBS planning to start in India?
We will start some executive education programmes for senior-level executives from January in real estate, managing a professional services firm, building a global enterprise, etc. The content will be India specific. We are under discussion to develop more India specific programmes. But due to a faculty crunch we can provide only limited number of programmes.

How come HBS also has a faculty crunch?
Yes we have a limited number of faculty, who are spread over the world. The crunch exists as our recruitment standards for faculty are very high. Hence, many people cannot meet them. Lots of people are out there looking for jobs but they are not the kind we want. HBS largely uses the case study method to teach, which is very interactive, facilitating a discussion. The faculty has to involve students in a lateral conversation, customise cases, rather than just lecture them. In the US, PhDs are trained intensively to do research very well and publish it before the idea gets scooped. But they are never trained to teach. Our job is to find people who are very good with research, but simultaneously have a passion for the classroom.

How is HBS planning to address this issue?
We are thinking of collaborating with the faculty at other schools at Harvard like Harvard Law School to implement the programmes.

You said the case study method is crucial. Are cases getting customised to the Indian atmosphere?
The power of this method is increasing across schools and it tends to be used more for subjects like organisational behaviour, strategy, marketing; rather than finance. We know a lot about the lecture method of learning, but not much about the case study method. I had written a case on Cipla which deals with the tension between providing AIDS medicines to poor nations versus protecting the intellectual property of Big Pharma and concerns ethical issues, pricing, etc.

This is very India centric. However, over 90% of cases taught in business schools today have origins at HBS and are mostly about US companies. I am in the process of developing an India-specific case on leadership during a crisis—based on the Taj attack. We have taped interviews with the banquet people, kitchen staff, security, reception people and all the way up to the senior management of the Tata group. This case is to show how leadership displayed by those at the lower rungs of hierarchy as well as their superiors helped in saving lives.

How the Indian concept of ‘atithi devo bhav’ - guest is God, ignited the fervour in the minds and hearts of the Taj staff to rescue their guests, even if it meant losing their lives in the process. I hope this case will be taught globally as every student has something to learn from it.

Any tie-ups that HBS will look with institutes here?
We have done joint ventures here in the past. We have collaborated with the setting up of IIM Ahmedabad. We want to do more but we are facing a resource crunch.

How many Indian students or those of Indian origin do you get?
Oh the percentage of students from India is declining though I don’t have numbers. We have many US born Indians, but not many India born. I guess this is happening because the labour market here is getting stronger day by day. For the doctoral programme, we noticed a decline in Indians as compared to Chinese students and this has coincided with the job and salary boom here. Moreover, since the last two years, we have seen that several students of foreign origin are scouting for summer internships and then starting their careers in India.

The reason is purely related to economics. India is a booming economy along with China and Brazil. But unlike the latter two, which mainly function in their native tongues, English is widely spoken in India. This seems to be the reason for the outflow of students to India for internships. So now the picture is clear. If foreign origin students flock to India, Indian students see more reason to study at the best institutes within India and get jobs here, which may even work out cheaper than going abroad.