“I feel honoured, humbled and excited to have been chosen for the responsibility of becoming the next Dean of Harvard Business School (HBS). I believe that HBS has an opportunity to be the beacon for business education for the next 100 years just as we have been for the last hundred,” says Nitin Nohria. An alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, Nohria received his Ph D in management in 1988 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management. In his first interaction with the Indian media after being appointed to the post, Nohria talked about the MBA oath, his plans for HBS and the lessons he has learnt from life.Excerpts:
In the wake of the financial crisis, you, along with your colleague Rakesh Khurana had said “Managers have lost legitimacy over the past decade in the face of a widespread institutional breakdown of trust and self-policing in business… it is time that management finally became a profession.” What made you say that?
I have always believed that business is a vital resource in any society because it contributes so much to the prosperity of any society. Business leaders who can produce goods and services that their customers value, and jobs that provide employment and engagement for the employee, are mindful of the resources they consume of our planet, and do so with a view to managing a business over the long run, actually do very well for their shareholders and for the prosperity of their society. However somewhere in the last few years it seems to me that pursuit of the short run profit and making money in the immediate term, seems to have overshadowed sometimes the interest in running companies for the long run. Many business leaders understand the importance of running business through the long term.
Do you see this changing?
I hope that what the current events will do is bring us back to the time when businesses are run in a way where value is created for societies in a very powerful way.We have actually in the last few years at HBS done many things to get our students to understand the commitment. We have a course called ‘leadership and corporate accountability’ which is now a required part of our first-year course that I was involved in designing and helping create. So I hope we will be able to bring in an era which reminds people of the extraordinary role that business can play in society and HBS will be at the forefront of restoring the faiths that we should have around the world about the role of business.
Do you also plan to launch more initiatives like the MBA oath programme? (The management equivalent of the Hippocratic Oath taken by doctors of which Nohria has been an integral part)
The oath is something that was a student-led activity. I was delighted to have been someone to have triggered it. But it has actually been a bottom-up activity that has been engraved by a set of students in our graduating class last year. There is another group that is taking it this year. And as you know, it has spread all over the world. I think the reason it has gained so much interest is because it’s a way for people to remind themselves and remind the world that business can be conducted with honour and that as a profession that is no less valuable to the society than doctors.
The oath was inspired by the Hippocratic Oath that doctors take. And its parallels are exactly that, which is, if human beings who have power and privilege in a society conduct themselves in a way where they exhibit the highest standard of personal conduct, then they will endorse society’s trust and be able to fulfill their responsibilities that come with their positions of power in a way that will benefit society.
But what makes you so optimistic about the MBA oath?
If you look in every society there has been a tradition of taking up the honour of a business person where business could be done on a handshake and we could trust the business people around the world. I think that it is possible to restore that honour to business. It is by no means the only or the ultimate step or a magic bullet. There are no magic bullets for a problem that is as difficult as that. But I think it is a good first step at least it reminds people what it is that you want them to do and they want themselves to behave as. Again as I said this is not something that we enforce on people. It is a bottom’s up initiative and people have to take it up voluntarily. There is a very great power when someone makes a personal commitment to doing something.
Much like when we take marriage vows. All vows are our of some importance and the MBA oath just does that.
What is your advice to business school students in India?
My advice to all students graduating from business schools everywhere is, think about your career as a marathon and not as a sprint. And to do so in a way that you can look back and actually feel proud of what you have contributed to your world and not just to your own.
Will you find time to teach and research?
As you know my first love is teaching. And demands of this job are demands that I am only now beginning to understand. But I will do everything I can to at least remain very connected with our students and to find some opportunity to be in our classrooms. I think a part of our school is the research that we do and how we bring that into our classrooms and the experiences that we create for our students. So I will make a concerted effort to stay connected to the teaching environment of HBS.
Is your position for a certain period of time?
We all serve at the will of our president (of the Harvard University). And so I don’t know how long or short that is. But I hope it will be for a long time.
What is the best leadership advice you have ever got?
The best leadership advice I got was from my father. My father always told me: try to be yourself and try to be humble.I have always felt that if you are generous, life gives you back and the opportunity that I have now been offered is in some way life’s gift back.
What role did IIT Mumbai play in your success?
Like so many other immigrants in America, I am truly proud of my heritage and I am equally proud of being an American citizen. I have very fond memories of my time there. As you might imagine that those were very, very formative years. I feel very indebted to my alma mater for having prepared me for the challenges that life has thrown at me and I don’t think I would be here today but for that foundation.
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