The India Research Center (IRC) was established in 2006. Based in Mumbai, the IRC is the most recent addition to the School's five Global Research Centers. Following significant economic policy transitions during the early 1990s, India is now proving to be a major force within the world economy. As a result, the IRC supports the School's faculty in its research interests on the emerging trends that are quickly transforming and shaping the region. Research to date has included the study of information technology, biotechnology, healthcare, agribusiness, and corporate governance within this dynamic region.
In March 2008, Harvard Business School appointed Anjali Raina as Executive Director of the India Research Center.
HBS India Research Center Newsletter 2010
Volume 4, May - August 2010
HBS successfully conducts 3 executive education programs in India in 2010
HBS Executive Education conducted two programs in Mumbai in July 2010, targeting senior executives and CXOs. HBS has conducted 6 executive education programs in India since 2008.
Building a Global Enterprises in India (April 21-25, 2010, Hyatt Regency, Mumbai) flagged off the executive education calendar for the year successfully. 79 CXOs/CMDs from across India and 9 countries learned about strategy, leadership, and innovation as well as how to expand rapidly in emerging markets and how to create emerging market multinationals. Dean Nitin Nohria and Professors Tarun Khanna and Stefan Thomke taught the program.
Develop India: Real Estate Strate-gies for Growth (July 7-10, 2010, Trident, Mumbai) was attended by 69 CMD/CXOs of real estate sector firms, including developers, entrepreneurs, private equity investors, and financial intermediaries. The program focused on issues related to strategy, project valuation, entity finance, and leadership. While the sector is facing unprecedented growth, despite short term volatility, the program offered interesting perspectives on global real estate cycles and lifecycle evolution of real estate firms. Professors Rebecca Henderson, John Macomber, and Arthur Segel taught the program. Two interesting panel discussions on Real Estate Capital Markets and Sustainable Development of Real Estate and Infrastructure with external panelists brought in interesting industry perspective from business leaders.
Managing and Transforming Professional Services Firms (July 21-24, 2010, Hyatt Regency, Mumbai) was attended by 84 CXOs, partners, and managing partners of various professional services firms. The program focused on leadership, strategy, marketing, client relationship management, growth, and organizational alignment issues for professional services firms. Professors Thomas DeLong, Rajiv Lal, and Ashish Nanda taught the program.
HBS India Research Center Highlights
The HBS India research Center, as befitting its mandate to take the Best of India to Harvard, published 4 new case studies. This brings the total case studies on India to 80. New research is underway exploring issues of branding, retailing, bottom-of-pyramid marketing and finance, inclusive growth, corpo-rate strategy for a conglomerate and leadership challenges.
In an attempt to bring the Best of Harvard to India, HBS IRC co-hosted 12 lecture and mixer events, including two panel dis-cussions as part of the Develop India program. These events provide a platform for HBS faculty, alumni, participants and Indian business leaders to engage and exchange ideas.
Dean Nitin Nohria visited Mumbai in July 2010. He delivered the JRD Memorial Lecture at NCPA hosted by Assocham. He also spoke on giving back to society at an event hosted by Give India. HBS aims to develop leaders whose ethos encompasses business, society and governance.
Executive Education - Develop India: Real Estate Strategies for Growth
The key trends affecting India are urbanization and major demographic shifts from rural to urban zones, impacting the entire built environment of the country and putting immense pressure on scarce resources. Regulatory trends and institutional investors demand increased transparency and governance. Against this backdrop, India's real estate industry is driving growth in response to the increasing demand for retail and commercial space.
The Develop India program looked at the issues of real estate finance, strategy, leadership and innovation in the broader macro-economic climate for India, while keeping in mind the global cycles and trends that have shaped real estate around the world through the past century.
Professor Rebecca Henderson taught strategy and linked it to resource scarcity. Professor Arthur Segel looked at entity and project finance and valuations and lessons from around the world. Professor John Macomber linked finance and leadership with the development of sustainable infrastructure.
The program was held at Rooftop, Trident in Mumbai against the magnificent view of Back Bay and Marine Drive.
Executive Education - Managing and Transforming Professional Services Firms in India
Professional services firms in India are in a phase of rapid change. Global and local competition is increasing. Firms are growing organically and through mergers & acquisitions. New regulatory forces are shaping every sector. In the face of these dynamics, professional services leaders must not only focus on external growth and client management, but also realign themselves and manage, motivate and train internal stakeholders.
The School's Executive Education program, Leading Professional Services Firms, was brought to India for the first time in 2010. Professor Thomas DeLong mesmerized the classroom with discussions on leadership and organizational alignment. Professor Ashish Nanda taught modules on motivation and cultural alignment, while Professor Rajiv Lal brought in the rigor of external market and growth issues.
Connecting India Participants
The HBS experience never ends with the classroom. "India programs are a great way to know people in the sector. If I am looking at new alliances, I know which CEOs to reach out to because they shared their thoughts in class", said the CMD of a large real estate firm.
"HBS case discussions in classrooms allow participants to know each others' professional views. When participants meet in reunions and mixers, they always recall their shared classroom experience. The mandatory residential programs foster this connectivity further by allowing participants to engage with each other in social and informal settings, further strengthening their connection", says HBS IRC Executive Director, Anjali Raina. In an effort to bring together participants from India programs, HBS created special linked-in groups for the three India programs.
Research through the IRC: Newly Released Case Studies
Zensar: The future of vision communities (A), David Garvin and Rachna Tahilyani, June 2010
Zensar: The future of vision communities (B), David Garvin and Rachna Tahilyani, June 2010
IDFC India : Infrastructure Investment Intermediaries, John Macomber and Viraal Balsari, June 2010
Tata Nano - The People's Car, Krishna Palepu, Bharat Anand and Rachna Tahilyani, April 2010
Research through the IRC: Case Studies and Projects in Progress
Ongoing case studies explore:
- Branding in the hospitality industry
- Crisis management in the hospitality industry
- Base-of-pyramid marketing
- Site development and infrastructure planning in the real estate industry
- Intellectual property right in the media industry
- Inclusionary growth in the financial services industry
- Base-of-pyramid financing in the education industry
- Accounting standards and reforms in India
- Knowledge management in the services industry
- Investment decisions for a charitable trust
- Corporate processes and strategies at a conglomerate
- Challenges and dilemmas faced by a female business leader
Ongoing projects explore:
- The time spent by a CEO on internal and external matters in correlation with firm performance.
Research through the IRC: Collaborating across geographies
Andrea Schulman from Baker Library visited the IRC in July. She ran a two-day workshop on using Share-sites and My-sites. She created special working Share-site pages for various HBS IRC teams. HBS IRC is collaborating on a global HBS experiment to develop an online document management system for multi-user collaboration. This Share-site and My-site system is being set up by the Knowledge & Library Services at HBS, and aims to facilitate global case writing and provide a platform to share docu-ments and conduct webinars. Andrea's visit followed a collaborative research effort pioneered by Professor John Macomber and IRC Researcher Namrata Arora when working on an India case study.
Best of Harvard in India Events and PR
1. Sustainable Urban Development panel discussion, May 29, ISB Hyderabad: Co-hosted by Mirabilis. Professor John Macomber moderated a session on urban development.
2. Sustainable Cities panel discussion, May 31, Yatch Club Mumbai: Co-hosted by Asia Society. Professor John Macomber spoke on and engaged in a discussion with Ravi Raheja and Sanjay Ubale.
3. Case Discussion, June 1, PHD Chamber New Delhi: Co-hosted by Real Estate Club. Professor John Macomber led a case discussion on Mexico City Water.
4. Case Discussion, June 2, India Habitat Center, New Delhi: Co-hosted by Mirabilis and HBS Professor John Macomber led a case discussion on Mexico City Water.
5. Alumni Mixer, July 2, New Delhi: Hosted by Gaurav Mittal (OPM 2010).
6. Urban Transport discussion, June 3, DIMTS, New Delhi: Professor John Macomber spoke on urban transport design issues.
7. Real Estate Capital Markets in India panel discussion, July 8, Trident Mumbai: Professor Arthur Segel led a panel as part of the Develop India program. Panelists included Anshuman Magazine, CBRE and Niten Malhan, Warburg Pincus.
8. Sustainable Development panel discussion, July 9, Trident Mumbai: Professor Rebecca Henderson led a panel as part of the Develop India program.
Panelists included Dharmesh Jain, Nirmal Lifestyle, Amitabh Kant, DMICDC, Vikas Kasliwal, SRUI, and Shirish Sankhe, McKinsey.
9. Alumni Mixer, July 8, Trident Mumbai: Hosted by EE during Develop India program.
10. Opportunities in Infrastructure Development panel discussion, July 14, IIM Bangalore: Co-hosted by HBP, IIMB, CNBC, Metro, and EMC. Professor Tarun Khanna participated in a panel with IIMB faculty, leaders from government and industry.
11. Indian multinational panel discussion, Aug 17, BSE Mumbai: Co-hosted by HBP, BSE, Aspen Institute, Princeton Club, and CNBC. Professor Tarun Khanna led a panel discussion with Brooks Entwistle, Goldman Sachs, S. Ramadorai, BSE, and Sumir Chadha, Sequoia.
12. Entrepreneurs in emerging markets panel discussion, Aug 18, Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai: Co-hosted by Asia Society, Taj Group, and CNBC. Malavika Sangghvi led a panel discussion with Professor Tarun Khanna, Aman Nath, Neemrana and Arvind Rao, OnMobile.
13. The India Advantage panel discussion, Aug 19, ITC Grand Central, Mumbai: Hosted by Mint. Sukumar Roy, Mint led a panel discussion with Professor Tarun Khanna, R. Gopalakrishnan, Tata Sons, Partha Bhattacharya, Coal India Limited, and Glenn Saldanha, Glenmark.
Anjali Raina