Harvard to open executive development centre in Mumbai

Updated on: Saturday, July 31, 2010

Harvard Business School (HBS) will invest in creating a classroom for conducting its executive development programmes (EDP) in Mumbai within the next two years, says HBS dean Nitin Nohria.

Though the ivy league B-school has no plans to set up a full-fledged campus, which the government policy now allows for, it is keen to build a proper setting for its numerous EDPs, which have so far been conducted largely in hotels.

We plan to do more EDPs in India in the coming years and need to give the classrooms an authentic feel,” said Nohria, who is in Mumbai as part of a world tour covering five cities where HBS has research centres.

Nohria said that HBS is not in the business of competing with Indian B-schools in the mainstream MBA programmes, but it will certainly be doing more research in India and conducting more EDPs. “The two have a strong link since the executive programmes allow our faculty to engage with Indian companies, which is essential for research.” he said.

The difference between HBS and the average B-school offering an MBA degree lies in the original research that it does, said Nohria. HBS faculty have already done some ground breaking research on Indian business, which now falls in the realm of general management wisdom and much of this is being used in Indian business schools. “429,000 HBS cases have been used in India. In a sense, Indian B-schools have been outsourcing their research to us,” he said.

And what aspects of the Indian way of doing business are most relevant to the world today? “We haven’t given it a label yet, but the Indian way lies in producing products like the Nano, which deliver functionality at a price point people can afford. The most recent example of this is the Rs 1600 PC for school children that Kapil Sibal has just announced.”

Harvard to open executive development centre in Mumbai

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