Srinivas
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What makes Indians so good at research and strategy?
By Anjani Jain
In my discussions with students and the media about Indian managers and management thinkers, I've come across a variety of perspectives.
First, it seems conspicuous to Western observers that the faculties of prominent business schools and the ranks of influential management consultants and authors in the US are replete with Indians. I am sometimes asked what explains this preponderance and whether Indian culture is especially conducive to the contemplation of leadership in business.
Second, much has been written recently by both management thinkers and other observers about the uniquely Indian characteristics of successful business leaders operating in India.
These characteristics include, it is claimed, a commitment to inclusive growth, a long-term perspective on business objectives, and the much vaunted proclivity for jugaad-the improvisational ability to find workable solutions around seemingly intractable problems. But jugaad is also seen to have a darker side-the readiness to compromise principle in favour of expediency and a lax attitude toward the law.
Indeed, stories of corruption and fraud in India receive greater attention in the Western media, just as books lauding the triumphs of Indian business proliferate in domestic airport bookstalls. The fact that there are so many India-born professors at top US business schools should not be too surprising.
Indians constitute one-sixth of the world's population. India's educated elite is fluent in English (the facility in language alone explains why you don't see nearly as many Indian professionals in Germany, Japan, or Brazil), and the prestigious institutions of higher learning in India, especially in engineering (including computer science), business, and medicine-the IITs, IIMs, AIIMS-have been greatly influenced by American higher education in the last 50 years.
Bright kids in India have been disproportionately drawn (more likely pushed by their parents) to these professional fields (as opposed to pure sciences or the humanities), both because of the high quality of the educational institutions in these fields and the attractive career prospects associated with them.
Indian students in these fields have found it relatively easy to enter the US in pursuit of PhDs or other advanced degrees, often supported by scholarships or research grants.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the preponderance reflects something I find truly remarkable about the Indian educational system. In a society rife with endemic corruption and graft, India has managed to create a tradition of meritocracy and world-class excellence at her best educational institutions.
It is astounding to me that these institutions have been impervious to both political pressure and financial influence and have maintained a pure meritocracy in the selection of students. This has also created a tremendously potent democratising influence on the Indian society at large and has allowed talented students from even the most underprivileged backgrounds to break through centuriesold barriers of caste, class and economic deprivation.
I believe that the large presence of Indiaborn faculty at top universities in the Englishspeaking world owes a great deal to this tradition of educational meritocracy. Who are the most influential Indian business and management professors in the US? What makes Indians good at research and strategic thinking?
The people I admire most as original thinkers and educators are not likely to be among a top-10 list of well-known business gurus. I should disclose here that I harbour considerable skepticism about the lasting value of the neatly packaged bromides found in much of the "business wisdom" literature.
Scholars of Indian origin have indeed made important and pathbreaking contributions in many fields that are foundational to business knowledge: economics, statistics, psychology, ethics, applied mathematics, computer science and philosophy.
To me, research has much more to do with independent, unorthodox and creative thinking than with strategic thinking. Serious, thoughtful scholars of business have often influenced business practice in the US and scholars of Indian origin have earned their place among them.
What makes Indians so good at research and strategy? - The Economic Times
By Anjani Jain
In my discussions with students and the media about Indian managers and management thinkers, I've come across a variety of perspectives.
First, it seems conspicuous to Western observers that the faculties of prominent business schools and the ranks of influential management consultants and authors in the US are replete with Indians. I am sometimes asked what explains this preponderance and whether Indian culture is especially conducive to the contemplation of leadership in business.
Second, much has been written recently by both management thinkers and other observers about the uniquely Indian characteristics of successful business leaders operating in India.
These characteristics include, it is claimed, a commitment to inclusive growth, a long-term perspective on business objectives, and the much vaunted proclivity for jugaad-the improvisational ability to find workable solutions around seemingly intractable problems. But jugaad is also seen to have a darker side-the readiness to compromise principle in favour of expediency and a lax attitude toward the law.
Indeed, stories of corruption and fraud in India receive greater attention in the Western media, just as books lauding the triumphs of Indian business proliferate in domestic airport bookstalls. The fact that there are so many India-born professors at top US business schools should not be too surprising.
Indians constitute one-sixth of the world's population. India's educated elite is fluent in English (the facility in language alone explains why you don't see nearly as many Indian professionals in Germany, Japan, or Brazil), and the prestigious institutions of higher learning in India, especially in engineering (including computer science), business, and medicine-the IITs, IIMs, AIIMS-have been greatly influenced by American higher education in the last 50 years.
Bright kids in India have been disproportionately drawn (more likely pushed by their parents) to these professional fields (as opposed to pure sciences or the humanities), both because of the high quality of the educational institutions in these fields and the attractive career prospects associated with them.
Indian students in these fields have found it relatively easy to enter the US in pursuit of PhDs or other advanced degrees, often supported by scholarships or research grants.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the preponderance reflects something I find truly remarkable about the Indian educational system. In a society rife with endemic corruption and graft, India has managed to create a tradition of meritocracy and world-class excellence at her best educational institutions.
It is astounding to me that these institutions have been impervious to both political pressure and financial influence and have maintained a pure meritocracy in the selection of students. This has also created a tremendously potent democratising influence on the Indian society at large and has allowed talented students from even the most underprivileged backgrounds to break through centuriesold barriers of caste, class and economic deprivation.
I believe that the large presence of Indiaborn faculty at top universities in the Englishspeaking world owes a great deal to this tradition of educational meritocracy. Who are the most influential Indian business and management professors in the US? What makes Indians good at research and strategic thinking?
The people I admire most as original thinkers and educators are not likely to be among a top-10 list of well-known business gurus. I should disclose here that I harbour considerable skepticism about the lasting value of the neatly packaged bromides found in much of the "business wisdom" literature.
Scholars of Indian origin have indeed made important and pathbreaking contributions in many fields that are foundational to business knowledge: economics, statistics, psychology, ethics, applied mathematics, computer science and philosophy.
To me, research has much more to do with independent, unorthodox and creative thinking than with strategic thinking. Serious, thoughtful scholars of business have often influenced business practice in the US and scholars of Indian origin have earned their place among them.
What makes Indians so good at research and strategy? - The Economic Times
is it Self delusion?
