Cradle of Leadership : The World Class Business School

William W. Kooser, associate dean for global outreach, the university of chicago booth school of business

Abhilash Misra, director, india and south asia outreach program, chicago booth

Think Chicago Booth (The University of Chicago Booth School of Business) and it brings to the fore its illustrious past, dating back to 1898. The fervour of its distinguished faculty, Nobel laureates associated with the University of Chicago (UChicago) and eminent persons from business, social and world economic cadres continue to fuel new momentum in their respective fields.

Located in downtown Chicago on the famed ‘Magnificent Mile’, the school’s flagship campus is reflective of its programmes and collaborative work that it conducts globally either as a scientific guidance platform or as an investigation module to harness greater aspects of economics and everyday social wellbeing. The University oversees $ 1.6 billion annually in sponsored research and primarily manages two national laboratories for the US. Dept. of Energy and the famed Marine Biological Laboratory.

While the Booth MBA programme is ranked No 1 by The Economist, the University takes pride in its problem solving expertise which the faculty has garnered over the past century or so - executing within the paradigm of its global engagement streams.

Chicago Booth is considered as the second-oldest business school in the U.S.A and the first such school to offer an Executive MBA programme. It was also the first to have initiated a Ph.D. programme in business. The business school was rechristened as Chicago Booth in 2008 after its eminent alumnus David G. Booth gifted a $300 million endowment to the school. Booth is said to have packed up his Valiant convertible and left Lawrence, Kansas, to begin his doctoral programme at Chicago Booth. His arrival at Chicago is seen as a great example of perfect timing. Over the previous 10 years, the business school had emerged as a finance powerhouse and Booth said, “The work that was done in Chicago between 1963 and 1973 in finance has yet to be surpassed by any other business school anywhere.”

With many Nobel Prizes bagged by faculty members, students, or researchers at some point in their respective careers, the school itself has a line-up of seven Nobel laureates as part of its eminent faculty. With Sweden’s central bank, Sveriges Riksbank, establishing the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 1968, seven Chicago Booth faculty members have since won the award; building on to the school’s dictum of ‘Inquiry’, ‘Insight’ and ‘Impact’ in its Executive MBA programme. As a ‘brand’ the school digs deeper into the experiences of its reputed faculty who have dedicated at least 20 to 40 years of their lifetime researching on relevant problems with long lasting impacts either on business or social infrastructure.

The University of Chicago Booth School Of Business’s Indian connections date back to days of yore when Nobel laureate, Rabindranath Tagore visited the University in 1913. In 1936, Dr Clifford Manshardt, eminent alumnus initiated the proposal for a school for professional social work in Mumbai. UChicago had also evinced enough interest in the then Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and his illustrious daughter, Indira Gandhi who visited the university in 1949 and in 1951. The Ford Foundation funded a Comparative Civilization project at the University with an initial focus on India.

And, the India connect continues, even in recent times. Sunil Kumar, Dean (Chicago Booth) and George Pratt Shultz Professor of Operations Management, at the helm of affairs since 2011 who is serving his second term has steered the school towards diverse student aspirations via its programmes in strategies for global economic, social and managerial developmental skills worldwide. India-born Kumar received a bachelor of engineering degree from Mangalore University in Surathkal (Udipi district), master’s degree in computer science and automation from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore and a PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He believes in segmentation in the structure of educational programmes, be it in MBA or an engineering degree. Each programme according to him evokes different set of motivations for different populations.

If Milton Friedman’s (Economic Sciences, 1976) work is closely associated with the University, it is with the same passion that one can enlist Nobel Prize winner and a professor for nearly 60 years, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (Physics, 1983), amongst other renowned UChicago Nobel prize awardees.

Not just socio-economic or medical, but, a project on discovering fossil remains of dinosaur, Rajasaurus narmadensis was undertaken as a collaborative task by UChicago professor and explorer-in-residence, Paul Sereno, along with Geographical Survey of India’s’ Suresh Srivastava and Ashok Sahni of Punjab University who assisted him in his study. Besides, other diverse programmes are initiated under UChicago’s science, energy, medical health commissions that work with the U.S. government as a concerted effort with the Indian government. These include India’s national grid computing initiative – Garuda project, the unrelenting services of Valluvan Jeevanandam, professor of Surgery and Chief of Cardiac and Thoracic Surgery (UChicago) in assisting cardiac programmes on high risk heart transplants globally and the University’s association with the IISc and the Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences on the Ganges Valley Aerosol Experiment to study the impact of pollutants; to name a few.

The school also supports various student collaborative programmes in India such as the South Asian Civilisation study abroad programme in Pune, the Metcalf Internship programme, the Fulbright US Student Programme and Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and UChicago School of Social Service Administration programme that studies urban poverty and social welfare, among other exchange initiatives.

With Raghuram Rajan, Governor, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), who served as Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the Booth School (and currently on leave from this coveted position), the line up of prominent Indians on Chicago Booth’s alumni list is impressive too. The prominence of Navneet Kapoor, President and MD, Target India; Aditi Avasthi, Founder and CEO at embibe (Indiavidual Learning); Kartheepan Madasamy, Managing Director, Qualcomm Ventures; Ketaki Jain, Director, Customer Experience & Concierge Services, Snapdeal; Luis Miranda, Founding member HDFC who heralds various non-profit enterprises and Jerry Rao, Chairman of Value and Budget Housing Corporation, has garnered entrepreneurial directions for its current 500 strong Indian alumni.

Little wonder that the Chicago Booth School of Business celebrated its 4th annual Indian Alumni gathering from around the world in Bangalore and gracing the occasion was William W. Kooser, Associate Dean for Global Outreach.

William, spoke to Corporate Citizen on business trends and the business programmes offered at Chicago Booth and future prospects. Abhilash Misra, Director, India and South Asia Outreach programme also expressed positive vibes on the development of Booth’s many CSR projects that it runs with the Indian government. Both William and Abhilash envisage optimistic contributions from the Indian Alumni in the near future.

CC: What is the current agenda of your outreach programme?

WK: It is our belief that to be a world class institution, you have to have strong relationships with organizations, alumni, media and governments all around the world. While there are many ways to do that, we have chosen to establish campuses in different parts of the world. In 1994, we opened a campus at Barcelona, Spain where we off er our Executive MBA programme. We moved that campus to London in 2005 which now serves as our European campus. In 2000, we opened a campus in Singapore but eventually decided to move this campus to Hong Kong in 2013, which is now our main Asia campus. So, between our main campus in Chicago, campuses in London and in Hong Kong, we cover an awful lot of the world with our physical facility.

What is the aim of your global outreach programme?

WK: As a business school we off er the Executive MBA programme in London, Hong Kong and Chicago and to support that eff ort we also help to build visibility and connections for the entire institution. We spend a lot of time travelling through these regions meeting with companies, alumni and the media not just to talk to them about the school, but also to identify organizations that could benefit from the research work of our faculty or gain from the educational programmes of our school. Th e interactions help to identify areas of interest for our faculty so that they learn more about what is going on in these regions. It is a two way street – we want to be in a position that we can learn what is happening on the ground in major economic business centers and would like to be in a position to help train and educate the next generation of business leaders in those parts of the world.

Do you have any facility in India?

WK: Chicago Booth has a small facility in Beijing and in Delhi to facilitate research work. Abhilash Misra is based here in India and is the person in charge of all our activities here.

How strong is your India alumni?

WK: We have a total of 500 alumni from all of our programmes in India. It is one of the most active groups anywhere in the world for us. We set up the India alumni base as an example for all our other alumni clubs worldwide.

AM: Th e Indian alumnus is called the Pan India Booth Alumni Retreat (PIBAR), now in its 4th year. It continues to grow stronger each year as more and more of our graduates decide to come back to India. We attract more students from India, particularly to our programme in Hong Kong.

“It is a two-way street – we want to be in a position that we can learn what is happening on the ground in major economic business centers and would like to be in a position to help train and educate the next generation of business leaders in those parts of the world” – William Kooser

Do you intend to collaborate with Indian institutes to further your programmes?

WK: On partnering with Indian universities, it all depends on the institutions and the nature of the tie-ups we are in. I think the challenge for schools like ours is - who do you partner with, and the cost involved in doing so. We, as an institution, tend not to send our faculty abroad for long durations. When we off er a degree, we set up our own campus, as we did in London and in Hong Kong. We do not partner with other institutions for degree programmes. We do so for student exchange programmes and for our non-degree executive education courses. We partner with other universities and have been doing for years on student exchange programmes wherein students come to our Chicago campus for a term and those at Chicago would go to the partner universities in Europe, Asia, Australia, and South America. We have many partnerships in that area, with Oxford, Wharton, and Stanford but not for our degree programmes. We like to maintain control over those because if we want to off er Chicago MBA then we want it to be taught by our own faculty.

‘‘We are mentored by the University of Chicago and Booth School of Business alumni and so it works on all three fronts - the government benefits from the faculty inputs, the alumni are able to exchange their knowledge by becoming mentors and students who participate in the scholar programmes earn valuable apprenticeships” - Abhilash Misra

Does it make sense for you to start your own campus in India?

WK: Yes and no. I am sure our alumni would love to have the off er of a campus here. We do have our research centre at Delhi so that is a good first step for us as a university where our faculty is doing research into India issues and can spend time working with their colleagues here. For us to off er another campus for our degree programme is a major undertaking. It requires an expansion of faculty and huge investments. I think, at the moment our goal is to have one campus in a continent. I don’t think there is likelihood any time soon to off er another physical centre here in India. However, we would expect to do a lot of non degree short courses here other than at the Delhi centre and taking it forward to say, in Bangalore and do a course with another institution here.

Is it still popular for Indian students to opt for MBA degrees in the U.S.?

WK: For many years now, students have found education in the U.S. very popular and so in our fulltime MBA programme, the population of Indian students has always been large. It kind of goes back and forth with China which is one of the largest perhaps. China maybe edged ahead of India this year. Similarly, students continue to enroll in our executive part time MBA programme. We have a significant population of Indian students this year which comprises of 10 per cent of the total class strength for the part time programme

Is your EMBA (executive MBA) more popular than the full-time programme?

WK: They are both designed for different markets. While the full time programme is designed for people who have had 4-5 years of full time work experience, the EMBA is for those who have 12-15 years of experience. These two programmes are distinct and serve very different markets for individuals in different stages of their career and goals in their particular work circumstances. Both are popular and designed distinctly for different purposes and we cannot compare the two. Th e screening process is similar. We look at academic backgrounds, university scores, GMAT scores, interviews, essays and follow the same kind of processes as followed by other U.S. universities

CHICAGO BOOTH AND CSR PROJECT WITH THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT

On the Booth-Indian Government partnership programme

AM: Every year we take around 12 to 15 graduates from the University Of Chicago. These are bright scholars whom we enroll in the International Innovation Corps (IIC) scholar programme that is funded by the university. They work on some projects with the central and the state government of India in various areas of education, on healthcare, infrastructure, road transport and safety and on a lot of issues that the government thinks it can do with some external help. We are involved with the IIC under the aegis of the University Of Chicago Harris School Of Public Policy, to work with the Indian Govt. We work on strategic projects related to specifi c policy issues and on change ideas for any particular issue.

The Booth partnership model for projects with the Indian government

AM: Every year, we get two to three projects that come to us from the Government. For the students, it is an experience for them on understanding emerging markets and addressing important issues. For the government, it is a way for them to get some expert help from an academic perspective. We use the framework from academics to look at and identify problems. We are mentored by the University of Chicago and Booth school of business alumni and so it works on all 3 fronts - the government benefits from the faculty inputs, the alumni are able to exchange their knowledge by becoming mentors and students who participate in the scholar programmes earn valuable apprenticeships.

How does the government partnership model help your scholar programme students?

WK: It is kind of a consulting project with the Indian government. Teams of students work with government agencies to identify and analyze issues, develop some potential solutions and present those solutions for execution. I don’t know how involved they are in the execution; at least not yet. For instance, the industry, academia, policy makers and the Government. kick started a sanitation drive in India for which our faculty from the business school, medical school and public health met with colleagues from other institutions in India. Th e important thing here in India is how you develop programmes and policies to address some of the pertinent issues.

AM: We work on projects for a year wherein the students identify the problem, also identify the gaps, and off er their recommendations which is forwarded to the government for execution. We as a business school address various issues across different parts of the world and various geographies. We tap on our intellectual capital fl ow by attacking a problem. We structure a framework to address a problem if that helps. Th e success revolves around the feedback we get from the Government. Investment for this comes in from the University of Chicago, private investors and also from U.S.Global Development Lab under the aegis of USAID, the leading U.S. Government agency that works to end extreme global poverty and enables resilient, democratic societies to realize their potential.

Do elaborate on the Booth Chicago connect with Indian Industry

WK: We have entered into a knowledge partnership with the NHRDN and have recently inked a MoU with the Confederation of Retail Industry (CRI) in India. We also have connections with TiE-Global Entrepreneurship Organization. Our goal is to develop close relationship with companies, across industry segments. HR was an obvious choice; also the retail sector is a very important industry here with the spree of growth in e-commerce. TiE’s entrepreneurship community here is strong and interesting. Our goal is to build connections, to understand more about what is happening especially in these segments within the market economy so as to provide some support and fi nally base our education on these interactions.

“...It is our belief that to be a world class institution, you have to have strong relationships with organizations, alumni, media and governments all around the world. While there are many ways to do that, we have chosen to establish campuses in different parts of the world. As a business school, we offer the Executive MBA programme in London, Hong Kong and Chicago and to support that effort we also help to build visibility and connections for the entire institution” - William Kooser

Describe your partnerships with NHRDN and CRI

WK: With the NHRDN chapter here, the idea is to run training programme for HR professionals and provide them with a broader view of HR in business. Many have come up the HR path and may not have a broader view of fi nance or marketing. Th e model would comprise of our faculty coming to India and doing a course for a few days, or tap online potentials. We could do a programme with several of our faculty members from Chicago, via technology which could be supplemented by some panel discussion with the local alumni here. These talks are in the nascent stages. We have a similar tie-up with CRI, which could organize major conferences focused primarily on e-commerce as a tool to bring people from this sector, along with academia and policy makers to take up some of the issues faced by e-commerce companies. Idea would be to understand some of the best practices, the pitfalls and roadblocks to be effective in that space in the long run. Th e ultimate goal frankly is pretty simple…whenever anyone in India is asked – ‘What do you think of business schools or what business schools you know of’, and they say…Chicago Booth!

“We as a business school address various issues across different parts of the world and various geographies. We tap on our intellectual capital flow by attacking a problem. The success revolves around the feedback we get from the Government” - Abhilash Misra

BOOTH’S ELITE CLUB

The world creates 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day, says Dhiraj Rajaram, Founder and CEO, Mu Sigma, also a 2003 alumnus of Chicago Booth who literally interpreted ‘data’ for Fortune 500 companies while building his own multibillion dollar decision science company. Who would not agree with Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft Corp and a Booth alumnus - MBA batch of 1997, when he advised students to “find your superpower”, asking them to “play the long game,” and worry less about securing the highest possible salary right out of business school. With a star line-up of such global business players as part of the prestigious Booth alumni club, it undoubtedly spells a greater agenda for Chicago Booth. William W. Kooser, Associate Dean for Global Outreach, believes that over the next decade or so there will only be a handful of recognized business schools that would serve as truly world class institutions. With this view of garnering local partnerships in the socio-economic and business domains, the school has recently forged alliances with the National HRD Network (NHRDN) and the Confederation of Retail Industry (CRI). The CRI partnership aims to understand the Indian government’s policy in adapting to the booming online retail environment and help craft the right business environment and infrastructure for supporting these companies. Chicago Booth recently celebrated “15 Years of Making a Difference” in Asia and taking the Asian aspect forward, William shared his thoughts on Booth’s initiatives.

By Sangeeta Ghosh Dastidar