Nitin Nohria: Aiming at extraordinary innovation

Nitin Nohria: Aiming at extraordinary innovation

MUMBAI: It was a strange coincidence that Nitin Nohria, the newly appointed Dean of the Harvard Business School, would choose to address the Indian media on a day when the special court handed the death sentence to Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving gunman from among the terrorists who killed innocent civilians and held hostages at two iconic hotels in the city. Nohria, the India-born American citizen, was in Mumbai when the city was under siege. It was a situation where "the capacity to defend ourselves was taken away from us", he said. It was one of the several experiences that have shaped Nohria's life.

Experience, after all, is the best teacher. The 48-year-old professor travels back in time to his student years at IIT-Bombay and thanks his alma mater.

"The formative years at IIT-Bombay taught me that I could survive anything," the 10th dean of the world's premier business school, who takes the hot seat on July 1, said over a teleconference with the Indian media on Thursday.

Another big influence on Nohria's life has been his father, KK Nohria, former head of the electrical equipment company Crompton Greaves. "The great leadership advice has been from my father: Try to be yourself and try to be humble." His father never pushed him into a career of his choice, as is the case in typical Indian families.

He in fact allowed the teacher in his son to grow. "If you are allowed to pursue your own passion in whatever field you like, then you are likely to be successful," Nohria said while speaking about the growing prominence of Indian-origin people in the US across business, arts, academics and Hollywood.

With India's importance on the global economic stage on the ascent, Nohria has plans to take HBS's India initiatives forward, although he was non-committal on the B-school setting up a campus in the country. Only recently, the Indian government has opened its gates for foreign institutions to set up campuses in India. However, on several occasions during the 45-minute interaction he emphasised the good work that Harvard Business School's research centre in India was doing. Nohria also said that Tarun Khanna, his colleague, was leading the India initiative for HBS with some executive courses, and other training modules were in the pipeline.

Nohria is taking over as the dean of HBS just as the institute enters into its second century of existence. The new dean said that his objective is to have "a period of extraordinary innovation at HBS". However, with the new hat on, he is not sure how much time he would be able to devote to his first love, that is teaching. "I'll try and do everything to connect with the students," he said.

One of the topics close to Nohria's heart is ethical practices. He emphasised that companies should pursue business with long-term goals and should also be socially responsible, leading to value creation in the long run.

Similarly, like great companies are built with long-term objectives, Nohria said a great career is built over a long term so that when one looks back, he should have made "a difference for the world".

He follows a similar approach in his personal life. For Nohria "the most important lesson in life is generosity.

If you are generous, life gives back more than what you have given." This is also something he mentions in his closing address to his students.

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