One of the top 10 B-schools in the World, Stephen M Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan was in India last week to sign an MoU with CII. The MoU will help both parties implement experiential learning projects in India. Robert J Dolan, Dean, Ross School of Business tells Piyali Mandal how the partnership will work and the school’s plans for the Indian market. Excerpts:
Can you share some details about the partnership with CII?
We have signed a memorandum of understanding with the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII). The MoU will bring together two unique efforts. It will support CII’s India @ 75 initiatives and Ross School’s C K Prahalad initiative. The two organizations will collaborate in planning, facilitating and implementing experiential learning projects on which Ross students and faculty will work with CII member institutions and work as strategic partners. As per the MoU, Ross school will endeavour to create and disseminate teaching materials arising from the projects on which CII and the Ross School collaborate. In addition, the Ross School and CII will endeavor to co-create activities such as seminars, conferences and workshops in United States and India.
Is the initiative a tribute to C K Prahalad who was a faculty at the Ross School?
CK passed away just about a year ago from now…in couple of weeks it would be his first anniversary. And so we at the school, after he died, had the question as to how do we best carry on his work. We formulated the idea to create an initiative of what we called the CK Prahalad initiative. And the idea of the initiative is to honor CK. We realized that, it would be more impactful if we are able to form strategic partnerships with key organizations. And CII, seemed to be a likely source. We believe the best strategic partnerships are between organizations that have complimentary but not identical capabilities and that are why we are partnering with business organization.
What plans does your school have for India?
As a B-school our connection has been strong with India and we aspire to have a stronger connection in the future. So we are looking at having an India centre. At least at the moment we don’t have the vision of having a campus. However, that may change depending on how the laws of the government changes. But certainly, it would help us have more physical presence here—to have a gathering spot, to run the general activities. It could be a sight for alumni gathering. It could be a spot that would help us recruit the best students from India. I think it would be a lot of value for us to have that.
Any time line you have set for the centre?
We will do it soon. It is just a matter of securing funding for it. We are talking to a lot of our alumni on helping us with generating the capital that we would need to set up such centre. I think right now, it would be hard for us to meet the requirements as I understand at the moment. As a State institution it is difficult for us. Some of the private universities would have easier time with the requirements than the public schools. However, our collaboration with CII can be a good entry point for us to understand the Indian landscape.
