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A Diverse, Vibrant Community
and data processing functions (see the Software/IT Services/Business Process Outsourcing section in
Chapter 6). McKinsey’s own Knowledge Center in Delhi and Visual Graphics Center in Chennai
provided centralized companywide research, document management and presentations.
While in India, Kumar noticed the absence of international business schools at a time when the
economy was growing and becoming increasingly globalized. He saw interest on the part of
owners and chief executives at a number of Indian companies—in particular at family-owned
companies concerned with management succession and taking their enterprises global—in starting
Western-style, private business schools outside the rigid operating and curricular government
constraints in place.
Beginning in 1997, Kumar, along with McKinsey worldwide managing partner Rajat Gupta, set
about establishing the Indian School of Business (ISB),an effort that illustrates the two-way
flow of knowledge, talent and capital between the U.S. and India. Other founders include
Romesh Wahdwani and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, forming a strong Bay Area leadership
cohort and the largest from the U.S.
After forming an executive board of Indian corporate leaders, Kumar and Gupta secured partnerships
with the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, Northwestern University’s
Kellogg School of Business and, a short time later, the London School of Business (LSB).
To locate a site for the new campus, Kumar led a group that included Harvard graduate Rahul
Bajaj, head of the Bajaj Group of industrial companies; MIT graduate and Godrej Group chairman
Adi Godrej; and Wharton graduate Anil Ambani of the Reliance Group. At Mumbai, the
Maharashtra chief minister offered them 25 acres but wanted them to set aside a portion of
places in the new school for students of Maratha origin. At Bangalore, the chief minister there
kept the group waiting before offering a parcel of vacant land with no access road. At Chennai,
the chief minister offered a piece of industrial land adjacent to a Honda factory. At Hyderabad,
CM Chandrababu Naidu was more entrepreneurial; he sent his chief secretary and education
minister to meet the group at the airport, brought them to a 250-acre site where 20 local officials
showed development plans for roads and utilities, and had a draft agreement waiting for them to
amend and sign at his home. A deal was done on the spot.
The one million square foot campus, designed by Portman & Associates, broke ground in 1999
and was completed in only 21 months. Wharton, Kellogg and LSB provided curriculum and
visiting professors. Of the more than 50 visiting faculty coming to ISB in the past year, however,
fewer than half came from the three sponsoring schools. Visiting professors account for a third
of the total faculty teaching capacity; some local professors have jumped from the IIMs at
Bangalore and Ahmedabad. On the ISB governing board, along with Kumar and Gupta, were
Citigroup vice chairman Victor Menezes; Kleiner, Perkins partner Vinod Khosla; Anil Ambani of
the Reliance Group; Rahul Bajaj, head of the Bajaj Group; Godrej Group chairman Adi Godrej;
and the chairmen of Chatterjee Group, Hindustan Lever and ICICI Bank. Current members also
include Arcelor Mittal CEO Lakshmi Mittal; HCL Technologies founder Shiv Nadar; and
Infosys founder N.R. Narayana Murthy.
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