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From the Co-chairs
Co-hairs of the Conclave, Professor Charles Dhanaraj from University of Western Ontario and Professor MB Sarkar from Temple University, in their welcome note said that the SMS Conference was an “outcome of our shared dream: to advance both Indian scholarship, as well as scholarship on India. Here is an excerpt from an exchange of thoughts between the two on what really made the Conference ‘Special’.
Research First
 MB Sarkar - We are experiencing the defining phenomenon of the century, which is a shift in the centre of gravity to emerging economies like India. We are witnessing Indian businesses that are redefining global industries through innovation, products, processes and business models. On the other hand multinationals are using India as a base to reinvent themselves. There are lots of new initiatives based on Public-Private-Partnership in India, which are now scaling up and going global. The home grown public service organisations, catering to the economically and socially deprived in India, are now suddenly seeing an opportunity to become global players in the developed world and make it a better place. Indian firms which have bred on hardships and shallow pockets are now finding that it has actually been a blessing, and that hard solutions have helped them develop robust business models. The issue is that as India’s prominence rises, so does its responsibilities, and the problem is that there is very little research emerging on such issues. Whatever research or thought leadership is happening, it is in the West. This is because research capability surrounding management or strategy issues are not as developed here.
Charles Dhanraj - If you look back at 10-20 year, the R&D department for Indian industries was nothing to be proud about. Today we have businesses with unmatched R & D. They are as good as any other place – whether it be California or Bangalore. The same thing should now happen in B Schools. There was a time when research in B Schools was equivalent to a doctoral programme or publishing papers in top tier journals. Now the academia should rise up to the global need . The unique advantage that people here in India have is that they have access to so much data , new business models, new experiences. So, sitting here one can make better sense of what is going on than some one in the US.
Creating Synergy of Best Ideas
MB - End of day, at this Conference, the intervention point was basically research. It was about bringing together industry, scholars from around the world and from India etc.
There are two issues here - First is to learn what is happening here in India, and second is to bring together young scholars and doctoral students to help them see that information and new learning can actually scale into new research capabilities. The important thing is to take the ball forward so that a group of people with research capabilities are willing to scale it to the next level. For India to move into the next phase of development, we need a completely new set of innovation capabilities. We are looking at a system where we can create 15 more Infosys like story. We are talking about a very different mind set within organisations which will take them from the 5-7 billion $ range to 20 billion $ in the next 10-15 years. Thus we wanted to trigger off the conversation in this area, knowing well the importance of research and knowledge.
Charles - The Conference had a special, unique mix of people - not just academic scholars or a bunch of business executives or researchers trying to find their way in the academic arena. When we talk of fundamental institutional change , a major change within B Schools cannot be done by a single agency. It has to be achieved at multiple fronts . Businesses have to drive the change, they have to demand the change from B schools and the Deans have to support the changes and drive it inside, the faculty must be willing to take it up as well. Here at the Conference, for once, everyone listened to each other and said–“yes it’s doable”.
MB – According to me, value is created in the intersection of different bodies of knowledge. Value is created when you bring together very different people who are part of an eco-system. You need a vibrant eco-system to achieve this. You need industry, you need leadership, you need academics, senior researchers, and the generation of doctoral students. You need to create a research DNA within society at large which then percolates into B school education and industry. Our objective here was just that - to synergise these voices.
Focus on Parallel Paper Tracks
Charles - There were eight tracks of parallel papers here at the SMS Conference. Researchers were from different fields. For example, there was a group of researchers who were looking at alliances in acquisitions. We had a track for them trying to bring together state- of-art papers, and some panels where speakers shared their experiences about potential problems and how to go about it. Similarly we had tracks on social entrepreneurship, corporate entrepreneurship etc. Each rack focussed on one aspect of innovation and strategy.
MB- It was a platform for many papers, and there was a variance in all the papers, basically a great melting pot of ideas. One important component of the Conference was that the first day was entirely dedicated to Faculty, Senior Faculty and Doctoral students. The whole idea was to take a group of the best and brightest junior faculty and put them in an intense immersion process with some of the leading strategy thought leaders to help them push their research agenda and go to the next level. We hope that through the Consortium and the research paper sessions, a lot of fertilisation of ideas would have happened.
Road Ahead
Charles - SMS hopes to keep playing the role of a catalyst in bringing together a network of entrepreneurial researchers in India . Professor CK Prahalad, during his closing remarks, suggested that it was not about resources and institutional incentives, it was only about innovation and entrepreneurship. Can we find a few scores of people who are willing to take the risk? I think there are, and this is where SMS will help in building network platforms. Taking it ahead, SMS will have some immediate workshops for research people, in a much smaller scale of course. As far as a Conference of this scale goes, we are still debating whether to make it an annual or bi- annual affair.
MB- We are constantly seeking ideas about what to do going forward. Personally I think that SMS as an organisation also needs to move forward . This I have learnt from this Conference – that you can not have a centrally coordinated organisation which can engage from a place like the US. We need some soul searching. Maybe the structure of the SMS needs some change in order to participate, to move forward , to grow and develop in the Indian environment. Before the Conference CK told me , “MB listen very carefully to the lines in between at Conference – end of the day you have to create an intellectual product from this.” Personally, my understanding on this whole idea of global competition has in many ways changed. A couple of powerful research ideas have emerged in my mind. The message I got was that emerging markets are all about ‘re-invention’, and as we go forward, for me, I will spend a fair amount of time and energy researching on this.
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