Head Message

It is my pleasure to meet you as the new Head of Center for Leadership, Innovation and Change (CLIC) at the Indian School of Business (ISB). CLIC started in 2008 as the fifth Centre of Excellence at ISB, under the leadership of Dr Prasad Kaipa. Prasad had the vision to bring an integral approach to leadership and innovation, and was influential in CLIC’s two prestigious initiatives: the SBI Public-Sector Leadership Cell (SPL) and the Biocon Cell for Innovation Management (BCIM). Prasad will continue to play an advisory role. His innovative thinking and passionate drive has created a strong foundation for CLIC and I hope to build on that.
 
SPL, sponsored by the generous contribution from the State Bank of India is focused on building leaders for public sector enterprises (PSEs), and identify and document best practices within public sector and to engage in an interactive knowledge sharing and knowledge creation exercise with the Public Sector CEOs. We have had two round tables in the past 12 months and the next round table is planned for 2011. The cell has completed one case on transformational leadership at SBI, and is in the process of completing multiple cases relating to several PSEs.

Within India, PSEs represent over 300 business firms with a potential market capitalisation of over Rs 22 trillion. Many of them are large, complex organisations and provide a fascinating ground for empirical research. Over the course of this academic year, we hope to develop databases and research laboratories with access to these PSEs to create a platform for researchers in strategy, organisational bahaviour, finance, and other disciplines to explore critical questions. In turn, it will also enable PSEs with access to top faculty members and their intellectual contributions.

A related initiative within SPL is a project on global leadership. Given the large number of Indian firms beginning to engage in international markets, there is an unprecedented need for building leaders who can work comfortably with their international peers and provide leadership in a global context. We are also keen in developing studies on values-based leadership, and how diverse values across the globe influence leadership. We are laying some foundations to build our capacity in that area. This initiative comes at a time when SBI, our sponsor, is also expanding its international base in an aggressive manner.

BCIM, sponsored through the generous contribution of Biocon, is focused on advancing innovation in India by identifying strategic approaches to innovation and advancing ideas for unleashing creativity in people and organisations. As Chairman Kiran Mazumdar puts it, “We need to see a generation of managers come out of ISB who would challenge the status quo and dare to think in new ways to advance growth and innovation in India.”

BCIM’s innovation research will have three major thrusts: affordable innovation, collaborative innovation, and breakthrough innovation. First, affordability and sustainability are twin engines propelling creativity to new heights. India is a hot bed of ideas in this area. BIC has initiated a systematic study of these innovations with a view to develop knowledge to enable organisations to take this creative energy to the next level. Second, collaboration is fast emerging as a necessary tool for innovation. BCIM will pioneer studies on effective collaborations across organisational and national boundaries. Third, we want to play a catalytic role in creating conditions necessary for breakthrough innovations in India, not only at the discovery stage, but also in the commercialisation and business development stages. We want to engage with corporates, research laboratories, venture capitalists, and policy makers to identify critical enablers and bottlenecks to advance research as well to extract high returns on the innovation.

CLIC is fortunate to have a wonderful and diverse team of researchers and faculty members who share this vision and who are engaged fully to see this through. Please email me if you have some ideas for us, or some initiatives that we can undertake with you.

Charles Dhanaraj (Head, CLIC)
Charles_Dhanaraj@isb.edu