As reported earlier on MBAUniverse.com, former Delhi University professor Dr Lalit Johri heads the initiative at Oxford University.
The study is being undertaken by faculty from the Saïd Business School, and will involve interviews with executives from 30 organisations from a range of sectors and locations. The organisations involved are drawn from the public sector, conglomerates, new businesses, and a range of industrial sectors including heavy industry, IT, professional services and automotive. The organisations are located in Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai.
Dr Lalit Johri, who visited companies in Delhi and Kolkata last week to conduct some of the interviews with executives, commented: "We are greatly looking forward to meeting senior executives from a wide range of organisations in India. A particular purpose of the research in India is to refine our understanding of the factors that have driven India's success and to understand future trends and the drivers of change. Working with business leaders, we aim to understand their views on the prospects for Indian businesses over the coming years, for example changes in ambition and emphasis. This is an essential first step for us to understand more fully the requirements of Indian organisations and means we will be able to enrich the executive development programmes we deliver at Lavasa with the findings from our research into emerging trends and the unique challenges that Indian organisations need to address."
Dr Johri further added, "Developing and delivering high quality and very relevant executive education programmes within India at Lavasa is one of the key activities of the new Oxford University Indian Business Centre and we are delighted to be embarking upon this research."
Dr Johri was accompanied on this trip by Dr Paul Chapman also of Saïd Business School, and they will undertake further interviews in Mumbai and Hyderabad next week. Dr Jeff Sampler and Dr Gerd Islei will also conduct interviews in Chennai and Bangalore this month.
Gay Haskins, Dean of Executive Education at Saïd Business School, added: "Oxford is committed to extending its historical ties with India and to building relationships with Indian businesses. This is demonstrated by the establishment of the Oxford University India Business Centre at the Saïd Business School."
Commenting on the establishment of the Centre, the Dean of the Saïd Business School, Professor Colin Mayer, said: 'The purpose of the Centre is to address major business policy questions in India through collaborative research between academics in Oxford, in India, and from around the world, and to engage practitioners and policymakers actively in formulating a research agenda that will be relevant and significant. We will also develop a range of executive education programmes for practitioners to be delivered in India which will be informed by our research into best practice in India and elsewhere, and will be designed to encourage the spread of such excellence.'
It is envisaged that the first executive education programmes will be delivered by Oxford in Lavasa in early 2010.
