Insights from global leadership experts on Indian Strategy Scholarship and Deep Purpose within organizations mark Day 3 of India Strategy Conference 2023
Day’s main speakers include elite faculty from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Harvard Business School
16 December, 2023, Bengaluru: The morning session of Day Three of the India Strategy Conference 2023 (ISC 2023), being held at IIM Bangalore from 14th December to 17th December 2023, featured the keynote address on ‘India Strategy Scholarship’ delivered by Dr. Deepak Somaya, Professor of Business Administration and Diane and Steven N. Miller Professor and Edwards Scholar, Gies College of Business, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
IIM Bangalore, jointly with IIM Ahmedabad, ISB Hyderabad and Confederation of Indian Industry Chief Strategy Officers’ Forum (CII CSO Forum), is hosting ISC 2023. The Co-chairs of the conference are Prof. Rejie George Pallathitta, IIM Bangalore; Prof. Prateek Raj, IIM Bangalore; Prof. Amit Karna, IIM Ahmedabad, and Prof. Chitra Singla, IIM Ahmedabad, all faculty from the Strategy area. For the complete schedule of the conference, please click here.
Prof. Deepak Somaya started his talk by asking what he termed the ‘provocative’ question probing if India Strategy Scholarship should be integrated with Global Strategy Scholarship, and the session saw an interesting exchange of ideas between speaker and the audience. Providing a comparison of India strategy scholarship with the rest of the world, he discussed the case for non-integration. “The reasons for non-integration are many. India strategy scholarship should focus on uniquely Indian problems that do not generalize and need sui generis theory development and even methods. It could also be incomprehensible to the global audience, even with translation, and hard cost of engaging with global strategy scholarship is high. Research integrating with global strategy scholarship could be a difficult option. There could be minimal professional benefits, hence motivation could be low. Moreover, in India, we have our own journals, conferences and communities.”
Addressing the argument in favour of integration, he said, “India may have uniquely valuable things to contribute to global strategy scholarship in terms of problems, ideas and context. New insights could be applied to the Indian context as well. Exchange of ideas between Indian and global scholars may be uniquely generative. We also need to remember that global scholarly fields set normative standards around which quality and impact of scholarship are judged.”
Echoing the views of the audience that sharing methods and rigor with each other would enhance the quality of research, and that we need a bold approach to redefine management ideology on the lines of the global reality, he added that the benefits of integration far outweighed the costs and risks. “A lot of work is still needed, both at the individual and at the institutional level, to make it possible as well as feasible. I hope to see a lot of Indian scholars engage with the global strategy community.”
The evening session included the Presidential Address by Dr. Ranjay Gulati, Paul R. Lawrence MBA Class of 1942 Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School. His talk was based on the book authored by him titled, ‘Deep Purpose: The Heart and Soul of High-Performance Companies’.
He explained that the notion of corporate purpose often draws a lot of scepticism, as too many companies associate purpose with their mission statement. “Leaders engage only superficially with the idea of organizational purpose, when in fact they must practice Deep Purpose. Every business needs a purpose, a great strategy and the organizational model to implement it.”
Highlighting that the main takeaways from his book are the ‘what, why and how’ of purpose, he went on to explain the concept of purpose as one which should be meaningful to self and to the world, something that can make positive impact. “It should be a unifying ideal of the problems you want to profitably solve; it should be a set of ideas to connect everything.” He also spoke about why purpose matters and how organizations enact purpose.
Listing the features of Deep Purpose, he said they must be directional – aligning everyone in the organization in the face of various challenges; motivational – including job satisfaction, engagement and inspiration, and relational – where purpose becomes powerful for branding and for collaboration. “Inspired employees are most creative and productive, and enduring brands begin with purpose at the core”, he added.
“The challenge is to identify the purpose in our individual life and convert that to what we do at work. Personal purpose should be sought early in life. If people have connection to their life purpose, they would be more clued into the purpose at work.” He argued that a deeper engagement with purpose holds the key to the well-being of individuals as well as the organizations that they serve, and cautioned that it should not turn into just a slogan.
His talk was followed by a Q&A session moderated by Himanshu Shekhar, student of IIM Bangalore’s Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) programme of the Strategy area.
The day also included academic paper and poster presentations across tracks including technology, innovation and digital transformation, ESG and non-market strategy, business and corporate strategy, internationalization and global strategy, family business and entrepreneurship, and leadership and human capital.
The evening had in store a mesmerizing Carnatic flute SPICMACAY concert by Vidwan Sri Mysore A Chandan Kumar. SPICMACAY, which stands for Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture Amongst Youth, is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting awareness and appreciation of Indian classical music, dance and culture among the youth of India.
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