A New Beginning

For the 420 odd students of the Class of 2008 at the Indian School of Business, today marks the end of a fruitful journey to get to a new and exciting beginning. I am not there in Hyderabad physically (I graduate a month or so later because of my exchange to Darden) but my thoughts are with the classmates for who an eventful and successful year came to an end officially as they donned their graduation gowns and received their diplomas. As I write this most of them are packing their stuff to leave the campus - some right away after the graduation ceremony and some others who will have one more bash before they head out. Most of them are getting terribly emotional and leaving with a heavy heart; I sure am missing all the action and the chance to say Good Bye. All the very best Class of '08 - hopefully our paths will cross more than once in the years to come!

For those that might chance on my blog and do not know much about the Indian School of Business (ISB), I encourage you to look up the website and Google to get to know more about this institution that is fast becoming the gold standard for business management education in India. Ranked 20th by Financial Times globally ahead of such renowned US business schools such as Kellogg of NWU, Ross of Michigan, Darden of UVa, and Fuqua of Duke, not to mention a host of other well known global schools, ISB has achieved in six years what most business schools can only dream of. Whether this ranking was deserved and whether ISB will be able to maintain this ranking and whether it can get on the top 20 lists of the other publications like US News and Business Week are debates that will rage on. But what cannot be denied is that this school is a force to reckon with and it is for ISB to lose from this position of strength. As a soon to be alumnus and someone who has made many friends at ISB, I sincerely hope that the people who make decisions at ISB don't give into pressures to grow fast and instead focus on sustaining the excellence.

This will be my last post on ISB itself but I intend to write a couple of pieces on business school education in general that could be useful for those considering an MBA or those that just got into a program. Go ISB!