Stanford biz school woos India Inc

Daniel N Rudolph has been in India for the past three weeks. From the colourful and extremely "hospitable" side of Rajasthan to Mumbai's corporate life complete with "traffic jams", Rudolph and his family are clearly fascinated with the changing face of India.

In his official capacity as senior associate dean for operations, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Rudolph has been in India not just relaxing with his family but also interacting with the top honchos from Indian corporate circles.

For the first time ever the Stanford Graduate School of Business is hosting executive forums in India, offering one-day management seminars and executive networking events in New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore.

While the event in New Delhi concluded recently, the next event in Bangalore will be held on January 10 while it'll be held on January 12 in Mumbai.

"The aim," says Rudolph, "is to encourage Indian companies and important government agencies to hand-pick some of their finest employees and let them be part of executive education programmes offered in Stanford."

The fact that some important faculty members -- Robert A Burgelman, director, Stanford Executive Program and V Srinivasan, director, Strategic Marketing Management -- are also in India to advocate Stanford executive programmes makes it clear that India is a very important market for the institution.

"India has a lot of potential and our aim is specifically to encourage corporate India to be a part of our programmes to further enhance their entrepreneurship skills," explains Rudolph, who says that companies like Ranbaxy, Reliance, Infosys have shown a keen interest in executive programmes offered in Stanford.

But are these programmes suited for Indian corporates? "A lot of case studies for executive programmes are from India," explains Rudolph.

The six-and-a-half weeks executive programmes are "absolutely ideal for senior executives in India -- usually with 15 years of experience".

How would these programmes help? "At Stanford, one gets a brilliant chance to interact with global corporate heads who, in turn, will become leaders tomorrow," says Rudolph.

He says, "Our constant endeavour is to equip corporates with the right tools to improve their entrepreneurship skills through our programmes."

According to him, "Constant interaction with a world-renowned faculty and other corporates from different countries can help create a healthy dialogue and exchange of ideas."