Wash U’s Hard-Fought Gamble In India

Devang Khakhar, (second from left), director of the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, shakes hands with Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton of Washington University in St. Louis following the announcement of a new joint EMBA program

Another point of differentiation is the program’s flexibility which is less common in India. Gupta  says he is aware of only one other major business school player in India, the Indian School of Business, which also offers a flexible format.

“It is a program where a rising executive does not have to travel outside of India, and he or she doesn’t have to give up their job,” he adds. “They can take only two days off from work a month and use two days of personal time.”

THE PROGRAM WILL END WITH A TWO-WEEK CAPSTONE IN ST. LOUIS

Spread over 18 months, the program will offer classes once a month for four concentrated days in Mumbai and will end with a two-week capstone experience at Washington University. The content of the program will be based on the same foundation of Olin’s U.S. and China programs. “We are very fortunate that language is not a barrier so we can tap into the expertise of IIT faculty in the school of management and outside the school of management—engineering, humanities, and specific engineering expertise. We are going to bring the Indian context and flavor to the program and that is going to be very important.”

Though it took several years to get off the ground, Gupta maintains that all the time and effort were worth it. “Doing it carefully and slowly and systematically, allowed us to develop a program that is more differentiated than what we started with,” he says. “We’ll be in Bombay, a financial hub of India. The area is bursting with young leaders trying to take the next challenge. We are excited about it and this is something of significance because there is no other program of its type in India.”

DON’T MISS: WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY’S EMBA PROGRAM TOPS THE FINANCIAL TIMES 2014 RANKING