What American Executives Can Learn From Indian CEOs About Great Management

In late February I had the pleasure of taking 29 McGill students to India for 11 days as part of our 5 Hot Cities of the World Tour - Part Trois.  One of the things we asked the CEOs and other C-Suite executives we met with was how did Indian firms manage differently than North American firms and what could North American CEOs learn from the Indian way of managing? This week I would like share an interview with Mike Useem, who along with 3 other Wharton professors, wrote a great book, The India Way, which we used as one of the texts for our trip.   For a number of years B-School profs, like Mike and myself, would fly to India to lecture on American business methods. In this column we will turn the tables and see what we can learn from our Indian friends.   In two weeks I will introduce the one Hindi word you really should know, Jugaad, frugal innovation, a word mentioned to us by the Schumpeter columnist when we met him at the Economist office in London and by a number of Indian executives.  

-Article by Karl Moore

Read full transcript: Forbes, April 18, 2011