The journey, told backwards

From the Director's office back to a bakery.

Each chapter is an institution. Scroll back through them.

2025 to now

The return

Director · IMT Ghaziabad

I came back to lead IMT Ghaziabad in February 2025, seven years after my first term ended. The position I set for the institute is "A Professional School Contributing to the Knowledge Economy". At the heart of this work is a distinctive proposition: IMT Ghaziabad connects curriculum with evolving managerial roles and career progression with responsible leadership.

#25 worldwide for teaching cases, Financial Times 2026#59 globally in the Financial Times Masters in Finance ranking 2026#86 globally in the Financial Times Masters in Management ranking

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The work rests on a role-competency framework. It connects managerial roles and what industry expects with the curriculum, mentoring, experiential learning and career preparation, without reducing management education to narrow vocational training.

What students did

A Centre for Financial Markets at One BKC, Mumbai, and a Dual Country Program with a year in Dubai.

What I am working on now

2019 to 2024

Building a university

Founding Vice Chancellor · Vijaybhoomi University, Karjat

I positioned Vijaybhoomi as India's first liberal professional university. The first year is for discovery: learners are exposed to several disciplines before they choose majors and minors across business, music, data science, law and design.

Five schools on one liberal-professional frameworkCredits accepted by partners including SUNY, Texas A&M, Illinois Institute of Technology, KEDGE and HSLU Lucerne

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Graduates must earn credits from at least four schools other than their own. The National Education Policy came in 2020. Vijaybhoomi, established in 2019, had already set its philosophy along those lines.

What students did

JAGSoM at Vijaybhoomi was ranked 6th among emerging BBA institutes in The Times of India survey 2024.

With Dr. K. Kasturirangan, architect of the NEP, planting a tree at Vijaybhoomi University

2018 to 2024

A school renamed, and accredited twice over

Director · Jagdish Sheth School of Management (formerly IFIM Business School), Bengaluru

During my tenure IFIM became the Jagdish Sheth School of Management. It became the sixth school in India to be accredited by AACSB, and was later reaccredited across two campuses, Bengaluru and Karjat: the first multi-campus AACSB accreditation in India. It entered the QS World University Rankings for its masters programmes in marketing, analytics and finance.

6th school in India accredited by AACSBFirst multi-campus AACSB accreditation in India, Bengaluru and KarjatRanked among the top 30 in India by Business Today-MDRA on debut

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With NHRDN we studied what Industry 4.0 needs from a management graduate. The result was a curriculum to groom T-shaped professionals, with career tracks in MarTech, FinTech, and Digital Business and Analytics.

What students did

Kanyathon, a student-driven annual charity marathon for the girl child and women's empowerment, was named in AACSB's Innovations That Inspire. Its surplus funded a Kanyathon Shiksha Kendra in villages the school adopted.

With Prof. Jagdish Sheth and Prof. A. Parasuraman

2016 to 2018

IMT Ghaziabad, the first time

Director · IMT Ghaziabad

IMT earned its first AACSB accreditation, and came back among the top ten business schools in the country, ranked tenth by Business Today and NHRDN in 2017. We refreshed the curriculum and introduced Sustainability and Social Responsibility, and Design Thinking and Innovation. Both were named in AACSB's Innovations That Inspire.

First AACSB accreditationBack in India's top ten in 2017Invited as a member institution of GMAC in December 2016

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We introduced Critical Thinking, APO groups (small groups of students who work together), and the Bloomberg Finance and Marketing Lab. I led the institute through the AACSB peer review visit, turned around the executive education portfolio, and helped launch a postgraduate programme in sales and digital marketing with upGrad.

What students did

IMT students won the Mahindra War Room for the first time in 2017, were national champions of L'Oréal Brandstorm in 2017, and first runners-up at FCB Ulka Comstrat in 2018.

IMT Ghaziabad, first term: Doing leads to Knowing, impacts Being

2015 to 2016

MICA

Dean · MICA, Ahmedabad

I restructured the admission process, with two MICAT exams a year, which set the applicant pool to more than double, and started a student-driven placement process.

Two MICAT exams a yearApplicant pool set to grow by more than 100%

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I put together an advisory board of industry experts to shape a contemporary curriculum for the Digital Marketing specialisation, the first of its kind in India.

What students did

MICA won the Mahindra War Room for the first time in its history, in November 2015.

#AskMICADean, a seminar on Twitter for MICA aspirants, in the newspaper

2007 to 2015

SPJIMR, and a mentor

Assistant Professor to Professor of Marketing; Deputy Director from 2012 · S P Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai

SPJIMR emerged as one of India's top business schools. I led the flagship two-year PGDM for over five years, and positioned it for "Global Relevance and Social Sensitivity". We moved to a semester system aligned with business schools abroad, so that students could go on exchange.

19th to 5th in Business Today (2014)12th to 3rd in Businessworld (2014)100% placements maintained over five years

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Global Fast Track was the result: all 240 participants in the programme, not a selected few, took advanced specialisation courses at Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Darden and Purdue.

It was Dr. M. L. Shrikant who mentored me and shaped me as a teacher and an institution builder. He taught me to replace OR with AND.

What students did

All 240 students of a batch studied at a leading US business school.

My tribute to Dr. Shrikant

1999 to 2007

Learning to teach

Faculty Member · ICFAI Business School

I joined ICFAI Business School as faculty in 1999, and saw it grow from rented premises to a 100-acre campus. Dr. V. P. Rao, then Director of the school at Hyderabad, pushed me to enrol for a PhD.

From rented premises to a 100-acre campusPhD in Business Administration, Aligarh Muslim University, 2007Colloquium on Participant-Centred Learning, Harvard Business School, 2008

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My doctorate, from Aligarh Muslim University, came in 2007. My early research was about what I knew first-hand: bakery chains, small businesses and shoppers in Kolkata.

ICFAI Business School (IBS), Hyderabad. Photo: A V Ramana Murthy, CC BY-SA 4.0

1991 to 1999

The bakery

Entrepreneur · Calcutta

Before I taught anyone, I spent eight years in hospitality and food retailing. I began as food and beverage in-charge at a four-star hotel in Guwahati. Then, for seven years, I ran Nutrishell, a bakery I started behind our house in Behala, Calcutta. It was the first to open franchised shops in Calcutta.

First franchised bakery shops in CalcuttaSeven Nutrishell Shoppes within a yearPGDBM, Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management, Kolkata, 1995, earned while running the business

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"Nutrishell was to manufacture specialty loaves, breads and cookies. But as the project evolved and market feedback came in, I felt there was much larger scope. I could sense that the snack foods market was burgeoning."

We had no brand and no factory to show, so we sold the brand first. Our advertisement called it "The Hottest Business in Town". Each franchisee paid Rs 50,000, and that money set up the bakery. Within a year there were seven Nutrishell Shoppes in Calcutta. I sold the business at an eight-digit rupee annual turnover.

When the business went through a downturn, I started teaching in business schools as visiting faculty to pay off debts. For a while I ran the enterprise and taught. That is how I found out that I loved to teach.

Read the bakery story

Presenting a cake from my bakery to the poet Subhash Mukhopadhyay, Calcutta

Where it began

A school without a building, a hotel kitchen, and a bakery.

School, Calcutta

We didn't have a school building till 8th Standard. Our classes used to be held on the stairs of a church, horse stables and even on the play grounds (Gorkha Ground) inside Fort William.

Hotel management, until 1991

However, my father insisted, that I should study where I get in through my own merit and that's how I studied hotel management! Looking back, that is where I picked up my "people skills".

My first job →

The bakery, 1992 to 1999

I stayed put and it turned out to be a very successful tenure. Subsequently, my colleagues from Guwahati helped me in setting up my bakery business in Kolkata. That laid the foundation of my entrepreneurial journey and my subsequent professional career.

The bakery story →

The classroom, 1999

I was planning to exit my business (a chain of bake shops in Kolkata) and came across a newspaper advertisement for the position.

My father

Two generations of Master Moshais

Lessons from Baba.

Baba was a teacher and institution builder at heart. As a child, I visited numerous academic institutions with him.

ResilienceWhen I wrote (STDs were yet to come) to my father regarding my decision to quit and join in the new role, he wrote me back stating that I was very fortunate to deal with such adversities in my first job.
ConfidenceHe thought that IMT would provide me the right exposure in terms of challenges faced in a large set-up. To me, that experience gave me the "Confidence" as a leader.
Courage and ConvictionHe said that he left IIT to build Jadavpur University (hardly known in early 70s) and that it was an opportunity to build an institution.
CharacterOne thing I feel he instilled in me, is the strength of "Character".

From the album.

Classrooms, colleagues and moments from the chapters above.

At INSEAD to experience and learn how to develop and teach with AI cases

Presenting a cake from my bakery to the poet Subhash Mukhopadhyay

Handing the JAGSoM Annual Report 2023 to Shri N. R. Narayana Murthy

Unveiling "Mind Without Borders", Atlanta, 2024

With Prof. A. Parasuraman and Prof. Ajay Kohli

With Sanjay Padode and the citation from JAGSoM

With Ganguly Madam (Ms. Sipra Bhattacharya), my teacher at Kendriya Vidyalaya Fort William

With Adam Gilchrist, for our partner, the University of Wollongong

My mentor at SPJIMR

What stayed the same

What I learnt from Dr. M. L. Shrikant.

He mentored me and shaped me as a teacher and an institution builder. He taught me to replace OR with AND.

It is a leadership that is enlightened: it conceives a purposeful vision, induces self-introspection leading to self-development, promotes collaborative working, and focuses on the long-term development of organizations along with the development of people.

Read my tribute to Dr. Shrikant on MBAUniverse

Three qualities he asked me to develop

Learning to live with imperfections
Accepting others
Appreciating satisficing

Three questions he asked of every initiative

Is the initiative unique?
Is it of global standards?
Is it sustainable?

AND, not OR.

Combine contradictions instead of choosing between them.

CompetitionCollaborationAND

Western efficiencyEastern ethosAND

RightsDutiesAND

Rational decision makingIntuitive judgmentAND

Role-readyNot role-boundAND

Five questions before a decision.

Dr. Shrikant gave me these. A decision must answer yes to each, before it goes ahead.

Is it good for the institution in the long run?
Yes
Does it make everyone, or the majority, happy? No one will cry.
Yes
Does it meet the statutory requirements?
Yes
Is it not seen as being vindictive?
Yes
Does it demonstrate decisiveness?
Yes
Then decide.

Everything Dr. Shrikant taught me →

My mentor at ICFAI

In memory, 1947 to 2025

Dr. V. Panduranga Rao.

I joined ICFAI Business School as faculty in 1999. Dr. Rao, then Director of the school at Hyderabad, pushed me to enrol for a PhD.

Many senior professors at IBS wondered how Dr. Rao could select a rookie like me. When I told him, he said, "You will prove me right."

To me, Dr. Rao was the first one in India to demonstrate how to combine quality with scale.

About him

Founding Director of the Institute of Management Technology (IMT) Hyderabad.
Earlier, Dean at BITS Pilani and Vice Chancellor of ICFAI University.
Ravi J. Matthai National Fellowship Award for Excellence in Management Education, from AIMS, 2014.
President of the Association of Indian Management Schools; Executive Board Member of the Association of Management Development Institutions in South Asia, 2004 to 2005; Member of the World Assembly on Co-operative Education, USA, 1992 to 1995.

People who shaped me

Six people, and what each one taught me.

Prof. Jagdish Sheth

Chairman of the Board, JAGSoM

Prof. Sheth’s philosophy of “polishing rough diamonds” deepened my belief in developing learner potential.

His generosity with his time, guiding us at JAGSoM entirely pro bono, showed me how an academic can give back to society by helping others grow.

The day IFIM Business School became JAGSoM

Sanjay Padode

President, Vijaybhoomi University

Sanjay’s relentlessness, honesty of purpose and unwavering support strengthened my confidence to pursue ideas and take ownership.

His selfless decisions, entrusting the Chairmanship to Prof. Jagdish Sheth and renaming IFIM Business School as JAGSoM, deepened my belief in placing institutional purpose above personal recognition.

Srikant Datar

Dean, Harvard Business School

Srikant Datar’s generosity in sharing his entire HBS Design Thinking course material taught me the value of sharing knowledge freely and helping another teacher grow.

His willingness to make time, even while travelling, to guide my major career decisions showed me that mentorship is expressed through personal care and availability.

Prof. A. Parasuraman

James W. McLamore Chair in Marketing, University of Miami

Prof. Parsu’s rigour inspired me to bring greater discipline to my own approach, learning through observation.

His simplicity and approachability, despite his scholarly stature, deepened my respect for him and showed me how academic excellence and humility can coexist.

Mr. Dipankar Chatterji

Vice President, IMT Ghaziabad

Mr. Chatterji taught me to value time, read closely and give candid feedback with courtesy. His love of Indian classical music and mythology also left a lasting impression.

From him, I learnt that leadership requires energy, decisiveness, the willingness to reverse course when needed, and the commitment to entrust young people with responsibility and nurture them.

Arupda

My colleague at IBS, from the 1990s

Arupda advised me to maintain my own style and said while others use ‘Bofors Cannon’, I should continue to remain as ‘Rajputana Rifles’. Till date I have remained a conventional chalk and board teacher.

My PhD journey would probably never have commenced if Arupda would not have been around. Not only did he pay my fees, he hand held me in my research journey as a co-guide and mentor.

From the Director's office back to a bakery.

The return

Building a university

A school renamed, and accredited twice over

IMT Ghaziabad, the first time

MICA

SPJIMR, and a mentor

Learning to teach

The bakery

A school without a building, a hotel kitchen, and a bakery.

Lessons from Baba.

From the album.

What I learnt from Dr. M. L. Shrikant.

AND, not OR.

Five questions before a decision.

Dr. V. Panduranga Rao.

Six people, and what each one taught me.

Prof. Jagdish Sheth

Sanjay Padode

Srikant Datar

Prof. A. Parasuraman

Mr. Dipankar Chatterji

Arupda

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