Michigan Business School’s new India Center opens this month

ANN ARBOR—The University of Michigan Business School will open a new research center in Bangalore, India, June 17.

Scholars at the Center for Global Resource Leverage: India will study managerial issues and emerging practices in leveraging global resources and accessing new markets.

Research will focus on the interface between global companies and Indian firms and on the issues and challenges associated with maximizing the talent pool and knowledge infrastructure in India. Areas of study include: services outsourcing, manufacturing outsourcing, the Indian economy, India-U.S. business interaction, and market opportunities at the "bottom of the economic pyramid."

Initially, about a dozen faculty from the Michigan Business School will be affiliated with the center, which will be co-directed by professors C.K. Prahalad and M.S. Krishnan.

"We will focus on next practices, not best practices," said Prahalad, professor of corporate strategy and international business. "The center’s first priority is to isolate issues of great importance for the future and frame them to create the right debate, both in the business community and in public policy."

Krishnan, professor of business information technology, said, "The center will bring research findings into the classroom so that our students have a better understanding of the opportunities and challenges in this global restructuring of industries and can reflect on the specific capabilities needed to thrive as a successful leader in a global economy."

The center also will offer executive education programs in India. Topics include: co-creating unique value with customers, strategic human resource management and managing in the context of global competition.

Business School Dean Robert Dolan says the center is a perfect fit for the school, which has established deep linkages with India.

"Our goal is to become a world leader in research at one of the leading edges of change—global restructuring of industries and global resource leverage," he said. "The center is a response to the emerging pattern of restructuring of industries and the value chains of firms. Increasingly, managers are focusing methods to leverage resources globally. And India presents a promising opportunity to do that."

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