It was a trip down the memory lane for former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu at the 20th anniversary celebration of the Indian School of Business (ISB) while he reminisced about how Hyderabad chose to host the premier business school amidst tough competition from other States.
It was not an easy task for Naidu to convince the board members of the school to set up the school in the pearl city which was just transforming into an IT hub back in the day.
When he learnt about the proposal he realised how the school would make a difference to the city and swung into action without being upset over a rejection he had received earlier from the ISB board members. “I invited them to have a cup of coffee. I knew if they come to Hyderabad, they cannot say no to me,” recalled Naidu while speaking at the valedictory ceremony of ISB’s 20-year celebrations here.
“I sent letters to each of the board members…I garlanded them. And then, I served them breakfast,” he said, exemplifying how he worked to convince his naysayers. He gave a PowerPoint presentation titled ‘Hyderabad, the future knowledge hub of the world’ to impress upon them.
Generous offer
When asked by the ISB board members what he would be able to offer them, he promised to provide ‘plus one’ over and above the incentive that the other States were willing to provide to the upcoming B-school. The board members were on a whirlwind tour of Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai for finalising a location for setting up the school and finally the ISB board memberschose to locate the school on 260 acres of what he described as ‘barren land’ in Gachibowli and next to a Central university.
Madan Pillutla, Dean, ISB and Professor of Organisational Behaviour, welcomed Mr Naidu’s vision to make ISB count among the top three B-schools of the world. “What we want to do now is India-relevant research which would be relevant for our economy, polity and businesses,” the Dean said.