Sustainable Futures

How did a talented cricketer, coached by none other than Ramakant Achrekar, start his entrepreneurial journey at the age of 23 and go on to become one of India’s most successful bankers?  

Mr. Uday Kotak, Managing Director and CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank (KMB) in this riveting conversation with Dr. Tulsi Jayakumar, Professor of Economics and Chairperson of the Family Managed Business Programme at SPJIMR, talks about his entrepreneurial journey and the human mantras that he follows that has led to his success. They discuss the 3 M’s that shaped his childhood – Maa, Maths and Mania for Cricket, how cricket shaped the future banker in Mr. Kotak, how Mr. Anand Mahindra’s name came to be part of KMB, why ‘professional entrepreneurship’ is a key term for the present and future of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, and why ‘Winner-Takes-All’ might eventually trump ‘Coopetition’. They also talk about KMB’s JV with Goldman Sachs, the eventual parting of ways and his 7-year pursuit of ING Vysya. Mr. Kotak also shares his views on the future of banks and banking and gives advice to the layman on how to decide where to park his/her money and talks about what keeps him awake at night.

Ep. #6 - Play your game as if there is room for only one

This episode of the podcast is a conversation between Mr. Partha Sinha, President at Bennett, Coleman & Company Limited (Times of India Group) and Prof. Vineeta Dwivedi, Head Digital Communications at SPJIMR. Mr. Sinha reflects on his journey from being a nuclear design engineer, a banker, a strategy and marketing head of media and internet companies, and an advertising strategist. 

Mr. Sinha dismisses doomsday predictions for the newspaper industry. He says the importance of news and newspapers in shaping independent thought in society will stay forever as no other medium has the kind of source credibility. He also explains why Covid was the best possible management consultant for companies globally. He also talks about the Advertising industry and why it is still underrated. Prof. Dwivedi and Mr. Sinha discuss his passion for sports, books and having an area of passion other than work. They round off the conversation by talking about data disruption and he explains why the information superhighway has turned into a ‘prejudices and biases’ superhighway.

Ep. #7 - Newspapers will always remain the most credible source of news

In a new SPJIMR podcast series, 'Past Imperfect' our Faculty member Dr Dinyar Patel is in conversation with Historian Dr Ramachandra Guha. They discuss the dearth of good biographies in India and South Asia. Dr Guha emphasises why biographies should not be written with a political agenda but draw on rich and original research as well as a perceptive frame of analysis. They talk about his new book, 'Rebels Against the Raj' and the insights it provides into relations between India and the West, and India’s story as a country searching for its identity and liberty beyond British colonial rule.

SPJIMR Past Imperfect

Episode 1: Past Imperfect

Faculty member Dr Surya Tahora is in conversation with Dr  Justin Brienza, University of Queensland Business School.

They discuss why despite extensive work on wisdom research it is yet to percolate to the Organisations. They also talk about how  'wise reasoning' can benefit organisations where intelligence, emotional intelligence and cognitive ability fail.

The series is brought to you by SPJIMR's Centre for Wisdom in Leadership (CWIL).

SPJIMR Sapience

Sapience Episode 2: Advancing the science of wise reasoning in management

Dr Priya Atwal, Author and Professor, University of Oxford, is in conversation with SPJIMR Faculty Dr Dinyar Patel.
Women’s voices are absent from so much of South Asian history. In “Royals and Rebels,” Priya Atwal recovers the remarkable roles that royal women played in the affairs of the Sikh Empire (1799-1849). Ranjit Singh might have been the Sher-e-Punjab, but Atwal demonstrates that his empire owed much of its success to female power.
 
‘Past Imperfect’ explores leadership from a historical perspective while bridging the past and present. The series is brought to you by SPJIMR's Centre for Wisdom in Leadership (CWIL) and features conversations with authors of recent works of global and Indian history and explores political and economic leadership in unusual or unconventional situations.

Past Imperfect Episode 6: Priya Atwal on Women Power in the Sikh Empire

Our new podcast series, 'Sustainable Futures,' brings to the fore remarkable, pathbreaking sustainability initiatives in India Inc. 

Very few corporates worldwide can claim to sequester ten times the carbon they generate in their operations. From zero depletion of groundwater in their operations, mitigating human-elephant conflict to digitally tagging its coffee bushes and scientifically assessing climate change for itself and the coffee-growing community, Tata Coffee has walked the talk on corporate sustainability. In the first episode, Mr Chacko Thomas, MD and CEO, Tata Coffee, in conversation with Prof. Prabhat Pani, Executive Director - SPJIMR's Centre for Innovation in Sustainable Development (CISD), discusses how Tata Coffee has raised the bar on sustainability initiatives by corporates. The series is brought to you by SPJIMR's Centre for Innovation in Sustainable Development (CISD).

SPJIMR Sustainable Futures

Sustainable Futures Episode 1: Tata Coffee's Sustainable Journey

Faculty member Dr Surya Tahora is in conversation with Dr Judith Gluck, University of Klagenfurt, Austria.

Dr Gluck offers an insightful perspective on the different approaches to wisdom in the field of research, drawing parallels to the well-known fable of the blind men and the elephant. Listen in as she shares her journey towards developing a unified model of wisdom and its various interpretations. Join us for a thought-provoking and informative conversation on the latest episode of Sapience.

The series is brought to you by SPJIMR's Centre for Wisdom in Leadership (CWIL).

Sapience Episode 6: The Wisdom Researchers and the Elephant; An Integrative Model of Wise Behavior

SPJIMR Prof. Dinyar Patel is in conversation with Dr Vinayak Chaturvedi, University of California, Irvine.

As the political fortunes of Gandhi and Nehru have waned in the past decade, those of V. D. Savarkar have skyrocketed. In Hindutva and Violence, Vinayak Chaturvedi confronts head-on a liberal proclivity to avoid engaging with Savarkar, his writings, and his ideas. What he finds is the powerful role of history—and, specifically, a history of violence—in conceptualizing Hindutva. “Hindutva is not a word but a history,” Savarkar once wrote. History from Savarkar’s perspective could be innovative, questionable, disturbing, and even surprising.

Past Imperfect Episode 7:  Vinayak Chaturvedi on  Savarkar's Reading of History

SPJIMR Prof. Dinyar Patel is in conversation with Ulbe Bosma, International Institute of Social History and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

What can sugar teach us about global history? Plenty, as Ulbe Bosma demonstrates in his new book. “The World of Sugar” is a sweeping narrative of how sugar emerged from India and China to conquer the world: generating both enormous riches and endemic poverty, powered by sophisticated networks of capital and technology as well as brutal labour regimes. Bosma examines how the human penchant for sweetness has shaped politics and economics for centuries, laying the foundations for modern capitalism and globalization.

Past Imperfect Episode 8: The World of Sugar with Ulbe Bosma

SPJIMR Prof. Dinyar Patel is in conversation with Isabel Huacuja Alonso, Columbia University

Before the internet and television, South Asia tuned in to the radio, and the radio helped South Asians forge a shared sense of belonging. Isabel Huacuja Alonso’s Radio for the Millions chronicles the history of broadcasting from the beginnings of All India Radio (AIR) in the 1930s to the heights of Radio Ceylon’s filmi music-powered popularity from the 1950s through the 1970s. Governments tried to use radio to project state power, but listeners regularly used their sets and transistors as tools of defiance or resistance. This was particularly the case after 1947, when film songs and Hindustani broadcasting helped bring together people divided by Partition.

Past Imperfect Episode 9: Radio Across Borders with Isabel Huacuja Alonso

In our new Podcast Series ‘Sustainable Futures, ’ Prabhat Pani, Executive Director, CISD, is in conversation with Anil G. Verma, Executive Director & CEO of Godrej & Boyce. In this thought-provoking podcast episode, we delve into the topic of India's privately owned mangroves and the efforts to preserve them. Tune in now and be part of the conversation.

Conservation of India's Largest Privately-owned Mangroves by Godrej and Boyce

In B. R. Ambedkar, India possessed a phenomenal intellectual powerhouse. Drawing on ideas and thinkers from the subcontinent and around the world, he stirred India’s conscience, pointing to the devastating legacies of caste and untouchability while raising urgent questions about the viability of democracy in India. Ambedkar’s ideas could be unsettling and uncomfortable—and that is precisely why he remains so relevant today. In A Part Apart, Ashok Gopal has written the definitive English-language biography of Ambedkar, the product of fifteen years of close research and study. Gopal’s book charts the evolution of Ambedkar’s career and thought: from his engagement with Hindu social reform to his embrace of Buddhism as a religion truly compatible with social democracy.

Past Imperfect Episode 10: Ashok Gopal on the Life and Thought of B. R. Ambedkar

Faculty member Dr Surya Tahora is in conversation with Leadership Advisor, Rajesh Kamath.

Rajesh Kamath is a Keynote Speaker, Storyteller, Consultant, Facilitator, Columnist, Teacher, Coach and Lifelong learner. His purpose is to apply principles from eternal global wisdom to modern organizations. He is known for combining the best of western and Indian management science to provide Leadership consulting, coaching and learning solutions to the industry.

Sapience (SPJIMR)

Sapience Ep 8: Is Arthashastra Relevant in Modern Times?

SPJIMR Prof. Dinyar Patel is in conversation with Aditya Balasubramanian, Senior Lecturer in History, Australian National University

The Swatantra Party, established in 1959, briefly became India’s chief opposition party before disintegrating in the early 1970s. What explains its rise and fall? Aditya Balasubramanian’s Toward a Free Economy charts one of democratic India’s earliest experiments in viable opposition politics: how a diverse cast of political leaders articulated the need for an alternative to a dominant political party. Swatantra’s clarion call was for a “free economy,” one unshackled from the license-and-permit raj. But the party was equally concerned with unchecked political power, rising corruption, and the long-term health of India’s democracy.

Past imperfect

Past Imperfect Episode 11: Toward a Free Economy with Aditya Balasubramanian

In this episode of ThoughtCast, Dr. Sushmita Srivastava in conversation with Ms. Payal Nanjiani talks about the impact of coaching in unlocking the full potential of an individual. With a rich experience of over a decade, Ms. Payal shares insights and anecdotes from her enriching journey and key takeaways for emerging business leaders. Tune in to this latest episode to know more!

The inner side of Leadership and Coaching with Ms. Payal Nanjiani

How much of history is mythmaking? In this episode, Taylor Sherman, author of Nehru’s India: A History in Seven Myths, tackles some shibboleths of India’s first seventeen years of independence. How nonaligned was nonalignment? Could socialist policies actually widen socioeconomic disparities? Was Nehru really the architect of modern India? The answers, Sherman discovers, are far more messy and complex than we imagine.

Past Imperfect Episode 12: Dr Taylor Sherman on the myths of Nehru's India

Over the past fifteen years, Murali Ranganathan has trawled archives and libraries looking for material on Mumbai’s history in Marathi, Gujarati, Urdu, and Persian. And he has assembled some remarkable finds into a series of books and articles covering everything from print history to pandemics. His latest book, The First World War Adventures of Nariman Karkaria, is a translation from Gujarati of a Parsi soldier’s rollicking accounts of his world travels and battle experiences. And it provides a window into a broader discussion of Mumbai and its people. How has the city changed and stayed the same over the centuries? What is the longer history of controversies over naming, identity, and belonging in the Maximum City? How do Mumbaikars understand their city’s history?

Past Imperfect Episode 13: Murali Ranganathan on Bombay and Mumbai, Past and Present

How did one man take on one of the world’s biggest multinational corporations of the early twentieth century? A.R. Venkatachalapathy’s Swadeshi Steam traces the life of V.O. Chidambaram Pillai who, in 1906, founded the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company to break a British shipping monopoly. Swadeshi Steam was powered by both patriotism and remarkable business acumen: it canvassed shares from across India and the global Indian diaspora. And it nearly succeeded in disrupting British commercial interests—the primary reason for why Swadeshi Steam was eventually crushed by the British Indian government.

Past Imperfect Episode 14: Swadeshi Steam with A.R. Venkatachalapathy

Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay was one of the most remarkable leaders of twentieth-century India, someone who was unafraid of shattering taboos, speaking her mind, and linking together campaigns for social justice around the world. Nico Slate’s new biography, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay: The Art of Freedom, traces a political career which lasted nearly seven decades. She was an outspoken advocate of women’s rights, a socialist firebrand, a global ambassador for India, and a towering personality in the world of Indian handicrafts and arts. Slate’s book investigates Kamaladevi’s multifaceted career, allowing us to better appreciate words she lived by: “Beauty is the soul of freedom.

Past Imperfect Episode 15: Nico Slate on Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay’s Art of Freedom

Past Imperfect Episode 16 features SPJIMR Prof. Dinyar Patel in conversation with Ashoka Mody, formerly a deputy director at the International Monetary Fund and a visiting professor at Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs, and author of India Is Broken.

When Ashoka Mody published India is Broken two years ago, it stoked fierce controversy. Instead of describing the promise of the “India story”—a buoyant economy, a growing middle class, and great potential for manufacturing and service sector growth—Mody portrayed a country which systematically refused to get the basics right. India, Mody argues, remains trapped in a jobs crisis, and its failure to meaningfully invest in quality education, public health, and other public goods condemns it to continued high rates of unemployment and underemployment. In this episode, Mody explains how his views have evolved in the past two years, and why he believes that India is even more broken today. 

Past Imperfect Episode 16: Ashoka Mody on a More Broken India

In this episode Prof. Surya Tohara explore the topic conscious consulting with Christian Mayhofer, Co-Founder, Conscious consulting group

Sapiens Episode 10: What is conscious consulting

Past Imperfect Episode 17 features SPJIMR Prof. Dinyar Patel in conversation with Jane Ohlmeyer, Erasmus Smiths Professor of Modern History at Trinity College Dublin and author of Making Ireland.

Question: What unites a European island country of 5 million people and a subcontinental nation of 1.45 billion? Answer: A remarkably deep and complex history. Jane Ohlmeyer explains how the Irish—as both colonial victims and members of the colonial elite, army, and bureaucracy—shaped British India from the 1600s onward. Ireland gave India some of its staunchest allies, such as Annie Besant, and its most recalcitrant colonial governors, like Michael O’Dwyer of Punjab. And the Irish have influenced modern India in some profoundly unexpected ways. Bombay’s second governor—the Irishman Gerald Aungier—instilled its commercial ethos and transformed the city into a cosmopolitan entrepot. India’s “City of Dreams” retains several reminders of Irish inputs from nearly four centuries ago.

Past imperfect Episode 17: Jane Ohlmeyer on Ireland and India’s Intertwined Histories

Prof. Surya Tahora is in conversation with Dr. Knut O.J. Ims, Professor emeritus in business ethics at the Norwegian School of Economics and Hege Tuen Seglem, Founder of Being Mindful. In this talk they discuss how mindfulness, defined by Jon Kabat-Zinn as purposeful, present, and non-judgmental awareness, can address interconnected systemic crises in the Anthropocene, such as environmental, social, and economic challenges. It argues that mindfulness can foster conscious, value-driven choices, breaking habitual behaviors to promote sustainability and deeper connections with nature, others, and oneself.

Sapience Episode 11: An exploration of mindfulness in context of economics, Leadership and culture

Past Imperfect Episode 18 features SPJIMR Prof. Dinyar Patel in conversation with Rosemary Wakeman, Professor of History at Fordham University and author of The Worlds of Victor Sassoon.

Victor Sassoon (1881-1961) called three cities home: Bombay, London, and Shanghai. These three cities, as Rosemary Wakeman explains, best epitomized capitalism and globalization in the 1920s and 1930s. In The Worlds of Victor Sassoon, Wakeman uses the life and fortunes of the Baghdadi Jewish businessman to tell a much larger story of cosmopolitanism and global cities. Bombay, London, and Shanghai resembled one another more than their own countries: they became international hubs of finance, technology, media, and the leisure economy. This was a world of horse races and aviation, real estate speculation and the movie industry, and art deco architecture and investment banking. Victor Sassoon stood at the center of a much broader transformation of global capitalism, one which sprouted the roots of today’s economy. 

Past Imperfect Episode 18: Rosemary Wakeman on the Interwar Worlds of Bombay, London, and Shanghai

Past Imperfect Episode 19 features SPJIMR Prof. Dinyar Patel in conversation with Amrita Shah, author of The Other Mohan in Britain’s Indian Ocean Empire.

What does Mohanlal Killavala have in common with Mahatma Gandhi? Both men migrated to South Africa. Both men were Gujarati professionals who smarted at racial prejudice in the British Empire, protested against unjust laws, and spent time in jail. There were important dissimilarities, as well—dissimilarities which add nuance to the story of the Indian diaspora. Amrita Shah’s The Other Mohan traces the story of her great-grandfather, Killavala, as he joined thousands of other Indians seeking better opportunities abroad in the early twentieth century. While reconstructing Killavala’s travels, she also tells a much more complex story of how the Indian Ocean knit together so many different people through bonds of labor, political activity, and marriage.

Past Imperfect Episode 19: Amrita Shah on Ancestral Journeys Across the Indian Ocean

Prof. Surya Tahora is in conversation with Neha Chatwani, an organisational psychologist. In this talk they discuss, in a world of turbulence it is imperative that we re-assess some of the management and leadership assumptions in organisations, so that we can leverage our collective intelligence with meaning and purpose, intentionally, for enabling agility through learning. 
Tune in to the latest episode of the podcast series Sapience presented by SPJIMR Centre for Wisdom in Leadership (CWIL).



Sapience Episode 12:Thriving in Disruption

Past Imperfect Episode 20: Manu S. Pillai on Missionaries, Reformers, and the Making of Modern Hinduism.

Past Imperfect Episode 21 features SPJIMR Prof. Dinyar Patel in conversation with Rosinka Chaudhuri, Professor in Cultural Studies at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta (CSSSC) and the author of India’s First Radicals: Young Bengal and the British Empire.

In the early 1830s, a cohort of graduates from Calcutta’s Hindu College began transforming Indian society. Later dubbed Young Bengal, this generation embraced a range of radical and heterodox ideas, questioning everything about the world around them. Their parents were outraged by their abandonment of orthodox Hinduism. Commentators around India either thrilled at their advocacy of equality and liberty or condemned them as drunkards and beef eaters. Amidst these sparks, Young Bengal set out an agenda for fearlessly defending principles like freedom of speech, equality, liberty, and secularism. Its members condemned British colonial rule and even took a British administrator to court. Chaudhuri explains how Young Bengal upturned colonial India—often at great personal cost, but with far-reaching implications which resonate today.

Past Imperfect Episode 21: Rosinka Chaudhuri on Young Bengal’s Fearless Radicalism

WISE Tech Insights Episode 01: Fizz to Frenzy—Decoding India's explosive energy drink craze

Past Imperfect Episode 22 features Dinyar Patel, Associate Professor of History at SPJIMR, in conversation with Srinath Raghavan, Professor of International Relations and History at Ashoka University and the author of Indira Gandhi and the Years that Transformed India.

Indira Gandhi has been one of modern India’s most controversial leaders, a savior to some, a power-hungry autocrat to many others. Above all, she was deeply consequential in shaping so much of today’s political and economic landscape. Raghavan examines Gandhi’s prime ministership during what he calls the long 1970s, a period of profound crisis for Indian democracy, one which was joined at the hip to global events. While the Emergency remains the most infamous chapter in Gandhi’s rule, it was only one part of a longer story of steady centralization of power, recalibrations of economic policy, breakdowns in political norms, constitutional crises, anti-democratic tendencies, and violent insurgency.

SPJIMR Srinath Podcast

WISE Tech Insights episode 02: In the name of health, The promise and peril of Nutraceuticals

Mr Suresh Narayanan, Nestle India Limited’s Chairman and Managing Director, talks about how it was his employees who helped the company survive the Maggi crisis in India, the importance of highly engaged employees in companies at all times and his conviction that well-run companies need to invest more in building a company culture than in CAPX. His insightful discussion about People and Leadership with SPJIMR Executive-In-Residence, noted author and corporate advisor, Mr R Gopalakrishnan also stresses on why being people sensitive is the hallmark of a true leader, the dangers of being blindsided by consumer market research and the role of a CEO in succession planning in companies.

SPJIMR ThoughtCast

Ep. #1 - Continued employee engagement is a vaccination against future crisis

In this episode of the podcast, Mr. Bharat Puri, Managing Director and CEO of Pidilite Industries Limited and SPJIMR Dean Dr. Ranjan Banerjee, talk about the links between an organization’s culture and its innovation capabilities, the importance of a leader listening to every last voice in a company and the role of an organization’s leadership in a crisis such as a pandemic. Mr. Puri gives a comprehensive overview of how Pidilite tackled the effects of the Covid19 pandemic and lockdown on its businesses and spells out the 3 guiding principles a leader should follow while communicating during a crisis. He also compares and contrasts the operating models of MNCs and Family Managed Businesses. They end the conversation by talking about how to mentor and nurture future leaders.

Ep. #2 - Company culture fosters innovation

SP Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR) is a constituent of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and is ranked among the top ten business schools in India. It is in the top 50 ranks in the Financial Times (FT) 2020 business school rankings and is placed 3rd in India and 36th in the world. As a premier school of management, SPJIMR is noted for pedagogic innovations and pioneering programmes, which have helped the Institute stand out for its unique and distinctive path in management education. SPJIMR's mission is to 'influence practice' and 'promote value-based growth'. The Institute currently operates from its 45-acre campus in Andheri, Mumbai, and a campus in New Delhi.  

Taking forward the SPJIMR motto of thought leadership, SPJIMR Thoughtcast showcases the 'influencing practice' principle of the institute and features an expert SPJIMR faculty in a reflective conversation with a senior industry leader on management and business.

SPJIMR Podcast

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