The insular world of Indian business

Nearly three decades after the shackles on competition were loosened, few Indian companies can be considered truly world class

About two decades ago, three corporate gurus wrote a book called World Class in India. Two of the authors were Indian: The late Sumantra Ghoshal, who was then founding dean of the upcoming Indian School of Business (he died in 2004 at the absurdly young age of 56), and Gita Piramal, a respected historian of Indian business. The third writer was Christopher Bartlett from Harvard Business School who co-authored other books with Ghoshal on the nature of global corporations. 

The book made waves not least because of the chain-smoking Ghoshal’s electric presence at seminars in the run-up to the launch