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Sumantra Ghoshal (1948-2004) was an academic
and management guru. He was the
founding Dean of the Indian School of Business in
Professor Sumantra Ghoshal
(1948-2004)
1
Hyderabad, which is jointly sponsored by the Kellogg
School at Northwestern University and the London Business School.
Sumantra Ghoshal, reknowned management guru, was born in 1948 in
Calcutta. He graduated from Delhi University with Physics major. Took a
job at Indian Oil Corporation and rose through the management ranks before
moving to the USA on a Fulbright Fellowship in 1981. There, he managed
to produce two PhD dissertations at once, initially at MIT's Sloan School of
Management, then also at Harvard Business School. Joined INSEAD
Business School at France and wrote stream of influential articles and
books. In 1994, he joined London Business School. Sumantra was a Fellow
of the Advanced Institute of Management Research (AIM) in the U.K and a
Professor of Strategic and International Management at the London Business
School. He served as a member of The Committee of Overseers of the
Harvard Business School and was the Founding Dean of the Indian School
of Business in Hyderabad.
Ghoshal co-authored Managing Across Borders: The Transnational
Solution (Bartlett & Ghoshal 2002), with Christopher A. Bartlett, which has
been listed in the Financial Times as one of the 50 most influential
management books and has been translated into nine languages.
Professor Ghoshal published 10 books, over 70 articles and several award-
winning case studies. Managing Across Borders: The Transnational
Solution, a book he co-authored with Christopher Bartlett, has been listed in
the Financial Times as one of the 50 most influential management books and
has been translated into nine languages. The Differential Network:
Organizing the Multinational Corporation for Value Creation, a book he co-
2
authored with Nitin Nohria, won the George Terry Book Award in
1997. The Individualized Corporation, co-authored with Christopher
Bartlett, won the Igor Ansoff Award in 1997, and has been translated into
seven languages. His last book, Managing Radical Change, won the
Management Book of the Year award in India. He was described by The
Economist as 'Euroguru'.
Sumantra Ghoshal put forth the '525 rule'. The '525' rule meant that 25 per
cent of a company's sales revenue should accrue from products launched
during the last 5 years. He was recognised for his research and teaching on
strategic, organisational and managerial issues confronting global
companies.
Professor Ghoshal died of a brain haemorrhage on March,2004 at
Hampstead, United Kingdom.
A soft-spoken physicist from Calcutta, Sumantra Ghoshal (1948-2004)
began his career with Indian Oil Corporation. When he moved on to
management academia he had had a solid grounding in corporate life. After
gaining doctorates at Harvard and MIT, he worked at INSEAD, a leading
European business school in Fontainebleau, France, and London Business
School before dying at the age of 55.
Ghoshal’s influence far exceeded his written output. He was an inspiring
lecturer, a popular colleague and a gentle man. He first made his mark in a
seminal critique of the widely used matrix form of organisational structure in
which managers reported in two directions—along both functional and
geographic lines. Written with his close collaborator, Christopher Bartlett,
3
the article argued that this dual reporting leads to “conflict and confusion”.
In large multinationals, “separated by barriers of distance, language, time
and culture, managers found it virtually impossible to clarify the confusion
and resolve the conflicts”.
Bartlett and Ghoshal argued that companies need to alter their organisational
psychology (their shared norms and beliefs) and their physiology (the
systems that allow information to flow around the organisation) before they
start to redesign their anatomy (the reporting lines). Their work set off a
search for new metaphors for organisational structures, borrowing in
particular from psychology and biology—for example, the corporate DNA
and the left brain of the organisation.The most important source of a nation’s
progress is the quality of its management.
Typical of Ghoshal’s colourful communication was what he called his
“springtime theory”. He would tell his audiences about his annual visit to
Calcutta to see his parents in July. “Imagine the heat,” he would say, “the
humidity, the noise, the dirt. It sucks up all your energy, drains your brain,
and exhausts your imagination.” And then he would take them to the forest
of Fontainebleau, near INSEAD, where he was a professor at the time, and
point to “the smell of the trees, the crispness in the air, the flowers, the grass
underfoot. How one’s heart lifts up, how the energy and creativity bubble
away.” Go through the door of any business, he would say, and you can tell
whether it is Calcutta or Fontainebleau. A manager’s task is to create a
working environment that is like Fontainebleau, not Calcutta.
4
Shortly before he died, Ghoshal wrote one of his most contentious papers, in
which he suggested that much of the blame for corporate corruption in the
early 2000s could be laid at the feet of business schools and the way they try
to teach management as a science. Such a method has no room for morality.
Thus, argued Ghoshal, “business schools have actively freed their students
from any sense of moral responsibility”. Ghoshal’s criticism of business
education mirrors that of Henry Mintzberg (see article) and Warren Bennis.
Despite the enormously high regard in which managers held Ghoshal’s
seminal work, “Managing Across Borders”, Bartlett (his co-author) said
after his death: “Borders never meant much to Sumantra.” He was more
inspired (and inspiring) as a teacher and conversationalist than as a writer.
EARLY LIFE
Ghoshal was born in Calcutta.He graduated from Delhi
University with Physics major
and at the Indian Institute of
Social Welfare and Business
Management and worked
for Indian Oil Corporation,
rising through the
management ranks before
moving to the United States on a Fulbright Fellowship and Humphrey
5
Fellowship in 1981. Ghoshal was awarded an S.M. and a Ph.D. from
the MIT Sloan School of Management in 1983 and 1985 respectively, and
was also awarded a D.B.A. degree from Harvard Business School in 1986.
CAREER:
In 1985, he joined INSEAD Business
School in France and wrote a stream of
influential articles and books. In 1994, he
joined the London Business School. Ghoshal was a Fellow of the Advanced
Institute of Management Research (AIM) in the U.K and a Professor of
Strategic and International Management at the London Business School. He
served as a member of The Committee of Overseers of the Harvard Business
School.
BIOGRAPHY:
Sumantra Ghoshal was born in Calcutta in 1948. After a Bsc in physics at
Delhi University and a period at Indian Oil, he was awarded a Fulbright
Fellowship in 1981. He completed PhDs at both MIT Sloan School of
Management and Harvard Business School, where he met Chris Bartlett,
with whom he would collaborate extensively. In 1985 he joined the faculty
of INSEAD, rapidly becoming a full professor. The Economist christened
6
him the "Euroguru". He moved to London Business School in 1994 to
become Professor of Strategic Leadership. Having already produced 15
cases, and wrote another 22 at LBS. He produced 12 books, including the
groundbreaking Managing Across Borders (1989). Instrumental in setting up
the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad, he was its founding Dean. One
notable aspect of his work was his growing focus on the critical influence of
human nature and the individual in the life of corporations.
QUOTES:
"Sumantra Ghoshal was one of the most outstanding professors
with whom I have had the honour to work. His enthusiasm and
dynamism were inspiring, as was his unstinting drive for
excellence in management education and research."
(Dr Laura D Tyson)
Dean of London Business School
"Sumantra Ghoshal operated beyond standard academic work. He was a
storyteller, a framer of events, a wonderful talker, with 'fire' in his eyes. The
way he presented reality made for real theatre - in the ancient Greek sense
of the word. This made him, if anything, even better in the classroom than on
paper. Ghoshal was equally respected by students, executives and
colleagues alike and worked intensively with them, so as always to leave a
mark and co-authored several cases with his students."
(Ludo Van der Heyden)
Solvay Professor of Technological
Innovation at INSEAD and co-Dean from
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(1990-1995)
"I collaborated closely with Sumantra Ghoshal during the final six years of
his life. I recall his gift of being able to foster those people around him, 'to
inspire them, to reach out.' The book A Bias for Action, we co-authored, was
published just after he died. Sumantra, himself, was the most impressive
example of the people of 'purposeful action identified in the book as being so
critical to the flourishing of successful organisations. Such people exhibit
two traits: they are highly energetic and they are extremely focused. This
intense focus was particularly evident while working, when nothing could
distract him."
(Heike Bruch)
Professor of Leadership,
Universität St Gallen
"Sumantra was an extraordinary talent who has left an indelible mark on his
field and on all those who had the chance to meet him. That includes, of
course, many of us at INSEAD who will surely remember his contributions
both in his scholarship and his personal presence."
H. Landis Gabel
INSEAD Deputy Dean,
Dean of Faculty
Prof. of Economics & Management
"Sumantra Ghoshal was a giant among business school faculty in Europe.
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Although I am really only qualified to speak of his capabilities in the field of
business case writing which were extraordinary, I am told by others who
have worked closely with him, that his commitment to excellence also
extended to research and teaching, areas in which he was widely
acknowledged to be a master. Europe can claim to have lost one of a very
small number of genuine world-class academics with complete all-round
talents."
Jeff Gray
Director ECCH
GHOSHAL’S LEGACY
Ghoshal's early work focused on the matrix structure in multinational
organizations, and the "conflict and confusion" that reporting along both
geographical and functional lines created. His later work is more ambitious,
and hence perhaps more important - the idea that it is necessary to halt
economics from taking over management. This, he theorized, is important
since firms do not play on the periphery of human life today, but have taken
a central role.
His treatment of management issues at the level of the individual led him to
conclude that management theory that focuses on the economic aspects of
9
man to the exclusion of all others is incorrect at best. According to him, "A
theory that assumes that managers cannot be relied upon by shareholders can
make managers less reliable."
Such theory, he warned, would become a self-fulfilling prophecy, a
particularly stinging critique of the output of a majority of his colleagues in
business schools that made him controversial. To his death, his fight was
against the "narrow idea" that led to today's management theory being
"undersocialised and one-dimensional, a parody of the human condition
more appropriate to a prison or a madhouse than an institution which should
be a force for good."
BIBLOGRAPHY
Ghoshal published 10 books, over 70 articles and several award-winning
case studies. Some of these books and case study are:
The Differential Network: Organizing the Multinational Corporation
for Value Creation, a book he co-authored with Nitin Nohria, won the
George Terry Book Award in 1997.
The Individualized Corporation:A Fundamentally New Approach to
Management, co-authored with Christopher A. Bartlett, won the Igor
Ansoff Award in 1997, and has been translated into seven languages.
10
Managing Radical Change, won the Management Book of the Year
award in India. He was described by The Economist as 'Euroguru'.
Managing Across Borders: The Transnational Solution (Bartlett &
Ghoshal 2002), a book he co-authored with Christopher A. Bartlett,
has been listed in the Financial Times as one of the 50 most influential
management books and has been translated into nine languages.
The Strategy Process: Concepts, Contexts, Cases : Global by Henry
Mintzberg, Joseph Lampel, James Brian Quinn, and Sumantra
Ghoshal, 2002.
The Differentiated Network : Organizing Multinational
Corporations for Value Creation (The Jossey-Bass Business &
Management Series) by Nitin Nohria and Sumantra Ghoshal
(Hardcover - Feb 19, 1997)
Sumantra Ghoshal on Management : A Force for Good by Julian
Birkinshaw and Gita Piramal (Hardcover - Feb 1, 2006)
Sumantra Ghoshal managed to produce two PhD dissertations at once,
initially at MIT's Sloan School of Management, then also at Harvard
Business School. Joined INSEAD Business School at France and wrote
stream of influential articles and books. In 1994, he joined London Business
School. Sumantra was a Fellow of the Advanced Institute of Management
Research (AIM) in the U.K and a Professor of Strategic and International
Management at the London Business School. He served as a member of The
Committee of Overseers of the Harvard Business.
The Individualized Corporation, co-authored with Christopher Bartlett, won
the Igor Ansoff Award in 1997, and has been translated into seven languages
11
He was recognised for his research and teaching on strategic, organisational
and managerial issues confronting global companies.
When he moved on to management academia he had had a solid grounding
in corporate life. After gaining doctorates at Harvard and MIT, he worked at
INSEAD, a leading European business school in Fontainebleau, France, and
London Business School before dying at the age of 55.
Ghoshal’s influence far exceeded his written output. He was an inspiring
lecturer, a popular colleague and a gentle man. He first made his mark in a
seminal critique of the widely used matrix form of organisational structure in
which managers reported in two directions—along both functional and
geographic lines. Written with his close collaborator, Christopher Bartlett,
the article argued that this dual reporting leads to “conflict and confusion”.
In large multinationals, “separated by barriers of distance, language, time
and culture, managers found it virtually impossible to clarify the confusion
and resolve the conflicts”.
The most important source of a nation’s progress is the quality of its
management.
Typical of Ghoshal’s colourful communication was what he called his
“springtime theory”. He would tell his audiences about his annual visit to
Calcutta to see his parents in July. “Imagine the heat,” he would say, “the
humidity, the noise, the dirt. It sucks up all your energy, drains your brain,
and exhausts your imagination.” And then he would take them to the forest
of Fontainebleau, near INSEAD, where he was a professor at the time, and
point to “the smell of the trees, the crispness in the air, the flowers, the grass
12
underfoot. How one’s heart lifts up, how the energy and creativity bubble
away.” Go through the door of any business, he would say, and you can tell
whether it is Calcutta or Fontainebleau. A manager’s task is to create a
working environment that is like Fontainebleau, not Calcutta.
Shortly before he died, Ghoshal wrote one of his most contentious papers, in
which he suggested that much of the blame for corporate corruption in the
early 2000s could be laid at the feet of business schools and the way they try
to teach management as a science. Such a method has no room for morality.
Thus, argued Ghoshal, “Business schools have actively freed their students
from any sense of moral responsibility”. Ghoshal’s criticism of business
education mirrors that of Henry Mintzberg and Warren Bennis .
Despite the enormously high regard in which managers held Ghoshal’s
seminal work, “Managing Across Borders”, Bartlett (his co-author) said
after his death: “Borders never meant much to Sumantra.” He was more
inspired (and inspiring) as a teacher and conversationalist than as a writer.
BOOKS BY SUMANTRA GHOSHAL
A Bias for Action: How Effective
Managers Harness Their Willpower,
Achieve Results, and Stop Wasting
Timepublished on 7/1/2004
World Class in India: A Casebook
of Companies in
Transformationpublished on
4/15/2002
13
Managing Across Borders : The Transnational Solution (1988)
Transnational Management (1990)
Organization Theory and the Multinational Corporation (1993)
The Individualized Corporation (1997)
World Class in India: A Casebook of Companies in Transformation
Managing Radical Change(co-authored with Gita Piramal)
ARTICLES
"Beyond Self-Interest Revisited" by Hector Rocha and Sumantra
Ghoshal, Journal of Management Studies, 2006 Vol. 43, No. 3, pp.
585-619
"Bad Management Theories are Destroying Good Management
Practices" by Sumantra Ghoshal, Academy of Management Learning
and Education, 2005 Vol. 4 Issue 1, pp. 75-91
"Unleashing Organisational Energy" by Heike Bruch and Sumantra
Ghoshal, MIT Sloan Management Review, Fall 2003 Vol. 45, No. 1,
pp. 45-51
"What is a Global Manager" by Christopher A. Bartlett and Sumantra
Ghoshal, Harvard Business Review, 2003 Aug;81(8):101-108, 141
"Managing Personal Human Capital" by Lynda Gratton and Sumantra
Ghoshal, European Management Journal, 2003 vo. 21, No. 1, pp. 1-10
"Beware the Busy Manager" by Heike Bruch and Sumantra
Ghoshal, Harvard Business Review, 2002, vol. 80, No. 2, pp. 62-69
"Strategy as a Guided Evolution" by Bjorn Lovas and Sumantra
Ghoshal, Strategic Management Journal, 2000, vol. 21, No. 9, pp.
875-896
14
"Management Competence, Firm Growth and Economic Progress" by
Sumantra Ghoshal, M Hahn and Peter Moran,Contributions to
Political Economy, Vol. 18, pp. 121-150, 1999
"Markets, Firms, and the Process of Economic Development" by Peter
Moran and Sumantra Ghoshal, The Academy of Management Review,
1999, Vol. 24, No. 3, 390-412
"Social Capital and Value Creation: The Role of Intrafirm Networks"
by Wenpin Tsai and Sumantra Ghoshal, The Academy of
Management Journal, 1998 Vol. 41, No. 4, pp. 464-476
"Social capital, intellectual capital and the organizational advantage"
by Janine Nahapiet and Sumantra Ghoshal,Academy of Management
Review, 1998 23(2): 242-266
"Theories of Economic Organisation: The Case for Realism and
Balance" by Peter Moran and Sumantra Ghoshal, The Academy of
Management Review, 1996, Vol. 21 No. 1, pp. 58-72
"Bad For Practice: A Critique of the Transaction Cost Theory" by
Sumantra Ghoshal and Peter Moran, The Academy of Management
Review, 1996 Vol. 21, No. 1, pp. 13-47
"Building the Entrepreneurial Corporation: New Organisational
Processes, New Managerial Tasks" by Sumantra Ghoshal
and Christopher A. Bartlett, European Management Journal, 1995
Vol. 13 No.2, pp. 139-55
"Differentiated Fit and Shared Values: Alternatives for Managing
Headquarters-Subsidiary Relations" by Nitin Nohria and Sumantra
Ghoshal, Strategic Management Journal, 1994, Vol. 15, No. 6, pp.
491-502
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"Interunit Communication in Multinational Corporations" by
Sumantra Ghoshal, Harry Korine and Gabriel Szulanski,Management
Science, Vol. 40, No. 1, January 1994, pp. 96-110
"Beyond the M-form: Toward a Managerial Theory of the Firm"
by Christopher A. Bartlett and Sumantra Ghoshal,Strategic
Management Journal, 1993 No. 14, Winter, pp. 23-46
"Matrix Management: Not a Structure, a Frame of Mind"
by Christopher A. Bartlett and Sumantra Ghoshal, Harvard Business
Review, 1990 Jul-Aug; 68(4): 138-145
"Environmental Scanning in Korean Firms: Organisational
Isomorphism in Action" by Sumantra Ghoshal, Journal of
International Business Studies, 1988 Vol. 19, No. 1, pp. 69-86
"Creation, Adoption, and Diffusion of Innovations by Subsidiaries of
Multinational Corporations" by Sumantra Ghoshal and Christopher A.
Bartlett, Journal of International Business Studies, 1988 Vol. 19, No. 3, pp.
365-388
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