With more than twenty years of experience spanning academia, consulting, industry, and high-tech research and development, Dr. Bhaskar Chakravorti brings a zeal for innovation to his new role as Fletcher’s Senior Associate Dean of International Business and Finance. Chakravorti, who was most recently a partner at McKinsey & Company and has taught at the Harvard Business School, will also serve as Executive Director of the International Business Center (IBC), Executive Director of the Center for Emerging Market Enterprises (CEME), and Professor of Practice in International Business.
Chakravorti is renowned for his work on innovation, including his book The Slow Pace of Fast Change: Bringing Innovations to Market in a Connected World. He sees innovation as an opportunity for collaboration and mutual benefit among nations, rather than as a zero-sum race against rising economic giants such as China and India.
“While it is a tool of competition, innovation has no borders,” he declares. “The whole paradigm has fundamentally changed. For example, consider the highly innovative portable EKG machine designed by GE, a US company. The machine was meant for use in India’s remote rural areas lacking access to modern hospitals. However, it can be hugely effective in the United States as well, significantly reducing health care costs and improving the efficiency of patient care.”
The context does, however, make a profound difference to adoption of innovations. In the early 1990s, Chakravorti consulted the freshly minted post-apartheid South African government about the benefits of a fiber optic network and saw up close how post-colonial realism, foreign policy, and political and historical relationships often trump rational economics and business analytics.
Nelson Mandela had just formed a close bond with Malaysia’s Mahathir, Chakravorti says, and was committed to stronger ties. The South African administration officials had no interest in connecting with the rest of Africa; they simply wanted a direct fiber optic link to Malaysia—more than 5,000 miles away. Conversely, older officials—holdovers from the pre-apartheid era—wanted a direct link to a different destination 5,000 miles away: Europe.
“I came to Pretoria equipped with the best economic theories money could buy,” Chakravorti said. “Better telecom connectivity would translate into an economic multiplier for the African continent with a newly emergent South Africa as an anchor. But all my arguments fell on deaf ears.”
This experience sparked Chakrakorti’s interest in synthesizing “the front page with the business page,” or overlaying “rational” international business with geopolitical considerations.
The IBC’s interdisciplinary approach to international business was a natural magnet for Chakravorti. “There are no watertight compartments,” he says. “Decisions in today’s global economy are made by leaders who integrate. Academics may find it convenient to specialize but to be effective, we must connect across different streams of thinking.”
The new dean acknowledges inherent challenges in this cross-connection. “As an academic institution,” he says, “we need concentration of research to achieve depth and rigor, but Fletcher’s lack of departments makes it uniquely suited for students to acquire integrative skills. We aspire to educate leaders who will change the world with a clear awareness of the challenges that arise in different contextual settings. At Fletcher, the context is the content.”
International business plays a fundamental role in the conduct of international affairs—and vice versa. Chakravorti seeks to build on the solid business foundation established at Fletcher, stating clear goals for the IBC and CEME. In the short-term, the IBC will continue to selectively recruit intellectually curious future leaders capable of being globally adept across disciplinary lines with a passion for international issues.
“We aren’t looking for 800 students,” Chakravorti says. “Just a handful who can make a positive change in the organizations they enter after Fletcher with a mindset and a toolset that blend the analytical rigor of international business with the nuances of international affairs. Over time, they will distinguish themselves as leaders and critical thinkers with a truly integrative vision.”
Chakravorti joins renowned expert on innovation and entrepreneurship and Schmidheiny Professor of International Business Amar Bhidé as the School’s most recent faculty additions to the business program. Each provides key classroom leadership and complements Fletcher’s established and widely recognized business faculty.
In the longer term, Chakravorti is committed to maximizing CEME’s potential as a forum and information source for an interconnected, global business community. “The convening power of Fletcher can bring together faculty, a network of fellows, students, organizations and colleagues from other knowledge centers to elevate CEME to a preeminent place for insight into the changes being brought about by the phenomena of emerging markets.”
Describing emerging markets as “one of the most significant transformations on the global stage in our lifetime,” Chakravorti highlights Fletcher’s unique ability to unite problem solvers with those who offer insight and can articulate policy recommendations to address the most pressing problems.
Even with the sharpest of minds, no single group can address the geographically dispersed questions associated with emerging markets, Chakravorti emphasizes. “We must think of CEME as a hub,” he says. “We want the world to turn to CEME for insight, knowledge, and new ideas. CEME, in turn, will be successful if it can connect with other centers of expertise, particularly in the emerging markets themselves. In this sense, CEME too must integrate across borders.
CEME’s benefit to Fletcher students will be immense, Chakravorti predicts. “Our students will learn not only from what is taught in the classroom, but from the knowledge developed and debated under the CEME umbrella.”
While synthesizing the front page and the business page is a lofty goal, with Fletcher students’ ability to think outside the box and Chakravorti’s dedication to making connections between international relations and practical economics, the goal has never seemed more attainable. Chakravorti has arrived.
Elise Crane, F11
Bhaskar Chakravorti was also recently quoted in the Financial Times discussing business education and Fletcher's MIB program.
Press Release: The Fletcher School welcomes new Senior Associate Dean, Dr. Bhaskar Chakravorti.