Tarun Anand enters the corporate world as a 17-year-old intern for HSBC. He worked for Harshad Mehta as a research assistant focusing on evaluating parameters for stock picking. Post his MBA from SPJIMR, he was picked up at Standard Chartered Bank. He then joined Reuters where through a series of promotions, he was Global Head of Treasury in New York, running a $2 billion business across 136 countries and finally Chairman & Managing Director of Thomson Reuters, South Asia. He traveled to 50+ countries across 5 continents and learned the art and science of doing business with the world. It was in March 2012 that he decided he would devote himself full-time to building an institute of excellence in management education. From 9 students in March 2012 to 600 students today- Tarun Anand’s story of resilience is truly remarkable. He was an avid sportsperson and represented his college in Athletics, Tennis, Football, and Cricket and represented India in International Rugby tournaments besides being an avid mountaineer and scaled Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa.

Universal Business School

What are the key factors that kept you in the best positions at Multinational Corporations?

“To eliminate the gap present between the practical and theoretical learning of the Business”

As a practicing Business Manager, I was acutely aware of the skills gaps in Industry and was keen to play a role in eliminating those gaps. I also felt that India is failing its graduates. Several scores of universities have academicians who have no or very little experience of business, however, they are teaching business management. How can this be an effective education system whereby the Faculty are unable to walk the talk and are unable to bring the real-world challenges into the classroom. I strongly believe that it is better to learn cricket from a master batsman like Sachin Tendulkar, rather than Harsha Bhogle, the celebrated Indian commentator who has never played first-class cricket. As a global management practitioner, having learnt several amazing best practices from my international experience, and my executive education at Michigan Ross School of Business (USA), Tuck Business School (USA), and IE Business School (Spain), we wanted to bring the global best practices in education to India to enable students to experience international andragogy and a contemporary global curriculum which will position students to achieve their global career aspirations. 

Finally, I was keen to give back all that I had learned in my business travels and to create a legacy of world-class education in Mumbai.

What is your philosophy of leadership?

“To embrace failure by taking risks and collaborating with teammates”

I believe in Servant leadership. I am an enabler of talent and I keep challenging myself in creating leaders. I love taking risks and love my failures, they truly excite me as it is a stepping stone towards the goals. We continuously focus on building the risk muscle of the team and organization. I believe in co-creation, collaboration, and constant communication with my teams and ensure that we take swift decisions to ensure the organization is always moving. It is critical to value all stakeholders and employees are the most critical resource that organizations have. If they are well cared for and heard, they will be empowered to go the extra mile to serve our students and industry. So, I do everything in my power to remove obstacles from their paths. I like to call myself Celebrator-in-Chief as I want my teams to achieve their personal and professional goals. 

What can an inbound student gain from studying here in your college?

“Inbound students hope for the best quality education due to the presence of world-class learning and facilities”

We have been pioneers in bringing international curriculum and andragogy to India becoming the first B-school in India to be approved by AICTE to offer a PGDM program under Foreign Collaboration. International andragogy is focused on experiential learning and the formative and summative assessments are application-oriented. This is the reason that Universal Business School was rated as the 2nd most attractive B-school in India after ISB-Hyderabad under the Study in India program by GMAC (The organizers of the GMAT exam). Besides, Universal Business School was declared a Truly Global B-school by Times of India given it has an International Curriculum with the opportunity to earn a Global Degree, taught by International Faculty. Students have multiple global placement opportunities as well as global internship opportunities and can go for an international student exchange program in over 30 countries. UBS boasts alumni in 20 countries around the world and has attracted students from 20 countries including the USA, Germany, France, Russia, Thailand, Indonesia, Latin America, and the Gulf Region & Africa. UBS also has a strong international governance structure which has CEOs from 17 countries and 4 continents. These are the factors that contribute to an overall international experience in India.

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How do you make the Curriculum of your school’s subjects industry-oriented?

“Providing the students with facilities like Industrial Visits, CEO Talks and CMAPS”

UBS has been set up by 3 Global CEOs who have run multi-billion-dollar businesses in over 100+ countries and has 60 CEOs from 17 countries on its Board of Governors who have endorsed the industry-ready program devised for business management students. Hence, UBS is truly Built by Industry for Industry. UBS further has a Senate of 28 CXO’s from leading Indian and multinational corporations who advise the leadership on the critical skills and contemporary knowledge required to succeed in the Industry. We have further integrated the Business Analytics program from KPMG into our curriculum which ensures that we are providing a STEM-infused MBA a critical requirement in these times. Furthermore, UBS has devised a CMAPS (Collaborative Multidisciplinary approach towards Problem Solving) credit-based module, whereby students collaboratively solve industry problems and provide useful solutions to companies.

What are your roles and responsibilities towards the Students of the Institute?

“To ensure the best executions and implementations of the designed Business programs”

My role is to build world-class academic leaders who are from industry to inspire our students to achieve far more than they even desired before walking into the campus. My role towards the academic leaders is to provide an enabling environment and to challenge them to achieve their potential in academic delivery, research, consulting, and become professional academicians. Coming from industry, I would like my faculty to walk the talk as I have seen too many academicians who are great academicians but not professionals, which you would expect when you walk into McKinsey, Google, or Deloitte. 

What do you think should be the Institute’s top priority over the next 10 years?

“To infuse experiential learning and path breaking research that have an ESG impact”

I dream of putting UBS on the global map by continuously innovating our curriculum, our andragogy, and overall world-class student experience on campus. I would like UBS to become a magnet to attract the best academicians and industry practitioners who want to experiment with their academic delivery by infusing experiential learning and to come up with path-breaking research and patents to impact business, the environment, and the society at large. We want to achieve global accreditation standards, to ensure a high-quality standard in everything that we do. We would like to be seen as a torchbearer of ESG, given we have already established our credentials as India’s 1st Green B-school. 

What would you like people to know about your university they may not know?

“Institute focuses on igniting the minds of the future to create conscious leaders who will positively impact the world – A B-school with a Soul”

The institute has been built by dreamers who sacrificed everything they have earned in their lives to give back to society a world-class teaching and learning experience. We are passionate about our student's dreams and the ultimate joy for an academician is to ignite the minds of the future and create a tsunami of change through consciously based decision making. We are often called a Business School with a Soul and this might seem like an oxymoron, but we know in our hearts we are living this dream every day. 

What is one piece of advice you would like to give to students to succeed in life?

“Maintain Health, keep gratitude and contribute to the development of society”

I would like students to focus on four things simultaneously to achieve their dreams. They need to firstly, focus on their health as you have only one body and you need to treasure this gift. Secondly, to have an Attitude of Gratitude as if you are reading this, you are certainly very privileged. Thirdly, to focus on your purpose which can be about making a lot of money and achieving success but with this comes a significant responsibility to give back and to contribute to your environment and society, which I call the Triple Bottom line, failing which you will not be able to enjoy your winnings. Finally, take a lot of risks, learn to respect and enjoy your failures and get into the game of life, do not stand on the sidelines and play to win.

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How could your Institute be more welcoming to students of different races or economic backgrounds?

“To promote the concept of Unity in Diversity”

At UBS Diversity and Inclusion is central to everything we do. We have over the years attracted students from 20 countries, 25 Indian states, and from every religion in India as we believe and encourage our students to ‘Celebrate the difference’. We also believe that great innovations occur when cultures and different races collide, and we can see the sensitivities being respected by our students. Regarding economic diversity, we have means-based scholarships in partnership with a leading Indian bank to attract students from different economic backgrounds.