MIT’s Sanjay Sarma: Why Indian CEOs Are Taking Over the World

MIT’s Sanjay Sarma: Why Indian CEOs Are Taking Over the World 

The Asian Century is well upon us but the rise of her people on the world stage has not been a linear one. Fraught with complexities and clearly divisive, the reasons for this video’s title are nonetheless fascinating – and instructive. 

Today’s chat is with Sanjay Sarma, the brilliant and affable CEO of the Asia School of Business in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, having arrived from sojourns in the private sector, academia and the literary world. 

(Many thanks to the Asia School of Business for their collaboration with The Do More Podcast, in whose studio this conversation was recorded. The Asia School of Business is a partnership between MIT Sloan School of Management and Bank Negara Malaysia).

For MIT’s research on Indian CEOs: 

‘Why East Asians but not South Asians are underrepresented in leadership positions in the United States’
By Jackson G. Lu, Richard E. Nisbett, and Michael W. Morris 
https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/... 

See also: 
‘A cultural clue to why East Asians are kept from US C-suites’
https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-t... 

And 
‘How multiethnic networking could propel more East Asians into US C-suites  ’
https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-t... 

CONTENTS 

00:00:00 - Intro
00:01:36 - From the Indian Institute of Technology to Carnegie Mellon, Berkeley and then MIT 
00:03:15 - The Child of Illustrious Parents, Dinner Table Topics 
00:05:15 - The Phenomenon of the Global Indian CEO 
00:06:36 - Jackson Lu (of MIT)’s Research Findings 
00:08:56 - Nature or Nurture? 
00:11:12 - Are Today’s CEOs Becoming More Agreeable?  
00:16:01 - The Power of Reflection 
00:17:16 - How to Be Focused About Meetings 
00:19:01 - Advising the Indian Economy 
00:21:35 - Should India Be More Assertive? 
00:24:44 - The Power and Pursuit of Curiosity 
00:29:52 - Are Patriarchal Family Controlled Businesses Facing Extinction? 
00:32:24 - What, Really, is IoT? 
00:34:08 - Only the Paranoid Survive 
00:35:42 - America Appears to Be Fearful of Web3 
00:38:36 - Colonial’ Pipeline’s Role in America’s Crypto Fears 
00:39:37 - Should CBDCs be Feared? (CBDCs: Central Bank Digital Currencies) 
00:40:48 - ‘Grasp’: Why Education Must Be Rethought (‘Grasp’ is a book authored by Sanjay Sarma) 
00:43:44 - Are Universities Antiquated? 
00:45:40 - Are Quaternary (ie Postgraduate) Degrees No Longer Relevant? 
00:47:10 - The Value Universities Add to the Mix 
00:48:35 - What is the Value of an ‘MIT’ Label? Why Proxies Matter 
00:50:55 - Why Do Corporations Exist? 
00:52:18 - Chuang to Sanjay: ‘Are You a Success?’ 
00:54:07 - Rules for Life 
00:56:22 - The Role of Fate 

FOLLOW SANJAY HERE: 
At ASB: https://asb.edu.my/about/the-leadersh... 
Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanjay_... 
At MIT: https://meche.mit.edu/people/faculty/... 
Some Research: https://scholar.google.com/citations?...