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What guides Harvard B-school dean Nitin Nohria

For several decades Nitin Nohria, the newly appointed dean of Harvard Business School, has known that without generosity life is greatly diminished.

"If you are generous life gives you more than you can imagine," he tells rediff.com as he discusses some of the values that have made him a renowned academic and much loved business teacher.

He was reminded of the importance of generosity as he stood by his maternal grandfather Premchand Goel's pyre many years ago. "I have learned a lot from the example of people like my grandfather," he says.

Goel, an engineer, "was not famous, did not make much money or reach the top of his profession," Nohria recalls, adding that yet the man was surrounded by loving family members and colleagues and people he had helped. He was loved and admired in life and in death.

"I have never seen such respect or love at any other funeral," Nohria adds.

Nohria, 48, the first foreign-born dean of HBS and the first Indian to head the 100-year-old institution, says that his grandfather has had a 'very powerful' impact on him.



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