While University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business School has topped the table, it’s the Hyderabad based Indian School of Business (ISB) that has made India proud with its inclusion in global top 20 ranking. ISB is ranked at # 20, ahead of more fancied B-schools like Kellogg School of management (#24). FT 08 rankings put London Business School at #2, Columbia Business School at #3, Stanford University GSB at # 4 and Harvard Business School at # 5. 

While ISB’s achievement makes us proud, there is no other Indian B-school featured on this ranking. Infact, there are just seven B-schools from entire Asia-pacific on this list.

To find out more about the rankings and how more top Indian B-schools can make it to this prestigious ranking, India’s leading management portal MBAUniverse.com conducted an interview with Della Bradshaw, Business Education Editor of Financial Times, London. In this interview, Ms Bradshaw shares what makes ISB tick, and how IIMs should participate in future. She also gives an overview of how Asian management education is perceived by education analysts.

Excerpts from the interview:  

Q1: Let us start with ISB Hyderabad’s: ranked # 20 in its debut year. What are some of the strong points that ISB has, that lead to this achievement? 

If you look at what makes a great business school, it is essentially two things: great faculty and great students. ISB, because of its links with top global business schools - Wharton, Kellogg, London Business School - and its links with corporate India, was able to attract top students from the beginning. In this sense they are like Oxford and Cambri ... more