November 2010

Our belief system at Indus is to create leaders of tomorrow. The biggest challenge before us is that tomorrow has already arrived and the world is becoming flatter with every passing year. The world is becoming a level playing field where everyone has equal opportunities. All of us do not have the same talents; but all of us should be given an equal opportunity to develop our talents, to be different.

From a leadership perspective this has two implications.

Firstly, thus far we have been socialized to work with people who are like us, who think and act like us. This is a uni-cultural approach. In a flat world the notion of categorizing society into the privileged and the under-privileged is no longer possible or even desirable. To do so will be discriminatory. Although we are better connected, we need to be better prepared to deal with those we are connected to. New leaders now require a global mindset- the mental capability to manage and negotiate other cultural differences, and influence others who are different by a completely new set of intellectual, social, and psychological competencies.

The second leadership implication is that leaders will be expected to provide equal opportunities for the simple reason, that in an interconnected world, what happens in one part of the world or society directly affects the well-being of the other parts of the world.

The greatest discrimination so far has been the denial of equal opportunities, and this has been responsible for mass alienation, suffering, and armed revolution. Equal opportunity is the antidote India's 650 million poor, to 350 million illiterates, to health care that will prevent 1.5 million children dying every year due to malnutrition. We need ethical leaders who will provide better governance and root out mass corruption. Again equal opportunity is the antidote.

With these objectives in mind, we have set up the world's first equal opportunity school. Your children have been integrated into this school to make this vision a reality. They have been assigned specific leadership objectives covering the entire spectrum of academics, sports, and the performing arts. So when you are supporting the Community School, you are in fact enabling your child to become a great leader, having compassion, and a higher purpose in life.

It is my fervent wish that you will give strength to our vision, as we commit ourselves - children, teachers and parents, to create these temples of opportunity, our Indus Community schools, and the schools of tomorrow.