About the Authors

Prof. Bala V. Balachandran, Founder, Dean and Chairman of Great Lakes Institute of Management. Decorated with the Padma Shri (the fourth highest civilian award bestowed by the Government of India), Dr Bala is considered as one of the top 10 Indian Global thought leaders in the field of Management. He is the only living Indian to have a Chair Professorship in an American University in his name. With forty plus years of distinguished academic experience in the United States he continues to serve as the J. L. Kellogg Distinguished Professor (Emeritus) of Accounting and Information Management at Northwestern University. He is widely published and has been instrumental in setting up three top tier Management Institutes in India. His latest project, Great Lakes Institute of Management was set up in 2004 and within a span of 10 years has been ranked among the top b-schools in the country apart from securing prestigious international accreditations like the AMBA and SAQS accreditations.

Mr T. N. Seshan, IAS (Rtd.), Former Chief Election Commissioner of India and former Cabinet Secretary to the Government of India. Considered a global legend in the field of elections he was appointed the Chief Election Commissioner of India. During his tenure as the CEC of India, he revitalized the Election Commission; he is known to have restored constitutional autonomy to the organization that had almost begun to function as an appendix of a Ministry of the government of India. The reforms he implemented through sheer executive force have had a telling impact on the election scene in India. Throughout his life he has established a reputation for being a squeaky clean, articulate, brilliant, gutsy and duty bound executive. Post retirement he has extensively involved himself with academic institutions and enjoyed grooming students. Teaching ethics and governance at Great Lakes and Leadership at the MIT school of Government, Pune, are examples.

Mr Nixon Fernando, Faculty Member, Great Lakes Institute of Management in the area of leadership and strategy. He has ten years of teaching experience at the National Defence Academy at Pune which is often called the Cradle of Military Leadership. He has also served as Course Head for the MPG Program at the MIT School of Government in Pune. Educated in diverse areas of Physics, Government and Management, he is focused on research related to development of India. He is also part of the team ‘Victory India’, chiefly composed of military veterans who seek to transform the Selection and Training process of the officers of the Indian Armed Forces.