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Education Entrepreneurship: Not So Easy (A)

Ashish Mehra, the Founder and Director of Akaash Management Institute (AMI), was surprised
when he received a call from a prominent politician on a rainy April morning in 2007. During the
call, the politician stated that the land that Ashish had purchased to become the permanent home
for AMI was designated as agricultural land. Therefore, the politician pointed out, Ashish could
not use the land for commercial use since there were strict regulations surrounding the use of
agricultural land for any other purpose. Ashish was astonished at how an empty barren lot could
be seen as agricultural land, especially since it had not been designated as agricultural land on
the deed. Before ending the call, the politician also threatened that Ashish would not be able to
continue with his plan to build an institute on the land without providing him with some sort of
monetary gain. This was the second major hurdle Ashish had faced in his efforts to obtain land
for AMIs relocation over the past few years and the process was really weighing on him.
About Ashish Mehra
Ashish was born in 1959 and was raised in the small town of Rampur in Najappradesh. His
father had only studied through second grade and his mother was illiterate. He lived his
childhood in poverty but that did not stop him from dreaming big and achieving. He was the first
person from his village to finish schooling. His dedication and perseverance won him admission
into one of the premier technology institutes where he received a degree in applied physics.

1 Developed by Dr. Divya Singhal, Goa Institute of Management with inputs from the case protagonist. This case was inspired by an
actual experience but names and other situational details have been changed, and interview sources left un-credited with
permission, for confidentiality and teaching purposes. The author is grateful to the respondent for providing time to provide
information for the case. The author wishes to thank Debra Wheat for her guidance and suggestions. The case has been prepared as
a basis of class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of administrative situations. GVV works in
close collaboration with the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME, http://www.unprme.org/index.php), an
initiative of the United Nations Global Compact, which seeks to inspire and champion responsible management education,
research, and thought leadership globally. PRME's support for case development is gratefully acknowledged.


This material is part of the Giving Voice to Values curriculum collection (www.GivingVoiceToValues.org).
The Aspen Institute was founding partner, along with the Yale School of Management, and incubator for Giving Voice to Values (GVV).
Now Funded by Babson College.
Do not alter or distribute without permission. Mary C. Gentile, 2010
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After university, he went to the National Technology Institute (NTI), Chandangarh. the top
management school in western India and studied Education Management. Soon after graduating,
he joined corporate life and worked for 16 years in senior positions with the leading education
companies in India. He became the President of the prestigious NTI Chandangarh Alumni
Association, a highly networked and affluent body of over 20,000 worldwide members. During
his tenure as president of this association, he developed a wide and influential network and his
contacts held top positions in both private enterprises and government departments.
Ashish had always talked about the three most important aspects for a fulfilling professional and
personal life. First, one had to have a dream or destination in life: this institution was his lifelong dream. Second, one had to have fire in the belly, passionate commitment: he had never felt
more committed to anything in his life. And third, one had to maintain a strict adherence to
certain core values which created the unique identity of a person.
Background of Akaash Management Institute (AMI)
The idea of starting an institution was seeded for Ashish in 1999 during a grand event organized
by his Alma Mater in Shantinagar to launch its Najappradesh alumni chapter. The then Chief
Minister of the State presided over the inauguration and many top government officials were also
present. In his address to the gathering, the Chief Minister focused on a single common theme
throughout his remarks: People who belong to this state and have achieved much in their life
tend to only focus on their own growth and rarely do anything for their homeland. He
continued: People who have done well in their careers and lives should come back to their roots
at a suitable time to do something constructive and substantial for their home state.
Ashish was greatly inspired by the Chief Ministers address and a year later, still inspired by his
words, Ashish decided to leave his well-paying and reputable job with a leading multinational
company to transform his passion and beliefs into reality. Ashish started the Akaash
Management Institute in 2000 in a rented building in the Dayashahar district of Najappradesh
with only 5 students. Its mission was to provide quality and values-based management
education.
Ashish had built AMI on an uncompromising commitment to the core values of ethics, integrity,
equality, merit and societal service. In India, the measure of quality among management
education institutions was dictated by the number of companies that visited campuses to recruit
students, and these companies based their decisions about where to recruit on the quality of the
students being admitted to the institutions. Prospective students perceptions were also greatly
influenced by the quality of campus recruitment: the more difficult it appeared to gain admission
to a school, the more applicants seemed to apply. He felt that his institution needed to stand tall
among hundreds of institutions, and therefore he knew the admissions process needed to be quite
rigorous. He believed that the quality of students would certainly make his institution more
appealing to the parents and other stakeholders. Ashish based the admissions decisions on the

This material is part of the Giving Voice to Values curriculum collection (www.GivingVoiceToValues.org).
The Aspen Institute was founding partner, along with the Yale School of Management, and incubator for Giving Voice to Values (GVV).
Now Funded by Babson College.
Do not alter or distribute without permission. Mary C. Gentile, 2010
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applicants scores on Indias most strenuous Common Admissions Test (CAT) as well as on a
rigorous group discussion and personal interviews.
Ashish was a businessman, entrepreneur and professor who believed that real management
education should be taught through experience, exposure and expertise supplemented with the
textbooks. In this context, he invited corporate managers from all over India and abroad to guest
lecture on an almost weekly basis and in some cases invited them to serve as formal visiting
faculty. AMI also sponsored excursions to the top organizations in the area to enhance student
learning and also to encourage awareness of AMI for networking and recruitment purposes.
The First Crisis
It had been three years since AMI had opened its doors, and by 2003 Ashish knew that he would
soon need to build AMI a campus of its own in order to accommodate its growth and increase its
credibility. Ashish went to the Chief Minister and explained AMIs history and how it had been
inspired by the Ministers 1999 address in Shantinagar.
Moved by Ashishs story and the growing prominence of AMI, the Chief Minister promised
Ashish that he would be able to purchase land, under an educational land quota, in order to build
a permanent home for AMI. With that assurance, he started the planning process to meet various
government requirements for the formal land acquisition.
Ashish initiated his preliminary work by approaching the concerned government officials to
procure the land. Ashish followed up with the District Collector and Divisional Commissioner
regarding the land purchase, both of whom were graduates of his alma mater. He received their
cordial support and on a warm day in June of 2003 they showed Ashish the various plots of land
that could be allotted to him for his educational institution under the educational quota.
One of the options that the officials showed him was perfect and Ashish quickly gave his consent
to that plot of land. The District Collector then sent a proposal with his recommendations to the
Chief Ministers office seeking his written approval.
After a week, Ashish received a call from the land registration office to meet an individual for
price negotiation. Ashish was quite surprised about the need for price negotiation since the land
had been identified for educational purposes, which meant it was supposed to have a reserved
price and not require any negotiation. Ashish politely declined the request to negotiate the price
and informed the officials that he was aware of the process for acquiring educational quota land
and that it did not involve price negotiation. He explained that the Chief Minister had offered
him the land under the educational quota and requested that the Government issue a demand note
for the reserved price and then he would pay it promptly by cheque or demand draft. The
government official to whom Ashish spoke made it clear that he must be mistaken and could
not purchase the land without going through the price negotiation process. Furthermore, he

This material is part of the Giving Voice to Values curriculum collection (www.GivingVoiceToValues.org).
The Aspen Institute was founding partner, along with the Yale School of Management, and incubator for Giving Voice to Values (GVV).
Now Funded by Babson College.
Do not alter or distribute without permission. Mary C. Gentile, 2010
3

made it clear that the price negotiation process was to negotiate and fix a price over and above
the reserved price of the land and the additional money would go to the Chief Ministers office.
Once Ashish realized that the government officials were demanding exorbitant money above and
beyond the reserved price as a bribe, he repeatedly sought an appointment with the Chief
Minister to plead his case and to remind him that it was upon the Ministers own invitation that
Ashish had returned to his home state. The chief minister, however, refused to grant him an
audience.
After conversations with other officials from his alumni network and further investigation into
the process, it became apparent that the Chief Minister had offered Ashish the land in error; he
was not actually able to promise the land under the quota as originally indicated. It also became
clear that the government officials were willing to still make the land available to AMI, but only
if paid a bribe. Ultimately, he refused the government land allotted for educational purposes
and decided to purchase private land through the regular real estate market.
Subsequently, he purchased a barren lot at market price from a private party the following year.
The Second Land Use Hurdle
With the land debacle behind him, Ashish spent the next two and a half years building the staff,
designing the plans and raising the money to formally relocate AMI to the new plot of land.
Just before he was to break ground in April of 2007, Ashish received the call from a politician
who demanded a huge sum (roughly 4 months operating cost for the school) as a bribe. He
threatened to block AMIs use of the land by notifying the relevant authorities that the land was
designated for agricultural purposes only. Ashish knew that land designated for agriculture
could not be utilized for any other purpose, but the land that he purchased was arid and
uncultivable and clearly not for agricultural purposes. He also knew that the politician had
power and influence over the relevant department. The politician continued to make it known,
however, that he would keep the secret to himself if Ashish paid the bribe.
Ashish was surprised by the politicians threat and was growing tired and frustrated by the many
hurdles to obtaining land for AMI, but paying a bribe, even in the name of helping his institution,
was out of the question. However AMI was growing and needed a permanent home to both
house its students and help it remain credible in the increasingly competitive Business School
market. How could Ashish avoid paying the bribe but without further delaying the building of a
campus? Whom should he approach and how?
Last Revision: 6/2/14

This material is part of the Giving Voice to Values curriculum collection (www.GivingVoiceToValues.org).
The Aspen Institute was founding partner, along with the Yale School of Management, and incubator for Giving Voice to Values (GVV).
Now Funded by Babson College.
Do not alter or distribute without permission. Mary C. Gentile, 2010
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