Boston Days - Part 3

The Universe Has a Sense of Timing

(I am writing “Boston Days” as a series of articles for quick reference for myself and other retail pilgrims. This article covers the “Power of positive manifestations”)

300 minutes. That is precisely how long the day’s sessions had run — case studies, leadership frameworks, management metrics, and the kind of deep deliberations that leave you simultaneously drained and quietly electric.

As the glass doors of the Chao Centre swung behind me, I made a deliberate choice. Not the room. Not the power nap. The campus. The Boston evening. The open sky.

My first stop was the Tata Hall — a building that carries unusual emotional weight for every Indian who walks this campus. 

Donated by the late Mr. Ratan Tata, it stands as a quiet monument to Indian generosity meeting global ambition, housed in elegant red brick and understated dignity.

Spangler came next — the social heart of HBS. Closed for the day by 5 pm, it stood still in the evening light. A banner near its entrance read: “Hard work. With humility. For humanity.” I stood there long enough to let those words do their work.

Then came Baker Library. As participants of the Executive Management Program, access is granted until 7 pm — a privilege I was not about to surrender to fatigue. I stepped inside and simply stopped moving. 

Over 700,000 volumes. Reportedly the world’s largest business library. The ceiling, the amber light, the cathedral silence — it felt less like a library and more like a place of pilgrimage.

Earlier that day, I had written to a few luminaries associated with HBS, quietly hoping for a response. 

As I walked past the Dean’s quarters in the early evening, my thoughts turned — almost involuntarily — to Prof. Nitin Nohria.

The 10th Dean of Harvard Business School. Its first Indian-American leader. And by most accounts, one of its finest.

His decade at the helm, from 2010 to 2021, was nothing short of transformational. He introduced the FIELD curriculum — a bold pedagogical shift that brought real-world, experiential learning into the HBS classroom. 

He championed the MBA Oath, calling on graduates to pledge ethical and responsible leadership — a quiet but powerful act of institutional conscience. 

He launched HBX, now HBS Online, democratising business education beyond the walls of this storied campus. He made HBS more global, more inclusive, and more honest about what the world actually needs from business leaders.

I was still thinking about him as I rounded a corner near the library.

A gentleman in a white shirt. Round glasses. Walking at an unhurried pace.

I looked. Hesitated. Walked closer.

“Prof. Nohria?”

“Yes,” he said.

I stood still for a few seconds. What had just happened?

What followed were ten of the most quietly extraordinary minutes of my professional life. He asked about me — genuinely, not perfunctorily. I told him about 25 years in Indian retail — the airport retail ecosystem I helped build at BIAL when it first opened in 2008, the hundreds of cafes I scaled across India at Cafe Coffee Day, the dealer network I doubled for Royal Enfield. 

He listened with the full attention of a man who does not perform interest; he simply has it.

We spoke about the present and the future of Indian retail. His optimism was not the polished variety one dispenses at conferences. 

It was thoughtful, specific, and warm — the perspective of a scholar who has watched markets evolve and still believes in what is coming.

I walked back to my room a different person.

The universe, it would seem, rewards those who choose the campus walk over the power nap.

(I am writing “Boston Days” as a series of articles for quick reference for myself and other retail pilgrims.)

Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8 and Part 9 here.

Boston Days – Part 1

(I am writing “Boston Days” as a series of articles for quick reference for myself and other retail pilgrims. This article covers the “opportunity of multi-format retail concepts under the same roof - or the lack of it ”) 

As the Emirates flight touched down at Boston Logan Airport around 1440 hrs local time, I was conscious of witnessing a personal milestone. 

As I near 50, I finally set foot in America — the land that the world collectively romanticises as the land of opportunities. For over three decades, despite several invitations and occasions that came my way, I never made a conscious decision to visit. 

Yet, here I was, to complete the third and final module of the Senior Leadership Program at the prestigious Harvard Business School.

After Immigration formalities and a mandatory Dunkin’ coffee on arrival, I checked into my hotel. For two days, this would be home before I moved into the campus for three weeks of immersive learning. 

Thankfully, a large retail plaza sat just behind the accommodation, and retail therapy beckoned almost immediately. Some habits, clearly, do not respect geography.

As I walked the parking lot periphery, a police vehicle swung by. Three officers stepped out. I greeted them and they reciprocated warmly. One proclaimed, with evident pride, that Boston cops were genuinely nice people — and welcomed me to the USA with a broad smile. 

Having binge-watched the Netflix series “Boston Patrol” ahead of this maiden trip, I was already half-prepared for exactly this kind of encounter. 

Art, it seems, does imitate life — and occasionally predicts it too.

South Bay, Dorchester felt less like a mall visit and more like a retail masterclass in action. 

Old Navy standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Five Below. 

Macy’s anchoring one end, TJ Maxx another. 

Home Depot’s nursery spilling generously onto the parking lot, with perennials and ornamental plants displayed in cheerful abundance. 

Best Buy, Marshalls, Total Wine — all pulling their weight with quiet confidence. 

The number of cars had visibly doubled within the hour, even as I stepped in and out of a dining place. The weekend pull, doing its quiet and predictable magic.

No pretence. No aspiration overload. Just retail doing what retail must — serving real people with real needs, real budgets, and real intent to purchase. 

And then Olive Garden, glowing warmly against the night sky, its stone façade and lush greenery offering a welcome contrast to the vast asphalt expanse. America’s middle-market retail, alive and surprisingly well.

The large horizontal retail format immediately reminded me of similar spaces back home in India — Chandigarh and parts of the tri-cities, which came up as planned urban expressions post-Independence. 

Le Corbusier’s 1966 master plan for Chandigarh has broadly held, and successive state governments have respected the original vision with reasonable consistency. Malls have naturally emerged in Mohali and Panchkula over the years, complementing the planned commercial zones.

A parallel exists in Bangalore Development Authority’s shopping centres, the first of which came up in Jayanagar in 1978, followed by Indira Nagar in 1982. 

Today, 14 such centres exist across the city. 

Over time, however, chronic poor maintenance has drained them of both tenants and footfalls. As recently as June 2024, the state government announced a PPP model for seven key facilities — a proposal that remains, as of now, firmly on paper.

Indian cities hold vast, underdeveloped land parcels. Open, accessible retail-dining-leisure ecosystems of this scale are entirely possible, if political will and purposeful land allocation ever decide to meet halfway.

On Day 2, a visit to “Kahaani” with batchmates offered some familiar comfort — Garlic Naan, Paneer Butter Masala, Dal Makhani. Excellent, save for the paneer that stubbornly refused to yield to the fork. 

The bill, predictably, was far from pocket-friendly. 

But then, this is the capital of Capitalism — with a very deliberate capital C. 

High cost of living drives high wages, which in turn is passed back to a consumer who accepts it as part of the compact. A well-oiled circular economy, doing precisely what it was always designed to do. 

(I am writing “Boston Days” as a series of articles for quick reference for myself and other retail pilgrims.)

Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8 and Part 9 here.