25 Most Influential - Interview with Mukul Pandya, Editor and Director, Knowledge at Wharton
Monday, November 17, 2003SUSIE GHARIB, NBR ANCHOR: Nightly Business Report will soon mark its twenty-fifth year on public television, and to celebrate that distinction, we have joined with the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania to select the most influential business persons of the past 25 years. Our viewers submitted over 700 nominations. Now a panel of Wharton judges will make the final selection, which we will announce early next year. Joining us now to talk about leaders who have affected political and social change: Mukul Pandya, editor of Knowledge@Wharton, it's the school's online business journal.
Mukul, nice to have you on the program.
MUKUL PANDYA, EDITOR & DIRECTOR, KNOWLEDGE@WHARTON: Thank you for having me, Susie.
GHARIB: Let me begin by asking you this, in terms of just the criteria for business leaders that qualify: usually when people think of successful business leaders, they think of someone who's built a very big business or who's made a lot of money. They don't think of leaders who have contributed to social and political, you know, changes. So what is the criteria for this category of leadership?
PANDYA: Well, that's a very interesting question, Susie. And the point that we were trying to make in using this criterion is that, like you said, people usually think of business success in terms of business leaders who have made the most money or who have struck the biggest deals. But that's really not all, because the most successful business people typically are motivated not just by a big deal or making the most money, but have a much broader social vision. And they are inspired by a vision that drives them to improve the human condition, rather than just make the most lucrative deals. That's the idea we were driving at.
GHARIB: So are you saying that these individuals are not interested in profits and things like that, that drive many other business leaders?
PANDYA: No, that's not quite what I was trying to say. They are indeed interested in profits and revenues. But I think what sets such business leaders apart is the attitude that they have towards profits and revenues. For them, the profits and revenues are not the end; they are not the sole motivation. They often, these leaders, tend to think of profits as the means and the end is a much broader social vision that aims at improving the human social condition. For example, one often thinks of Bill Gates in the context of Microsoft and Windows. But equally important, and even more so in this context is the kind of work that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has been doing in basic services like health care and education. And while people like Bill Gates and George Soros are pretty well known for their work in this area, there are other people in other parts of the world who have been also very influential and who perhaps are not as well known.
GHARIB: OK. When you single out people for doing good, are there some social causes that are more important than others?
PANDYA: I would say that, that that's definitely the case. I mean, if you think about poverty, that across the board seems to be the single most issue because if you solve that problem, it just tends to tackle things like health care, education, other things sort of seem to follow to some extent from that. And there are innovations that have been made in the last 25 years in areas such as micro-lending, for instance, that have helped bring about quite a bit of change. But equally important, I would think, are initiates that aim at education and health care.
GHARIB: OK, I'm sure we could talk on this for a long time, but we've run out of time for now. Thank you very much.
PANDYA: Thanks a lot. Thank you for having me, Susie
GHARIB: We've been speaking with Mukul Pandya of the Wharton School.
