Charag Krishnan '14
Tell us a bit about your background and experience prior to Kellogg?
I grew up in a small town in central India and studied engineering at the National Institute of Technology Bhopal. After graduation I took up job working on Plant Automation for Bharat Petroleum. I then took a leave of absence from Bharat Petroleum to accept a fellowship with Teach for India to work as a primary school teacher in a low-income municipal school teaching grades 2 and 3. I thought it would be a short diversion from a career in electronics, but it ended up changing my life and career plans. By the end of my two years in the classroom, I knew I wanted to do something to improve the quality of education for all students. Teaching and being a part of the initial setup of Teach for India gave me great exposure into what was needed to set up a successful social enterprise and sparked my interest in non-profit management and leadership that has continued to this day.
Why choose Kellogg?
When I finished the Teach for India fellowship, I asked my employer if I could shift my role from engineering to work on the CSR (Corporate and Social Responsibility) investments they were making to improve education across the country. I spent the next year working on this which was an incredible learning opportunity. Realized that large corporations have more resources than government ever will to catalyze improvements in the education system.
Through this experience I also realized that it wasn’t enough to argue that companies should be funding these efforts, because it was “the right thing to do”. Recognized that you need to make the business case for doing good. So I started looking for top U.S. business schools that were strong in the area of social impact and found a great cultural fit at Kellogg. I had also received an admit to the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore but decided I would choose Kellogg if I was able to secure some scholarships since I felt I would have more opportunities aligned with my interests at Kellogg. I was fortunate to receive sizable support from the JN Tata Endowment, Narotam Sekhsaria Foundation, the KC Mahindra Trust and the Dorabji Tata Trust to join Kellogg.
Which non-profit were you matched with for your Board Fellowship?
Had a chance to work with Metro Squash (one of 19 urban squash programs in the U.S. that combine tutoring, mentoring and squash coaching to help low-income students prepare for and gain acceptance to strong colleges). I used to play squash and tennis myself. Wanted something familiar I could connect with. It was a perfect match with my interest in education.
It was the first board meeting I’d ever attended in my life. It was a wonderful opportunity to see how a board makes decisions. The learnings from it have been so important in my subsequent board roles, as well as my work as a consultant working with non-profit universities and their boards. What were the greatest areas of growth and development for you through the fellowship?
I saw how being on a board is very different from being an employee for a non-profit. It helped me understand the differences between managing and governing. I learned how to influence management without getting too involved in the day-to-day operations.
What was the topic of your project?
Looked at ways to market and attract new audiences to their main fund-raising event -- the annual Gala. The project went very well, and I had a chance to attend that gala. I continued to stay in touch with the organization for a few years after I graduated.
What were the greatest areas of growth and development for you through the Fellowship?
Three things stood out for me. First, the many different layers of learning about how a non-profit operates. Second was getting an introduction to what it means to serve on the board of a non-profit -- a position many MBA grads hope to be in after graduating – and to be mindful of not overstepping into operations. Third, it provided a very relevant lens for me into working with clients where part of the assignment is to engage with their board. When taking on a new project, I’ve learned to ask, ‘How will people on the board respond to any findings and recommendations? Who is likely to support and who will be opposed? And how can I best connect with the board members? These lessons have served me well for the last decade.
What did you do after graduation?
I interned at the UNICEF Innovation Unit during my summer at Kellogg and while I was worked with a couple of McKinsey alums. I saw real value in the skill set they brought to the global public health work we were doing at UNICEF Innovation Unit and wanted to build those skills myself. Although at the time, McKinsey did limited work as part of the education practice, I thought it would be a great way to learn the consulting approach and return to the education section in a year or two. I started out in the Minneapolis office as a generalist, a chance for me to build that skill set. After a year I was given a unique opportunity -- to move to India to help set up a non-profit for McKinsey. It was called Generation, and came out of research the McKinsey GIobal Institute completed in 2015 proposing an employer-backed training model that would achieve better job outcomes for students. McKinsey decided to set the non-profit up ourselves to demonstrate the model would work as a way to nudge employers and non-profits to adopt the approach over time. We trialed it in 5 very different economic settings: Mexico, US, India, Kenya, Spain, and I went to India for a year to lead the project there. It was a bold new experiment. Over the course of that year, we set up about 50 training centers in 14 cities that trained roughly 4000 students for entry level roles in two professions: healthcare and hospitality. We then started a third sector: retail. I got a chance to hire a COO for Generation India to replace me and spun the non-profit off as a separate non-profit entity – Generation India Foundation, with McKinsey partners serving on its board. Generation is now operational in 17 countries having graduated over 115,000 students.
It was an incredible learning experience, and I was very lucky to have it at such an early stage in my career. It changed my outlook to realize I could do important education work within McKinsey and changed the course of my career completely. I moved on to do education and youth labor market work in the Middle East and subsequently back to the US, to build our education practice and have focused on doing only education work ever since.
How has the Board Fellows experience affected your subsequent work with non-profits? Joined any boards?
Teach For India – I had taught for them at the start of my career. After Kellogg, I was involved with setting up a US entity for them; I served on their board until this year, when I transitioned to an advisor.
The other non-profit board I sit on is Mantra4Change US. Santosh More, a colleague from my time at Teach for India and a dear friend over the years went on to set up a non-profit called Mantra4Change, based on ideas we discussed when we taught Grades 2 and 3 together in municipal schools. Mantra works with~50,000public schools across India assisting with teacher training and school leadership development. In 2023, they received the Schwab Award for Social Impact at the World Economic Forum to recognize their work. I was involved in setting up the U.S. entity for Mantra4Change and now serve on the board to help expand and enable fundraising efforts.
Both of these U.S. entities were set up to raise awareness and assist with fund-raising for the India efforts. They also offer the chance for US students of Indian origin to go back to volunteer in India.
Golub Capital is now starting a process to create a network of Board Fellows programs like Kellogg's at top business schools. Thinking about ways to engage alumni from these programs in the effort. Any ideas on what might be valuable?
It would be good to emphasize up front to fellows the many different potential levels of learning from the experience so they can take full advantage. Before you’ve sat in on a meeting, the board is a completely abstract concept. Through observation you realize that there are so many dynamics that can shape a board’s decision – like who is the biggest donor, the inter-personal relationships among the members.
Think it would be useful to have a quick template to record learnings about key decisions and how might have handled a situation differently after each meeting. It could also be valuable to have some discussion near the end of the program focused on what would do when serving on a board at next stage in your career.
I could also see a world where the board fellow alums from the different schools could be part of a listing of high-potential prospective board members in a non-profit board repository. With the many non-profits I’ve worked with, often see they are missing an opportunity to bring fresh talent in.
