In our era of strong corporate mistrust, widening inequality, and geopolitical volatility, business schools must teach morality as a core aspect of leadership. Employers and society at large want leaders capable of navigating ethical ambiguity with clear moral vision.

Here, the unique approach of Indian Institute of Management Indore (IIM Indore) under its director Himanshu Rai is instructive, reflecting the best shifts there are in global business education.

Rai’s emphasis on Nishkaam Karma, the key Sanskrit principle of acting without attachment to outcomes, may sound esoteric in a world dominated by quarterly earnings. But Rai’s long learning in ancient texts has inspired his own leading management style. It is also playing a part in other business schools. Spirituality is “the discipline of doing business with the unknown,” says Professor Sharda Nandram, the Business and Spirituality chair at Nyenrode Business University. Imperial Business School’s Sustainability Leadership Exec Ed programme understands the importance of mindfulness when developing sustainable leaders. To help candidates develop a ‘sustainability mindset’ there is an optional meditation module, which the business school says is “crucial for creating lasting change”.

Creating purpose

The idea aligns strikingly with a growing body of academic research suggesting that intrinsic motivation and purpose-driven leadership outperform purely incentive-based systems over the long term. Leaders who prioritise collective outcomes tend to foster more resilient institutions, particularly under conditions of uncertainty. In fact, philosophical training equips leaders to analyse assumptions, evaluate arguments, and think through complex problems systematically, explain the faculty behind the International Masters Programme for Managers (IMPM), which bases it’s teaching on five managerial mindsets, established to curate purpose alongside skill development.

This is not mere philosophising and heady indulgence. Modern corporations face a profound current legitimacy crisis the world over, as public trust is eroded in the wake of constant financial crises and scandals, as well as environmental failures across the world, and widening inequality and the economic destruction of the middle class. In such a fissile climate, technical competence without ethical grounding is more than ever a liability, and a moral failing in a world that needs strong morals.

Business schools, long criticised for contributing to short-termism, are heeding such calls. The integration of ethics, sustainability, and social impact into curricula is widespread. Across the board, institutions that fail to embed ESG considerations are seen to be falling behind the times.

Impact beyond the classroom

IIM Indore’s model puts these ideas into experiential learning. Programmes that place students in rural communities or extreme environments expose students to unfamiliar, high-pressure contexts that enhance empathy, adaptability, and decision-making.

The school’s Rural Engagement Programme trains future leaders to understand informal economies, different fiscal economies, and grassroots constraints, all valuable lessons in a changing but still untapped world. Solutions to poverty and infrastructure challenges require leaders who grasp local realities.

IIM Indore’s Himalayan Outbound Programme taps into deep pedagogical insight, in which that leadership is forged through overcoming adversity as through. Physical challenge and teamwork accelerate the development of traits such as resilience and cooperation under strain.

India’s business schools, in particular, occupy a distinctive position. As emerging-market institutions, they operate at the intersection of rapid economic growth and persistent social inequality. This duality creates a pressure to deliver globally competitive graduates, but also an opportunity to pioneer models of leadership that are socially embedded and ethically grounded.

A sense of responsibility

Rai’s invocation of Dharma (the idea of a moral duty) resonates. While the language is culturally specific, the underlying principle is universal. Leadership must, today, be about aligning decisions with a broader conception of responsibility, one that helps humanity as a whole, and puts business in the seat of encouraging human flourishing.

Cultural change within institutions is slow and often contested, but it can be supercharged at the business school level, it can filter quickly through institutions. Embedding ethics into curricula is easier than embedding it into behaviour. The history of business is littered with well-intentioned reforms that failed to translate into practice. But, as seen above, this change is already happening. Its effects will become clear in the near future.

Yet the direction of travel is one way. Employers, students, and society are demanding a different kind of leader. The kind who can pave real positive change for shareholders and society at large.

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