Saravanan Kesavan on Research, AI, and Why MBA Students Must Become Builders | Ep. 1

In the first episode of Business Research Talk, I sit down with Saravanan Kesavan, Dean of BITS School of Management (BITSoM) in Mumbai and my longtime colleague at UNC Kenan-Flagler. We talk about how he convinced a national retail chain to run a randomized scheduling experiment across 28 stores, what it takes to do research inside real companies, and why he thinks AI makes it urgent for MBA students to become builders, not just learners. He also shares why he believes the biggest open question for researchers today is how organizations actually adopt AI, and how his research training still shapes his work as a dean. Plus: his first-night food pick for Mumbai. 🎧 More episodes: https://businessresearchtalk.com