Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu wants India to shut business schools and focus on startup incubators. But the Cambridge professor whose New York Times essay sparked his remarks says he never called for outright abolition. Here's what each actually argued.

Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu has called for shutting down business schools in India and shifting the focus towards startup incubators, large-scale venture creation and experimentation, reacting to an opinion essay that questioned the foundations of conventional management education.

The essay, titled "I Teach at a Business School. It's Time to Shut Them Down", was written by Chris Marquis, a professor at the University of Cambridge's Judge Business School, and published in The New York Times.

I have been saying this for 2 decades. India would do well to close down business schools and focus on startup incubators. We need large scale startup formation and a lot of experimentation.SRIDHAR VEMBU, ZOHO FOUNDER, ON However, Marquis later clarified in an interview with Poets&Quants that a NYT editor chose the essay's headline. His argument, he said, was for a fundamental overhaul of business education, including curricula and faculty incentives, rather than simply eliminating business schools.

What Chris Marquis argued about business schools In his essay, Marquis argued that business schools do more than reflect the prevailing economic system: they actively shape its priorities and train future corporate leaders to perpetuate them.

He questioned the emphasis conventional management education places on dealmaking, shareholder returns and profit maximisation, arguing that it gives insufficient attention to the wider social and environmental consequences of business decisions.

Marquis also questioned whether introducing additional courses on corporate responsibility and ethics could adequately address what he considers a structural problem with business education.

His subsequent clarification distinguished his call for sweeping institutional reform from the outright abolition suggested by the essay's headline. Vembu's long-standing criticism of business-school thinking Vembu's latest remarks are consistent with his earlier criticism of management philosophies associated with American business schools, particularly their emphasis on shareholder value and consumption-led economic growth.

In July 2025, he urged India to study China's industrial transformation rather than follow ideas promoted by American business schools.

“Unfortunately the ideas that dominate the Indian corporate world are still mostly from American business schools (and often Indian professors!),” he wrote on X then.

He argued that these institutions had contributed to the decline of American industrial prowess by promoting what he described as spurious doctrines, including shareholder value.

Vembu also criticised the emphasis on creating wealth by selling products to low-income consumers, arguing that economic development should instead focus on turning poorer sections of society into producers.

“The only wealth at the bottom of the pyramid comes from transforming the poorest people into producers, not consumers, first,” he wrote. His criticism of conventional business thinking has also extended to the kinds of startups India produces.

In April 2025, reacting to a comparison of Indian and Chinese startup ecosystems, Vembu argued that India needed to invest more in deep technology.

“China does all the things India does (Fintech, edtech..) but China also invests in deep tech. We have to deepen our tech,” he posted. He has also advocated building businesses outside India's major urban centres.

In February 2025, he described rural India as an attractive destination for entrepreneurs willing to take a long-term view, citing its youthful population and untapped talent.

So, what does Vembu want if not B-schools? Startup incubators Vembu's support for startup incubators is reflected in his public engagement with the startup ecosystem.

In June 2025, speaking at the first demo day organised by Coimbatore-based incubator Aalamaram, he called for the 23 startups nurtured by the organisation to be supported and developed into large enterprises.

“Not every startup may be successful. It is not important what percentage of startups succeed. What matters is how many jobs are created through startups,” he said.

He also argued that the government's role should be to simplify regulations, licensing procedures and access to bank loans rather than directly fund startups, warning that government funding could encourage favouritism and corruption.