What does it take to lead a top public business school in an era defined by artificial intelligence and changing expectations of what education should deliver? For Arvind Chandrasekaran – known across the Fisher College of Business (US) community as Dean AC – the answer begins with a conviction he has held since his earliest days as a researcher: that academic scholarship only fulfils its purpose when it makes a difference in the real world.

“The purpose of a business school education is not just to do academic research – it is to actually make impact,” he said in a recent episode of the Fisher Leadership Initiative podcast. “It’s very important for you to combine good academic research with practice. That combination is essential.”

Chandrasekaran joined Ohio State in 2009 as an assistant professor, having completed his PhD at the University of Minnesota. His early research focused on innovation – specifically, how organisations empower frontline employees to generate and sustain it. That work eventually led him toward healthcare management, operational excellence, and executive education before he stepped into the dean’s role. The throughline across all of it, he says, is people and process.

AI fluency and the case for durable skills


When the conversation turned to artificial intelligence, Chandrasekaran pushed back gently on the idea that AI should be approached as a challenge to navigate. He sees it instead as an opportunity to embrace – provided educators ask the right questions about what human skills remain irreplaceable alongside it.

At Ohio State, AI fluency has been adopted as a university-wide goal, with Fisher committed to graduating students who are as capable in AI skills as they are in core business disciplines. But Chandrasekaran is equally focused on what he calls “durable skills” – the capabilities that make AI tools genuinely effective rather than misleading.

“How do you think about problem solving and problem framing? These are exercises that, if you do it the right way, you’re going to get the best bang for the buck from AI,” he explained. “Critical thinking, resiliency, agile thinking – these things I clearly believe cannot just be taught in a class. They have to be practised. Leadership in my opinion cannot just be taught. It has to be taught and practised.”

Building community in a changing institution


On the challenge of sustaining high-performing teams through periods of change, Chandrasekaran is candid about the difficulty and clear about what he believes makes the difference. Rather than relying on technology to build community, he advocates for more interpersonal connection.

He cited a recent initiative at Fisher where junior faculty from across disciplines were brought together to hear from an AI fluency expert and discuss how new tools could strengthen their research and teaching. Monthly social events across departments are also becoming a fixture. “We need to trust each other more. We need to bring people together more. We are all one force,” he said.

Advice for students and his younger self


Asked what he would tell students navigating today’s world, Chandrasekaran returned to a theme that runs through everything he does: ethical grounding. In an age when AI makes shortcuts so tempting, he believes the distinguishing quality of great leaders will be their integrity.

“We are in a very important time where we can do so many short-circuited things with AI and technology – but is it really ethical? Is it really the right thing to do?” he asked.

His advice to students is to cultivate empathy, embrace failure as a learning mechanism, and push themselves in ways nobody else can define for them.

For his younger self, the lessons are more personal: daily reflection, listening more and talking less, humility, and what he calls “leading by walking around” – getting out of the office and staying connected to the people you serve.

“I don't have a job if I don’t have my students here,” he said simply. “The college exists because of our students, and we are here to serve them.”

 

This article is based on the Fisher Leadership Initiative podcast, produced by the Max M. Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University.