In 2007, just two years ago, India celebrated 60 years of independence from British rule. To commemorate this historic event, the Times of India launched "India Poised," a new campaign. As part of the campaign, the anthem "India v/s India" was published. It described a divided India--one side looking up to limitless possibilities and another side stuck in a rut, mired in seemingly insurmountable problems that include poverty, corruption, infrastructure and education. "One India is straining at the leash . . . . The other India is the leash. . . . One India lives in the optimism of our hearts. The other India lurks in the skepticism of our minds."

This winter, a group of 30 students from Columbia Business School participated in a study tour to India, visiting media companies, conglomerates, politicians and government agencies. On the flight to India I read Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, a book that helped explain the dichotomy identified by the India Poised campaign. In the book, author Carol Dweck distinguishes between two kinds of mindsets: growth and fixed. The growth mindset is "the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts," whereas the fixed mindset is "the belief that your qualities are carved in stone . . . , [which] creates an urgency to prove yourself over and over." Professor Dweck goes beyond applying her theory to the individual to describe how a mindset can impact companies, citing Good to Great by Jim Collins. In the book, he explores what differentiates great companies from others and finds the key to elevating a company to greatness is a leader with a growth mindset. These leaders all possess the uncanny ability to "look failures in the face, even their own, while maintaining faith that they would succeed in the end."