New Delhi, Sept. 30 -- In 1999, Dr. Akhil Kishore Shahani had a plan. With an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in 1994 and experience in the US software industry, he aimed to build a software company worth billions, retire by 30, and settle in the Bahamas. He closed the company in 2004.

Instead of asking how to build a start-up, Shahani asked what business education should truly teach. That question led him back to education, a family legacy nearly a century old. Now, as Managing Director of The Shahani Group, with six divisions and an employability framework that places over 17,000 students, he uses peer learning at the ASCENT Foundation to improve how he builds businesses and develops people.

Shahan...