MUMBAI: Two institutions, bound by a single conviction — that careers are built on people, not paper — have decided to build together. XLRI Leadership Education and Development (XLEAD), the executive education arm of XLRI – Xavier School of Management, and Dale Carnegie India today announced a strategic partnership to weave world-class behavioural and people-skills training into the fabric of Indian management education, jointly designing and delivering leadership and behavioural development programmes for the country’s professionals and executives.
Formalised through a Memorandum of Understanding, the long-term partnership brings together two complementary strengths: XLRI’s standing as one of India’s foremost management institutions, and Dale Carnegie India’s globally proven expertise in behavioural and people-skills development. The two will jointly design and deliver programmes that build the human capabilities professionals increasingly need to lead and grow, and will be integrated across domains with industry-read certifications.
The collaboration responds directly to how leadership itself is changing. India has spent two decades building one of the world’s deepest pools of technical talent — the engineers, analysts and specialists who powered the country’s rise as a global services and innovation hub. That foundation remains a genuine advantage. But as routine work and complex analysis are increasingly handled by technology, competitive advantage is migrating to a narrower set of human capabilities. The premium shifts to what machines cannot easily replicate: judgment, influence, trust, alignment, and the ability to inspire people toward a shared outcome.
For years, these were treated as “soft skills” — useful, but secondary to technical competence. That distinction is becoming obsolete inside organisations, particularly at the early and midcareer stages, when professionals begin to move from individual contribution to broader influence. For Indian organisations now competing globally and managing large, young, fastmoving workforces, these are turning out to be the decisive skills.
This is precisely what the partnership is built to deliver. XLEAD brings XLRI’s academic rigour, research depth, and decades of credibility in Indian management education. Dale Carnegie India brings a timeless method for changing how people behave, refined over more than a century and adapted to Indian organisational realities. Together they pair the intellectual and behavioural framework to understand leadership with the practical, repeatable approach — a combination designed to make development stick.
For organisations, it means a leadership pipeline measured by outcomes — better communicators, more confident decision-makers, and managers who can carry strategy into execution.
Under the agreement, the two organisations will co-develop structured behavioural and leadership programming spanning business communication, executive presence, influencing and persuasion, business storytelling, executive coaching, presentation effectiveness and public speaking and more. Programmes will be offered to XLRI’s management students, executive education participants, and other learners, and may be delivered in-person, live online, or in a blended format.
“For over seven decades, XLRI has held that competence without character is incomplete, and that the finest education forms the whole person,” said Fr. Sebastian George, S.J., Director, XLRI – Xavier School of Management, Jamshedpur. “The labour market our students step into rewards those who can think clearly, communicate with empathy and lead with integrity; the very human element no machine can imitate. In Dale Carnegie India we have found a partner whose century of work rests on the same belief. Together, we intend to ensure that XLRI prepares students effectively for genuine service wherever they go.”
Commenting on the partnership, Pallavi Jha, Chairperson and Managing Director, Dale Carnegie India, said: “At Dale Carnegie, we believe every individual has inherent greatness and are committed to helping people overcome what holds them back. To bring that legacy into the classrooms of XLRI is a genuinely historic moment for our industry. Our partnership is founded on the belief that behavioural excellence and leadership capability will be among the most important career accelerators for professionals in the years ahead.”
The partnership seeks to develop a new generation of leaders who are not only technically proficient but also equipped with the human skills required to thrive in an increasingly interconnected, fast-changing, and AI-enabled world.
About Dale Carnegie India
Walchand PeopleFirst Ltd. is a leading professional-development and training company and the exclusive master franchisee of Dale Carnegie Training in India. Built on a century-old global legacy that has empowered more than 10 million people across 86 countries, Dale Carnegie’s proven methodologies develop leadership excellence and high-performance cultures, with more than 400 of the Fortune 500 among its clients.
For over two decades, Dale Carnegie Training India has built strategic partnerships with 8,500+ clients and developed 700,000+ professionals across industries, from Fortune 500 companies to small businesses. Drawing on Dale Carnegie’s time-tested methodologies and its proprietary Performance Change Pathway process, the organisation delivers customised solutions that drive measurable transformation at the individual, team and organisational levels.
A division of Walchand PeopleFirst Ltd., Walchand Plus was established in 2015 to provide CSR skilling, training and consulting services. Committed to creating sustainable impact, Walchand Plus helps underserved communities realise their potential through market-relevant, lifelong skills.
About XLRI
XLRI, the oldest B-school in India, was founded in 1949 by a few visionary Jesuit Fathers to bring a change in the economy and society at large. The institute always strives to be a management school with a difference.
Ever since its inception, XLRI has developed its distinct identity. The hallmark of this identity is, not to walk on the beaten path, but to strike new routes; not to benchmark, but to be benchmarked; to be second to none, but to be the first to respond to the needs of the people and the nation; taking up tasks that are bold, but necessary, that which nobody has hitherto taken up. This enterprising and pioneering spirit can be witnessed throughout the history of XLRI.
Over the years, XLRI has consistently expanded its academic offerings and enhanced its infrastructure to cater to the increasing demand from students, establishing itself as a leading management institution in India. We were amongst the first management schools in India to internationalize our academic programmes. XLRI has always had and maintains a global outlook.
True to its vision, XLRI strives to offer an education which just does not culminate in a mere degree, but one that inspires future business leaders to respond to the unmet needs of the society. XLRI, for more than 7 decades has been dedicated to diligently preserving and elevating its reputation and standing. This commitment is driven by the aim to attract highly talented students, accomplished faculty, professionals, as well as renowned organizations seeking placements and lifelong executive education opportunities. XLRI also holds the coveted, elite international triple crown accreditation status, placing it an elite group of around 150 business schools globally that hold the same status.
