Bangalore: Planning to shift its classroom from five-star hotels to the classrooms, Harvard Business School (HBS) has asked Indian corporate chiefs Ratan Tata and Anand Mahindra to help in finding proper place to start its own centre in India for executive education programmes. HBS has been conducting executive education or management development programmes (MDPs) in India since 2008, but always in five-star hotels. Professor Tom DeLong, the Philip J Stomberg Professor of Management Practice, who teaches MBA and executive education courses focused on topics like managing human capital and organisational behaviour said, "HBS did two programmes in India in 2008 and one programme in 2009. This year, we are in the market with three programmes, for which we need a permanent place. It could be in Mumbai." All these three programmes are likely to be for senior executives of Indian companies and multinational companies operating in India, as well as managers and investors interested in expanding operations to India. Many experts believe that HBS's presence in India could pose a serious competition to the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad and the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) in the executive education space. According to the 2010 Financial Times 'Global MBA rankings', HBS is ranked as the third best B-school in the world after Wharton School of Business (University of Pennsylvania) and London Business School. Hyderabad-based Indian School of Business, on the other hand, was ranked 12. However ISB seems to be unfazed by this. Talking to Kalpana Pathak of Business Standard on this issue, Deepak Chandra, Deputy Dean, ISB Hyderabad said, "There's space for everyone in the country and executive education from various B-schools is welcome. It's not about demand. It's about quality." But at the same time, IIMs seem to be agreeing that Harvard's entry in the market could prove to be competition for ISB as IIMs offer programmes at a different price point. IIMs offer programmes at two levels: short duration (seven to 20 days) and longer durations (six months). A IIM Professor who did not wish t be named said that Harvard is not in the longer duration executive education programmes so competition for the IIMs seems lower than for the ISB. HBS charges 2.12 lakh (plus service tax) for a five-day programme on 'Building a Global Enterprise in India' and ISB 1.5 lakh for a five-day programme on 'Marketing Strategy in a Competitive Environment', while IIM-Ahmedabad charges 1.5 lakh for a five-day programme for top Management on 'Corporate Strategy - Brand Strategy Linkages'.