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COVER STORY
Restructuring IIM-A
Continuted...
WHAT I DIDN'T LEARN AT
IIM-A
 The basic tenets of
marketing, finance, production, and people management are part of the learning acquired in
a B-school like the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A), and they do
influence a manager's performance. They equip a manager with the ability to analyse
business situations and arrive at solutions using specific analytical tools. But there are
a host of other skills required to survive today's complex world:
LATERAL THINKING. The curriculum's first
deficiency is the lack of emphasis on lateral thinking. The IIM-A's case study method
attempts to bring only past business realities into classroom discussions. Moreover, most
of the case studies are based on situations where the environment behaves in an orderly
manner, and where causal relationships are stable, predictable, and linear -- thereby
offering deterministic solutions. By contrast, real-life situations are chaotic, offer
complex correlations between variables, and lead to probabilistic outcomes. Innovation
based on creative and lateral thinking, on the other hand, plays a key role in successful
business practices. By focusing on past developments, B-schools perpetuate conventional
thinking. Today, managers have to predict uncertain events with greater accuracy and
respond creatively to a dynamic environment.
PEOPLE MANAGEMENT. Survival hinges on the
ability to implement change successfully. For that, a leader should get his people to act
in a manner that will yield the desired results. He has to be flexible and responsive to
the needs of the entire organisation in order to perform consistently. So, skills
pertaining to managing, and winning over, people are critical.
DECISION-MAKING. Today's business leader has
to respond continuously to a complex, unpredictable environment. While sound reasoning and
logical analysis are the main ingredients of decision-making, they only complement
judgement and instinct. Very often, gut reactions provide the extra edge required to
survive in today's business environment although they would find no place in an IIM-A
curriculum.
To become an effective manager, one has to acquire a
different set of skills. An MBA helps one to gain a foothold in the organisation. Once
inside, there is a compelling need to superimpose practical techniques on conceptual
skills. After all, it is an effective combination of various capabilities that can raise
an MBA's performance to outstanding levels.
WHAT I LEARNT AT IIM-A
 Thanks to a rigorous, two-year-long
curriculum at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), we learnt several new
disciplines: marketing, finance, cost management, quantitative methods, organisational
behaviour. These are essential prerequisites for working in a multi-disciplinary corporate
environment. For a fresh engineering graduate like me, the maximum learning was in cost
accounting and finance. It has made a big difference. Especially since it is important to
go through the fundamentals and work with numbers to analyse performance and identify the
problem areas.
Perhaps the most important aspect of the IIM-A's curriculum
was its special emphasis on communication skills, both written and verbal. I learnt to
articulate my viewpoint logically and precisely, by supporting it with data. Because of
the hard drill, it wasn't the most popular course. But it has turned out to be the biggest
help in actual organisational situations, where you need to put your views across
convincingly and succinctly.
At the IIM-A, we had a good mix of engineers, chartered
accountants, arts and science graduates, managers, and even students who were married and
had children. Such a diverse profile creates a wealth of experience: you also learn to
adapt and accept people as they are, a handy skill in workplaces. The education process
fosters team-building and participation in group activities, which is a good opportunity
to build inter-personal relationships. Through some of the courses in behavioural
sciences, you also get an opportunity to review yourself and realise your self-worth. This
helps in appreciating other people's viewpoints, besides building your own level of
confidence. I saw significant changes in many participants during my stay at the IIM-A.
The three most important factors of managerial success are
the skills to understand numbers, investigative prowess, and the ability to look at issues
from a multi-disciplinary angle. The curriculum at the IIM-A provides inputs for all
three. Management thinking is not static; there are no golden rules that you can apply to
all situations. Everything is contextual: you have to anticipate change, and provide the
leadership to manage it. And while doing all this, you need to preserve your own value
system. But, ultimately, what you learn depends on your own attitude. To use the language
of baseball, a B-School like the IIM-A pitches several good things at you, but how good a
catcher are you?
ILLUSTRIOUS ALUMNI OF IIM-A |
|
Source IIMA |
| THE IIM-A FACULTY |
Director: Jahar
Saha; Ph.D (Case Western Reserve)
Dean: P.M. Shingi, Ph.D (Illinois U)
Chief Admin. Officer: A.K. Dua, MBA (IMDR, Pune)FACULTY BUSINESS POLICY
K. Balakrishnan, MBA (Harvard U)
M.R. Dixit, Ph.D (IIT, Kanpur)
S. Manikutty, Ph.D (IIM-A)
CENTRE FOR MANAGEMENT IN AGRICULTURE
V.N. Asopa, Ph.D (Lllinois U)
S.L. Bapna, Ph.D (Sardar Patel U)
Samar K. Datta, Ph.D (Rochester U)
B.M. Desai, Ph.D (Cornell U)
Vasant P. Gandhi, Ph.D (Stanford U)
Girja Sharan, Ph.D (Cornell U)
Anil K. Gupta, Ph.D (Kurukshetra U), Fellow (National Academy Of Agricultural Sciences)
Gopal Naik, Ph.D (Lllinois U)
Gurdev Singh, Ph.D (Lllinois U)
P.M. Shingi, Ph.D (Illinois U)
Devi D. Tewari, Ph.D (Sasketchewan U)
Vijay Paul Sharma, Ph.D (NDRI, Karnal)
COMPUTER & INFORMATION SYSTEMS GROUP
S.C. Bhatnagar, CMC Chair Professor Of Information Technology, Ph.D
(IIM-A)
Rekha Jain, Ph.D (IIT-Delhi)
B.H. Jajoo, Ph.D (IIT-Kanpur)
T.P. Rama Rao, M.Tech. (IIT-Kanpur)
K.V. Ramani, Ph.D (Cornell U)
V. Venkata Rao, Ph.D (Georgia Institute Of Technology)
ECONOMICS
Bakul H. Dholakia, RBI Chair Professor of Industrial Economics, Ph.D (MS
U)
Ravindra H. Dholakia, Ph.D (MS U)
Anand P. Gupta, Ph.D (florida U)
Somdeb Lahiri, Ph.D (minnesota U)
Sebastian Morris, Ph.D (iim-C)
Patibandla Murali, Ph.D (JNU, Delhi)
ENTREPRENEURSHIP GROUP
K. Ramachandran, Ph.D (Cranfield U)
FINANCE & ACCOUNTING
Ramesh Bhat, Ph.D (Delhi School of Economics)
R. Gupta, Ph.D (Berkeley U)
V. Jaikumar, Ph.D (Columbia U)
I.M. Pandey, Ph.D (Delhi U)
V. Raghunathan, Ph.D (IIC-C)
Sidharth Sinha*, Ph.D (California U)
J.R. Varma*, Ph.D (IIM-A)
N. Venkiteswaran, CA
INTERNATIONAL POLICY MANAGEMENT GROUP
Rakesh Basant, Ph.D (Gujarat U)
G.S. Gupta, Ph.D (Johns Hopkins)
INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT GROUP
Shekhar Chaudhuri, Ph.D (IIM-A)
Ashok N. Korwor, Ph.D (UCLA)
J.P. Singh, Ph.D (Akron U)
MARKETING
Bibek Banerjee, Ph.D (Purdue U)
A.K. Jain*, Ph.d (IIM-A)
Abraham Koshy, Ph.D (IIM-A)
Sipra Mukhopadhyay, Ph.D (Jadavpur U)
ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Deepti Bhatnagar, Ph.D (IIM-A)
Jagdeep S. Chhokar, Ph.D (Louisiana State u)
Parvinder Gupta, Ph.D (IIT, Kanpur)
Prodip N. Khandwalla, Ph.D (Carnegie-Mellon U)
Sasi B. Misra, Ph.D (UCLA)
Indira J. Parikh, Ph.D (Gujarat U)
D.M. Pestonjee, L&T Chair Professor in Organisational Behaviour, Ph.D (AMU)
S. Ramnarayan, Ph.D (Case Western Reserve)
PERSONNEL & INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
Jerome Joseph, Ph.D (Madras U)
A. Monappa, M.Sc (LSE)
PRODUCTION & QUANTITATIVE METHODS
S.K. Barua, Ph.D (IIM-A)
Pankaj Chandra, Ph.D (Pennsylvania U)
Amarlal H. Kairo, Ph.D (minnesota U)
T. Madhavan, Ph.D (IIM-A)
N. Ravichandran, Ph.D (IIT-Madras)
Jahar Saha, Ph.D (Case Western Reserve)
S. Trilochan Sastry, Ph.D (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
R. Sridharan, Ph.D (Carnegie-Mellon U)
Devanath Tirupati, Ph.D (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Arabinda Tripathy, Ph.D (London School of Economics)
PUBLIC SYSTEMS GROUP
Dileep V. Mavalankar, Ph.D (Johns Hopkins U)
Saumen Majumdar, Ph.D (IGIDR-Mumbai)
Prem Pangotra, Ph.D (Wisconsin U)
G. Raghuram, Ph.D (North Western U)
P.R. Shukla, Ravi Matthai Centre for Educational Innovation, Ph.D (Stanford U)
Brij Kothari, Ph.D (Cornell U)
Rajeev Sharma, Ph.D (Allahabad U)
R.G. Nambiar, Mmtc Ambedkar Chair Professor of Intl Trade & Mgmt, Ph.D (Ms U)
VISITING FACULTY
Rama Bijapurkar, Mktg Consultant, (Market Research & Information Systems)
Jayanthi Gadagath, Former Reader, IIM-A, (Written Analysis & Comm.)
Sunil Handa*, CEO, Core Emballage, (Lab. for Entrepreneurial Motivation)
P.R. Joshi, Vice-President, DSP-Merill Lynch, (International Banking & Finance)
Gopal Krishnan, Faculty Member, B.K. School of Management, Gujarat U, (Written Analysis
and Communication)
V.L. Mote, Advisor, Arvind Mills, (Quantitative Methods)
Raghu Anand Narain, Consultant, (Explorations in Role & Identity)
Mukesh Patel, Consultant, (Corporate Tax Planning)
Rohini Patel, Former Reader, IIM-A, (Written Analysis & Communication)
A.G. Rajawade, Consultant, (International Banking & Finance)
T.T. Ramohan, Professor, S.P. Jain Institute of Management, Mumbai, (Management of FIIs)
A.L. Saraf, Lawyer, (Legal Aspects of Business)
D.N. Saral, Advisor, Cons. EDN Research Centre, (Legal Aspects of Business)
S.P. Singh, Former Professor, Indian Institute of Bank Management, Pune, (Leadership:
Vision, Meaning & Reality)
S.N. Soparkar, Consultant, (Corporate Tax Planning)
Kiran Umrutkar, Vice-President, Tata Finance, (International Banking & Finance)
M.N. Vora, Consultant, (Sales & Distribution) |
More |
