Contingency Theory of Academic Leadership

 I know, unlike Trump, I shall not be nominated for a Nobel for this, but it's still worth trying to put my thoughts out. At least, they will not cause wars.. maybe a war of words, at most.

Academic leadership is different from its corporate version, in my view, after having been in 3-4 such situations. The top institutions in any discipline have motivated faculty who only need opportunities, and autonomy to thrive. Some incentives can help. But if you try too much to assert yourself as a leader, it has the opposite of the intended effect- they lose their motivation. They are put off, and stop excelling. They may even quit.

Of course, every institution may not be the same, so you may need to tweak this a bit based on the situation - the contingency part of the theory. But in general, the corporate version of push, push till the subordinate performs- or drops dead (I am not kidding, it happens)- will not work too well in academia. 

Which is why, I think Publish or Perish is a bad idea. Incentivise publications, or case writing, or whatever is your organisational goal, but also recognise teaching excellence. Faculty can innovate in learning methodologies instead of publishing for its own sake. That could be incentivised too. Admin. work usually goes unrecognised. For me, a placement chair or an Alumni affairs chair who does well in a B school is also valuable, just like a guy who publishes a good paper. Or teaches well consistently, and in tune with the times.

The Role of Jargon

 Jargon makes the world go around, Your Honour. Or so it would seem. Lawyer/court jargon, management/corporate jargon, Medical jargon, and so on.

A friend at IIM had constructed a matrix for generating management jargon. He created three columns, with complex words in each stack. Random mixing of any three- one from each column- generated a new term. Instant Jargon Generator was the name he gave it. It was great fun!

Maybe jargon is a shortcut for communicating with people in the same field, but it also leaves others mystified, most of the time. 

I learnt some law jargon by reading Erle Stanley Gardner's Perry Mason series. Habeas Corpus, for example.. Mandamus or something similar too.. anyway, I rest my case. You go figure if it helps, or hinders ..

Book Review- Love, Lies and Layoffs

I read mostly non-fiction, unless a Murakami strikes. Or a Wodehouse. But every once in a while (Old Jungle Saying, like in Phantom Comics), I read something that I picked up impulsively at the airport..just because it looks interesting.

This one is a well-written story of an office romance- utterly predictable, between a guy and a girl at a media house. Office politics is the villain, rather than any one person, that hangs like a cloud over the love-birds. The supporting cast is impressive, from bimbettes to well-meaning alcoholics. Sort of 'Na tum jaano na hum' in prose.

The corporate shenanigans instantly brought in thoughts of the ongoing Tata-Mistry saga that's playing out as we speak. This one's smaller in scale, but interesting nevertheless. One identifies with Frieda, the narrator, which is half the battle won for the author in any story.

Nice read, for its style, realism and wit. My first with Usha Narayanan, the author.

Impending Vacation

I like my vocation because it entitles you to a vacation, against the norms of corporate behaviour, where anything other than value-added stuff contributing to the bottom line (wonder why it's at the bottom) is frowned upon.

So this animal called a vacation seems to be drawing close, with some prospects of Golf with friends being a part of it. There is a planned trip to Munnar to play and sip some signature tea, I hope. I stayed in Kerala for two years but never got around to going there.

While on the subject, I started playing some Golf on our own cricket ground in IIM Indore today. I intend to train colleagues if any are interested in the game, and maybe students if the numbers are manageable. The ground is large enogh to do some shots with a medium distance iron, and that can give you a good feel for it, and make you feel good that you know some of the great game. Trust the Scots to invent all the highfalutin stuff! They must have been itching to be different from the boring Brits!

Month-wise Remix of Solomon Grundy

Remixes are possible with nursery rhymes too. One of my favourite rhymes was Solomon Grundy. His life was fast and furious, which I admire. So here goes-

Corporate Solomon Grundy

Born in Jan, Opened facebook account in Feb, B. Tech. in March, Joined Infosys in April, Became Team Lead in May, got an MBA in June, became CEO in July, Retired in August, Joined NGO for climate change in September, Climate changed in October, Nobel Prize in November, and Drowned in December from the melting glaciers.

Aam Admi Grundy

Ramlila maidan in Jan, Hazare ko aakhri salaam in Feb, Delhi election in March, Resigned and bathing at Ganga Ghat in April , Lost in May, Back to monkey tricks in June, Won Delhi in July, Found Kaminey in August, Sting in September, Still coughing in October, Stuck his neck in sand in November, Buried in sand-storm in December.

Corporate Chieftains

Like the tribes which are now extinct, corporates have their own lingo that seeks to impress. Does it? Let's figure out with the help of a few designations and their full forms/meaning.

CEO- Chief Entertainment Officer. Most would qualify, eminently.

CFO - Chief Frauds Officer. Remember Enron?

CTO - Chief Tinkerer with Office computers

CMO- Chief Mourning Officer (for bad sales, which is most of the time)

Exec Ass to the CEO- the second word says it all!

Vice President- Second guy in a two-man company

President- One who oversees the shutdown of a company or a government. Yes, he can!

Impressed?

Copenhagen Business School

Copenhagen Business School has sent a few of their students in an innovative two-week program that IMT Ghaziabad has devised for them. The group are doing an entrepreneurship course and will attend classes, meet entrepreneurs, and do a bit of consulting projects in teams. They will also take a day off to sight-see, and visit Agra.

This is one of the bigger B schools of the world, and the students are from different countries in Europe, doing an international business or I.B. program at their B school.

IMT Ghaziabad has a lot of partnerships (about 75-80) that work at different levels, with exchange of students for a term being one of the regular ways of interacting. We now also have a Doctorate in Business Administration that enables corporates to make a transition into the academic world.

We all learn a lot from doing these innovative programs. Cheers to more such.