My Colleagues from IMT and PESIT

There were many colleagues who I run into now and then, from each of the places I worked in. Some are in touch through fb. We always remember the good old days.

Shahida from PESIT is now a prof. at ASCI, Hyderabad. A good communicator, and accomplished researcher, she was always willing to take on any challenge. Manasa, who did a lot of leg work to make one of the programs at PESIT take off, was always experimenting with work choices, independent consulting being one of them. A Bangalorean to the core, mild-mannered and friendly.

Murali Mohan (PESIT), apart from being well-liked by students, also danced his way into many hearts. He was a pro at Kathak- not many in my list are into classical dances. Males, none at all apart from him. Manoharan, who is a good friend, now at BMS in Bangalore, and I collaborated on several papers, and we presented a few at Great Lakes conferences in Chennai. SP Kumar, who was a guy with deep industry experience, introduced me to his club, City Institute in the heart of Bangalore, where we spent many evenings.

Prashant Bharadwaj, part-PESIT, and working with IUP in the US, was great to work with.

At IMT Nagpur, we had a great group, consisting of Gadgil, Vijayakumar (my Golf buddies), Halve, who initiated the annual faculty outings and faculty parties that rocked, and TK Chatterjee who is now a brand ambassador for karaoke in India (just kidding), and Anant Ram, and many more. Jitendra Sharma, Maheswaran, Ekkirala, Milind Fadnavis and Kamble, and Pradeep Mazumdar are also an integral part of IMTN.

Ghaziabad was made tolerable due to many nice colleagues- among them, Seeta Gupta, Bindu Gupta, Lipi, Shalini, Bhavna Bhalla, Sandeep Puri, Sita Mishra and Susmi with whom I collaborated to publish, and Jyoti and many others who joined during that time. Jayanti Ranjan remains in touch, and we met at a conference recently.

The Year Gone By- 2013

2013 was a good year.

In Jan I was recruiting faculty at IMT Ghaziabad.

In Feb I was planning a convocation at IMT Nagpur.

In March we welcomed Mr. Azim Premji at the convocation.

In April we had a faculty meeting spread over Nagpur and Bhedaghat (Marble Rocks) close to Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, my home-state to be (though I didn't know it then).

In May, we had a series of alumni meets of Nagpur alums across 5 cities. Also took a family break to Thailand and got introduced to a few Buddhas-sitting, smiling and reclining. A boat ride on the river was a highlight.

Welcomed a brand new batch of students at Nagpur in June. Taught them Golf and the case method.

A very wet monsoon followed in July- August. Lot of guest faculty from my IIM batch came to speak. So did Devapriya Roy, a friend and author from Delhi.

Went to visit Lonar crater in Buldana district, formed by a meteorite hit. Fantastic sight. Had a great golfing trip to Kodaikanal with Gadgil and Vijayakumar, colleagues at Nagpur.

September, back to Ghaziabad and a round of appraisals of faculty.

October, met a lot of Osmania University friends at an outing to Bheemeswari, near Bangalore. Planned the Ghaziabad alumni parties with Alcom. And tasted some excellent wines at a friend's place in Bangalore.

November, met an old schoolmate after 35 years. Also had a few unique farewells, in two Delhi clubs and at the Kulchawala in Ghaziabad, apart from an official one.

December-moved back to teaching after many years of mostly administration, at IIM Indore-my fourth IIM, including one as a student.

Read a few good books along the way, watched a few good movies. And totaled 1700 friends on Facebook. Got a few good comments on the blog too. Crossed 50,000 views on the blog. Thanks, readers.

The journey continues...Musafir hoon yaaron...

Joining IIM Indore

I will soon move back into a teaching role at IIM Indore. It has exciting possibilities, to shape young minds in the classroom, rather than young faculty members outside it, that I was (mostly) doing in my administrative roles at IMT.

It has been an eventful four years at IMT. First at Nagpur, where I was at a lovely integrated campus with some great students, and wonderful colleagues- both faculty and staff (non-teaching and support). The years I spent there saw the Nagpur campus mature into a more confident one, and the chip on the shoulders of students about comparisons with Ghaziabad (the older mother campus) slowly disappeared. Rankings improved, and an overwhelming number of faculty applied for jobs, and we had to say no to many. Faculty screening was almost as stringent as the students' admission screening. The placement process improved, and we put in place a team for corporate relations across India, supported by students.

Students responded well to freedom that they got to organise themselves. Marketing and Finance clubs took off with annual seminars, and others like Literati and Ovia did their own thing to enliven literary and cultural activity. Abhinav Kamal made a feature film called "On the Other Side," and went on to set up a company that produces films in Bangalore after graduation. Pradyumna Mohanty took some fantastic pictures, a tradition continued by Bhagyashree aka Bugzy, who has also turned entrepreneur with that skill. We managed to set up a golf green where some faculty and all students were inducted into the basics- some visitors too. Student entrepreneurs ran the Coop Stores brilliantly, and also set up F n' F and a couple of other small ventures on campus.

Thanks to Smita, a colleague at Nagpur, I launched my autobiography in Crossword at Nagpur and Pune in 2012. This was published earlier by Pothi.com, a company started by Jaya Jha, an alum of IIM Lucknow. I was able to write two cases (one called Golftripz, another called Forms, with colleagues), and update my Services marketing book during this time. I also taught a course, Seminar on Thought Leadership to one batch of students (2011?) where we discussed innovation in different spheres of life, art, science, architecture, philosophy and business. We conducted alumni meets over 5 cities each summer, and they were a roaring success, bonding alums with the alma mater, and we continued to do this at Ghaziabad too, with its larger base of alumni, when I moved there.

A fantastic achievement of ours at IMT Nagpur was to bring in close to 300 guest faculty from industry over 3 years, thanks to the faculty who invited them into their regular classes. This, coupled with using simulation and now, Bloomberg and Analytics software in the classroom, among other things, has helped Nagpur 'bloom' academically. Some of my old students from Kirloskar Institute also took guest sessions. So did IMT alums, and some of my IIMB batchmates. We conducted four editions of an innovative case writing conference, where faculty presented cases they had written, and received feedback. A new case journal was also launched, to enable publication of Indian cases. Research associates played a major role in organising conferences, running the journal, and organising faculty development programs.

At Ghaziabad, the thrust has been on improvement in academic content and process, accreditation from global bodies like AACSB, and faculty recruitment and development. Many of these functions are critical in how a Business school retains its quality. Ghaziabad also has a great international exchange program both for students (about 100 of them go out and equal number come in for a term), and for faculty. We did an international FDP exclusively for IMT faculty, and a few other development programs. We  recruited a large number of young faculty in all areas, to meet the growing number of students. A new classroom block has been added, and a new hostel block too. IMT Centre for Distance Learning recently adopted my Brand Management book (2013) co-authored with Bhagyalakshmi Venkatesh. All in all, an exciting four years at IMT.

Oh, and lest I forget, I acquired about 1500 new friends on Facebook. Makes life very, very interesting.

Ghaziabad Convocation 2013

The Ghaziabad convocation went off nicely and smoothly last evening. Mr. Adi Godrej minced no words when he said we have been floundering as an economy for the last couple of years, but improved in the last couple of months. His advice to young graduating students was simple. Dream big AND work hard. We usually forget the second part, conveniently. He also said your vocation should be a vacation- to be enjoyed! Good way to put it.

Considering that over 700 students from both Ghaziabad and Hyderabad (first batch) graduated, it was a short ceremony. And the ambience was festive, the weather quite pleasant (a minor miracle in Delhi-could be the doing of the new Pope).

On the whole, a nice ceremony. The food was exceptionally good, with the hot on-site tandoori rotis and hot gulabjamuns adding a dimension of yumminess not always visible in these mass offerings.