Golf in Business Schools

Prof. Harsh Vardhan above, and Arunoday, Rajat Verma below, try out Golf

at NMIMS Bangalore.

                                                         and of course, I do too.

 I have always wondered why Golf is not part of a business school -either as a part of the curriculum, or as an extra-curricular activity. There are good reasons why they say Business School students are successful due to networking which happens there. If that is the case, networking skills also take you places later, in the corporate world. And Golf's a great way to go that way. 

We were plain lucky to have an 18-hole Golf course 500 metres from home at Kirloskar Institute, harihar. Thanks to the Kirloskars, we played Golf like millionaires do-everyday!

At IMT Nagpur, a few years later, I managed to construct a green by simply asking our normal landscaper to create one and maintain it! All we did was procure a cup to hold the ball, and a flagstaff! And we played till I was there, training quite a few students (girls included) and a few MDP participants! They all enjoyed it, without exception. 

At IIM Indore again, I played on our cricket field, with imaginary greens on either side. Natural tee boxes were at the elevated ends. Again, I took a few MDP participants and faculty to play-they all enjoyed it. Some students too, on request, and they are now my friends for life!

Why is it that we are reluctant to do things that might do the student morale a lot of good? 

Small is the New Big by Seth Godin

He is a well-known author with many business books to his credit. Purple Cow is one of them, and this one (Small is the New Big) is another.

He talks about various things in this book, including why people go to business schools. According to him, it is for the branding that makes you attractive to corporate recruiters, and for networking possibilities, and not for the learning. I don't agree entirely, but that's not the point. He writes engagingly, and I think is one of the best writers of business books.

Of particular interest to me are his takes on social media, and digitally marketing yourself, your firm or your book. A must-read for many people, including students of marketing.

B-School Leadership- Alumni Relations

Alumni Relations

These could be the most critical of the relations an institution may have. I am not joking, but dead serious. The brand of their alma mater is carried by each alumnus/alumna for their career and the rest of their life after! Therefore, the institution or its office-bearers need to have a plan of action on roping in the natural goodwill that alumni feel for their alma mater. All great institutions in the world have active alumni support in terms of words and deeds. In India too, some of the better institutions, public and private, have a wonderful alumni network.

What Can be Done

In the pre-internet and mobile phone days, getting in touch and keeping in touch was difficult. Now, it is not. There must be a full-time body or committee headed by a faculty member of the institution to take care of alumni affairs- or relations, if you prefer that word to ‘affairs’.

There are several things one can do to make the alumni a vibrant and connected force. But you must remember to think of it as a human relations exercise, first and foremost, and not as a financial extraction exercise.

Chapter Meets

Regular opportunities that come every year, include a social gathering or chapter meet, attended by the institution head or faculty members, or both. This connects the alumni back like nothing else, except a visit by him/her to the campus. Since that is difficult, you must reach out. Maybe the costs of the chapter meets could be shared between the institute and the alums, but that is an accounting matter. The meets must happen regularly. If budgets are small, this can be initially a low-cost venue, and expanded into a more high profile one after funding is sorted out. Sponsorship of these by alumni companies is an option.

We do this each summer across five cities, and at least 500 alums attend chapter meets of IMT Nagpur . The interactions are lively, and organised entirely by current students who had a genuine interest in linking up with their seniors from the institute. The alumni felt good, and came up with several ideas on improving their institution further in several directions.

Awards for Alumni

Distinguished alumni awards are another way to recognise the contributions made by alums to their organisation, to the profession, or to causes. There could be one at the convocation each year, and some at chapter meets too.

Admissions Interviews

Most Indian B schools have personal interviews for admission into the institution. You could invite select alums to attend as a panel member to select future students. This is a sure way to improve ties with alumni, while increasing their feeling of ownership in their alma mater. We have successfully tried this in the IMT system.

Guest Lectures

Most alumni would have experiences to share after a few years of work experience. What better way to get this into your classrooms than to invite them for a guest lecture? They would be very pleased to take a day off sometimes, and come to their institution for one. They also get to meet potential recruits if their company is in hiring mode. They may end up mentoring some youngsters regarding what career paths they should or should not take. A formal mentoring program can also be thought of, and implemented, apart from this.

This year, six alums of IMT Nagpur came to talk to the new batch during their induction, and more will follow.

Seminars on a Theme

Themed industry seminars are something we successfully did at PESIT, Bangalore. In one academic year, four such seminars were held on four different themes in HR, Finance, Operations and Marketing. These are eminently doable in cities, and also in other locations, for a modest budget that includes an invite from the institute, travel and stay. Many industry bigwigs including alumni can be the speakers. It forces students to think about trends in functional areas of management, and organise an event in their interest area too.

Entrepreneur Meets

We have also invited at IMT Ghaziabad, our alumni who are entrepreneurs, to a discussion on entrepreneurship. One of the interesting sessions was for our executive batch, and another for the visiting students from the Danish Copenhagen Business School. These were enriching sessions, with both our alumni and the current students benefiting.

Golf Lessons for New Students

Life's lessons can be learnt in many ways. Sports can be pretty useful in learning some. I played cricket for my school team, and have played many other games like Badminton, Table Tennis, Tennis without a table, Basketball, Volleyball, Hockey at some point at least for a trial. Badminton a little more than others.

Golf was a late entrant into my life, and we started because of easy access to some cheap courses in the U.S. For about 5 dollars, we could play nine holes in the Clemson, SC area. So we just hit the ball around, not achieving any degree of expertise. In Harihar, while I was at Kirloskar Institute, we had an 18 hole course within walking distance in the campus, and made full use of it.

This week, we started Golf lessons for the new batch of IMT Nagpur students. It's just an intro, but the idea is that those who get interested will pursue the game. Looks easy, but is a tough game. And teaches you a lot about yourself, like most others. One lesson I have learnt from it is that you are competing (fighting?) mostly with yourself, and not with an external competitor- student, colleague, wife or boss. If you are at peace with yourself, it shows in your (Golf) swing and game. If not, it also shows- and how! Anyway, the excitement among the learners was palpable, and it gives them something to talk about, even if they don't play it hereafter! B school is also about networking, and Golf terminology adds to the vocabulary too.

On the academic side, I have written a case about a company called Golftripz with an accompanying video (interviews with two directors of the company), which illustrates the launch of a new service aiming to take Indian golfers out to play on foreign shores. Used this in some training sessions, and it led to some good discussion.