Memorable Moments 2009-2011

 Nine eleven, so called by Americans for the date of that attack on the World Trade Centre, was good for me- the years, I mean. 

I joined IMT NAGPUR as Director. Flew in a six seater private plane with the promoter, to be introduced to the faculty before joining. My former colleague Anwar Ali was with me too. 

I was interviewed by the student team that ran our newsletter- probably by Gowri. 

Met a lot of new colleagues, and Jayasimha, an old one.

Planned out a few things, and ran into a hunger strike by students in early 2010, over placements. Replaced the head of placements (faculty), and also MDP chair. 

Taught a Seminar course called Seminar on Thought Leadership, for the first time, with 40 students- one was an exchange student from Austria, Laura.

Met a lot of bright students through various functions, committees and events. Some of the best!

With Prof. Ravi Gadgil, built a green to play Golf on. Played Golf with him and others.

Taught a class on how to use the case method of learning, for students during orientation.

Started Alumni chapter meets in 4-5 cities

Conducted a Case conference planned by Harsh Halve and Jayasimha in Goa, for three consecutive years, at the International Centre, Dona Paula.

Conducted our first independent convocation in 2011 with Mr. Sunil Mittal as Chief Guest. Second with Mr. Mukesh Ambani, and third with Mr. Azim Premji.

Got IMT Nagpur into the top 50 B schools as per a major survey.

Recruited Anant Ram, TK Chatterjee, Vijaya Kumar and Smita Dabholkar, who have been around for many years. Also Rajnandan Pattnaik.

Guided Naveen Das through his Ph.D., jointly through NLU Jodhpur and IMT.

Helped students start F 'n F on campus.

Ate a lot of Oranges.

Things I am Proud of

 Work first.

Started a journal, PES Business Review when I was at PESIT, Banashankari, Bangalore. Manasa, Jayasimha and Shahida all played a role. We launched it with some good papers.

A Case conference at Goa when I was Director at IMT Nagpur. It was exotic, fun, and very successful. Harsh Halve was a prime mover. 

Successful convocations at IMT Nagpur. The Admin. played a major role. Also the faculty in various organising committees.

Publishing my first book, on Marketing Research. KIAMS staff helped, and students by writing cases for it. Now in its fourth edition, released at IIM Indore.

Alumni meets for IMT alumni. Many were memorable. Some friends made there are forever. Sheetal, Nikita, Anchal, Shuchi, are just some of those.

Ph.D. students I worked with as a Guide, or mentor. Manoharan, Suma and Naveen Das actually were my students as a Guide. Others, I was on their committees.

New courses, like a Seminar on Thought Leadership, or Digital Marketing and Seminar on Tourism Marketing. Taught me a lot. 

Thought Leaders

 Who is a thought leader? Anyone who takes it beyond the ordinary level, in whatever sphere or domain he is thinking about. It could be science, art, leadership, management, architecture,... what have you.

Governance too. If we had more thought leaders as politicos, it would do us a world of good. Simple ideas can help the common man live better. Job generation could be one such thought process (this includes entrepreneurship, the generator of jobs).

Delicensing was one such, that India did in 1991. Before that, to set up a factory producing nuts and bolts (or anything), one needed a license, and multiple permissions. Naturally, that led to corruption and zero competition. The consumer, or the common man, came last. In the USA, one of many reasons that the consumer gets a good deal is minimal government interference in the process of starting a new business. I have a friend who got his license to operate in the mail, without having to visit any office personally! Why can't this happen elsewhere?

Public transport that is cheap and efficient can solve half the commuting problems that common people face. The local trains of Mumbai solved this, and remain the cheapest and most efficient mode of transport, barring some Metro trains in other cities. One reason why Mumbai grew much faster.

Miniaturisation of electronics by the Japanese was a similar thought process, that led to pocket radios and much more. Digital innovations have led to a communication revolution, and made it possible for you, dear reader, to be able to read what I am writing, even if these are not world-changing thoughts.

Courses I Have Taught

Since I started teaching in 1986 as a grad teaching assistant at Clemson, I have taught the following courses in management schools-

Intro. to Computer Applications
Operations Research
MIS
Principles of Management
The above were taught to undergraduates in the U.S.

On return to India in 1991, these have been my staple in MBA level teaching.

Marketing Research
Advertising, and its new avatar, Integrated Management Communications
Marketing Management
Business to Business Marketing
Business Communication-only once at Kirloskar Institute
Services Marketing-I even wrote a book on this subject while at IIM Kozhikode.

Seminar on Thought Leadership- this is a thought-provoking one, hopefully without provoking students who take it.

Digital Marketing, after I discovered I could not stay away any longer.

The following have also been taught to the Ph.D. students-

Seminar on Retailing-plan to modify this to include Tourism.
Marketing Models
Digital Marketing Seminar- under development.

Relaunching the Seminar on Thought Leadership

There was this course that I ran in IMT Nagpur a few years ago. We had around 40 students in it, and I had generated a list of thought leaders (authors, playwrights, inventors, explorers) or ideas that have impacted the world or society in a big way. The students in groups had to research the topic given and tell the class through a presentation how the given person or idea changed the world. There would be  a critique of the presentation from me and a couple of students from the audience, and a Q and A.

I still remember the course vividly, and hope that students do too. I am collaborating with my colleague Shweta Kushal at IIM Indore to relaunch the course here for our 5-year integrated program students. We both hope that we will learn a lot about history, inventions, art, etc. that changed society and our lives, along with our students. Two of my former students, Padmapriya and Jogeswari had also come in to guest lecture in the earlier edition of the course, and added diverse perspectives-one worked with an NGO, and the other was a director of a Golf tours company- Golftripz..

Thought Leadership vs. Incrementalism

Reaching the moon in a few years- Kennedy's dream.

Just in Time or JIT from the Japanese.

Miniaturised electronics, from many American and Japanese firms. Sony Walkman, an example.

All examples of thought leadership. Including the mobile phone, and the internet. But why is it that governments largely lack big ideas? The last one I heard was from Chandrababu Naidu in Andhra Pradesh when he introduced e-seva, saving people from long lines to pay their own electricity or phone bills, and much more.

Many government services need decentralisation and more contact centres- these can be outsourced where skills needed are minimal, creating huge employment opportunities, and serve people better.

Just one big thought for now, but you may get a dozen a day, if efforts are made. Why don't governments do this?

Thought Leadership

The seminar course on Thought Leadership closed yesterday, with the exception of the final exam. A wide variety of presentations from student groups were the only component of the course. It went off very well, with a lot of learnings on subjects like how to create fun based companies (Walt Disney and Richard Branson were topics of two presentations) to Genetics and what it can do for us. Leonardo Da Vinci, Ayn Rand, and Scott Adams were a few other thought leaders covered. War, terrorism, environmental degradation were some more themes explored.

A couple of guest sessions by Jogeswari and Padmapriya, both exploring completely new things themselves, added to the course significantly. I am writing a case study on Golftripz, the company that Jogeswari, Madhav Misra and Ajit co-founded. It has a video add-on which brings in novelty.

I will add some new dimensions to this in the next offering to try and innovate some more. Meanwhile, a meeting in Dubai and a wedding to attend in Jabalpur are going to keep me busy, plus the convocation that comes up on March 11th. There wil be a couple of batch farewell parties before that, I guess.