Regions of India

 I have worked in all 5 regions of India, the longest being South and Central. Hyderabad (Vignana Jyoti Institute), Harihar (KIAMS), Bangalore (PESIT, IFIM, and NMIMS apart from a company, MBA, earlier) in the South. Also IIM Kozhikode in Kerala. Probably the longest of all. 

In the West, Mumbai in the same company, MBA. Also Bhubaneswar in XIMB (East). North- Lucknow and Delhi. My first job was with an ad agency, New Horizons, in C.P. in Delhi. Appu Ghar and Modern Suitings, Alwar, were our clients, and India Today and Bombay magazines.

In Lucknow, it was the IIM. Also IMT Ghaziabad more recently.. around 10 years ago.

Centre has been a long stint, Nagpur IMT for 3 and a half years, Indore IIM for 7 and Prestige University as their first VC for around 1.5 years.

Prestige University students-above and below, Indore

RED FM RJ Shreya and I, at their studio, Indore.

I have also visited many places in most states, including Ladakh, Kanyakumari, Shillong, Dibrugarh, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Ahmedabad, and Puri and Konarak. Also a few in M.P. like Jabalpur, Gwalior, Satna and Bhopal.

Though I liked something about each place, Harihar was the best in many ways. Small, with friendly people and with a Golf course in the campus (then). What more can you want in life? Many students of Harihar and Nagpur are in touch with me too. So there's something in the Oranges too, I guess.

What I Got From my Employers- 4

 IIM Kozhikode or Calicut was my second IIM as a workplace, and third overall- I was a student at one.

It is the prettiest campus of all campuses I have seen. It has greenery all around, and great views from offices of faculty, hostels and elsewhere- guest houses included.

I made some new friends there, like SSS Kumar, and renewed old ones - Uday and Suma, classmates from IIMB. The students were good, and I managed to write my second book- Services Marketing, while I worked there. We also did a couple of events- a Marketing Conference with NASMEI, and an FDP for faculty.

The beach was a novelty, in town. We also had visits from friends and alumni like Jogeswari (of KIAMS) and a few relatives while we lived there. The rains took some getting used to, but it was generally a nice experience. Also bought a small Maruti 800 while I was there.

Left for a leadership position at PES Bangalore, and also because daughters' (higher) education was an issue.

What I Got From my Employers-2

 The second in the series in Kirloskar Institute, Harihar, known also as KIAMS. 

Great ambience, learning from working executives- we only did training programs initially. The 2 year MBA came later, in 1998.

Wonderful students, from batch 1 onwards. Still in touch with Savitha, Nidhi (found out they were roommates, recently!), Achint, and met a few more too along the way- Sunil Kataria, Shweta Agarwal, Dheeraj, Smita Mohan, Vidya TC, Swapna (both in Singapore last), Sharmishtha, and Sudeshna and Nishka (with Vikram, her hubby too), Jogeswari, Padmapriya, and long ago, Aditi Sood in Kolkata before she went abroad.

An 18-hole Golf course where Gaur, Dhanapal, Vijayakumar and I played, learning from Sadanand, and the Caddies who were experts on that course. Thankful for that experience which is worth millions!

A great library, with practitioner-oriented books. Cases from Harvard, some of which became my favourites for teaching B to B marketing. Videos on Benchmarking Business Process Re-engineering, Sales (Who Killed the Sale? was a good one), Globalization with Kenichi Ohmae were the highlights.

Wrote my first book- Marketing Research-while I was there.

Many friends from the staff- we partied regularly. Pavan, Rajesh, Yuvaraj, Karibasappa, Paramehwarappa, Umesh, ...

What I Got From my Employers-1

 This is likely to be a series. I may highlight some of my workplaces.

IMT Nagpur

Apart from Oranges in the city, I think I had the coolest bunch of students on campus. And some cool-headed faculty as well. I only taught one Seminar on Thought Leadership during my 3 and a half years there, but I interacted with a lot of students through their extra-curricular activities, and even faced a strike from some lovely guys/girls in my first year- they had a point!

No idea how that bond developed with so many students, but maybe alumni parties were one reason. We had 4-5 each year, and that was a great way to meet and keep in touch. Last week, I met an alumna in Mumbai- Sheetal Garg, and exchanged messages with another, Meenu Mynam who lives in the Gulf. I also keep meeting others- Kanika Mhendiratta, Surbhi Mehta Chadha, Abha Kulkarni, Ananya Nandi De, Shweta Sinha, Anupriya Pandit, Gowri, Sreeram, Anshita Chetty, Ishita Modi, Anurag Sikaria, Pallavi Bajpai, Shafique Gajdhar, Meghna Sinha, Swati Jain, Divya Singh, Vrinda Khanna, Keyur Bhalavat, Ishan Joshi, Ankita, Manjari Mundanad, Nikita Kumar/Ray, Shruti Sharma, Aditya Naag are some I have met at least once. Abhinav Kamal's company, Ten Motion Arts, I wrote a case on. He is into film-making now.

Faculty like Smita Dabholkar went out of their way to do book launches of my autobiography. Ravi Gadgil helped design a green for Golf at the campus. Vijayakumar and others helped bring up the research profile. TK Chatterjee and Harsh Halve did a great job with Placements. 

Support staff like Archana and Vinod and Snehal, and Madhuri Helchel all did their bit. Also, RAs helped us run a Case Conference at Goa for 3 years. Tripti Srivastava and Abhinav Chandel were among those. Rachana Mittal helped create a PPT on Leadership that I used in many MDPs.

One of my greatest workplaces- I learnt a lot, and continue to learn from alumni and some friends there.

People and Workplaces

 My learning, if you will...

At any workplace, people are always good..at least a majority. It's the organisation that sometimes is unable to leverage their enthusiasm, through faulty policies, or systems, or wrong priorities.

I have worked in a large array of organisations, and learnt this over and over again. Saw a few bad leaders spoil things too. But of course, they were appointed by someone. By and large, I found very nice co-workers every place I worked. KIAMS was probably like a close-knit family with thirty students, a dozen staff and six faculty when we started PGDM in 1998.

Does this apply to students and the classroom? I think it does. A bulk of the students in a class are ready to be motivated, if you give them goals that are smart.. achievable, interesting, and perhaps fun. For instance, group work in class (or outside if designed right) can be all of these. 

So organisational design (or in a class, pedagogy) can play a big role in a set of people who will excel, or otherwise. Pay attention to what is the mood around you, and why.

Joy of Workplaces- My ranking

Inspired by all the rankings going around, I decided to reflect (I do that sometimes, even though it may not seem so) on the places I have worked in and the joys they gave me. This is not a ranking, actually, just a recounting. The title about ranking was only to get attention. :)

Vignana Jyoti- Joys of being part of a startup, nice small group of students, cosmopolitan atmosphere, and biryani for lunch almost every day at Hyderabad. My pic at VJIM, with my spacesuit top.

Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies- this was an idyllic workplace. The students were lovely, the staff the friendliest (we partied regularly), the colony was excellent, and we had a Golf course (18-hole) in it, 500 metres from our home. Still remember most students I taught here in the first four batches. The MDPs (training programs) we did here were also high quality.

IIM Lucknow- though the weather was terrible, it taught me how to teach well, and re-introduced me to research. Colleagues were very helpful, but student numbers were too large for anyone to get close.

IIM Kozhikode- Great views from my office, the prettiest campus, and some good students. Numbers were still 120 then! Also went out to some nice places from there, a sea-side villa called Casa Marina being a venue for parties. Also visited Madikeri (Coorg) for the first time. Wrote my Services Marketing book while there. Did some Faculty Development Programs too.

PESIT, Bangalore: A band of gung-ho colleagues and some bright students stuck in a university system, but willing to break out, are what made my first stint as a director memorable. We took off, doing everything an autonomous school did, and then some. Started a nice journal, PES Business Review (still doing well), conducted an international conference at Goa, and trained faculty in publishing and case-writing.

IFIM- This autonomous B school stint was brief, but interesting. We re-oriented admissions by going to small towns across India, started a PhD program where two of my students have finished their PhDs, and had an offsite brainstorming with faculty at Yercaud, a hill-station.

IMT Nagpur- Some of the best memories are from here, which we brought into its own. Conducted our own Convocations in Nagpur, re-enthused alumni through a concerted effort, and conducted a unique Case conference in Goa for 4 years. Research was rewarded, MDPs leapfrogged, and one of the best faculty teams of that size was also built up. Students were also very enthusiastic, and I taught a Seminar on Thought Leadership for the first time. Built a little golf course on campus, and taught students the basics. Offsite meetings at Pench, Pachmarhi and Bhedaghat were wonderful experiences. I also 'marketed' (without a commission) the karaoke concept to some colleagues!

IMT Ghaziabad- I stayed a short while, but collaborated with faculty colleagues on research and case-writing, and recruited a record number of faculty. Revived the alumni connect with older batches too- this place counts several well-known names like Prasoon Joshi among its alums.

IIM Indore- now a three-year old here, am liking the campus, and have taught IMC (Advertising) and Digital Marketing, in addition to my staple, marketing research. We also have a couple of different programs - an industry FPM, a regular doctoral program, and an off-campus one in Mumbai.Wrote a few original cases and research papers, some with students. Enjoyed some creative activities like the plays staged by students, directed by a colleague. We could do with more social activity, but I am happy interacting with online friends and family. Travelled far and wide for conferences, including Singapore, Japan, Indonesia, Cambodia and maybe this year, to the Dominican Republic.