Need to revisit the curriculum at design schools, including NIFT/NID : Be Entrepreneurial

It was a pleasure and privilege to be part of the Jury of the finals of the first All India #NIFT HG #business plan competition at @n.i.f.t national HQ in Delhi. It is indeed an honour and joy to start a new journey of contributing to the #design #education and fostering #entrepreneurship in design schools of the country.

Today, we have 16 NIFT campuses across the country. Five finalists emerged from the six month long competition that started from each of the 16 campuses. This initiative by #HarishGupta, an #NIFT alum of 1991 batch is praiseworthy and has the potential of #transforming the #design #education in #India.
In the pic include the visionaries who have given shape and are still giving to not only NIFT but also design as a edu-vertical and industry in the country. first DG Mrs Rathi (IAS) and current DG Mrs Sharda (IAS). Also seen are pioneer in #womenentrepreneurship @cwei Mrs Shashi, the founding CEO of Lacoste in India, Jayant, Harish Gupta of fashion learning, Praveen of Pincap fintech and other eminent roleholders in the NIFT fraternity Prof Sibichan, Prof Prabir, Prof Sudha, Prof Sohail…

The Jury was chaired by Mr Ganesh Natarajan, now an entrepreneurial mentor and investor, who has been known for spearheading Aptech at one point of time.

My few take aways from being part of the Jury..

A. The students taken in by the NIFT/NIDs may be creative, but the institutions need to invest in their personality transformation. You can present yourselves, create opportunities and clinch deals only if you are articulate and are convincing.

B. There is a dire need for instittutions to create a larger vision for themselves that can impact society in various ways, not limited to churning graduates. The four years of education needs to integrate with the external world. Break the insulated existence.

C. Then comes the need facilitate students to create their vision for life. Greater the integration with the external world through excercises of bringing outside world into classrooms and taking classrooms to the outsideworld, higher will be facilitation of students to have a better vision.

D. Need to foster entrepreneurial mindset as part of evolution of a student during the four years. This happens only when the institution is entrepreneurial, faculty is entrepreneurial, the processes are entrepreneurial. The institution should think of a few challenges/problems in its city as projects that could add immense value to the society, and solve them through their expertise; bring in relevant corporates to sponsor (csr), integrate these projects with the curriculum, at least in the 3rd and 4th year. Initiate the students into a structured entrepreneurial curriculum in the second year.

E. Of course embrace and institutionalize the competitions like NIFT HG business plan competition to help students participate, validate their ideas, create incubation possibilities. The funds will pour in. I am sure there are many investors like me who want to bet on the horses with potential.

F. The institutions need to tell themselves that they will incubate half a dozen endeavours/companies every year.

A stitch in time saves nine, as they say. It is time for NIFTs and NIDs to restitch in time to infuse energies.

Time to take off.

#careerlauncher

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Classroom Expectations: Positive management for the productive growth of students

I got a questionnaire from edinbox.com to respond to. Though the brief is to write answers in a couple of sentences for each issue/question raised, I feel unless we do not understand the very evolution of a human being, cognitively and behaviorally, we cannot find solutions to any of the issues raised here. Hence, I am giving the context before I address each of the concerns raised in the questionnaire. My answers for each of these questions could be dramatically in variance with the conventional wisdom that is prevalent around most adults. Whatever I am sharing here is an outcome of over two-decades of hands-on experience of being with children and young-adults, setting up schools, creating learning environments there in; and also seeing over a couple lakh students excel in career and life. Quite a few of those grown up adults bring their children to us, to seek help now!

Phases of learning in the evolution of a human being.

Fig 1. Evolution of the human being, cognitively speaking.

 

The above conceptual framework is self-explanatory. Various empirical studies observed that the rate of cognitive evolution is exponential in the first eight years of life, reaching almost to 90% of that of an adult; about 80% by the age of three. We have been using the above nomenclature – Ananda, Jigyasa and Sadhana – in our language for almost two decades now. They evolved over a few years of observing and introspecting as the children evolved.

 

1. A child in the initial phase of one’s early childhood evolution, Ananda, involves all senses in absorbing one’s context. The slate in the early phase is clean. It is all about joy of discovering the contextual existence. The child is like a sponge, soaking everything that exists in the immediate environment. It is incumbent upon the adult around her – a parent, grand-parent, family or a teacher, the school – how rich we can make the immediate contextual environment forthe child to thrive. Learning happens at a pace unimaginable, all without any agenda. (The Howard Gardner’s Multiple intelligences is in full bloom – kindly google to understand this concept of Multiple Intelligences)

 

2. The primary and middle school years – age 8-14 – Jigyasa phase, is all about observation, introspection, analysis, synthesis to consolidate thus far imbibed experiences, into a solid knowledge through active questioning and embarking on finding answers to those questions through further experimentation and exploration. Greater the exposure, the higher is the learning. So as an adult in the environment, a parent can help the child experience a variety of spaces and activities in the arenas of all intelligences. During this period, a lot of likes, affinities, interests develop in every child that may start shaping the thought process that eventually may play an important role in choice-making and decision-making, about what one wants to pursue in career and life.

 

3. If the adults at home and school have been taking note of the likes and affinities that are evolving in the Jigyasa phase, one can proactively facilitate the child to make well informed choices by exposing the child to a variety of literatures, activities, events, people of eminence etc. so that the child will listen, engage, interact and evolve. As the child moves to higher classes the family and school can facilitate the access to all the avenues that can shape a child’s chosen area of interest, probably positively impacting the career too.

Now I would like to answer the following questions with the above frame work as a reference. I also need to add here that I have clubbed questions together, where I have found them to be closely related, and I shall addressthem in a logical way.

What should be an expectation level of a teacher or a parent from the student?

• One of the secrets to bring about the expected outcomes from a child is to be EMPATHETIC first. Talk to a child the way you would talk to an adult, in calm, eager and understanding way. As I said, the cognitive evolution of a child is almost that of an adult beyond age three. So, keep your emotions at bay.
• The first requirement of an institution – family or school – is to take responsibility upon oneself to create age appropriate learning environment and experiences even before they have expectations from the child.
• So, my expectation is directed more towards the adults in the child’s context, asking, what exciting environment have you created for the child to explore, experiment and learn.

1. • Can I be with the child, whenever I feel the child is struggling? Can I walk with the child and not just talk?What inspires the child is your walk, and not the talk!!
   • Everything boils down to a good, open communication with the child. Only when the child feels that you are understanding, will the child be open to hear and see your perspective.

Does over expectation from a bright child deteriorate his performance and self-esteem?How behaviour of a student can be modified with simple learning and how can we help him in developing his self-esteem?What are the methods to develop behaviour modification among students?How to motivate a child to perform better in the class?

1. • The secret, as I shared, is open communication and facilitation. Understanding the child, in the given context, is paramount. Help the child gain confidence to be open with you, to share her fears and needs.
   • An adult should not talk from 6ft. Get down to the child’s level. That means, your eyes and that of the child must be at the same level! Make the child feel that you are her friend and facilitator.
   • Every child is unique and let us not compare one with the other. Acknowledging the child’s interests, way of thinking, strengths, weaknesses and evencurrent  prioritiesis very important. Being open is the key. That is the only way to stoke self-esteem. Every positive thing we say or do, adds to her self-esteem.
   • First,believe and help yourself to help the child understand that he or she is good enough; and it is just a question of getting more comfortable in the subject or topic or issue that we are concerned about, and give a message that by understanding the concepts and practicing more she would be good. And that you are with her in the process. Walk, walk, walk with the child, do not talk.
   • I have seen the transformation in many a child, including my daughters. Building trust and stoking the self-belief is the key.

Is there a model or a technique to deal with discipline referrals?

• Most of the root causes of the discipline issues emerge from the child’s immediate environment. The behavior of the child has its origin in the way an adult or two is behaving in the child’s environment – How is the adult dealing with the child. The adult’s ‘walk’ may be inducing the behavior.
• For instance, if the child is very energetic and active in the school, then you may soon realize that his energy does not find any vent at home. His home environment could be highly restrained and over disciplined. And that pent-up energy finds a volcanic outlet in the school. Similarly, a child shouted at or abused at home, may vent his frustration at his fellow learners in school.
• My questions for institutions, are, “How open are we to integrating homes with school? How much do we know about the child’s home environment? How much of interaction between the school and home have we institutionalized beyond the formality of PTM (parents teacher meeting which most of the times is unwelcoming for the schools. It is just an item in the check-list)
• When the home and institution will be seamless, most of the behavioral deviancies will be easily taken care of. In the technology-enabled world of today, institutions can really create that seamless communication channels to bridge to two.
• Even after having amazingly cordial and proactive engagement with home, if we find the child’s behavior still beyond our capability, then we need to seek the help of a psychologist/specialists in diagnosing any other eventuality, like ADHD etc.

Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) affects the child’s ability to focus and control his behaviour. What steps to be taken to address the children suffering from ADD?

1. • ADHD is the term that we usually use for affected children and adolescents, while ADD is used for adults. ADHD is the most commonly diagnosed mental disorder of children, more prevalent in boys than in girls; diagnosed based on the child’s symptoms and behavior.
   • Inattentiveness, impulsiveness or hyperactivity are the symptoms of a child with ADHD. It is a genetic-disorder and child has no role to play in acquiring it; one of the parents has contributed to the cause. Brain chemicals, called neurotransmitters, don’t work the same in children with ADHD; Certain areas in the brain may be smaller or even less active in children with ADHD than those without the disorder. Most of the times, a parent feels guilty of even acknowledging the presence of ADHD, especially do to the social stigma it may carry. Hence, we as adults, both teachers and parents need to be proactive, yet very patient in dealing with the child.
   • Timely diagnosis is very important. If not treated in time, ADHD continues into adulthood. However, by understanding the child, working on and channelizing his strengths, facilitating a conducive environment, and using medication timely, a childwith ADHD can grow into a responsible and productive adult who is socially invaluable.

 

How show we improve the school environment so that it helps students to perform better?What are the key points to be kept in mind which helps in developing a cordial environment for students and teachers?How can a teacher build an environment that can help students struggling with serious academic deficiencies, lack of support, language barrier, or any other challenges?

 

1. • Most of the times I see the really issue lies with institutions – School and Homes – and adults within. I measure the adults by exploring their attitude towards these three questions –
     • Do your really love children?
     • Do you love learning?
     • Are you excited about creating rich, stimulating learning environments and experiences?
   • We need to understand that the institution exists for the child and need to bring about changes in our environment and the way we conduct ourselves and our learning processes
   • As Charles Darwin says, the human being as an organism is programmed to thrive – survival of the fittest. Unfortunately, we adults control the environment, at home or school, in such a way that the brilliant mind, amazing body and soul is not excited to flourish. We shackle the being.
   • It is very important that the learning environment, pedagogy and engagement be conducive with the evolutionary phases of a human being that is illustrated in Fig. 1 above. The coordination of the school and home, along with the curriculum engagement need to be rich and stimulating. Homes need to help the child experience the real world beyond the classrooms and curriculum. Parents must be thinkers and doers. Expose the child to experiences in every dimension of intelligences that Howard Gardner talks about.
   • Does the outside world come into your classrooms? Do your classrooms go to the outside world? If the answers these questions isin affirmative, soon we would have found solutions to all challenges.

Evolving child being facilitate by family, school and the experiences in the world

Hope, I have been able to address all the issues raised in the questionnaire. I apologize for writing a lengthy article to address your questions. I strongly believe, there is no short-cut to facilitate a parent, teacher or institutions toenable every child that is playing in our aangans, corridors or classrooms.

Where is that imaginative, creative, energetic, vivacious child lost?

Smita, a teacher from one of the sought after schools in Dwarka, N K Bagrodia public school, has been chasing me for the last couple of months to visit her school. She confessed that, ever since she heard me speak at an education leaders conference conducted by ITIHAAS, she wanted to invite me to her school. She would call me to grace one function or other, as a guest. Most of the times, I was on the move. One thing about Smita I always felt when she spoke to me, is her energy and enthusiasm; that transcended the medium of phone. Last week when she called, I acquiesced to be the guest for their annual festival of creativity – Trishna, wherein about 30+ schools from across Delhi were participating.

The real pleasure being in a school lies in the children’s space.  On arrival, I was ushered into the Principal, Dr. Rajee N, Kumar’s room to meet her and a few more school leaders were called too. Dr. Rajee was sharing her experience of watching the children pushing boundaries since morning, in one creative activity or the other. Here I was, so keen to see the children in action, more than distributing the prizes, I was feeling incarcerated, though the interaction with the leadership was invaluable. The real learning is in experiencing the process, not in seeing the final product. I insisted on watching the children in action. The principal was graceful in facilitating me to watch a couple of activities.

Albeit it was at the fag end of the day, I could experience the theatre / acting performance, wherein the students were given 30 minutes to conjure a scene, write a script, select the performers, prepare and present. The students were from classes 7-9 and it was a delight to watch how they went about presenting. Children observe everything, absorb like a sponge and synthesize making meaning out of every action around them. This activity gave me one more opportunity to watch their thought process; how well they could project their learning. Needless to say, I really enjoyed every presentation, reinforcing my beliefs about children and their infinite capabilities.

Post the event, I was now keen to interact with the school leadership. Thanks to Dr. Rajee, she too was keen to. I was sharing that the ingenuity of children that we witnessed in the activities of the event can be stoked every day, in every class and home; and who are we to restrict to one event or two in a year.

Very unfortunate that in most of the schools in India, in general, the child comes last. Schools need to exist for the child; she must be the center of all activities that schools plan. It is far from being so, the way we operate – the curriculum designed, the courses offered, the syllabus, the pedagogy, the planning to finish syllabus….. the list is endless. Everything is designed to help the school and the teachers to have peace of mind and to enable ease of execution. An imaginative, creative, energetic, vivacious child, bubbling with ideas ends up being a morose, thoughtless, aimless, fearful youth devoid of confidence and self-belief by the time he or she ends schooling.

If only each one of us, every adult – teachers, parents, schools, universities, educational leaders – can believe in every child, put the child first, acknowledge the needs of the child, really bring the openness to create exciting learning environments at schools, universities and home, I think the world will be a far, far better place to live in. The children and youth will be keen to solve the problems that the society in their neighborhood is facing. Every education institution can be at the fore-front of transformation of the society. Alas!

I am a culprit too. It takes immense effort to be open and facilitating. I am trying and have been on that journey for quite some time. Still short-comings come to the fore. I still need to keep my EGO aside. Working on being humble, pleasant, purposeful is still a huge ask, even with all good intentions and awareness of the outcomes.

My personal endeavour has been to be conscious and work towards making every child’s space an exciting one. To this effect, we, leadership at CL Educate, have been proactive to work with schools, institutions, universities to stoke jigyasa (curiosity, inquisitiveness) among children and youth; create an environment to help them explore, research in areas or subjects of their interest; have belief in their capabilities. Over the years the outcomes have been rewarding as we see the Ananda (joy) among children and youth. This facilitates the institutions and families to also realize where the inclinations of the child is and this has lead to remarkable breakthroughs for the progress of children and youth ahead in their careers and life. Many a child has presented his research and innovations in the global conferences, got her work published in prestigious journals; has had confidence to present oneself for an interview to reach the portals of a world class institution or university. The quest is to enable every child, irrespective of the outcome, gain a great deal of belief in oneself for one’s life. The process makes them so.

I welcome anyone who is keen to facilitate his child or children in schools, and youth in college, to write to me. We will be more than happy to facilitate.

keynote: #Creating #Innovation #Ecosystem in Institutions to enable learners for the future

#Electrifying day it was; #TEDx style keynote on #Creating #Innovation #Ecosystem to enable  learners for the future; @ #Vision2030EduConference @MMUMullana. Of course, my TED cannot be staid and straight jacketed 🙂 Theatrics runs in the blood as the body, mind and soul get into action!

With the disruptive world gaining pace, the three things that we need to facilitate the child imbibe are – Keenness to learn, courage to push boundaries and not be worried about making mistakes and humility that can facilitate to build teams and lead. Each one of us need to be welcoming more and more abstractness in problem solving, and take every such opportunity as one to learn and discover, solve and impact.

 

 

It was day well invested with over 100 leaders of schools, colleges, universities interacting and sharing.  It was a pleasure listening to a few speakers too, who were also talking about need of learner-centric environment in the institutions.

The panel discussion that followed on #TEACHERSofFUTURE, seemed to be a corollary to my talk on innovation.

I am delighted to see very youthful education leaders emerging across the country, who are keen to create best of the learning environments; each one has had an exposure to best of the educational institutions within India or abroad. The entire event has been a brain child of Mr. Vishal Sood, an IIMA Alum, who is now at the helm of the Maharishi Markandeswar University in Haryana. With such young leaders, soon the hinterland too will have very meaningfully engaging learning environments that will integrate the outside world into the class and also take the class out to the realistic external world to engage and impact.

An institution would have served its purpose if and only if it is integral to solving the problems of the society within its vicinity. Imagine if every institution, school or university, solves half a dozen problems every year, what will the nation be. I was delighted to see a few of the principals of schools coming to me and talking about how they intend bring this change in their respective schools.

Feel blessed, for such moments. Life is Fruitful.  @careerlauncher @CLEducate @satyaumanandu

#education #educator #mentor #learner #student #changemaker #travel #Educational #Leadership #Transformational #workshop #Learning #Courage #Humility #career #careerchoices #careercoaching #Lifecoach #coach #Dynamism

Education Reforms: Curricula, Teachers, Parents, Children – Itihaas Annual Summit

Yesterday was a very insightful, introspective and compelling morning, being at the ITIHAAS’ 9th Annual Summit of Teachers and Educationists. Over 250 of them congregated in this annual immersion from across the country. Prof Poonam Batra, an eminent professor who has contributed immensely to the education space in the country, and Ms Prachi Agarval, noted developmental psychologist were the first ones to address the esteemed audience on the issue of, “Teachers and Curricula in the times of Educational Reforms”

It was a pleasure listening to Prof Poonam Batra of Delhi University on the shifts in the outlook towards education as the nation went on a roller-coaster ride that the ruling dispensations took the nation through, with their concept of nation and nationalism, paradigms of developmental economics, notions of secularism and tolerance! Here are a few of the salient points I managed to capture and tweeted live too.

Prof. #PoonamBatra #Teachers&CurriculaInEducationalReforms @ITIHAASKiBaat

• Teachers have become one of the most marginalized, in a society that is hierarchical! #EducationalReforms are driven by #EconomicReforms. what are the #HumanIndicators? #Health #Education sliding further
• #Teachers are catalysts in societal transformation. But #liberalization made the schools a market place #lessonplans, #studentprojects are being bought! #Teachers become #laborers #corporates who don’t understand #children and #education are packaging
• #EducationPolicy is being pushed by #VentureCapitalists. #Teachers are no where in deciding what, why, when, where and how of #curriculum. #market has taken over #love, #affection too. Where is #Education? Where is development of #people?
• We are focusing on #learningOutcome than #LearningExperiences #joy #child #Centricity has vanished! #Education has to be contextual, you cannot have global uniformity. Marginalization of #knowledge #context of course #Teachers.
• #Child-centred vs #Discipline, #traditional vs #modern, why do we see only #polarity? Best way to learn is to have a non-threatening environment? Freedom means free to make mistakes, air opinions! Children observes your walk, do not talk!

Here are few points that I captured from Prachi’s sharings – @PrachiAgarval

• Why do we go to #school? How many of us as #Teachers promote #questioning? Do we help the child to #realize his #potential? #developmental #relationship
• Are we listening, understanding children? Are we co-creating? are we making children comfortable in committing mistakes? Helping them be compassionate? how many of us use our potential? How will we help children unearth theirs? #ExpressCare belonging, #ChallengeGrowth

Singers from TONK who have been championing the cause of education in country side, championed by dear friend Amir Abidi and his movement. The audience had the privilege of listening them.

I had short engaging interaction with the audience on  “#Perspectives, in the rapidly changing #world”.

Thanks to my dear friend Manohar Khushalani, an eminent theater personality and a Professor at IIIT Delhi, who went live on FACEBOOK while I was engaging the keenly learning facilitators and mentors in the auditorium.

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fmanohar.khushalani%2Fvideos%2F10155891765792943%2F&show_text=0&width=267

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fmanohar.khushalani%2Fvideos%2F10155891777857943%2F&show_text=0&width=267

#Education is so much more! It is not about syllabus and marks for sure!

I am summing up the three things that any #educationist or #institution should strive to facilitate in a #child………………………..

1. Desire to #learn, through life: Life-long #learner
2. Have #courage to push boundaries: #Discover more of self. Dare to make #mistakes.
3. Be #humble whatever you achieve: #humility

These will not only help one in the changing times, but also #facilitate one ride the #change. Be the #master of your journey and destiny. Be the #change-maker. #Impact the #world.

#Shivani  of @ITIHAASKiBaat nicely summed up. If you do not know #where you are #coming from; if you do not take pride in who you are,  #why and #How will you know where you want to go? Do we facilitate #integrity #compassion #courage #humility?

Smita Vats, the founder of ITIHAAS concluded in her inimitable style, exhorting the teachers to create their own stories that they and also the society will be proud of, and also facilitate children in a manner that their stories too become legends.

Inspiring Excellence of Families and School : DPS Patna

It was a pleasure facilitating both teachers and families in separate sessions at DPS Patna. Each session was of over two hours, though short, were very invigorating and inspiring.

Can we enable ourselves, our children, our families and communities to be –

a. Eager learners,

b. Have courage to push the boundaries, not worried about “failing” and

c. Be humble whatever we achieve

If we are able to instill these three values, then our job is done…

Glad to have parents getting out of car on their way back when they spotted me by the drive way to say, “I came with a very different intention to talk to the Principal about future of my son, I am going away completely transformed. I will make sure that I invest at home and also with the parents work with school to make all the difference to every child”

 

One of the teachers said, “I have been struggling with a challenge for the last six months, I found the reason and solution to it in these two hours. Thanks”

 

It was one of those days where I had to touch down at 8am and take off at 3pm, for I had another session with art world in Delhi, as my baby SPANDAN festival of Performing Arts has been underway at India Habitat Centre, with large format exhibition paying tribute to Iconic Institutions, movements and Gurus.

Thanks to Anup and Ragini of Career Launcher Patna, for facilitating and inspiring families in Patna to EXCEL.

Vision for IIM Bangalore : Dr. Sushil Vachani, the new director shares with its Alum

After receiving a mailer from the alumni office, I registered myself for the interaction with Sushil at India International Centre on July 5^th. Having been a proactive participant in interactions with all the directors of IIMB since my days at IIMB, Dr KRS Murthy, Dr MR Rao, Dr. Pankaj Chandra I was eager to head for the session.

—————— recalling…

It gives me immense satisfaction in contributing in some way or other to the Institution apart from being an entrepreneur that this institution has ignited. I am sure hundreds of IIMB alum humbly acknowledge our contribution to their career and life! They have been our alums (Career Launcher) before they became alums of IIMB!

Not many may be aware of this fact! I feel delighted to see my paintings and photographs still adorning the walls of the institution even after almost two decades. I vividly recall the interactions that I have had with Dr. Murthy and his encouragement in conceiving the first art exhibition (perhaps only) in the history of the institution. I had managed to inspire quite a few of my class mates and from the next batch to contribute to the exhibition. It was a proud moment to have Mr S M Dutta, then Chairman Hindustan Unilever (chairman BOD of IIMB) to inaugurate that exhibition. Since then, from time to time, my work has featured in the magazines of IIMB.

—————-

When I arrived at the venue at the appointed hour, there were a few familiar faces from various classes of IIMB. It was a pleasure meeting Dr. Indira Rajaraman, noted economist, who was a distinguished professor economics at IIMB till 1994. I never had the opportunity to be her student, as I entered IIMB immediately after she left, and I have heard about her legendary classes at IIM Bangalore.

A little while later I had an opportunity to introduce myself and interact with Sushil informally before the session.. Here is the brief profile of Sushil!

Dr. Sushil Vachani, who is a tenured Professor of Strategy and Innovation at Boston University, will took over as Director of the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore on July 1, 2014. During his twenty-eight year career at Boston University, he served in a range of leadership positions: Faculty Director of the International Management Program in Japan, Chairman of the Strategy and Policy Department, Chairman of the Doctoral Program and Special Assistant to the University’s President for its India Initiative. He designed, taught and coordinated programs for students, executives and policy makers in the US, Japan, China and India. He also serves on the board of trustees of the Deshpande Foundation, which promotes economic and social development in the US and India through entrepreneurship.

 

Dr. Vachani received his doctorate in International Business from the Harvard Business School, a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and a Bachelor of Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. He has extensive managerial and consulting experience in both the US and India. He worked at the Boston Consulting Group developing strategies for US, Japanese and European multinationals. He also worked with Philips, the Tata Administrative Service and Tata Motors in India.

 

 Dr. Vachani’s research interests include the global institutional environment of business, multinational-government relations, corporate social responsibility, climate change, strategy and innovation at the bottom of the pyramid and the impact of NGOs on international business. His research has been published in leading journals including California Management Review, Harvard Business Review and Journal of International Business Studies. He has published four books. He is co-editor of Adaptation to Climate Change in Asia and Multinational Corporations and Global Poverty Reduction, editor of Transformations in Global Governance: Implications for Multinationals and other Stakeholders and author of Multinationals in India: Strategic Product Choices.

 

Dr. Vachani loves traveling and spending time with his family. His favorite cities are Kyoto, Istanbul and Barcelona. He also enjoys visiting New York City, where both his daughters live.

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The rest of the note here is in first person, with interesting anecdotes shared by Sushil. I thought of presenting in the first person only…

• “With big names you have been associated with, you may at times get carried away. I would not have been to the US had I not been to IIMA, before that IIT Kanpur, before that St. Columbus school….. Thanks to our parents and their wisdom of seeing education to be very important…..
• Other day I was with one of my friends and I was carrying this mobile with me..(shows a modest one). My friend showed this mobile to his daughter to tell her that cellphones a couple of years ago looked like these…. ..
• IIM in 2 years was way ahead of Harvard with 5 years…
• Education is changing. Changing rapidly… In the initial years it was meant for the kings and the elite… then came the Gurkul…
• Now cell phone reaches 80% of the population…..smart phones will reach 80% in a decade. Everyone will use to access a range of services. What may happen to education? Access will be free. Of course the certification would cost though..

Education rekindles thinking…. With these things at our finger tips we can reach to the world.

• World is changing. Technology is giving opportunity..  We need to embrace technology else it will be too overwhelming to cope..
• The slew of gadgets emerging is going to make life so easy; The human being may be embedded with a few and it is going to impact the way we live ..
• Massive Open Online Course (MOOCs) – University of phoenix has been a pioneer; later a few moved into online space. For instance, at Harvard, while about 1.6 lakh enrolled for a course on Artificial IntelIigence, only 23000 students completed the course. Coursera and Udacity are a couple of online education and testing platform with huge following.
• EdX – Harvard and MIT – came together to create the platform… Many units have jumped onto it..
• We need to embrace the platform of technology; Which one, let us see.. We will not have spontaneous combustion… F. audience – beaming to whom? Who will be target audience?

——- Second area of interest – International business…global perspectives

• Japan, by virtue of my interest and involvement in the past is a natural choice
• Will send more and more students abroad for sure, on exchange programmes
• Create centres and faculty specialists on geographies
• Build relationships with top universities across the world
• feed all the learning into the pedagogy in the classrooms

——- Third dimension… Government is usually detested everywhere….but,

• IIMs would not have been there had it not been for the govt
• IIMs are national assets..we need to go beyond addressing the creame-la-creame. We need to impact the masses
• Can we impact small businesses, real India?
• A blended programme like – MIT poverty lab – can impact immensely

Can we all together not impact in these areas. We need to get together.. We have the urge. The institute can be one of the channels… You, as alumni, can engage with us. Institute can help alumni in the international connections too once we get going in the space..

• Institute-alum Connect – MIT in the US and IIT Kanpur have a great connect.
• Sharing Ideas, Regular visits… ..Finally funding by paying up..
• networking amongst alum itself..
• connect with the PGP..
• Harvard / Wellesley college :  do something small and influence the next batches
• Impacting the society..

[The IIMB team at the session included Aparna, Rohini….saurabh mukherjee (PGP chair), Rakesh godhwani, kavita(communication)]

—— Fourth Dimension – Academic publications

• Produce our own stuff..
• Network with publishers..visiting the conferences
• Invite editors of journals to address faculty  and students..
• Need to make our doctoral program strong..

———–

Q & A

1. Diversity : Mint did an interview of yours where you quoted about diversity. I am a little curious..

• we will not dilute quality..
• women, international students,…
• we need to orient and market..
• engage alum for exec-edu program?
• need to design and market programs

2. Giving back to society…in what way?

• Do we look at infant mortality rate, women empowerment… how have we impacted?
• NCAER – fisherman, villages, farmers have been benefited

3. Sense of purpose and mission

• nation building…manager capability
• What does India need and what IIMB can contribute
• Public sector managers….IIMB lost it after the initial phase when it focused on public sector management.
• IIT Kanpur is in a bubble.. Outside the gates miserable… The institution has not done anything for the betterment of the city..
• Gyanshala Ahmedabad is a great example to follow..”

Towards the end of the session – Rajeev, an Ex IIMB Prof, now a member of Rajya sabha joined us in the audience and addressed us too..

———————— My thoughts and Suggestions to Sushil for making the institution a great learning place

• At IIMA, Prof Anil Gupta’s course shodhyatra-like should become integral part of the programme; This enables students to understand the real India and also notice the opportunities that exist
• OurexperimentsatIWSB (Indus World School of Business) have been path breaking..
  • Students work with small-time entrepreneurs in the institutional eco-system to enhance their business with measurable outcomes
  • Promote entrepreneurship through campus companies, incubation lab, mentoring
  • Offer generous monetary upsides for entrepreneurial endeavours – investing in the company, market access

——————————

I was delighted to see a few of my batchmates and friends – Hitesh (CEO Naukri.com) and Vandana (Citibank), Vivek Bihani (mentor now – 1992), Ganesha (Walmart now – 1993) and a few more at the dinner interaction…

Looking forward to many many more productive interactions. Hopefully invigorating workshops soon. Thanks