Listening to a Professor from IIM, A

I had an invitation to attend a dinner meet with a professor from IIM, Ahmedabad, organised by CBRC (Centre For Business Research and Counseling) at Kochi on 26th January 2010. He has about 25 years of experience in management education, but looks younger in spirit and in body. One of the dinner participant mentioned an observation that rarely the Professor's elder family members have grey hair.

It has been a great experience listening to the unfiltered and authentic dialog with the Professor. We the small gathering from CBRC were immersed in the discourse by the Prof. for almost two hours.

The Professor highlighted the themes of value creation and the importance of intellectual capital in a B School. According to the Prof. every B school must differentiate itself from others through the demonstration of their unique intellectual capital. He suggested a B School must build intellectual capital by taking up sponsored research projects from governments, Industries and other funding agencies, by providing Executive / Management development programs and by doing consulting projects with the industry. A B school should be a sequel to these activities. He informed us that IIM, A was fully engaged in Executive development programs before starting the Post Graduate Program.

He said one of the key aspect of education at IIM, A is that the students are put to such experiences so as to develop independent thinking and ability to bring new perspectives to the issues under consideration. He confidently said that any student who attend the PGP at IIM, A will achieve this state by the end of first year.

By interacting with Professor, we were all able to experience a slice of stimulating life at IIM, A. It was a very engaging and fruitful evening. Thanks to the Professor for spending time with us.

contributed by: sasikanth prabhu