Fr E Abraham, director, Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneshwar (XIMB), is convinced that B-schools should be shaped to meet the objectives of both industry and the development objectives of society at large. "I strongly feel that every management institute should do something for the state in which it is based. We should not be islands of intelligence," he says.
That explains the institute's two-year post graduate programme in rural management (started in 1998), the culture of promoting corporate governance, consulting for non-governmental organisations and partnering the state government in reforms.
A case in point is the institute's Centre for development research and training, founded in 1988, which continues its work for capacity enhancement of organisations working for empowerment of the rural poor.
The centre pilots "lighthouse" projects that are aimed at testing new and original ideas, which are then scaled up depending on the success.
Successful projects undertaken in the districts of Orissa include those on food security, panchayat raj, livelihood options for the rural poor, wastewater treatment and corporate-rural linkages.
But the most ambitious has been the 1998 project on making privatised electricity distribution in the rural areas cost effective, time accessible and qualitative.
The project now runs in over 4,000 villages in Orissa and has been adopted by Karnataka as well. Students who have enrolled for the rural management course at XIMB get to be a part of the project.
They spend six to eight weeks in the areas where the institute has its programmes and get a grassroots-level understanding of such projects.
It seems the institute's efforts are being noticed. Abraham is happy that the latest Cosmode-BusinessWorld survey of the best Indian B-schools ranked the institute at number 10, up five notches from last year.
Then there's the soon-to-be-signed MoU with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for the creation of a CII-XIMB Centre of Excellence, which will give the institute some much-needed visibility.
Apart from research and consultancy in areas such as energy and power, insurance and foreign direct investment, the centre will also work on training executives from small, medium and large enterprises, as well as mentoring of entrepreneurs.
For Abraham, who took over as the director in 2000, it will be a step closer to achieving his ambition of placing XIMB (founded in 1987) on the global map of management education.
"But it's not just the ranking," Abraham clarifies. "I want XIMB to be among the most reputed B-schools when it comes to intellectual capital and internal capabilities, too."
Abraham's efforts in this direction started early. Last year, the annual convention of the Association of Indian Management Schools and the National HRD Network Conference were held at the XIMB campus and the activities put the institute on the international map not only with academicians but also with industry stalwarts.
Celebrations apart, Abraham believes there's more to be done. Global exposure for the institute, for instance.
"I want our programmes to be internationalised, bring in more students from foreign B-schools through exchange programmes. That will help our students gain a global outlook," he explains.
But is the institute equipped for adequate industry interaction? After all, being in Bhubaneshwar means you are in a different universe from the big corporate houses "" and proximity is essential so that students and faculty can stay in constant touch with what is happening in the field.
"Poor communication with the rest of the country was one of the main hurdles the institute faced initially. But in today's world of email, web-cast and teleconferencing, the location of a management school is not an issue anymore," Abraham clarifies.
If last year's placement results are anything to go by, he's probably right. The institute broke all its previous records; 51 companies visited the campus and the entire batch of 120 students for the post-graduate programme was recruited in just 30 hours. The average salary offered was Rs 4.65 lakh a year.
"We also have a prominent personality from industry visit us every week and interact with the students," says Abraham. Add to that, in 2003 XIMB tied up with Marico Industries in 2003 whereby faculty interact with the company, researching various processes and systems.
Their findings are then converted into case studies. Senior managers from Marico also visit the campus and lecture students on topics such as innovation and leadership.
For more interaction with industry, XIMB has a management consultancy wing, established in 1999, comprising experienced faculty members and professionals. The wing gives critical input to various projects supported by organisations such as the World Bank and the European Union.
The list of clients includes PriceWaterhouseCoopers, ITC and Balmer Lawrie. Even a few student groups undertake smaller consultancy projects under active guidance of these faculty members.
It helps that XIMB makes sure that every faculty member (there are 30 full-time and 30 guest faculty) teaches for two semesters and has one semester free to pursue research work and full-time consultancy projects.
"We believe in an academic model and distinguish an educational institution from a consultancy firm," Abraham says.
