'We want students who are not overtly aggressive or ambitious'

CURRICULA

Dr Manesh L Shrikant, dean, S P Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR), Mumbai, is a keen student of the vedanta philosophy.

Does he think management and age-old philosophy are poles apart? "Far from it," he says, "Both gel perfectly. Studies have revealed that value-based, socially responsible companies are more profitable. They last longer and deliver a sustained performance "" quite unlike Enron."

Talking of performance, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan's SPJIMR is one of the institutes that has featured consistently in the top-10 list of almost every B-school survey.

The picture, however, wasn't so pretty when Shrikant joined the institute as honorary director in 1985. Then, SPJIMR was one of the many Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan institutes; and "under intensive care unit" as Shrikant puts it.

The institute required a change in leadership "" which is where Shrikant came in the picture "" and a creation of minimum liquid funds to keep the institute going. Next came stepping out of the Bombay University umbrella "" a step unheard of.

"I wanted to do things differently, which I could not have achieved in the university setup. Three years were spent in ensuring that the institute survived," says Shrikant. SPJIMR then introduced an MBA in manufacturing with the support of 10 industry people and got extremely positive response.

"We thought of doing a similar thing with other streams, and started independent programmes," he says, explaining the institute's first steps towards self-sufficiency.

Shrikant claims that today SPJIMR is not only self-supported and has achieved significant organic growth, but it has also financially helped other sister institutes of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, thus enabling them to upgrade their activities.

This sharing of resources is one of the major learnings the institute tries to imbibe in its students.

"Getting rich in today's world is no big deal. And we do want to retain motivation for material acquisition and advancement, but "" and this is crucial "" with sensitivity to distributive social justice, that is, the means are even more important than the ends," says Shrikant.

Other priorities on his agenda are to achieve: a synthesis of Western emphasis on efficiency (a concern for ends) and Eastern values and ethos (an equal emphasis on means), and co-existence of collaborative and competitive modes "" striving for individual excellence and yet reinforcing the "group culture" through routine, day-to-day activities.

And his greatest challenge as dean? "India is an 'ascription' oriented society. What is important is 'who you are' rather than 'what you are' or 'what you have achieved'," he says, "Given this, the biggest challenge is to become one of the best in the country like IIM-A without possessing the name, brand equity and resources of an IIM," he answers.

Also in the pipeline are plans of expanding competencies to provide inputs to small- and medium- sized family-managed businesses, NGOs and addressing the issues of entrepreneurship and social responsibilities of business.

The institute already has a management course underway, which is custom-made for the people who have family-run businesses.

With a PhD in general management from Harvard Business School and an MBA from Cornell University, USA, Shrikant insists on the importance of "learning-for-a-lifetime".

Thus, a thrust on non-classroom activities like yoga, meditation, camps on Bhagvad Gita and so on.

"When companies visit us for campus recruitment, I insist that they not only check a candidate's test marks and project appraisals but also have a look at his performance in non-credit courses," divulges Shrikant.

This emphasis on softer skills also shows in the institute's selection process. Shrikant insists that it is not just the CAT marks that matter; it is the rigorous interviewing of the candidate that is the deciding factor for securing one of the 140-odd seats.