Towards academic excellence

Devi Singh

Expansion plans and strategy aren't just course material for IIML Director Devi Singh "" they are part of his daily schedule.

July was a significant month for the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow (IIML). One, it turned 21 on the 27th. Two, it kickstarted its Noida campus with a three-year programme in business management for working professionals with a batch of 60 students.

Lucknow is the first IIM to have a second campus. For IIML director Devi Singh, though, it's more a matter of challenge than just celebration.

"Academic excellence with a cutting edge is what we are aiming for and the new campus is a step in that direction," he says. So, what will follow?

"IIML centres abroad, most certainly," Singh says confidently. He declines to divulge details, saying it would be premature to talk about it just yet.

For someone who is on his second stint as a director with yet another premier B-school "" he was the director at the Gurgaon-based Management Development Institute until 2003 "" Singh is surprisingly reticent when it comes to talking about his accomplishments; he prefers to speak more about his learnings.

"At MDI, other than academic excellence, I also needed to worry about finances and bottomline," he says. He hasn't been able to stop thinking that way, even though IIML has the government's support and good infrastructure: "The cost-revenue equation continues to run through my mind."

But that's probably good, since the government wants to work towards making the IIMs self-reliant over time.

A man who chooses his words wisely, the 51-year-old academician warms up to the conversation when it is something he feels strongly about.

Right now, that is the Noida campus. The aim is to have the campus running in the next 15 months, which means creating physical infrastructure over 200,000 sq ft of the 20-acre campus in the first phase and to have a full-time faculty of 20 members.

The entire project will cost about Rs 40 crore. Until the campus is ready, however, students will attend classes at the nearby National Thermal Power Corporation building.

Probe further and Singh reveals that there's more to the new campus than just IIM's presence in a metro. "Our aim is to use the Noida campus to further leverage our strengths in Lucknow. Now we'll be closer to the practising worlds and policymaking bodies and we will be able to interact with them more efficiently."

The new campus may also take care of one challenge even premier B-schools face "" world-class faculty. "It's simple really," Singh reveals the strategy.

"I have a better chance of attracting the best talent to IIML if I give them the option of being based either in Delhi or in Lucknow."

Management schools may have mushroomed everywhere, but the supply of good faculty is still abysmally low. The reason: a dearth of good PhD programmes and the fact that now even industry is lapping up those with doctorate degrees in management.

"We plan to set up a faculty development centre at the Noida campus soon, which will run three-week to three-month faculty development programmes," Singh reveals.

Faculty member from other management schools will be trained by IIML faculty on domain-specific issues, the pedagogy, other management issues, teaching tools and so on.

The Noida campus will also improve interaction with industry, although it is no longer the constraint it was even a decade ago. "We have top people from industry come to the campus for workshops, seminars and guest lectures. And now the Delhi-Lucknow distance is hardly anything with 10 flights between the cities every day." Singh clarifies.

Another centre to find place at the Noida campus will be the Centre for Entrepreneurial Ventures, which is currently in Lucknow.

The centre will be a one-stop service centre for entrepreneurs, which will include everything from providing consulting for projects to incubating.

IIML has already tied up with some American B-schools, including the George Mason University in Washington, to study their system for such a centre and replicate it here.

Singh feels strongly about the future of management education in India. He admits that there is already a debate and rethinking on whether the curricula address the issues of the future.

But what about the current lacunae: recruiters complain about management students lacking certain skills, about their attitude, that they have good analytical minds but are not such good team players? "Did we learn everything in schools?" Singh counters.

"A lot of learning happens when you are a part of an organisation that has its own culture, its own context, product, technology, environment and so on. Sometimes leadership is the last thing that corporations want! They want freshers to work without question in the beginning, and then learn gradually."

And what is his take on IIMs refusing to be a part of B-school surveys? "There are schools like Stanford and Harvard that have refused to take part in some such surveys back in the West," Singh defends, "personally, I have nothing against surveys and feel that they should be looked at as a feedback."

His recommendation? That organisations such as CRISIL or ICRA conduct these surveys since they are stand-alone independent organisations and have created credibility for themselves in this field.

Beyond that, he refuses to talk about it. Clearly, Singh would prefer to focus on academic excellence, not controversy.