52nd IIMA Annual Report _2013-14 FIFTY-SECOND ANNUAL REPORT

180 Pages·2016·6.38 MB·English

FIFTY-SECOND ANNUAL REPORT: 2013-14
Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad
2 Fifty-Second Annual Report: 2013-14
CONTENTS
THE YEAR IN RETROSPECT 5
ACADEMIC PROGRAMMES 10
1. POST-GRADUATE PROGRAMME IN MANAGEMENT 10
2. POST-GRADUATE PROGRAMME IN AGRI-BUSINESS MANAGEMENT 14
3. POST-GRADUATE PROGRAMME IN MANAGEMENT FOR EXECUTIVES (PGPX) 16
4. FELLOW PROGRAMME IN MANAGEMENT 18
5. PLACEMENT 20
6. CONVOCATION 21
7. FACULTY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME IN MANAGEMENT 22
RESEARCH AND PUBLICATIONS 23
MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES 25
INTERDISCIPLINARY CENTRES AND GROUPS 26
1. CENTRE FOR e-GOVERNANCE (CEG) 26
2. CENTRE FOR GENDER EQUITY, DIVERSITY, AND INCLUSIVITY (CGEDI) 26
3. CENTRE FOR INFRASTRUCTURE POLICY AND REGULATION (CIPR) 29
4. CENTRE FOR INNOVATION INCUBATION, AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP (CIIE) 29
5. CENTRE FOR MANAGEMENT IN AGRICULTURE (CMA) 35
6. CENTRE FOR MANAGEMENT OF HEALTH SERVICES (CMHS) 36
7. CENTRE FOR RETAILING 36
8. PUBLIC SYSTEMS GROUP (PSG) 37
9. RAVI J. MATTHAI CENTRE FOR EDUCATIONAL INNOVATION (RJMCEI) 38
3
DISCIPLINARY AREAS 39
1. BUSINESS POLICY 39
2. COMMUNICATION 40
3. ECONOMICS 40
4. FINANCE AND ACCOUNTING 41
5. INFORMATION SYSTEMS 42
6. MARKETING 42
7. ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR 43
8. PERSONNEL AND INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS 44
9. PRODUCTION AND QUANTITATIVE METHODS 44
ALUMNI ACTIVITIES 46
GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP AND CORPORATE AFFAIRS 49
GRANT-IN-AID 52
INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT 53
PERSONNEL 54
STUDENT ACTIVITIES 56
VIKRAM SARABHAI LIBRARY 73
WELFARE ACTIVITIES 75
APPENDIXES 77
VISION
Educating Leaders of Enterprises
MISSION
To transform India and other countries through generating and propagating new ideas
of global significance based on research and creation of risk-taking leader-managers who
change managerial and administrative practices to enhance performance of organizations.
OBJECTIVES
 To create knowledge through applied and conceptual research, relevant to management
and its underlying disciplines, and to disseminate such knowledge through publications.
 To establish educational facilities to prepare young men and women for careers in
management and related fields in all forms of organizations.
 To develop teachers and researchers in management with specialization in different
fields relating to management.
 To improve the decision making skills and administrative competence of practicing
managers through innovative and cutting edge management education programmes
and providing opportunities for continuing education.
 To provide advisory services so as to enhance: a) the decision making skills and processes
in organizations, and b) the effectiveness of public policies.
 To improve the quality of management education and research in other management
schools by building their capabilities through meaningful collaborations.
 To globalize the institute’s operations and linkages in the context of any or all of the
above objectives so as to emerge as the pre-eminent management school in India that is
globally respected.
5
THE YEAR IN RETROSPECT
Since its establishment in 1961, IIMA has been the premier management institute in India and
one of the top management schools worldwide. Over the years, it has cumulated significant
strengths, on which it can build. But the environment has changed significantly as well. New
challenges and new opportunities confront the institute. How we face up to the challenges and
take advantage of the opportunities in the next few years will determine significantly whether
the institute continues to maintain and indeed improve its premier position among global
management schools. The Institute took several steps in 2013-14 to address the challenges it
faces and build on its strengths.
The Context
IIMA has tremendous strengths that provide a powerful platform for ongoing success in the
future. Our commitment to high quality and engaged classroom learning is exemplary. We
have a history of inductive case-based teaching. Our diaspora of alumni is deeply committed
to the institute. The institute has a sterling reputation among potential students, recruiters,
and society. We have a heritage of collegiality. A spirit of identification with the institute
pervades all sections of the IIMA community: faculty, staff, students, and alumni. We live and
work in an evocative and functional campus. Members of the IIMA community operate in an
environment that respects autonomy, values the will to work, and encourages all to put their
efforts to good use.
The platform has provided us the opportunity to excel. Not surprisingly, we are well placed
in various rankings, typically leading Indian management by a comfortable margin. Yet,
rankings are a lagging and instrumental measure. High rankings are the consequence, not the
goal, of our doing good work at the institute. Besides, our ambition is not just to be the best
Indian management school, but to be one of the best globally.
The trend in some areas that drive institutional health over the long term has been worrisome.
Our research output could be more impactful. One of our traditional sources of strength,
development of high quality cases, is becoming less of a differentiator as other management
institutes in India have caught up. Our approach to executive education has been opportunistic
rather than strategic. And although we take pride in being an autonomous institution, our
operating margins have thinned considerably.
In addition to intensifying competition from established Indian management institutions, new
and disruptive competition has been emerging in the form of Indian operations of foreign
universities, e-learning platforms, and offshore educational offerings, offering opportunities
but also new challenges.
While facing these challenges, the institute was also in a phase of leadership transition. The
previous director had stepped down in March 2013 and an interim director was leading the
institute in a caretaker capacity till September, when I started my appointment as the new
6 Fifty-Second Annual Report: 2013-14
director. In addition to the director’s position, several administrative positions, including
deans, needed to be filled.
One of my first priorities as incoming director was to establish the institute’s leadership
team. Following recommendations of the previous committee on future directions at the
institute and in consultation with the faculty, three deans were appointed in September itself
– Dean (Faculty), Dean (Programmes), and Dean (Alumni & External Relations). Vacancies in
administrative positions were also filled.
Vision – and Strategic Priorities
In the face of various challenges and given our ambition to be one of the top management
institutions globally, the institute leadership team, in consultation with the faculty, rededicated
the institute to educating leaders of enterprises. Our vision – we educate leaders of enterprises – states
explicitly that our institute educates and develops not only executives for Indian businesses,
but also executives who flourish in international settings, government officers and bureaucrats,
leaders in the social sector, and entrepreneurs.
To achieve this vision, the institute has focused on a three-pronged approach: connect, nurture,
and grow. Following are the activities we have initiated in each of these three strategic priorities
to achieve our vision effectively.
Connect
To be a vibrant institution, we are trying to connect proactively with four constituencies: (a)
our diaspora of alumni, (b) the worlds of practice and policy, (c) academic work nationally and
globally, and (d) the local community.
Outreach to alumni was a high priority for the new leadership team. Between September
2013 and March 2014, the Director and Dean (A&ER) visited with local chapters in Mumbai,
Ahmedabad, Dubai, and Chennai. Six alumni reunions were held on campus in December
2013. Besides, during the summer of 2013, 10 local chapters organized Synchrony, an event to
welcome and integrate new alumni into the IIMA community.
Through targeted executive education, casewriting, and consulting, the institute is trying
to improve its connections with practice and policy. Executive Education was revamped so
as to include both Open Enrollment and Custom Programmes within the Institute’s ambit.
A separate Case Development and Distribution Center was established to give a fillip to
casewriting and distribution.
Through research interchanges at the level of finished products but also at the level of ideas
and work-in-progress, we are attempting a vibrant connection with global research.
Through a set of integrated activities that welcome and include the local community, we are
trying to achieve the fourth goal of connect.
Nurture
To nurture a high performance work environment in the Institute, IIMA leadership is
emphasizing and supporting a climate of autonomy, stretch, and community. Professionals
achieve their best when they have a sense of ownership of what they do. Providing members
of the community — faculty, staff, and students — a sense of freedom and ownership of their
pursuits unleashes their drive and creativity. Yet, the sense of autonomy must come with a
sentiment that one must strive to do one’s best and stretch to expand one’s own potential.
Third, high performance professional organizations rarely are simple conglomerations of
brilliant stars. They are communities in which bright, capable individuals work with one
The Year in Retrospect 7
another to achieve results that no one individual can. IIMA is trying to nurture this culture
of autonomy, stretch, and teamwork that is believed to underlie sustained high performance.
To nurture faculty development, FDEC has been invited to develop and share with faculty
clear guidelines on confirmation and promotion. FDEC members have been allocated Areas
with the express intent of having developmental conversations with younger faculty.
The Institute’s Performance Credit System has been used to offer incentives that encourage
faculty to invest in research and teaching, and through limited tradability, encourage them to
specialize in what they do best.
We are investing in fundraising with alumni and corporates, partly leading to better connect
with them, but also to use their funding support to establish some chairs that will provide
salary supplement and research funding to capable faculty, leading to retention of the best
talent and also attracting the best from outside.
Grow
IIMA has tremendous potential of building a presence far beyond what it is able to achieve
today, given limits to its capacity. Institute leadership plans to grow the capacity, but to do
so in a thoughtful and strategic manner, aiming to have an impact commensurate with the
ambitions, and ensuring that the quality of its people and its experience is maintained and
upgraded.
Institute faculty, which is already quite stretched, given the scale of activities, is a critical
resource for any growth to fructify. We must invest in recruiting faculty and yet ensure that
quality standards are not compromised. During the year, the Institute focused on recruiting
high quality faculty so as to raise overall faculty strength.
In addition to growing Executive Education, the Institute is exploring ways to offer a meaningful
educational programmes in public policy. We are also exploring ways to strengthen the PGP
programme by introducing international students to the class, thereby increasing capacity but
also diversity of the class.
Research and Publication
Research output has been increasing, both in absolute and per-faculty terms. Part of the reason
is a developing expectation and culture in the Institute that a significant proportion of faculty
effort should be devoted to knowledge enhancement. Research and publication in established
journals have now been given importance in measurement of faculty contribution. This would
result in nudging faculty members to excel and push the frontiers of knowledge in their chosen
fields of inquiry.
In addition to writing scholarly articles, Institute faculty has been known over the years to
contribute to an understanding of the world of practice through case-writing. The Institute has
set up a dedicated Case Center to support the development and dissemination of case based
research.
Several Centers have been established at the Institute over the years to encourage research
in fields that cross-cut the traditional Areas of the Institute. Existing Centers include Centre
for Infrastructure Policy and Regulation (CIPR); Centre for Management of Health Services
(CMHS); IIMA IDEA Telecom Centre of Excellence (IITCOE); Centre for Gender Equity,
Diversity and Inclusivity (GEDI); Centre for Electronic Governance (CEG); Centre for Innovation
Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) and Centre for Retailing (CFR). CIIE deserves a special
note of recognition for the efforts the Center has taken to encourage entrepreneurship among
students and recent graduates through its incubation and mentorship initiatives. The Institute
8 Fifty-Second Annual Report: 2013-14
has attempted to revitalize the Centers to ensure they are vibrant, engage faculty across Areas,
and conduct relevant and meaningful research. The Institute is also contemplating setting up
new Centers where interest and opportunities intersect.
Programmes
Following are key highlights of the long duration programmes.
The PGP programme is going through a detailed internal review. We expect the results of
the review process to influence significantly the structuring and offerings of the programme.
Meanwhile, the programme continued to flourish. Several new elective courses were offered,
ranging from focused topics to perspective building courses. The number of institutions with
which IIMA has exchange programmes has continued to grow. As of the end of Academic
Year 13-14, the Institute had exchange relationships with 71 institutions. About 35% of the
student body took advantage of the exchange programmes. The PGP Programme was ranked
18th by Financial Times among Masters in Management programmes as of 2013. Students were
admitted through a meritocratic and independent admissions process. Although pleased with
the quality of intake, the Institute has been concerned with the homogeneity of the entering
class, which is heavily dominated by engineering school graduates and men. In coming years,
we will endeavor to mold the admissions process to ensure that quality of students continues
to be exceptional even as we admit a more diverse group. Placements continued to be strong.
Several co-curricular events kept the student body actively engaged, both academically and
socially.
PGP-ABM programme continued to be one of the premier agribusiness focused programmes,
ranked number one worldwide for 2013 by Eduniversal. The programme is also going through
a detailed review, with the results likely to significantly influence the programme structure.
In admissions, following a conscious choice by the PGP-ABM programme committee, the
mix of applicants has broadened to include larger number of students from non-agriculture
backgrounds. The programme has three components: management compulsory courses,
agribusiness compulsory courses, and elective courses. A distinguishing feature of the
programme, four week long rural immersion towards the end of the first year, provides
students a thorough experience of ground realities in the rural environment.
The PGPX programme, launched in 2005-2006 as a one year residential programme for
executives with substantial work experience, continued to attract outstanding candidates, who
have found the programme useful, and have proceeded to outstanding contributions in their
careers. The programme was ranked 26th worldwide for 2013 by Financial Times among global
MBAs. Given the significant work experience of the cohort, placements require specialized
attention. The Institute has decided to strengthen the placement office to support this activity.
The FPM programme awarded 10 Fellow titles in 2013-14. The programme is also going
through a detailed review and is likely to significantly influence its structure in future. Given
the pressing need for qualified management researchers and faculty in the country, the
programme is important not only for IIMA’s academic environment but for the nation as well.
In addition to the long duration programmes, the Institute has significantly revamped its MDP
(management development programme) offerings and relabeled the activity as Executive
Education, to bring it more in line with global developments. We expect Executive Education
activities to grow significantly in scale and scope and become more aligned with the Institute’s
strategic objectives.