IIM-A wakes up to its alumni army

Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) Board of Governors' Chairman A M Naik, Director Ashish Nanda and Dean (alumni and external relations) Arvind Sahay have a hectic travel plan these days.

Having realised that IIM-A has been slow in tapping its alumni globally, the trio, along with other senior faculty, has already visited the institute's alumni associations in Dubai (the United Arab Emirates), Boston and Chicago (both US), even as more visits are being planned to Singapore and New York (US), among other places.

Nanda said: "In the past, the institute has been a bit lax in reaching out to our global community of alumni though that is also because it was engaged in local issues. However, in the last six months, our board of governors chairman and I, along with other senior colleagues have been reaching out to our alumni in various parts of the world. We have been to Mumbai alone three-four times and held alumni meetings. Internationally, we have been first time to Dubai, Boston and Chicago and will be going to Singapore for the first time, too. Other than that, we have had reunions in New York as well."

Sahay admits they had failed to reach out to the 15 alumni chapters, 10 are in the country and five abroad. "So far, chapters have more or less operated on their own, with once in a while representation from the institute. We would now like to be present in at least one event of all the chapters every year. We do not want to wait for them to come to us. Visits have already been made to such events by the chairman, director and me, along with other colleagues, at different times in the last six months," said Sahay.

Global visits are a small part of the initiatives the institute has planned. For instance, soon students in the two-year postgraduate programme (PGP) will get alumni as their mentors.

"We are starting an alumni mentorship process, where already 160 of our alumni have signed up. Each alumnus would provide inputs to one or two students as a mentor for two years," said Sahay.

IIM-A has hired Anjum Khan of the 1990 PGP batch to head the alumni relations wing. And, more reunions are being planned on the campus. "We usually have a reunion on campus in December. But we are working with each batch to conduct larger events, where alumni can engage with each other as families and professionals. Not to forget, the next batch of 2014-16 will be the 50th batch and hence, we will invite people of the first batch of 1964-66 for a reunion," said Sahay.

However, Nanda said the idea was not just to raise funds but also to connect with them.

For now, even as the institute sets a corpus target for raising funds through alumni contributions, Sahay points out three priorities. One, to generate resources for research and increasing productivity through research chairs. Two, more student scholarships. And, third, said Sahay,: "We want to raise funds for infrastructure support. Since we are planning to expand our faculty strength to 120 from current 93, we will have to expand faculty-staff housing as well. Hopefully, in the next six months we will have a specified target for raising funds."

THE TORCHBEARERS

• Fifteen alumni of IIM-A are needed to form a chapter
• 15 alumni chapters, 10 are in the country and five abroad
• The Singapore and US chapters have 400 and 450 alumni, respectively, while the Mumbai one has around 3,000