IIMs to create managers with right values

At the golden jubilee celebrations, of the oldest Indian Institute of Management, in Calcutta, managers and academicians termed the pursuit of money, a sure shot road to failure.

A bit of an oxymoron given that the Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) dream centres around the phenomenal salaries that its campus recruitments can offer.

The event, where the teachers of the Indian wealth creators spoke like apologists for producing managers and not humanitarians, “creation of managers with right values” was outlined as a major goal for the IIM system.

Directors from IIM-Lucknow, IIM-Bangalore, IIMC-Indore, and IIM-Ranchi debated at the Director’s Conclave, a set of issues as described by the IIM-Calcutta director, Shekhar Chaudhuri as being the primary set of challenges the IIM system faces.

“Movement in focus from teaching to research-based excellence, a general scarcity of resources, the issue of achieving gender balance in student profile and faculty augmentation”, Chaudhuri explained, are areas where IIMs need improvement.

The much-revered and sought-after IIMs, in self critique mode, outlined the factors that explained these shortcomings, albeit allowing themselves leeway by way of excuses.

While unanimity characterized discussion on quality research being the mark of a world class institute, a benchmark that the Indian management czars do not fulfill, dissent was obvious explaining the reasons for this absence.

“Research has not been demanded of the IIMs,” said IIM-Bangalore director, Pankaj Chandra.

The new IIMs, which are barely a year old, have come under attack in the past for their inability to replicate the success of the old IIMs by way of teaching quality, facilities offered.

The context assumed significance today, when IIM-Ranchi director, M J Xavier, was the lone dissenting voice amidst a cacophony of conformity on how the IIMs are short of resources. “There is no dearth of resources in the IIM system,” said Xavier, who is also an IIM-Calcutta alumnus.

“Resources are available if we look for them. IIM-Ranchi has asked for a Rs100 crore interest free loan from the Union ministry for human resource development,” he said, explaining that IIMs can raise funds by being innovative.

Of the many debates around IIMs, the one about the absence of diversity, in light of the fact that more often than not, more than 98 per cent of the students are engineers with 3-4 years of working experience.

While refusing to take a stand, the directors today gave acquiesce to the fact that the Common Admission Test (CAT) is a quant-based exam favoring the engineers. Whether this is slated to change, keeping in mind a more inclusive classroom is the goal.

The IIM system, since its establishment some five decades back, will strive to achieve this goal.

This, they said is still, some way off.