ISB faculty to be part of exchange initiatives with corporates

Will visit companies to study, understand their challenges

Indian School of Business (ISB) faculty will be part of a unique exchange programme wherein they would go and study a company for a couple of weeks and those from companies would come to ISB for a sabbatical.

Rajendra Srivastava, Dean, Indian School of Business (ISB) in an interview to Business Standard said that many academic institutions are very theoretically biased in research work that they do.

"At some point, we should ask do these ideas work? What are the challenges to implement these ideas, we must ask," he said explaining that balancing theory with practice is needed. For this, ISB is looking at ways to get more thought leaders from industry into academia and to also take out some of our academia and put them into industry.

The dean said that a faculty could go to a company and figure out and what are the challenges, opportunities they have. Post this, they could work with the industry and come out with better definition of research that we ought to do.

Srivastava said that he is arguing for having live case studies rather than studying old cases. Especially in sectors like technology and finance/financial services, he said that the landscape is changing fast and there is a need to learn from the changes happening via collaborations.

The business school is starting a Centre for Learning and Management Practice. While ISB has brought out several Indian cases, the aim is to have Asian cases as well.

"We aim to put capability in the Centre to take theoretical articles and convert them into something which managers can read. We will also develop capacity to better integrate with industry," he explained.

ISB is looking at ways to provide many sabbaticals to industry leaders. If someone can take a week or two off from their schedule, the Dean said that they will be able to bring them on their learning journey. In exchange, ISB would put some of their faculty into the companies for a couple of weeks to gain insights.

Srivatsava said that what works in India may not work in some other countries.Hence, he wanted his faculty to be better acquainted and hoped that they will also visit the company's foreign markets. Those insights will creep into the classroom and research.  

The mission of the new dean is to make ISB an international school. It announced 10 full scholarships, one from each Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) country. Srivatsava added that they are also trying to get their corporate partners to also match it by sponsoring candidates from other countries/markets where they are present or want to expand their precense in.

Here at ISB, he said that faculty exchanges from international universities will also be encouraged.

"We will provide all assistance for foreign faculty members who come to India for sabbatical. The Centre for Learning and Management Practice will act as the hub and we will provide them a research assistant, local industry connections and also give them some travel money," he said.

These individuals would also be helped to connect with Reserve Bank of India, NASSCOM and this would help ISB gain insights into Asia and emerging markets, according to the Dean. Getting more foreign students is also an important part of the plan and ISB's admissions office is working towards this goal.

"We wish to blend the knowledge from the West with ideas in the East," he said.