Given your experience at Institutes like Great Lakes & IIM Ranchi, what would you like to establish for VIT Business School as the Executive Director?

Just as VIT University is the most preferred destination for engineering education in the country, I would like to make the Business School as the most sought after destination for MBA aspirants. We have now embarked on a new path to take VIT business school to the next higher orbit. We are now developing activities that can be used to provide experiential learning that can impart these skills. For example, we are introducing a course on `Business Documentary Film Making’, that will impart skills in film making for documenting business cases like voice of the customer, worker conflicts etc.

Universities in India haven’t been able to establish Management Programs that have created an identity for themselves like the way a Wharton at University of Pennsylvania has. What do you think is the challenge here?

It is true that Universities in India haven’t been able to establish Management Programs that have created an identity for them. There are exceptions, such as FMS – Delhi University. MBA departments in most private Universities get over-shadowed by the engineering departments. In the US Universities, the `Management Schools’ and the `Law Schools’ make more money compared to other Schools. In order to reach this status, Indian business schools should get out of the teaching-shop mind set. Not more than 50% of the School’s revenue should be from MBA fees.

Do you think that the cross-discipline learning is possible to implement in the Indian University scenario?

Cross-discipline learning can be implemented by the following steps:

(1)As the business problems are inter-disciplinary in nature, one approach to help students see problems in their multi-dimensions is to get teachers to co-teach with teachers from relevant disciplines

(2)The other issue is to provide opportunities for students to take up courses in allied areas that will help the students gain in-depth understanding of a subject of interest

(3) The third aspect is to allow students from Engineering, Agriculture and other disciplines to take up management courses with MBA students so that cross-discipline learning can take place at the student to student level

What are the top 5 factors you would look into a student when you are recruiting him/her for an MBA program / seat of excellence ?

Let me tell you what I do not look for, before we go to things that I look for in a student. I certainly do not look for people with consistently high academic performance right from their school to college. Such people are straight jacketed and are not fit to mange in a turbulent and complex business environment.

I like to recruit students who

– are curious about things that are happening around them

– have a general awareness about a lot of things

– are proud of the country

– have a good value system