(Photo credit: Rahul Desai)

The Union Human Resources Development (HRD) Ministry’s diktat a few months ago, that the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) launch a management journal on the lines of the celebrated Harvard Business Review (HBR) has set the ball rolling within the IIM camp. Though no firm plan has been drawn up yet, the issue has become a point of discussion among the IIMs’ top-brass. However, while this move has actually got the older and traditionally rival IIMs (read Ahmedabad and Calcutta) on a united plank, the newer ones seem to be left out in the cold.

According to sources, while the HRD prescription was to launch one magazine, there are actually now two magazines in the offing — the second one being designed and conceptualised by the six new IIMs started after 2009.

Sources add that IIM Shillong was probably the only one among the lot that was in a no-camp zone and not working on either of the two efforts. IIM Shillong officials did not comment on the issue.

Yes, there are two magazines

MJ Xavier, director of IIM Ranchi confirmed to PaGaLGuY that the newer IIMs (primarily Ranchi, Rohtak and Raipur) were in talks to get an HBR-type magazine in place. He said, “The six new IIMs have come together for this effort and plans are being put in place towards the venture. To begin with, we will organise conferences which will act as a platform for faculty to present their research papers which can be included in the magazine. The first such conference is expected to be held in August 2012.

When asked why the newer IIMs were working on a separate magazine when the older ones had already taken on the mantle of doing so, Prof Sougata Ray, Dean at IIM Calcutta laughed it out and said that two magazines was out of the question. Getting out one magazine is so much of work and responsibility, two magazines seems a far fetched idea, he said.

Sources say that the reason the new IIMs were spearheading a parallel effort was because they expected to find themselves sidelined with the older ones hogging the limelight and taking over the job entirely. Some of the newer IIMs not only face a huge faculty shortage but their research output is also negligible, considering their recent entry.

Prof V Gopal, Dean – Academics at IIM Trichy told PaGaLGuY said that the responsibility of the said research magazine would have to be taken over by one of the older IIMs as they had the bandwidth for it. The newer ones are still starting out. In fact IIM Trichy is not greatly involved with the magazine yet. When asked whether there were indeed two magazines in the making, Prof Gopal said that he had heard that some of the new IIMs were working on their own journal.

IIM Rohtak wants to anchor

It is learnt that IIM Rohtak had evinced an interest in anchoring the HRD-driven magazine. But there was no progress on that front. Given the stalwarts at Ahmedabad and Calcutta in the picture, there was little likelihood that the institute would get the chance. IIM Rohtak director P Rameshan said that it would be good for IIM Rohtak to play an important part in the magazine.

Prof Rameshan added that at the moment it was too early to talk about how many journals were going to see the light of the day. For now, all the IIMs have to work seriously on getting to the level of being able to produce a good quality magazine, he said. His institute was looking to focus on international collaborations which would augment its capability to produce a good journal, he added.

Research, the hurdle

The biggest stumbling block en route to launching an HBR-type management journal is the insufficient internationally qualitative research across the IIMs. The Indian School of Business, Hyderabad is credited to have published more papers than the IIMs between 2000 and 2010. Prof Xavier is of the view that not only is research incentivised well enough in India b-schools.

IIM Calcutta’s Prof Ray agrees that research gets low priority at Indian b-schools. The management journal will require a much higher focus on research. But it also brings up the question of faculty. We need more research-capable faculty, said Prof Ray. The IIM Calcutta dean added that unless there was qualitative research for the mainstay of the new journal, there was no point coming up with one. We are proceeding slowly with this idea but we are on it nevertheless. IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Calcutta have decided to look at the magazine issue seriously, though nothing has really been chalked out.”

IIM Ahmedabad was contacted for its version, but the person connected to Research and Publications said that he did not have any knowledge about the magazine. Any talks about the journal were still at the Director level.

While the name of the new magazine has not even been discussed among the IIMs, the HRD ministry has used the name ‘Indian Business Review’ — IBR for short — in some of its communiques.

While earlier reports indicated that the journal could start publishing by the end of 2011, IIM directors say it will take months to just get started with collecting material, leave alone putting it together. Though the magazine will be self-funded, the HRD ministry is planning to provide a grant to get it on its feet.

Not just case papers

Prof V Gopal said that the new magazine should ideally read to the practitioners and not just be full of case studies. The HBR is not just case studies all the way, it reads to the practitioner and that is what we should get to. This is an opportunity to showcase the work done in the IIMs. Not all the work done is known, answered Prof Gopal.

When asked whether there were enough case studies and appropriate ones to speed up the magazine launch, Prof Gopal answered that the magazine could always invite material from outside. Not all that goes into the HBR is authored by Harvard’s own professors.