The youngest Indian Institute of Management (IIM) at Trichy, is finally taking shape. With the announcement that it will be offering admissions from the coming academic year and the recent appointment of its director, MBA aspirants have something to look forward to. Faculty of IIM-Calcutta, Professor Prafulla Agnihotri, in one of the first interviews as director of IIM-T talks to PaGaLGuY about what he thinks are the challenges facing the institute and how he plans to counter the competition IIM-T faces from other IIMs and established institutes in terms of students as well as recruiters.

Professor Agnihotri has about 10 years of experience in the shipping sector, exports, sales and training. For the last 11 years he has been a full time faculty. His academic qualifications include Bachelors in Commerce (B. Com.) and Masters in Management Science (MMS) from the University of Mumbai followed by Ph.D from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS). He has taught courses in marketing, strategic brand management, services marketing, international marketing and international management.

Among other publications, professor Agnihotri has also co-authored a book, ‘Principles of Marketing’ with Philip Kotler, Gary Armstrong and Ehsan ul Haq.

What was the selection process used while appointing you as director IIM-T?

The process of my selection and appointment was similar to that of a director of any of the other IIMs. There was a search committee appointed as per the directions of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD). This search committee looks for probable candidates who can take up the position and calls for their resumes. After the resumes are reviewed, a short-list of probable candidates is submitted to the MHRD where a panel of officials from the department, board members of the institutes and others scan through all the resumes and finally select one from them.

The older IIMs worry about their senior faculty taking up faculty positions or directorship of the new IIMs/ other business schools. IIM-A, has stopped giving leave to faculty members to take up such appointments/assignments. How did IIM-C react in your case?

IIM-C was extremely supportive and it was great when members of the staff came in huge numbers to extend their best wishes. I personally feel that the older IIMs should not deprive their faculty of the extra exposure and experience they can garner while serving in some other institute. Public institutes that they are, the older IIMs have a responsibility and they should fulfil it by mentoring the new IIMs as well as other upcoming business schools in the country to upgrade the quality of education.

If the older IIMs want to retain good faculty, they should not apprehensively hold them back. They should allow them to learn, interact and return after the break of five years as more enriched individuals.

Many have openly argued that the launch of the new IIMs is diluting the brand IIM. What is your personal take on this?

Why is there always an argument that the new IIMs will dilute the brand ‘IIM’? It is an IIM and it will create its own brand. There are almost two lakh CAT takers and the existing IIMs offer only about 3000 seats. Does it mean the rest of the candidates are not good. The new IIMs work on the same philosophy and are building avenues to disperse quality education.

Talking about IIM-T, what do you see as your biggest challenge?

The biggest challenge for IIM-T as an institute and for me as a director is to attract good students. Our ultimate goal will be to take these good candidates, polish them and turn them into semi-finished managers for the industry to absorb instantly. This is also the reason we are starting off with a small batch of not more than 60 students so that it is easier to train and place the students in the first few years.

Have you had the chance to interact with the industry and gauge what it feels about IIM-T?

I have begun interacting with the industry and the recruiters. Some of these are Slot 0 recruiters at IIM-C. What I have in mind for the students at IIM-T is a reduced gap between the academics and industry requirements. As a part of the academic curriculum will be an opportunity for the students to work on live projects. The students will get to work with professionals and learn from them on the job. The institute will take up industry projects say for instance, the launch of a product by a FMCG company or assist a Chief Financial Officer of a company. The idea behind this is to increase the practical knowledge and experiential learning of every student of IIM-T.

Will placements be another big challenge for a new institute like IIM-T?

Of course! Placements are important and serve as ready proof for the next batches. But they are not to be given too much of importance. Placements is always an outcome of a process and not the process itself. Thus, we will need to work on the process which is getting good students and moulding them into competitive managers and the outcome will take care of itself.

The other newly established IIMs have taken many initiatives for the benefit of the local community around the campus. What are the plans of IIM-T?

Since I have not moved to Trichy and have not started working there yet, it will be hard for me to pin-point towards which of the exact areas in the local community need help. But we will be more than happy to offer programmes and consulting for the local community around the campus. It is a part of any institute’s social responsibility.

How to you plan to get the desired faculty members for the institute?

We have already started working on that. We are inviting applications for prospective faculty members who have industry experience and a good academic and research background. We want to hire at least 10 competitive permanent faculty members before the session starts in June 2011.

How would you pitch Trichy to a prospective faculty member?

IIM-Trichy will offer its faculty members a lot of freedom and support for research. There will be opportunities for them, like at the other IIMs, to take up consulting projects and training programmes. As a city, Trichy is safe and comfortable. The city has proximity to Bangalore and Chennai. And once the campus is ready, it will be a community in itself.

What would be the relationship with IIM-Bangalore and how would it help in setting up IIM-T?

IIM-B is the mentor of IIM-T. It is like how IIM-C is mentoring IIM-Ranchi. IIM-B will be supporting IIM-T in conducting the admissions, and also the academic, administrative and finally the placement processes. In the first few years, there would be faculty from IIM-B who will serve as the visiting faculty for IIM-T.

What infrastructure facilities will the batch joining IIM-T in June 2011 have?

The Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has offered to give IIM-T a portion of their premises where we will be conducting our classes and setting up offices. National Institute of Technology (NIT)-Trichy will be providing one of their hostels to accommodate our students. The faculty accommodation has also been created at the NIT campus. Moving into our own campus will take around three years from now. The campus will be built on 192 acres of land and would not be very far from the city. The campus will be state of the art, for the next generation of management graduates.

How has been the support of the government agencies central as well as state?

Though I have not had a chance to interact with the Tamil Nadu state government yet, during the solitary visit I had made to the city after my appointment, many of the state government officials were there. They seemed to be very enthusiastic about the institute and provided land which is not far from the city or the airport. The central government has been very supportive too and has been facilitating everything for us to offer admissions starting from the next academic year.