Scaling greater heights

He has professional and academic experience in India, U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia, South East Asia and South Africa. A Fulbright fellow at Harvard University and MIT in the U.S., he later taught MBA programmes at the Harvard Graduate School of Business.

Dr. Chatterjee says that he wants the institution to reinvent itself. For this, he would push for more tie-ups with B-Schools across the world. (Already, IIM-K has international exchange programme for students and faculty with leading management institutes in Europe and ASEAN countries like SDA, Bacconi; Jonkoping, Sweden; Copenhagen Business School, Denmark; ESCAP-EAP, France; University of Queensland, Austria; and, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand)

The new IIM-K Director says that he wants to give more impetus to research in the institution. As part of this, researchers can come and stay in the IIM-K campus near Kozhikode for three months or so to research on a particular topic. IIM-K, which pioneered Interactive Distance Learning (IDL) for working executives in India, started a new programme—a two-year postgraduate diploma programme—designed exclusively for working professionals. It involves interactive distance learning and on-campus learning sessions with the faculty from IIM-K and other visiting faculty from reputed academic institutions and industry. The course, offered in association with Hughes India, is considered to be a first of its kind in the country.

Dr. Chatterjee says that he would try to bring in more people from the corporate world into the campus. IIM-K would take up researches in topics that could ultimately influence government policies. He says that the institute was facing faculty shortage. “But that has to be addressed nationally. I would suggest an Indian Institute of Teaching Excellence,” he said.

CAT

As per information posted on the IIM-K web site, www.iimk.ac.in, Common Admission Test, the entrance test for admissions to IIMs, is going to be computer-based test and not an Internet-based one. The candidates do not take their test on an Internet site. Instead of reading the questions in a paper booklet and darkening the ovals on the answer-sheet, a candidate will read the questions on a computer terminal and choose an answer by clicking on the correct option. The web site says that CAT is not going to be a computer-adaptive test. Responding to a query on the difficulties faced by students who do not get coaching facilities to crack the CAT, Dr. Chatterjee said that it is not easy to change a successful system.But there was scope for experimentation.

Referring to his own experience, he says that he was born in a small town in West Bengal. He went to a Bengali-medium school, but later taught at Harvard. In his opinion, every one would be able to cross the barrier and surge ahead each time they reach the threshold.

He also said that the number of students has increased at the institute. In this academic year, close to 310 students were admitted. It may be noted that IIM-K started with a batch of just 42 students for its postgraduate programme, but the strength increased to 120 in 2003, 180 in 2005 and to 261 in 2008.

He says that IIM-K wants to double the number of Management Development Programmes. The Faculty Development Programmes will be taking in faculty members from other B-Schools as participants. Recession had taken a toll on the placements. Dr. Chatterjee says that this was the case in all B-schools across the world. He thinks students must focus on the values and ethics of business at a time when the glamorous aspect of the management programmes no longer exists. Dr. Chatterjee has a wide range of interests that includes topics such transformational leadership, personal growth, self-mastery and Asian culture and management.

Recently, he introduced a room of silence where students can come and remove their personal egos and reflect on their actions. It would be like ‘having an appointment with oneself’. The institution was also planning to build a sports complex, and the foundation stone would be laid in two to three months.