IIM Review (Bhargava) Committee Report

The Bhargava committee report on review of IIMs is out and as expected the usual noises about autonomy and MHRD control are being made in the media. I am surprised how hypocritical people are! The committee analysis has been accurate in almost all counts. Except for a few anomalies, the suggestions were in the expected lines.

In the name of independence there is an enormous waste of resources due to duplication of activities across IIMs. One example is the admission interviews, where top students are interviewed by every IIM panel!

The systems, policies and procedures in IIM A, B & C are different due to historical reasons, but what is the need to have different policies for faculty compensation? The committee accurately points out that the 'overtime' payment system does not add value, leading only to mercenary activities. For example, a faculty member of IIM Indore is supposed to have made more than Rs 20 lakhs in a YEAR in conducting the so called lower end training programs for corporates. In another young IIM, faculty members are exploited in the name of contractual appointments, to the extent that their total compensation in an year does not cross Rs 3 lakhs, which is less than what a fresh engineer from a decent college gets!

The difference between the best and lowest compensation across IIMs would tell a undigestable tale. Ironically the highest compensation is not of the same level across IIMs. Especially in the newer IIMs the difference could be more than five times in the top earnings itself. This is not because of faculty competencies but due to the differences in policies and rules for consulting and training assignments. Its high time that the government and the country accept the fact and take remedial actions to ensure that faculty compensation across IIMs are comparable and same system is implemented in the new IIMs to be started rather than letting them reinvent the wheel (that too inefficiently ineffectively)!

The major issue of corporate governance in IIMs is a well kept secret. At one level people in the knowhow would state that the government has been open to many proposals from IIM boards. IIM directors have been restricted by the collegial decision making by faculty where one determined professor can undermine any major decision. However there were many instances where an IIM director had pulled wool over the BoG eyes and acted in their own interests. This is very true of the smaller IIMs where the faculty council does not have the history and maturity to provide leadership to the institute leading to a situation where suitcase directors (who visit the insti once in a while) use their post for their personal/career progress at the cost of long term viability.

Another issue is the impact of IIMs on management education in India, which has not been upto expectations and neither the boards nor the faculty members seem to be concerned! IIMs role in the apex body for management education in India AICTE is minimal and IIMs also should be blamed for the same.

The Committee's detailed suggestion on environment friendly buildings, etc for the new IIMs are pertinent considering that the basic facilities in the youngest IIMs are lacking in minimal infrastructure because the decision makers were non academicians. It would be better if experts from management education with breath of experience are involved in the initial stages and a clarity in environmentally friendly design and scale of operations is maintained.

I am unable to understand the committee's decision on restricting the 'overtime' payment to 15% and the suggestion for a bond for doctoral students. Very few would be willing to commit 9-10 years of their life for the a career in academics in India. The overtime payment issue needs a broader discussion and consensus with equity and transparency. The present system is not transparent enough to the extent that the compensation for various activities for faculty members across IIMs are not available in the public domain and there is a systematic effort to keep it opaque.

What am I doing?

I am happy after the first week in the new institute I joined. I have always wondered, whether my inputs are making a difference to the students. When I teach Organization THeory & Design, I have come some evidence immediately of the impact it has on the students. The real impact would be visible and appreciable only when the students reach senior positions. When I teach 'Discovering Self' the evidence is much more obvious. But the number of students I can cover is limited because of the model.
I wanted to scale up, reach more students, especially those who dont have access to good support. Ironically the best teachers are available only in the best institutions, where in my opinion the students can work by themselves a lot. It is the weaker students who need more support and the skills they acquire will make a huge difference in their life and career. I am happy now that I am making a difference to students who need support more.

I am also with a dilemma, if I reach the students of the top institutions, the snow ball effect would be much more. Really? I am not sure. I always believed that those who dont have access to information and social support for education will achieve great things if provided with support. I am not sure the percentage of students who come from backgrounds of information assymetry and lack of social support. May be most of them are from urban upper class backgrounds and are just left out of the rat race. Is it worth while? I am sure the students would gain a lot from me. But I am wondering whether it is really achieving my objective.

Learning Theatre

I was in Bangalore at the fireflies ashram (what a lovely place!) last week to participate in the Learning Theatre program organised by Sumedhas as a resource person.
This is my second time, I attended last year as a participant. Since then I have become a fan of of use of theatre in personal growth and in a mundane way training & development. The use of movement and action integrates the body in the learning /e experiencing process which is totally lost in the conventional settings.
In a lab setting (personal growth labs, process work, laboratory training, etc) the use of body and movement is limited and especially rhythm and balance is rarely involved. When the body, action and movements are included in the self reflective space located in rhythm I find the self exploratory process happening at a much deeper level with the same intensity but without the trauma that is usually experienced.
I have always found that body, action and movements have a deeper impact in training programs. Today I believe the impact would be much more if rhythm is included in the design of the experiential exercises. I am excited about doing in near future. I am sure it would lead to better learning, behavior modification and conceptualisation than possible in traditional methods.

Another thing I am left with whenever I interact with Sumedhas Fellows is a sense of awe. The richness of their experiences and the rich life they are leading continues to inspire me as it did in my first encounter with process work in CRI at IIMA and ERI in Zainabad in 1999.
It is very easy to get caught with the constraints and limitations of the world we live in and lead life in default options, rather than excercising will and make choices.

Recently somenody asked me what was the identity given to me in my first lab. It was a surprise question and started me thinking about my travel so far. Have I really moved, or am I living in an illusion of having moved? ........

Problems with Reliance USB Modem - ZTE MG880

Got a Reliance USB modem today. I had earlier returned a reliance wireless phone connection as they were charging me heftily and I felt cheated every time I had to waste time to get my bills / plan adjusted.

Anyways I finalised on reliance USB modem as the alternate choices - Tata Sky and Airtel seemed to have lesser coverage than reliance.

I installed the software for the ZTE MG880, following the instructions but was getting error messages. Realising that the problem might be because I was having Vista, I tried online to get solutions but none worked. Even the reliance web site did not give any clue on what to do. Finally I came across an online post giving the location of a driver

http://forums.techguy.org/windows-vista/669437-reliance-usb-modem-mg880-problem.html

The driver is available at http://www.rcom.co.in/Communications/rcom/Netconnect/RCZip/ZTE%20USB%20Modem.zip

Its a big file - 86 MB. I downloaded the driver and it works fine.

Dont understand why the same was not given in the CD along with the MG880 or lack of support in the reliance website. Anyways thanks to thunderstrom now the connection is okay. Will update on the connection in the next few days.

Management Development

Recently I visited the management development center of an IT major. Every door was locked and needed an authorized electronic ID card to open. It was a delight to see the high tech class rooms with the audio & video equipment. There were class rooms with comfortable, lean back, rotating chairs. The rooms were spacious and designed in the typical rectangular shape with the faculty stage in the front.
What was surprising was there were no spaces where the participants of the MDP programs can work in small groups. It was as if they were expected to come and sit in the class room listen to the faculty and go home! In these modern days when learning, especially collaborative & experiential learning is the talk of the town, running a management development centre with classrooms designed only for lectures don't seem appropriate.

Mintzberg, a prominent management researcher and thinker has long been arguing for enabling managers to become leaders. He has been arguing against the case method and the MBA (the American model). He would be aghast if he finds that there are companies which still prefer the lecture and may be a discussion in a traditional class room to train their managers.

It made me wonder what is happening to management development in India.

Tarot - Continuing surprises

Guess what happened today? I drew 9 of fire as the card for the day. Since the image was disturbing and I couldn't make much out of it, I shuffled and took out a card! unbelievable, its the same card again.
Now consider this when I was trying the pack yesterday, I drew the same card and indicating the present. Coincidence ? Synchronicity?

Excited about the exploring the cards further....

Tarot - Surprises

I have been experimenting with tarot for some time now. Was always been fascinated, but never got down to buying one till recently. Then I bought three in quick succession and gifted one to a friend who was interested. I have two decks now, one the original Rider-Waite and another Osho Zen tarot pack.

Came across a website giving free on line lessons on learning tarot by Joan Bunning, author of "Learning the Tarot: A Tarot Book for Beginners". Check out the online course, its simple, easy to practice and with wonderful insights ... http://www.learntarot.com

One of the lessons is to take out a card everyday to get a feeling of the day ahead. The cards were so true! Most of the times the card drawn clearly indicated what was going to happen....And added to that there were a few cards that were repeating, indicating a pattern in what was happening in my life...

Have you tried it?

Got so excited that I bought another deck and presented to a friend. Since she has also become a fan. Last week bought the Osho Zen deck at landmark, Nungambakkam, Chennai. They had only three decks. One Indian deck which seemed like a clone of the Rider Waite. Didnt like the feel of these except the Osho Zen deck, so bought it immediately.

The Osho Zen pack is beautifully painted. Each card has a key word, which should make the reading easy. I subtle flowing images trigger intuition easily.

Planning to work on it regularly now..Wait for the updates...