00:00Indian Institutes of Management in India are very important institutions.
00:09I must tell you that they produce significant impact on the Indian economy.
00:15As a matter of fact, you'll be surprised with this number because of so many numbers,
00:20I'll give one number.
00:22One of the ex-directors of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad,
00:25where I was a professor, happened to mention it and brought these numbers
00:29that one-third of Indian economy at that point in time was led by graduates of IIM.
00:36That's the impact of the IIMs on the Indian economy, which is now almost a trillion dollars.
00:43There was this group and they were asking questions, so each one had to answer.
00:48So the first person was asked, you know, what do you expect in terms of teaching?
00:51How would you like excellence could be achieved in teaching?
00:55The second one on research, third one on administration,
00:58and the fourth one was me to summarize everything.
01:01So the first question was excellence in teaching.
01:03The person said, you know, we have, we teach a lot.
01:06I think teaching loads should be cut, should be reduced significantly,
01:10and that will help us achieve excellence.
01:13The second person was on research and he said, you know what,
01:16we have this extraordinary focus on research now.
01:19This research is primarily North America driven and it's very difficult for Indian researchers to publish in North American journals.
01:27And essentially we are regurgitating concepts, theories, models, frameworks, which primarily apply to the North American context.
01:33So therefore, to become an excellent institution, we should not have this research load as is now being demanded by many of the top institutions.
01:41Now the third person was on administration and he said, you know what, professors are not supposed to do administration.
01:47In order for us to achieve excellence, we should not be doing any administration.
01:51We should only be focusing on excellence in teaching, excellence in research.
01:54Too much of load, too many committees, too many committee works, so on and so forth.
01:58This is too much.
01:59And I was the last person.
02:01And now I had nothing to say.
02:02I said, you know, what I'm going to do is I'm going to summarize.
02:05And I think in order for us to achieve excellence in academic institutions, I should not be teaching.
02:11I shouldn't be doing any research and I don't have to stay on campus.
02:15So I don't do any administrative work.
02:17Having said that almost 15, 20 years ago, now I reflect on what could be done.
02:25In India, I must tell you that the changing landscape of work is not being addressed, at least in India at the present time.
02:33Post-COVID attitude towards work has significantly and drastically changed.
02:37People really do not wish to dwell on work in Indian context.
02:44When I was growing up, we would be given a sketch pen and a notepad or a paper and we used to write work as worship.
02:52We used to put it in the prominent places in our school.
02:56That concept is long gone.
02:58Nobody is really interested in the quality, quantity of work anymore.
03:04Our faculty does not come from planet Mars.
03:06They come from the same surroundings.
03:08So achieving academic excellence in faculty when the attitude towards work has significantly changed is a question that we need to address, which I'll try to address right at the end.
03:19I still have about 11 minutes.
03:22Only four minutes.
03:24So second, in terms of research, I think again, in terms of research, what sort of focus, how networking can impact is a question that I'll take in the end.
03:38Second, very important point in terms of staff.
03:41Now, you know, it's so unfortunate that in academic institutions, staff is like a secondary citizen.
03:49It's really unfortunate, but that's how it is.
03:51That's the nature of the beast.
03:52So what do you do to encourage the staff to contribute with the same gusto and same fervor as faculty?
04:00Because faculty essentially takes the ownership of the institution.
04:03So that's the second.
04:04Third are our students.
04:06Believe you me, we have a 65,000 square foot library built in the shape of a diamond.
04:11It's extraordinary.
04:12You can see it from three miles away.
04:14It's beautiful.
04:15But how many books are checked out?
04:17So students are not reading anymore.
04:22They don't read anymore.
04:24I can give you the numbers, but that'd be very embarrassing.
04:28Reading in 2015, there was a test done by myself and my research team.
04:37The average attention span of watching a video in 2015 was 2 minutes and 43 seconds.
04:44In a sociological experiment conducted by my institution, my team, that number declined in 2018 to 1 minute and 10 seconds.
04:53In 2021, that number was 53 seconds.
04:57And in 2024, just included about four months ago, that number is now 21 seconds.
05:03If I don't grab your attention.
05:06So I'm supposed to be, you know, a trapeze artist in a classroom to attract the attention of my students.
05:14And not only attract the attention, but to retain that sort of an engagement.
05:18So students is the third one.
05:20Fourth are alumni.
05:22Alumni.
05:23Alumni of the institutions largely, and I'll speak in Indian context.
05:28It's a very different sort of environment.
05:31In North American context, the taxes, the tax breaks, and many other, you know, benefits that the alumni get by particularly participating in so many of the extra activities of the universities in football, you know, basketball, tickets and so on and so forth.
05:49This is a real incentive.
05:52In Indian context, the alumni engagement and alumni contributions, particularly financial contributions are still, you know, they have a long way to go.
06:01So how do you engage alumni?
06:02Because largely what has been viewed is that alumni interaction with the institution, even the best ones, is very limited and it's largely one way.
06:14Final, I believe, society in terms of achieving academic excellence, I think society, the world around us also demands certain structure, certain degree of what I would say impact from the institution.
06:37So these are the five.
06:38So these are the five.
06:39I'll start with the number one.
06:40I think the faculty.
06:41Faculty, in my view, still is inspired, really inspired by inspirational leadership.
06:49If you have an individual who is committed, I speak from personal experience, as I said, if you are committed and the faculty views, now, how would you inspire them?
07:01You know, you could really be an extraordinary researcher, you could be an extraordinary teacher, you could be an extraordinary administrator.
07:08One of the three at least.
07:09You need to fill one of the buckets.
07:12If you're not filling any of the buckets, and you were just there.
07:15So inspirational leadership is from the, what would really, I believe, financial incentives give pride.
07:22In our institution, I speak.
07:24We probably offer top dollar in terms of the hourly pay for our faculty when they teach an executive education, which still don't find tickets.
07:32So therefore, in my view, in a multivariate equation, the single biggest predictor of inspiring the faculty to achieve academic excellence is inspirational leadership.
07:45Second, for students, I believe the students are still looking for rigor.
07:52Again, I must say multivariate equation.
07:54They are not looking for entertainment.
07:55They are still demanding.
07:57They are still looking.
07:59Not that, you know, not that they are devoting time to look for rigor, but they appreciate rigor.
08:07There is this general sense.
08:09So in a multivariate equation, the most significant predictor of student interest, which would then align with the academic excellence is rigor.
08:19So I encourage that professors in my institution still continue, not just to entertain the students, but also to have certain degree of rigor in what they do.
08:28And what they need to bring to the classroom for our staff.
08:33I believe the very and the most important, I would say in the multivariate equation predictor of staff being motivated to contribute to the academic excellence is respect.
08:45I think inspirational leadership or incentives really won't go that far.
08:51We really need to work our way around so that we can recognize some of these individuals who are in the background.
08:58You know, so much work goes on.
09:00It's like, you know, the professor is just an actor.
09:04There's so much goes on behind the scene.
09:06There has to be mechanisms for giving respect, not incentive, mind you, respect to the staff to have motivation to allow us to achieve academic excellence.
09:17And now the fourth one, which is the alumni.
09:20I think alumni even now, I believe would look for some degree, some, some sort of, I would say recognition.
09:36They are looking for recognition.
09:38They would like you to recognize them as the institution which gave them the platform or opened the door or gave them the key, whatever you want to call it.
09:48They are looking for some degree of recognition.
09:52So I think we need to find ways in which we could, we could recognize our alumni so that there could be greater motivation for them to seek academic excellence.
10:02And finally, I think the community, nothing speaks more than the actual world.
10:08If you've actually done something, the community will recognize it.
10:12I speak from my experience.
10:13If you've really built a program, built an institution, if you've added numbers, if you've grown in a number of programs, number of students, if you've grown in terms of corpus and grown in terms of surplus, grown in terms of impact in public policy or in the domain of your expertise, the actual work really is something that counts.
10:34So the community will always look for, there's no way they can negate the actual work.
10:41So in summary, I think faculty is yearning for inspirational leadership.
10:50Unfortunately, in an environment where we have become so politically correct that we can't call a fat man, a fat man, a black man, a black man, a white man, a white man.
11:01It becomes really difficult to achieve that sort of an inspiration where people actually mean what they say.
11:08People really don't mean half the time what they say.
11:11So inspirational leadership for our faculty, for our staff, I must tell you, they are yearning for people to give them some respect.
11:18They are in the background.
11:20Our students are looking for rigor.
11:22They are not really looking for entertainment.
11:23They might enjoy your class, but they will go back and tell everybody you delivered nothing.
11:29There was a deadly squat given to them when they finished that credit.
11:34And our alumni are yearning for recognition.
11:38Please recognize them in our society.
11:40Please actually, we should really help build something.
11:44I'm thankful to the MBA, you know, and also the team here for giving me this opportunity.
11:51In addition, I think we will have so much to do together through this platform.
11:57Our institution, Indian Institute of Management, it is in the National Capital Region.
12:03We are just 90 minutes from the New Delhi Airport.
12:05We welcome you all.
12:06We are always looking for individuals to come teach in our institution as desk faculty, visiting faculty, to come spend their sabbaticals.
12:13Thank you very much.
12:15And I look forward to interacting with you during the break.
