Shaping Careers, Lives and World Class Institutions – An Exclusive Interview with Prof. Janat Shah
Exclusive Interview with Prof. Janat Shah: Shaping Careers, Lives and World Class Institutions
From The Experts’ Mouth (FTEM) is excited to present an exclusive interview with Prof. Janat Shah, Founding Director – IIM Udaipur. He shares his journey of building a world class institution in a short span of less than a decade. Prof. Shah describes how IIM Udaipur became the youngest B-School (business school) in the world to be ranked in the prestigious QS Masters In Management (MIM) and the Financial Times’ MIM (Global Rank – 72) for two consecutive years. We also obtained pearls of wisdom from him on planning the journey of life and career, with a special focus on navigating the pandemic. He also shared his perspective on the Digital Enterprise Management (DEM), probably India’s only such MBA program! Let us join Prof. Janat Shah in this excusive interview as he shares the secrets of shaping careers, lives and world class institutions.
What were your initial goals when you started your journey as the Founder Director of IIM Udaipur?
The prospect of being the Director of IIM Udaipur was exciting as it was a chance to build a different kind of institution which focuses on students’ transformational journeys and high-quality research. Learnings from the experiences of older IIMs helped us enormously with the groundwork. Furthermore, leading management schools in Singapore and Hong Kong helped us appreciate the international best practices. We were able to bring in new ideas on many fronts like creating a strong ecosystem for research, building on the philosophy of immersion for students’ learning experience, and employing experienced professionals for undertaking administrative responsibilities instead of giving them to faculty.
The results in terms of receiving AACSB accreditation in less than ten years or being one of the youngest schools in FT MIM (Masters in Management) and QS MIM global rankings for two consecutive years have been quite encouraging.
What is your secret sauce of success? What are the most important things that you did right?
I believe building an institution of impact takes futuristic vision, robust structures, a value-driven culture and, of course, engaged stakeholders.
We realized early on that initial years have long-term effects. We knew that we were entering a crowded market along with other second-generation IIMs. It was essential for us to create a unique identity to distinguish ourselves. We invested our time in understanding the architecture of high-quality institutions within the country and outside. After learning the challenges and opportunities, we identified the core focus areas for the first decade, which would set IIMU apart. High-quality research was one key focus area. Another focus area was to provide a transformational learning experience to our students on the foundation of immersion philosophy.
What was your brand promise to all your stakeholders – students, faculty members, recruiters and society at large?
The brand promise we shared with our students is to provide them with personalized learning experiences. Additionally, from day one, we have aspired to provide an educational experience which can be compared to the best B-schools in the country. Similarly, the brand promise to the recruiters was providing them with young managers who have gone through transformational learning.
For young faculty who wanted to focus on high-quality research, our brand promise was that we will provide them with the right ecosystem at IIMU and that the Institute is the best place in the country to start their careers.
To society at large, our brand promise was to provide our graduates with value-based, application-oriented learning who will become socially responsible managers with the right moral compass. In the second decade, IIMU would like to work directly with the larger community to make a difference to society.
Having been associated earlier with more established institutes such as IIM Bangalore, did you need to adjust your approach when you took over the reins at IIM Udaipur?
It is not easy for established institutions to experiment, which is one limitation IIMU didn’t have. We had tremendous scope to do several innovations. For instance, we decided that the faculty will not get involved with the administration at the beginning itself. Or, we will not start executive education in the first decade. So, as a new school, we had the advantage of leveraging learning from older IIMs and modifying our approach wherever required. One tricky area was that we did not have well-established alumni. To address that challenge, we focused on pan IIM alumni and built relations to create a network of friends of IIM Udaipur. Additionally, most of our visiting faculty are from IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Calcutta who could mentor our young full-time faculty.
Students graduating during these times were not expecting these circumstances. How would you advise them to re-calibrate their plans?
Students who are graduating in these times should plan for both short-term as well as long-term. They should promptly start adding value to the organization as well as understand the big picture of the organization. A summer internship can be an excellent opportunity to discover and explore on this front.
Compensation should not be the top priority. Students should focus more on adding to their skill sets; especially skills related to digital trends.
The pandemic has accelerated digital transformation beyond our wildest dreams. What, according to you, is the future of higher education and learning?
For top-quality management education, campus experience would remain as an essential part of the learning. Going forward, we may witness more B-schools with the capacity to carry out classes online, if the need arises. Furthermore, hybrid programs, a mix of online and offline teaching, may become more widespread. Nevertheless, Institutes are now determined to delve into technology to improve the learning experience for their students.
How important is continuous learning in the New Normal? How can the people who stepped out of universities a long time ago continue to sharpen the saw?
Given the ambiguous times we are witnessing, careers in the future will be quite different than today. Two attributes a young manager should focus on are curiosity and adaptability. It is vital for managers to be responsive and continuously learn so that they thrive in changing circumstances. Furthermore, I think, another critical quality is empathy. Young managers need to consider the social inequalities which have become even more evident due to the pandemic.
You have always advocated a holistic approach to life and career. What is the key take-away from the ongoing pandemic about balancing various aspects of our life?
I have always believed that management is one of the noblest professions. Management education’s core fundamentals need to be complemented with critical components like rural immersion, business ethics and co-curricular activities. It helps students to think beyond themselves and to have a long-term orientation. They learn to give back to the community and develop essential leadership skills during the process. One key takeaway that the ongoing pandemic has taught us is that we need a stronger focus on values and culture as institutions.
IIMU launched the first-ever One Year MBA program in Digital Enterprise Management. What has been the initial experience, in a year when Digital has been the focus, even for traditional businesses?
I want to respond from three distinct perspectives – the idea, our response to the pandemic, and the Digital Enterprise Management (DEM) program’s overall experience.
Digital Enterprise Management – The Idea
The concept and structure of DEM happened much before the world got to know of the Coronavirus. We interacted extensively with the industry, our advisory board and our BoG (Board of Governors) and then launched DEM in September 2019. At that juncture, the focus was to develop management and leadership talents for the ’emerging digital world’. We were working in the direction of digitalisation over time in the corporate world, which would need a new breed of talented managers and leaders.
Response to the Pandemic
However, when we had the first batch ready to come to the campus, the lockdown was announced, and we had to think and act quickly. While the academic world was still thinking on the course of action, we announced online classes for DEM and launched it in May. We allowed students to review their decision to join the program in the changed scenario. Our faculty underwent training on online teaching tools and even adapted the curriculum to suit this format – case study methods, evaluation techniques, student participation and knowledge assimilation were all re-assessed for their fitments. We engaged deeply with the students and provided them with support in different forms – mental health counselling and in executive coaching for leadership.
Experience with Digital Enterprise Management
The students were initially apprehensive but gradually understood the realities of the challenges. Once they adapted to the online environment, they responded very well to the program’s demands – assignments, test, preparations, etc. on the academic side or inviting industry leaders for talks and other engagements on the industry interface side.
So, our overall assessment is that the pandemic has quickly reaffirmed our judgement of digital being the way of conducting business and thereby giving further impetus to the concept of DEM. 40% of the students already being placed in leading companies is a good testimony that DEM will provide leadership and managerial talents to the businesses that are going digital.
About Prof. Janat Shah
Prof. Janat Shah is the founding Director of IIM Udaipur and has taken the B-School to unprecedented heights in it’s first decade itself. He has also been associated with IIM Bangalore, MIT Sloan School of Management, National University of Singapore and Nottingham University.
Prof. Shah has received several teaching awards and contributed immensely to the field of Operations Management and Supply Chain. He graduated as a mechanical engineer from IIT Bombay and obtained his Fellow in Management from IIM Ahmedabad.
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Great post. The current pandemic has indeed changed the status quo. Many people who can’t afford to travel will prefer the online mode of classes.
Prof. Janat is a visionary. He got a raw field in IIMU to experiment and shape and the results today deeply reflect his vision and approach. Excellent interview. I specifically liked….”building an institution of impact takes futuristic vision, robust structures, a value-driven culture and, of course, engaged stakeholders.” and …”transformational learning experience to our students on the foundation of immersion philosophy.”
It is rare to find such deep insights cutting across so many diverse facets of life, career, business, institution building and so much more in one place. However, this is not new for Prof Janat Shah. Even before AMAs (ask me anything) were a thing, he did a session Sunday afternoon with our IIM Bangalore batch, several years after we had passed out of campus, helping us find meaning in the race of our lives. I hope this piece helps more people find meaning in their careers and lives!
Several key takeaways from this interview, my favourite being:
“Management education’s core fundamentals need to be complemented with critical components like rural immersion, business ethics and co-curricular activities. It helps students to think beyond themselves and to have a long-term orientation.”
Good motivation especially for students!