The Hindu Business Line : ‘Opportune time to focus on research’

He has come with a multi-point programme to head one of Asia’s best B-schools. But the top agenda for Prof Pankaj Chandra who took charge as Director of the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, last week is to bring together all stakeholders of management education (government, faculty, students and industry) to make IIMB a world-class institution. “We should be at the head table of the best business schools globally,” he says.

This is an exciting time and a grand opportunity for institutes like IIMB to seriously work in the areas of research and entrepreneurship, he says.“India is changing dramatically. There has to be insightful analysis of the change that is occurring in the country and we at the IIMs can do it,” he says.

Prior to his present assignment as director at IIMB, Prof Chandra was a professor of operations and technology management at IIM, Ahmedabad.

In Bangalore, it would be pertinent to develop research agenda around the IT industry, he says. “I would like to look at case-based research on strategic development and the entry of Indian IT companies globally.”

He agrees that the biggest challenge for the education sector today is attracting qualified faculty, a problem that he intends to solve by creating ‘chairs’. This would also help attract global teaching talent to the country.

Diversity is another issue that premier management institutes in the country face. Though there is a fine line dividing merit and diversity, Prof Chandra believes innovative and creative programmes would draw a larger faculty pool into the country.

Prof Chandra is currently working on projects to understand the mechanisms of co-ordination across various Indian industries and networks to build technological capabilities in India and China.

Commenting on the status of Chinese management education, he says over 15 years, both the number of institutes and the quality of education imparted has improved. India had also been through the first phase of management education.

“We have close to 1,200 B-schools and it’s time we move to Phase II when development and consolidation has to happen,” he says. This is one area where he intends to link up with other management schools in the country. All institutes cannot be like the IIMs, i.e., full-service providers. “Some have to have a regional focus, some can have a sectoral focus and some can be institutes for people with work experience. With this kind of strategy, there will be a deepening of effort in management education,” he feels.

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