Kolkata, July 12

Allaying apprehensions over a possible misgovernance in management and operations of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIM-C), the Board of Governors (BoG), in a recent communication to its alumni network, has clarified that the institute has been focusing on bringing in fundamental structural changes in processes, systems and academic design.

The institute has recently come under fire allegedly for ‘fundamental changes in the governance’ and its ‘inaction, inefficiency and opacity’ in the governance process.

According to the BoG, the fundamental structural changes in processes, systems and academic design are mandated under the IIM Act 2017, which aims to elevate IIMs as global centres of management education. There is also a demand by international accreditation agencies for systemic changes. Hence, maintaining status quo would not be an option, particularly for IIMC, which has lagged behind IIMA and IIMB in the transformation process.

“To that end, the BoG, through the Director, as the executive head of the Institute, has been leading this change. The Director, with the help of several faculty members and administrators, has been working diligently on several initiatives aimed at improving the Institute’s standing, and has the full support and backing of the BoG. Many of these initiatives are foundational in nature. Some are already yielding positive results,” BoG said in its communication to the IIM-C alumni, a copy of which is with the BusinessLine .

Change is important

According to Anju Seth, Director, IIM-C, the change in the governance structures would bring in greater agility, accountability, and transparency as well as help evaluate and re-engineer its programmes and activities to support its vision and mission.

IIM-C was also in the process of reviewing and strengthening internal processes for effectiveness, efficiency and nimbleness in the 21st century so as to create a foundation for ‘solid investments’, she said in an e-mail response to queries sent by BusinessLine .

“In the post Covid-19 scenario, it has become imperative to review resource utilisation. It would be appropriate to say that as a public institution, we are obliged to focus on resource optimisation to ensure that the finite resources of the institute are utilised for high impact in our key areas of activity with transparency and accountability,” she said.

Just like other IIMs, IIM-C has also been able to create transparent processes for fundraising to assure its donors that their valuable gifts are being used in “tangible ways”.

Focus on infra

Acknowledging the fact that leading the change management exercise while challenging the status quo was a “complex task”, the BoG in its letter mentioned that such changes could well be a reason for prompting anonymous communications that were misleading in nature.

Being a public institution, the deliberations and decisions of the BoG of IIM-C as well as the overall functioning of the institute were open to public scrutiny. Assuring its stakeholders, the BoG said that it would strive to ensure that the “vector of change” was always pointing in the correct direction.

Recently, concerns have also been raised on the faculty strength and lack of institutional support for research.

To address a chronic shortage of top-class faculty members in critical areas of business and management, the institute has systematically analysed its recruiting needs and consolidated the process in line with its strategic goals.

The letter also clarified that the BoG was committed to a set of goals to strengthen and enhance the institute’s infrastructure and facilities, faculty resources, student experience, academic programmes, executive education and research excellence.

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