In keeping with the changing times...

An often used and quoted phrase from Heraclitus is “Nothing is constant but change”, I wonder how one man could have so plainly and accurately conveyed the one and only absolute truth that governs us all. If we look around us also, the rate at which the world is changing is mind numbing. Here today, changed tomorrow is real and it is the only paradigm that leaders of the world live by. 

I have often heard teachers and educationists commenting on the fact that how the student population is changing. Comparisons are drawn of how students were more sincere and committed earlier than now. I feel, in the light of all that is changing, why shouldn’t the students change. Being a part of the change themselves, they learn and grow as they see the change shaping up around them. It would be unwise to assume anything but otherwise. 

In these changing and dynamic times, education as a concept and an industry needs to change too. Only those institutions that are in touch with the changing times will survive and consequently grow. Today the rate of the change is such that content and pedagogy designed even one year ago becomes irrelevant in the face of the changing times. The economic slowdown of 2008 also brought into focus the relevance and criticality of these issues. When business managers didn’t know how to react, they took decisions that in their limited vision helped their organisations whereas infact, these very decisions proved detrimental to the interest of the organisations that they served.

Many business managers feel that B-schools need to partner corporations in such situations and help them recover from the abyss that they have slipped into. IIPM has been one such front runner which has constantly innovated and enhanced it curriculum based on the ever changing demands of the corporate world. We have also partnered organisations and developed industry relevant curriculum so that these organisations can reap the benefits of these partnerships in terms of trained manpower, brand building in the campus etc. We have been encouraging our faculty and researchers to take on corporate consulting assignments, so that they bring these learning into the classrooms as they take classes. It is due to such initiatives and many more such wonderful programs that we deliver world class education to our students and help them stay relevant in the corporate world. And at the end of the day that is what counts. With changing times, students have also become more aware of what they want for themselves and have also become more assertive of their rights . Today information is available at the touch of a button and with every window, a whole new world of opportunity opens up. The information age has truly brought about an abundant availablity of information and choices. In the real sense of it, the only option is either adapt and change or don’t adapt and perish.

A revolution of ignited and passionate minds

As I sat down to write the first ever editorial of my life, I realized I had a monumental task in front of me. I wondered how one begins to describe in words, what has been one of the greatest impacts in my life. I remember distinctly, the day a young boy of seventeen, stepped tentatively into a auditorium for his all important orientation into the world of business. It has been a 15 year journey full of ups and downs and I still feel that I am just about getting started. And I realize that, the reason I feel this way is because I am surrounded by young and energetic people who never let you slacken or relax. The energy in a campus is infectious, and each day I step into the campus I take a breath and pause just so that I can take it all in.

I sometimes feel, whether there is another career as rewarding, as fulfilling and gratifying as that of a teacher. The change that one wishes to see is all so visible in the canvas that we paint around us each day and it is also visible in the lives of the people that we touch each day. In my opinion an institutions greatest success is its ability to sow the seeds of that change in the minds of its students. And every day as I walk into the corridors of the campus and see students joining IIPM and stepping into classes with anticipation, wondering what new world beckons them, to their metamorphosis into smart, dynamic, confident management practitioners of tomorrow, I feel the power of the change we bring in their lives. I see broader horizons for them to dream in, I see greater intelligence, emotional and otherwise, for them to bank upon and I see the confidence to conquer the world in their eyes. And as I pause to take it all in, I realize the change that IIPM has been able to bring about in India. IIPM is not just a place to study, not just a place to learn, not just another portal of academic excellence, but something greater and more meaningful that most of us can fathom at first glance. The realsiation dawns on me that we have infact created a “revolution of ignited and passionate minds”. A revolution that most certainly has never been created before and perhaps will never be replicated in the future too. And today as I write this editorial I am confident that this is the change that Dr. M.K Chaudhuri wanted to bring about when he established the institute in 1973.

It is with this conviction that we bring to you the first issues of the IIPM alumni magazine “CULT”. CULT is both an opportunity to showcase the stalwarts who have contributed to the cause and also a celebration of the triumphs of these individuals who have demonstrated tremendous resolve, strength of character and steely nerves to overcome all the challenges that life had to throw at them. I salute the spirit with which these people have gone about life, winning every moment of it and living it on their own terms. It will be our endeavour at CULT to bring to you such stalwarts and both document their efforts and applaud their contribution towards making IIPM the only “revolution in management education and thinking”.