KOZHIKODE: When Prof Debashis Chatterjee, landed at Kunnamangalam, then a small village near Kozhikode, from Singapore sometime in 2008 for the interview for the post of IIM-Kozhikode director, chairman of the selection board E Sreedharan asked him whether he was told that he was too young for the leadership post.
Prof Chatterjee was just in his mid-40s. "I told them (the interview board) that you don't give leadership. You just give a position. How can you give leadership? You can give me a role, leadership is what I have to earn," Prof Chatterjee told The New Indian Express in a free-wheeling interview at his office. In his two terms spanning from April 2009 to September 2014, and June 2018 to date, the 56-year-old, who is also the longest-serving director of IIM-K, which is entering its 25th year of existence, not only emerged as a leader with a vision, but also propelled the management institute from this obscure town to the top 90 in the world with many novel initiatives.
Can you explain what made you shift from a well-paying job in Singapore to IIM-K? What were the challenges?
See, when you inherit an institution, you don't inherit a lot of buildings or the infrastructure. You inherit a lot of conversation. And the prevailing conversation when I took up the job here was the challenges the institution faced -- the connectivity, size and location. It was located far away from the business district. I remember my predecessor saying it was a bad decision to locate the IIM here in Kozhikode. E Sreedharan (metroman) was the chairman of the committee that recruited me. I came from Singapore for the interview and he asked me what's my vision for the institution. I said 'honestly I didn't come here for a job. I came here because you paid for my airfare' (laughs).
I said ‘you put me up in a guest house where the kettle does not work, where the sofa creeks, and the door doesn't close. So, if I were to come back as the director, I will sort out things that are not working, including people'.
What happened then?
Then he said something interesting. He asked, 'For you, what would leadership be?' I said if there is no purpose, there is no leadership. If Alexander didn't have the purpose to conquer the world, he would not have shown the leadership. It's not a personal goal. I told them you can only give me a role, leadership is what I have to earn. You see, I was very frank with them. It was a combative interview, and I somehow got the job (laughs).
What was the biggest challenge?
When I came here, I said I can turn around an obscure IIM and make it a world-class one. This will be my contribution to the country, this will be my purpose. I created a theme for myself, which was 'globalising Indian thought'. I went about quietly defining the school's features which will be very different from the conventional IIMs. IIMs were exclusive centres of excellence. I said excellence can also be inclusive. Exclusion is not the definition of excellence. It can be a great institution, but I can inspire others. I can include others. So, our orientation to excellence has been very different from conventional IIM thought.
What were some of the initiatives that you brought in?
We realised that the best way to excel is to create something that didn't exist before. And then create a model for others to emulate. The first major milestone was to go digital. We started our online courses for professional executives back in 2001. No other IIMs even thought about it then. So, this is our first major contribution. Though it was started by Prof (A H) Kalro (former director), I made it sure that going digital was part of the institutional ethos.
Right now, our nine classrooms look like studios because we anticipated what will happen. I cannot claim I started it. But I gave it wings. It was only a concept, but I decided that we are going to grow our eMDP (e-Learning Management Development Programme) and EPGP (Executive Post Graduate Programme).
The result of that is today we are ranked globally by QS on a par with ISB Hyderabad on the EPGP programme, we call it e-MBA. IIM-K today runs the largest batch of executive education programme (MBA). We are admitting 500 students this year.
We also looked at gender diversity, something that no IIMs did. In 2012, we brought in 54 per cent women to our flagship EPGP, which was unheard of in the IIM system. The strike rate in IIM was just 8-10 per cent back then.
Was it through some sort of reservation? How did you manage to increase women's participation from 8-10% to 54%?
You cannot call it reservation. Of course, there was a bit of affirmative action here. What we did is to change the lenses through which we see students during the interviews. We looked at their scores in Class 10 and Class 12. What has been their consistency in academic performance? This one lens shifted the game in favour of women, because they have been doing better than boys. And, if consistency in academic performance cannot be of value, then can CAT exams be? It's just one exam. And we are talking about the main exams of these kids. The lenses got shifted and we got more girls in the interview.
After that, all other IIMs followed us. I said, if I could not do it in Kerala, where else I could do it? This was a major breakthrough after going digital. I got an appreciation letter from then Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
Our faculty has 30 per cent women, our board has about 40 per cent women, which is the highest among IITs and IIMs. Today, we have established the fact that gender diversity is very critical to management education. Today, we have defined IIM-Kozhikode like no other IIMs after going digital. We are here to set the IIM agenda for the 21st century, where there's equal opportunity for men and women. This was a big breakthrough.
Then you set up the business museum, which was also very unique.
Yes, we said there is no museum of this kind in the country that showcases the journey of Indian business. You can see, there's something to do with Kerala and its ethos. We said that IIM in Kerala should reflect the features and excellence of Kerala. I learnt that in 1498, Kozhikode was the first modern city of India. This is the starting point of urbanisation of India. We decided to showcase that in the museum -- how did the Indian business, trade and industry evolve.
IIM-K is also perhaps the only business school in India with a very vibrant humanities and liberal arts area co-existing with finance, marketing and other business disciplines. How did that come?
That's right. We are the first IIM to start liberal studies in MBA. We are calling it LSM or Liberal Studies in Management. Even before the announcement of the new education policy, which emphasised that IIMs and IITs should all go liberal, we did it. This is an IIM that defined management education, not just as a techno-centric, commerce-centric activity, but as a human-centric activity, where liberal education, where the ability to understand human nature -- history, geography, sociology and literature -- were important ingredients.
Explain the concept of globalising Indian thought
We want IIM-K to have a role in conceptualising the globalising Indian thought. Our hostels are named after music ragas. L Krishnamurthy, renowned violinist, while on a tour to the campus, said, 'I've seen many music schools in the world. I've not seen any school, let alone a business school, that named the student hostels after ragas'. It's our way of showcasing that management is not just about money. The romance of business education is what we wanted to capture.
And the entire concept of the year 2047. Can you explain it?
In 2047, IIM-K will turn 50 and (independent) India will complete a century. Our campus is designed as the India of 2047. You see our waste products are segregated into different categories. There is a no smoking policy. Not a single guy is allowed to smoke outside. Before anybody cuts a tree, he requires my permission. We have a policy on which trees can be cut. We harvest our entire water resources. We have kept this campus pristine. We are showcasing the campus for the 21st century -- 2047.
Tell us about the global ranking.
The QS University Ranking is the most-followed and most-credible university rankings in the world. Our vision is global, and that's why we went for the global ranking. In the first year itself, we were ranked 90th as thought leaders. This ranking includes Oxford, Harvard and other top universities of the world.
They rank in different categories. For our thought leadership, we were ranked 90 in the world. For executive MBA, we were ranked between 101 and 150.
Sitting here in Kunnamangalam, how do you feel?
I see Kerala's standards are global; I see Kerala as a mini-world. If you look at your own people, they are world-class people. Just the context makes them parochial. But if you put a Malayali anywhere, in Dubai or Singapore, you see they are world-class. I believe the best of Kerala is yet to emerge, and IIM-K has showcased in a short span of time that we can build a world-class institute.
All it requires is sensitivity, determination, hard work and commitment to nothing but the best. For the first time, we brought in students from 25 countries last year. Through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' ITEC programme, we trained 25 students here, from emerging economies, like Africa, Southeast Asian countries and the former Soviet Union.
When Prof Chatterjee fined K M Mani Rs 1,000
During the last UDF regime, the entire Cabinet led by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy came for a day's training at IIM-Kozhikode. "We charged them Rs 25,000 each," says Prof Chatterjee.
The strict taskmaster that he is, the IIM-K director told them that phone calls, personal staff and police will not be allowed during the training programme. "They were holed up here for a day," he said.
The day-long programme was on health, waste management and other pressing day-to-day problems of the state and how it can be tackled. Prof Chatterjee said the institute did deep research of 40 hours for the programme.
During the session, then finance minister K M Mani's phone rang. "I fined him Rs 1,000 for breach of rules," he said