IIM Ahmedabad invites government officials, executives for new faculty post ‘Professor of Management Practice’

NEW DELHI: In a first for the country’s premier business schools, IIM Ahmedabad (IIM-A) is planning to tap senior corporate executives and government officials for a new faculty position called, ‘ Professor of management practice’, inviting non Phds to come and teach at the institute. The new position is different from visiting faculty members and is targetted at those considering a serious full time career in academics.

"We are pioneers in the field of management education and often act as change agents in our field. Our pedagogy is deeply rooted in practice and the new positions that we are creating, are aimed towards consolidating our connect with the industry and the society; and will be helpful for our students as they can learn from the experiences of these leaders in their field," said Arvind Sahay, professor of marketing and international business, and dean, alumni and external relationships at IIM-A

Professor Sahay further added that the goal is to offer the opportunity to eminent people from the corporate world and government and those who have substantial years of experience and would like to take a break from their current responsibilities. These professionals should be willing to commit three to five years to academia.

IIM-A is seen as pioneering such a move. The other IIMs may hire non-PhD faculty members, but on condition they finish their research and PhD in two to three years after joining or may not be full time.

Bakul Dholakia, former director of IIM Ahmedabad and currently director at International Management Institute, New Delhi called it a welcome innovation. "This is an excellent step and I am very happy to hear that by launching a position like this, director Ashish Nanda and professor Ashish Sahay have put in place a formal structure of engaging the industry for a full time position without compromising the standards of recruitments. It will be a win win for all, will make the pedagogy contemporary and contextual and the nomenclature will maintain the dignity of senior leaders who might be seriously considering a career in academics," he added. With IIM A pioonering this, he expects other IIMs to follow suit.

There will be no “quotas” for the position and professionals will teach elective courses in the area of their expertise, said Sahay. IIM-A plans to broadcast the availability of such positions in the near future. Director Ashish Nanda could not be reached for comments.

While paucity of quality faculty is not a challenge for IIM-A-the institute has 93 full-time faculty members and their faculty to students ratio is better than most management institutes, Rohin Kapoor, director, education practice, at Deloitte said a move like this, if emulated, can help address faculty challenges in other IIMs, where shortages could be in the 40% range with the setting up of new IIMs. It can also provide a more on-ground perspective to students with industry experts keeping them abreast of practical challenges, he added.

The institute has faculty members for areas like business policy, finance and accounting, information systems, marketing, organisational behaviour, personnel and industrial relations, production and quantitative methods, among others.

"If you have corporate leaders, government officials and regulators teaching students, it would make them better managers. Getting quality Phd faculty members is important, but a Phd can be the means to an end, and not be the sole criteria in management education," feels Narayanan Ramaswamy, national lead, education and skilling at KPMG.

IIM-A has appointed 13 new faculty members since January 2014 in fields like marketing, economics, and production and quantitative methods.

“The idea would be to get them to share their wisdom and knowledge with the students. These candidates would have the intellectual heft and passion for teaching that matches that of our existing faculty members. Talent for a position like this will be idiosyncratic in nature and will depend on possibilities that arise,” Sahay added.