The India Institute of Management (IIM) Indore hosted the 10th conference on Excellence in Research and Education (CERE) on May 3. The theme of the three-day conference is — inclusion, institution and innovation. Following the principals of Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam , it reiterates the importance of inclusivity for society at large; in this regard, the institutions play a critical role in any society. And innovation plays a special role in the survival and progress of any institution.
The conference features guest talks, three workshops and 188 paper presentations. It had received around 415 papers from scholars across the nation and from abroad.
The event began with the lamp lighting ceremony by Prof Himanshu Rai, Director, IIM Indore; Prof Sushanta K Mishra, conference co-ordinator; and Prof Sanjeev Tripathi, programme chair, FPM.
‘Be a global communicator’
Prof Rai said that a good leader is the one who uses his heart, mind and intellect together for taking decisions.
On Be-Know-Do model of leadership, Prof Rai said that a good leader should always be a servant-leader, adaptive and creative thinker, and a global communicator. “He or she should know self and always be keen and look forward to self-improvement, along with willingness to know the people he or she is with, and help them achieve their potential. One should aim to know the profession he or she is working in, and should contribute to and develop with it,” he said.
Prof Rai added that doing things right, providing a clear and actionable vision, making timely decisions and maintaining a balance and moderation is the key to effective leadership.
Prof Mishra said that the objective of IIM Indore is to create, contribute and connect with research and researchers across the world. “CERE is one such platform the institute always looks forward to hosting, for it helps bringing together many research scholars with various experiences and enables exchange of ideas,” he said.
Prof Tripathi said that CERE is a way to get reviews for the work a researcher has done, from various other experts.
Importance of networking
A workshop on network analysis was conducted by Prof Kumar Kunal Kamal, IIM Udaipur. Prof Kamal said, “Network means to tie-up, to connect with each other, and it is there in every aspect of our daily lives.”
He said that the network effect can be observed not only in educational institutions, organisations, groups or individuals, but also in wars, politics and every single sector. “Our behaviour depends on the network and the factors of the network that affect it. Network analysis is not only about methods, but it also deals with different ways of theorising." he added.
Prof Kamal shared his views on designing a network study — framing research questions, deciding whether to go for a cross-sectional or a longitudinal study and choosing between experiment and survey as data collection methods. The day concluded with a conference dinner for all the participants which provided a platform for networking and exchanging ideas, share research work and learn from each other.