Prafulla Agnihotri, Director, IIM Trichy, is building the institution brick by brick, literally and figuratively. As one of the newer IIMs, its swank campus spread over 175 acres is getting ready on the outskirts of the city, while Agnihotri is developing the pedagogy of the institute and adding new courses to suit the present business environment. Excerpts from an interview:
Prafulla Agnihotri
The business environment is always dynamic and therefore, ever evolving. A progressive business school will always have to keep modifying its curricula with the changes and evolve itself. IIM Trichy deals with it on two fronts. At the micro level, we keep offering newer courses such as Indian economy and policy, business ethics, employee relations and labour laws, HR metrics and analytics, manufacturing strategy, digital marketing, among others.
At a macro level, IIM Trichy believes in holistic development of its students. Learning, as we have mentioned in our logo, is never ending because knowledge is endless. We, therefore, do not aim at offering a fish to students but at helping them learn how to fish, so that they can cope with these changes in the environment, even after they graduate and keep learning new concepts and techniques. On this front, we ensure that the holistic development of the students is taken care of.
A few of our students have won the national round of the highly competitive CFA Research Challenge and had represented India in the Asia-Pacific Finals at Manila. It is certainly a big achievement for a young institution like IIM Trichy. I believe it is the result of the policies both at micro and macro levels that we have followed so far.
New areas in industry have emerged — e-commerce, especially, and data analytics. Are you launching courses to meet the present industry requirement in these industries?
Yes, it is in sync with the philosophy of IIM Trichy to offer the latest knowledge as per industry requirements in India. We have faculty with specialisation in business analytics who offer courses in Big Data, business analytics and data visualisation.
Could you elaborate on IIM Trichy’s unique areas of strength — be it pedagogy, curriculum, research, consulting or innovation?
The highly learned faculty members are the core competence of IIM Trichy. We believe in offering interdisciplinary courses to our students. Moreover, the pedagogy as well as curriculum is looked afresh every year. Appropriate changes are made as per the latest developments in the field of management.
IIM Trichy uses the case methodology extensively, but does not restrict itself to this. The case method is one of the best and time-tested techniques of management education which teaches students how to make decisions.
Over a period of time, a number of other techniques, like simulation games, have evolved which also help students develop their ability to make decisions. IIM Trichy uses a judicial mix of concept elaboration, case studies, simulation exercises, projects and assignments and other techniques as may be necessary to enhance the learning experience of students.
Students are also given an opportunity to work on live projects that can be concurrently done along with their course work. Thus IIM Trichy offers both — theoretical as well as practical orientations to its students.
As Director of the institute, what are the priorities you have set for it?
IIM Trichy made a modest beginning in June 2011. From there, we prioritised shifting to our own campus in the next four years, by 2016. IIM Trichy believes in offering the world-class education to its students. To deliver this, we need the best of the faculty members. We have 29 faculty members, who have PhDs/Fellowships from some of the best institutes in the world.
Once IIM Trichy shifts to its own campus, it will have more modern amenities and technology to enhance the learning experience of our students. We shall have scientifically designed and state-of-the-art finance lab, behavioural lab to offer specialised courses to our students. During this short period, IIM Trichy has also established and specialised its Fellowship programme.
The first Fellow of IIM Trichy might be graduating in another two years’ time. A good Fellowship programme and quality research goes hand-in-hand. In another four to five years, we should be accredited by a reputed international accreditation agency. I would love to see IIM Trichy among the top 10 business schools in the country in next four years.
How is IIM-T geared towards development of entrepreneurship including social entrepreneurship among students?
Once we shift to our own campus, we plan to have an Incubation Centre in Stage-2 of our construction. We shall not only encourage our own students but also entrepreneurs in the region to incubate their innovation. Currently, we are sensitising our students to various social issues by offering them a project called ‘Make a Difference’ (MAD) project.
As part of this project, all the students of the PGPM work in teams of five or six on an issue of social importance. They work on a specific theme, such as education or health, or work on a project with an NGO.
Do you think the case study approach that B-schools have been using to teach students over the years needs to be redefined / fine-tuned to the present business environment?
The case study method is an excellent technique to teach students of management how to make decisions. However, over a period of time, many other techniques have been developed, which should also be adopted to enhance students’ learning experience. IIM Trichy uses a combination of these methodologies, such as concept elaboration by faculty in the form of classroom discussion followed by a case study or a project or assignment.
Some courses may be conducted in the form of simulation games, which help convey the implications of certain decisions and their impact on other functions of the business and ultimately the bottom-line, market share, and so on. We also believe in offering live projects, which can be done concurrently with their classroom sessions. These live projects, simulation games and projects and assignments help them bridge the gap between theory and practice.
How has IIM-T fared in the last placement season? Do you have any issue, given the fact that it is one of the newer IIMs?
IIM Trichy has fared well in all the three placement seasons that we have witnessed. We had 100 per cent final placements for the third time in a row. The summer placements also provided students with good learning opportunities.
Yes, there was one issue in terms of poor air connectivity from Tiruchi, given the fact that many of the recruiters were from Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. However, we were partially able to address this by facilities as video conferencing.
Entrepreneurship is the strong streak these days for B school grads. Are many IIM-T grads opting out of placement to become start-up entrepreneurs or are they joining start-ups in a big way?
As of now, we have broadly seen 2 per cent of our students opting out for entrepreneurial ventures. I am confident that once we move to our own campus, students will have many more learning activities in the form of “Finance Lab” and “Behavioural Lab”, which will equip them with the ability and confidence to go for entrepreneurial ventures on their own. It is only a matter of time before IIM Trichy students start their own ventures that would take them to global heights.
At what stage is the work on your new campus?
The campus is spread over 175 acres. It consists of academic buildings, library, administration building, student hostels, food-court, gymnasium, dispensary, hostel for married students, crèche, faculty and staff residences. The entire campus is being built in two stages.
The first stage consists of facilities that we would need immediately after shifting to the campus. They include academic buildings which house several classrooms of difference sizes, faculty offices, faculty lounge and amphitheatre, MDP block, library, admin building, which will have the offices of the Director, the CAO and other officers and staff, about 40 faculty residences and one block of staff residence, students’ hostels including married students’ hostel, food-court and dispensary.
All these buildings are at different stages of construction. If the construction proceeds at the same pace, we hope to inaugurate the campus by March 2016 and will be able to shift to the campus in April 2016. The next PGP batch (2016-18) will commence from the new campus.