‘Autonomy is critical for IIMs’ future’

Outgoing IIM-A Director Bakul Dholakia on his many tussles with the HRD ministry

He may have spent the exact stipulated five years in office, but these five years have turned out to be the most contentious in the four-decade history of the Indian Institute of Management(IIM), Ahmedabad.

Professor Bakul Dholakia stepped down as director of the country’s premier B-school after working hours on October 9 — exactly five years after he took charge of the office, having been denied a three-month extension to facilitate transition.

His first brush with controversy came during the NDA regime when Murali Manohar Joshi directed the IIMs to reduce their fees. Dholakia refused.

This was followed by fallouts with the ministry over quota implementation and autonomy. Not surprisingly, Dholakia is now ready to write his memoirs.

In his exit interview to Jumana Shah, he talks about his term, achievements, failures and his relationship with the HRD ministry.
 
How does it feel to step down after a rather stormy term?

I feel very satisfied and content with my term. The five years as director of IIM-A were extremely fulfilling and as I step down, it is with a sense of achievement and satisfaction.

Everything one wants does not happen, so rather than looking at what has not happened I would rather look at what we have achieved in the past five years.

What according to you are the major achievements of the institute during the last five years?

IIM-A has gained recognition on the global scene. We have sealed a tie up with Essec B-school, Paris for dual degree programme, started a campus in Singapore with Essec; tied up with Duke CE for executive education; tied up with John F Kennedy School of government, Harvard University for government programmes and many more for student and faculty exchange programmes.

There are around seven tie ups with institutions in North America, four in Europe and one in Asia Pacific. Besides, the number of activities and students on campus has nearly doubled. A new campus of 39 acres has been developed with five lakh sq. feet built-up area.

Any regrets?

I regret that we were not able to convince the ministry about the autonomy issue.

Why was your term particularly marked with such controversies with the HRD ministry?

When put in a situation where one is required to take a principled stand, I can’t back off. I am convinced that for institutes of higher education to excel globally, withstand the pressures of global competition, they require ideological, financial and operational autonomy.

We need more flexibility. To compete in a globally changing scenario, we need to change and sustain excellence. We need a level-playing field to attract and retain world-class faculty. It was unfortunate we were not able to convince the HRD ministry of the same.
 
What were the steps taken to convince the ministry?

Then IIM-A chairman Narayan Murthy and I had written a detailed letter to the HRD ministry in 2004 highlighting the institute’s concerns for higher autonomy and suggesting ways and methods of implementing it.

We are yet to receive a reply. On other instances during our interaction with the ministry, this message had been unequivocally put across.

Which HRD minister was worse — MM Joshi or Arjun Singh?

(Grins sheepishly) All good questions need not be answered.

Why is expansion such a contentious issue?

Expansion is certainly a concern and unplanned ad hoc growth would be suicidal. The primary reason is shortage of faculty members. The ideal student faculty ratio is 8:1, at IIM-A we have just a little under 10:1.

With sudden expansion, we are unable to recruit as many faculty members to maintain the quality of education.

What next for the IIMs?

The challenge is to sustain the global competence we have achieved and maintain the edge. When I took over as director, it was with a clear aim to take IIM-A on the global map. We were already leading in India.

My task, as I had assigned myself was to improve upon excellence. Today IIM-A is reckoned as one of the top 20 global B-schools. Now we need to top it.

Which are the issues facing management education in India and IIM-A?

Availability of faculty is one of the main concerns. During 2001-2002 a whopping 50 faculty members had resigned from the institute for corporate careers. During my tenure of five years, only three left for better opportunities in corporate sector.

I realised that as an academic institution we were not on a level playing field to retain the kind of talent we required. We liberalised consulting norms and fee sharing with the institute for faculty members.

Norms were further eased for publication of international papers, which requires extensive research but pays equally well.  We are recruiting faculty at the rate of seven to eight per year.

If this rate can be sustained, I do not anticipate too many problems.

Where do you go from here?

For three months leave to begin with. After I return in January, I will decide what next. I have lots of offers from corporates, but as I have liberalised consulting norms to retain faculty, I can’t leave for a corporate job after this.

I have five more teaching years at the institute and probably I’ll continue here.