Unlocking the value of HR in Merger and Acquisition

Since 1980s, Dramatic changes in the global business environment have been driving a wave of Merger and Acquisition in the world. Although they are undertaken for good reasons, many fail to meet their objectives, in part because HR issues are generally poorly understood, under managed, and often discarded at the outset as irrelevant to strategic planning process. Plenty of attention is paid to the legal, financial and operational elements of Merger and Acquisition. In today’s economy, the management of the human side of change is the real key to maximizing the value of a deal which was neglected earlier. The uncertainty during Merger and Acquisition activity divert the focus of employees from productive work issues like job security, career path, working in new departments, working with the new teams, integration of corporate cultures, retention level of compensation, payroll benefits and reward strategy etc. As M&A activity continuous to step up globally, companies involved in these transactions have the increased involvement & responsibility of HR professionals. In implementing an M&A, most of managers focus on financials. But success depends on how you deal with people issues and cultural integration. It depends on the people who drive the business, their ability to execute, Creativity and innovation. It is of utmost importance to involve HR professionals in M&A discussion as it has an impact on key people issues. By doing so, they will achieve a much better outcome and increase the chance that the overall deal is a total success.
Many companies report that their mergers are successful but admit the end results aren’t as successful as they could have been. Recent studies place the success rate of merged companies at 30 to 60 percent, depending on what criteria you measure. No matter how flawless a deal seems on paper, the results are often disappointing. Most merged organizations lose 1 to 10 percent of their market value in the first year after the merger. There’s a lot to learn about managing the transition period, optimizing short-term performance, keeping the highest percent of talent, and integrating processes and systems. Companies that don’t address those issues may suffer a loss of profitability, top talent, and confidence in leadership decisions. Although a multitude of factors can contribute to a disappointing merger or acquisition, success depends ultimately on the effective use of people. A recent report from the Bureau of Business Research shows that organizational and cultural problems are more likely to derail a merger than are financial factors. Only 28 percent of companies said they did a good job of assessing the culture of their merging organizations before the deal, only 26 percent said they had put the right people in the right roles during the merger, and a scant 15 percent said they had successfully communicated the vision and goals after the union. Beginning at the start of the process, HR must orchestrate its role in due diligence.
Role of HR Identifying the role HR should play and the tasks in which HR should engage is a good start. However, successfully executing the role is something altogether difference. It’s essential to assess the valued human assets that never show up on a balance sheet, in order to determine the true value of the deal and its likelihood of success. Looking at just one key issue, leadership, it’s essential to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the players, individually and collectively, to ensure that the management talent required to define the future of the new company is there to steer the chosen course. The HR manager, on the other hand, has an opportunity to influence events so that each company comes out ahead — but, to do that, the HR manager must preserve their own position. Even at the highest level of the company, HR can have a role. The new leadership team will need to work together on a daily basis, despite cultural and personality differences, power issues, and other barriers. HR can act as a facilitator, and also as a coach to individual executives. Personal and team assessments can be helpful in enabling team members to work together constructively. Some questions to ask during this phase are: What are each organization’s key strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats? What is each organization’s strategy? How will they be merged? Is there a communication strategy to keep employees and customers informed? Are the cultures for the two organizations compatible? Is there a plan for merging the cultures? Will one be dominant, and, if so, how will people operating under the other culture be brought on board? Identifying the role HR should play and the tasks in which HR should engage is a good start. However, successfully executing the role is something altogether different. In this light, HR as an internal consulting group during a merger or takeover, along with quality or process engineering teams deal with several issues. Some key issues in mergers follow:

Effective Communication by Being Upfront and Honest:
As people look inwards to try to find their place in the merged company and attempt to see their future in it – or outside it – productivity drops. The grapevine can become a major source of headaches. Constant, consistent, and honest communication from leaders and HR is essential. Communication must begin with the first announcement. Then it is fragmented with different messages and information flowing to investors, employees, managers, and customers. Messages to all stakeholders must be well planned and consistent. There can never be enough repetition. The message must be heard again and again to be fully understood. Two-way communication always helps comprehension. All avenues should be used: written, one-on-one meetings, and small- and large-group meetings. People need a chance to probe, discuss, ask questions, and arrive at a personal level of understanding that they can’t get from a piece of paper. The overriding question is, “How does this affect me?” Speed in communication goes along with speed in the total integration. The goal of communications should be not only to inform, but also to engage employees’ hearts and minds. By presenting a clear vision of the future and gaining commitment to it, the new company begins to build the loyalty that’s crucial to survival.

Growth and Development of Preliminary Organisation Design:
The role of HR is to identify key human assets in the target company, development of preliminary organizational designs and identification of the top three levels of management creating development plans for people to prepare them to achieve the anticipated corporate growth. Other issues needing attention to maximize the growth synergy are deployment of appropriate resources in the new company, development of total reward and recognition programs for the combines companies, team development, and integration of benefit and compensation programs–ensuring they are competitive to attract and retain desirable employees. When mergers are contemplated, synergy and value often depend on the effective transfer of knowledge. As knowledge becomes an increasingly important corporate asset, it’s critical to capture the best practices of each company for maximum return. It starts with the relatively easy task of identifying the people and processes needed to keep the business operating as usual. It moves to training on systems, specific job skills, and procedures. Ultimately, it involves capturing the tacit knowledge and informal networks that enable an organization to get things done.

Power and conflict:
It is essential to bring conflict out to the surface and deal with power issues honestly. If one group is obviously in charge, that should be admitted early on so people don’t waste time with second-guessing. Often, people get wrapped up in turf wars which are destructive to both sides, rather than trying to figure out roles for both sides and have a win-win situation.

Integration of Corporate Culture.
Organizational culture is an organization’s shared values, beliefs, and preferred ways to behave – is a key to success, and though many talk about it, few seem to have the skills to grapple with culture and work with both organizations to assure a good fit. Many organizations use a brief cultural fit survey to assist them during mergers. To understand the similarities and differences between the cultures of the two companies involved, we have to look at the history of each company, its reputation in the industry, and its products and services. Although those are fixed, other factors that influence how a company operates and how employees, customers, and other stakeholders interact are critical to the effective functioning of the newly formed organization. Even location can affect the fit. A West Coast group of techies may have great difficulty merging successfully with an old-guard southern firm or a staid New England operation. Another issue to consider is where authority lies and how decisions are made. Are the companies bureaucratic or freewheeling? Formal or informal? Finally, there’s the emotional element. How do employees feel about the company, management, and the future? How much job satisfaction do people feel? How open are they to the new strategy? Also it’s important to identify the norms, the value systems, and beliefs. Practices regarding casual dress, attitudes about long hours, and how offices are apportioned are deeply ingrained and must be dealt with. One can’t consider culture compatibility without touching on the different views that the acquirer and the acquired have about the new company.

Retaining key talent
There is no one way to retain people during a merger or acquisition. We can make offers to certain people and if they accept and want to stay, that’s fine, if they don’t, that may also be fine. But when we are talking about key people, the picture changes. Key people don’t always mean top executives. Executives may be key in some respects, but there may be other employees who are more important to the workings of the enterprise. If we lose them, we can end up spending a lot of money and still be unsuccessful. Whether they’re technology specialists, marketing people, or top management, we must make certain they’ll stay. The next question: How long do we need them? Some talent may be needed only during the transition period, after which their responsibilities can be handed off. Others may be needed for much longer. Each person must be considered, and a plan must be put together for that person. The kind of agreement that’s drawn up and how far it goes to keep key talent will differ from organization to organization. But it’s best not to give away too much or keep someone who will never adapt to the new structure, simply because he or she is talented or highly thought of. We may have to let people go as a trade-off against disruptive attitudes or constant conflict. The appropriate fit of any one person in the new culture can be as critical to success as talent. A fair and equitable bonus must be in plan to make the talents feel special, and stay for the longer period. By this talented people tend to welcome the challenges of a new role, and they enjoy career growth and added responsibility.

Conclusion:

Mergers and Acquisitions don’t follow a carefully laid-out linear progression. As much as we might desire a logical, well-ordered approach, when two groups combine, the process takes on a life of its own. Initial plans and assumptions have to be adjusted, and focus can be lost as critical and immediate problems rear their ugly heads. Executives are often pulled away to deal with the next business issue, reducing their visibility and giving the impression they’re no longer concerned about the merger. If the HR professionals can manage a degree of uncertainty in their responsibilities making the business direction clear, the chances of long-term success will be more.

Tapping customer cash to sponsor your start-up

General Blog06 DecemberTaruna GautamAngel Investment, crowd financing, venture capital

“Money is only a tool, it will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as a driver” Ayn Rand
In todays’ entrepreneurial spree, the terms like angel investments, venture capital (VC), crowd financing are so highly ranked that starting a start-up seems a cake walk. At least, the angels, crowd financing and VCs take away the first biggest hurdle to execute the great business ideas. One person every 150,000 Indians is aspiring for initiating start-up. The notion is that the short-cut to being richis to have a great business idea, arrange finance from the venture capitalists, angel investors or in crowd funding and immaculately accomplish success.
The recent Nasscom report is also an encouraging for the start-ups, according to which India has progressed to third position after the USA and the UK in the total count of the start-ups. India is found to be projecting commendable growth from the year 2015-20 with 9.5% nominal growth, where India ranked first among USA, the UK, Israel and China. The report projected that the rate of the start-ups initiating the new business has increased from 3-4 per day in the year 2015 to 6-7 per day by 2020. The next great news for the Indian start-ups is that the growth rate in India is exceeding the China’s growth rate in the year 2015. The enhanced growth rate is accentuated by the various reforms on ease of doing business, better governance, reduced inflation and reforms on digitization, among other initiatives. With increasing number of the venture capitalists at 156 and angel investors at 300 in the year 2014, Indian investment still contribute only 5% share of global VC funding. Thus, the next question arises what exactly is the criteria to attract VC funding?
The recent research supported that the businesses catering a smaller market than $1 billion of net revenues in the time span of 5 years fail to attract VCs and angels’ attention. The significant market sharebolsters against the possible future market entrants and strive to combat that level of business scale. With this criteria, the petite business models like gardening, music listening groups, or some models for the challenging sections of the society might not fit in it, however the whopping e-commerce, food and beverages, healthcare, might hail here.
Having talked about the business scale, the new start-up model should counteract bootlegging business model, else there is no dearth of the business to introduce the new business model to their existing line of businesses. The promoter’s qualification and professional experience, innovative projects undertaken also attracts the funding from VCs and angels. The extent of imitation can be conjectured from the patents filed for that business idea, and lead time to duplicate.For instance, the ecommerce models with already existing Flipkart, Snapdeal, Amazon might fail to attract many new VCs and angels.
The question arises here that how many business ideas get funded and are able to give good returns to the investors? According to Nasscom and Zinnov, 2015 report, total financing reaching the Indian startups till 2015 was estimated at $6.5billion, but one thig to be noticed that this the major funding has been for the technology related business ideas like ecommerce, analytics, health technology, payment portals among others. According to the Bain VC and PE report, the total number of the funds reaching India has grown by 40% during 2013-14 and India witnessed total of 456 funds. Having appreciated the growth, the number might not look very impressive in comparison to the number in the United States which is approximately 301,300. Thus, two prime issues have been identified here:one is available of the seed, angel or VC, and second is concentration of the funding for the technology related business ideas.
The research team led by John Mullins have suggested some business models which employs the customer cash to execute a business idea. These business ideas can be the rescue for the cash starved startups. He researched on these business ideas after being exposed the foundation of Airbnb. The founders of Airbnb helped some conference graduates by offering them the space in their homes during the conference, and a year later they formally announced the same as their business idea-helping people find an affordable and home-like place to stay. Airbnb made a great headline about their fetching the million dollars venture financing, however, there actual growth came from the advance booking amount that the customers pay them. This advance from customers helped them grow organically and be least dependent on the external financing as most start-ups are. Technically, this is also termed as negative working capital.
The businesses models that require a middleman services to bring together the customers together, for instance the real estate brokers who have no products to sell, but builds trust between two unknown customers and deploy their expertise in carrying out the property deal smoothly and legally. The business models like Yatra.com, expedia.com help customers find the required flights, hotels, or complete tour packages. Ebay also fits in this model of providing a platform to bring the buyer and seller together and charges the fee for their services. Tutorhunt.com is also peculiar for bringing the teachers and students together, thereby charging the commission. The peculiar feature is that the huge investment is not required for the products.
The news headlines like Maruti is accepting the advance booking for their new sub-compact SUV-VitaraBrezza can also be the pathway for some startups where they can come up with the business idea of seeking advance for the job to be done. Consider the model of the construction contractors, who work on the advance payments. The ‘Via world’, formerly ‘Flight raja’, identified that the penetration of the internet users were very limited in India. The website provided real time space to travel agents, for which they sought a deposit of Rs. 5,000 from travel agents. This business was in profits just three months after foundation and was able to attract VCs subsequently. The businesses seeking advance subscription requirements like the coaching centers, newspapers, cable networks, can also flourish on negative working capital.
The youth aspiring to start a startup which is cash starved can count on the aforementioned business ideas to quickly grow and grab the VCs and angels attention. The growth of the new businesses that can prove themselves viable in a short span of time cannot be prohibited. Thus, finance is not the only factor that holds back a startup, it’s the drive in the founder to prepare a business plan given the resources constraint; which can be managed using customer cash, or working out the negative working capital model for your business.

Founder’s Day Celebrations @Banyan Tree School, Lodhi Road

Events06 DecemberGargi SandilyaDr. Kulwant Rai, Founder's Day

The air was filled with joy and nostalgia as the students of Banyan Tree School and members of the IILM family came together to celebrate the 92nd birth anniversary of Dr. Kulwant Rai, the founder and chairperson emeritus of the institutions. Founder’s day 2016 was celebrated with much enthusiasm in the school. The day began with a school assembly where the Head Boy and the Head Girl shared the vision of Dr. Kulwant Rai with the students. Tribute was paid through a Saraswati Vandana and the shloka chanting. The students were given a chocolate each while returning to their classrooms. To add fun and excitement to the day, Spectrum was organised where each child participated in an activity of his/her interest and showcased their talent.

A special programme was organised in the auditorium. Smt. Nimmi Kanwar was the guest of honour. The programme started with the lighting of the lamp accompanied with shloka invoking the blessings of the Almighty.

Mrs Ranjana Negi, Principal Banyan Tree School, Lodhi Road in her welcome address paid tribute to Dr. Kulwant Rai. Welcoming all on the 92nd Birth Anniversary of Dr. Kulwant Rai she mentioned Dr. Kulwant Rai’s abiding passion for education and his vision to take education to all. His endearing quality of welcoming everyone with a smile spread positive energy everywhere. The faculty remembers him as a ‘visionary’ who guided all with his innovative thoughts and ideas.

The students at Banyan Tree School, Lodhi Road put up a spectacular cultural event to pay tribute and honour his Vision.The celebrations included a heartwarming performance by the tiny tots invoking the blessings of Lord Ganesha and hailing his auspicious presence through a dance.Krishna Janam leela was displayed through a soulful and graceful Kathak performance. Indian Music choir paid tribute by singing Bhajansclose to Dr. Kulwant Rai’s heart.

The guest of honour Smt. Nimmi Kanwar, a Bal Vikas Guru and close family friend who has had a long association of working alongside Dr.Kulwant Rai. Ms Nimmi Kanwar, esteemed guest of honour, for the day remembered him as one of the pioneers in establishing educational set up with the motto- ‘Let each child excel in his/her own way . She shared her memories of her association with the journey of Banyan Tree School over the years. In her message she asked all to fulfill a dream in their lifetime the way Dr. Kulwant Rai had achieved. At a time when establishing schools was not a foremost endeavour for many Dr. Kulwant Rai was one of the few visionaries who decided to take education to all and for all.

Smt. Nmmi Kanwar shared how Dr.Kulwant Rai encouraged everyone and his involvement and participation in every programme that were put up in school and also events organised by Sri Sathya Sai Organisation. She recalled his work in setting up the Roshini Rai School for the under privileged and her own days of having participated in the school activities as a Bal Vikas Guru. Smt Kanwar emphasised Dr Kulwant Rai’s generosity, and humility for the less fortunate and how this touched every one he met.

Her message to the faculty was very beautiful. She said that a teacher attains ‘moksha’ by just deciding to be with and working for the well being of the students. She mentioned that the educators are blessed with values and through their experiences and innovative techniques of teaching they have achieved true ‘moksha’. She further guided the school to involve the bal vikas principles and imbibe moral values.

The programme closed with the chanting of Om Sai Namoh Namah’, and paying tribute to Dr. Kulwant Rai for his remarkable leadership, integrity, deep devotion and magnificent generosity which we all acknowledge with profound gratitude and respect.

Campus News 2016

Campus Life05 DecemberNidhi Piplani

See all that happened in Lodhi Road campus last month.

Sports Activities

Football match and tug of war were two sports events organized for the undergraduate students of the IILM Business School, Lodhi Road Campus. The students of all the stages were grouped into four teams, named under popular characters of Harry Porter series – Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin. The event which took place on 17^th September started with Football Match. Two winning teams of the first round – Helga Hufflepuff and Salazar Slytherin participated in the final round with Salazar Slytherin winning the match. In tug of War, the two qualifying teams for the final round – Godric Gryffindor and Helga Hufflepuff played in full spirit against each other, and Godric Gryffindor won the match.

The students appreciated and enjoyed the sports events. All the participants, who were colors of their teams and played with great enthusiasm, expressed their desire that they wanted to see such events happening on a regular basis as it gave them another forum to interact with one another. A special note of appreciation goes to all the volunteers and Captains of the events, who helped in coordinating and organizing the event. They displayed great enthusiasm and team spirit. Their efforts in coordinating with the participants, arranging referee for the match, preparing the field for the games are being recognized.

Iccha Club – Blood donation camp

A blood donation Drive was organized at IILM Lodhi Road campus in association with Rotary Noida Blood Bank on the 12^th of October 2016 between 10 am and 4 pm.

28 Donors were screened at the Camp. Out of which 19 could donate blood. The event was successful and helped spread awareness about the importance of donating blood that can save millions of lives.

Dandiya Night at LR

Dandiya Night is the most sought after evening of the year. This year as well it was celebrated with much gusto on October 13^th, 2016. The students from both UG and PG courses along with the teachers got together for a night full of dance, drama, food and fun. Students enjoyed grooving to the beats of the dhol and the games played enthused the crowds with a different energy level all together. The candid photographer for the evening made sure that all of these moments were beautifully captured for all times to come. The event was surely a great success. Overall, it turned out to be a memorable evening indeed.

IILM Undergraduate Business School’s Eighteenth Graduation Ceremony

Events05 DecemberAnjali Singh

IILM Undergraduate Business School New Delhi had its Eighteenth Graduation Ceremony for the graduating students of BSc. (Honours) in Business & Management Studies in collaboration with School of Management, University of Bradford at the IILM Lodhi Road campus on 15^th November 2016.
Professor Robert Parkin, Pro-Vice Chancellor, University of Bradford, UK, presided over the Ceremony and awarded Degrees to the graduating students. A total of 99 students were conferred degrees in this ceremony. Mrs. Malvika Rai, Chairperson, IILM presented Dr. Kulwant Rai Gold, Silver and Bronze medals to the meritorious students.

Dr. Anjali Singh, Dean, IILM Undergraduate Business School, welcomed and introduced Pro-Vice Chancellor, Professor Robert Parkin, University of Bradford and Dr. Stuart Roper, Interim Associate Dean, Research & Knowledge, Faculty of Management & Law, University of Bradford to IILM -UBS. She mentioned that the three years the students have invested here have helped them not only achieve academic goals but also evolve as human beings.
Dr. Stuart Roper congratulated the Graduands and inspired them to imbibe and appreciate the ethics and values in today’s workplace, principles which are very dear to UoB and IILM. He urged the students to remember that “education is a lifelong event”. Emphasizing the volatility of the current business world, he encouraged the students to make use of their graduate education to think critically about the information provided and use it for the betterment of the world.

Dr. Shuchi Agarwal, Director, IILM Undergraduate Business School spoke about the excellent platform that IILM offers to its students to develop their entrepreneurial skills. She emphasized that the undergraduate program aims to nurture innovative thoughts and actions of the students which can help them develop their family businesses or to grow as entrepreneurs themselves, thereby carving new heights of success. Highlighting the facility of IILM Startup Labs and access to an exceptional eco-system consisting of renowned mentors, industry experts, serial entrepreneurs, academic experts and investors, she demonstrated the aim of the Institute to provide an environment to student entrepreneurs to feel inspired by their IILM experience and maximize performance.

Congratulating the fresh graduates and their proud parents, Dr. Agrawal mentioned that the Convocation Day marks a transition phase in the graduands’ lives. She motivated them to take stock of the past and assess the bright future that lies before them.

In his address Professor Parkin applauded the achievement of the degree appealing to the students to remember the support from the various other people including family, friends and teachers that has helped them reach this summit. He highlighted that UoB students come from different parts of the world and societies, having varied ideas and UoB takes pride to better prepare them for the future. He also encouraged the students to apply their scientific and technical knowledge to bring solutions to the current problems like hunger, food security, and immigration crisis among others that the world is facing today.

He proudly shared that this year they celebrated the 50^th Anniversary of UoB and reminisced about being the first ever business school in the UK, of having established the first ever peace studies department in the world, and of being the proud recipient of Queen’s Anniversary Prize – the highest recognition a university in the UK can achieve – for improving the lives of people living with dementia.

It was a solemn occasion yet marked by great joy and pride. After the formal ceremony, the graduands mingled with each other and their teachers, frequently taking pictures to mark the event and to create memories for the time to come.

Global Academic Expedition to EM Normandie, France

Global Study05 DecemberGurpreet Singh Bhatia

The Global Study Visit, Itinerary, France & Business!

A global study program was organized for the PG-1 students (2016-18 batch) of IILM, all the campuses. Students were given choices to choose one of their dream global universities on the basis of modules offered by the university. The choices were France, Spain, Canada, Germany and Finland. The entire program was sponsored by IILM and the partner school except that the students had to bear extra expenditures like food, travelling etc.

On the 4^th of September 2016, 45 students collectively from LR, Gurgaon and Greater Noida campus boarded Emirates flight for Ecole de Management de Normandie, along with the assigned senior faculty. The students were provided with the resident at Apart’ City, Caen, adjacent to the school. From EM Normandie, the program was coordinated by Mrs. Severine Groult (International Development Manager, Short program) and Brigitte Laine (International Development Assistant).

In addition with this the students were also explained about the rules and regulations to be followed in college and hotel. Each and every student was provided on the same day with a unique identity card and a tram/bus card to travel nearby location for free of cost.

Selective Modules Taught at EM Normandie

The curriculum comprised of 10 ECTS Credits (2 ECTS Credits per module). Three modules of 15 hours of face-to-face teaching, one module of comprising two tutorial of 30 minutes each, and one module of business/cultural visits.

Business Start-up- Prof. Max Mikael Bjorling

The students learnt about important Aspects and theories of business start-up, various aspects of entrepreneurship, thinking out-of-the-box as entrepreneurs and about the importance of being creative and how creativity fosters entrepreneurship. They were asked to write a report (not exceeding 2000 words) on entrepreneurial ideas/ventures related to setting up of tourism-firm that would attract tourists from India to France.

Doing Business in France. Prof. Marie-Pierre Seznec

The students learnt about French business-culture, legal framework, and values taught from school to business. They had to choose a Normand company, and provide an overview. They then had to choose Indian company that might establish partnership with the Normand company, providing overview of Indian company and researching on the potential partnership. The focus was on creative presentations.

Supply Chain Management, Professor Roger Soulieux

Student learnt about the concept of supply chain and logistics, inventory and flow management, inventory cost management. The module included live experience of supply chain management (distribution network) at Le Havre Port.

Business Project. Alain De Lamaziere

Students worked in groups. Analysis of Lingerie and Swimsuit (L&S) business in the EU. They had the task of up L&S Company; looking at setting up/collaborating with the French L&S business in other EU countries; forming strategy and developing hypothetical financials. The students were encouraged to visit stores and enquire about the pricing and marketing strategy. They were asked to place emphasis on e-marketing. The assessment was based on group presentation.

Business Environment –Visits

The program was planned in such a way that there were class room lectures and related excursions. At the end the students were asked to present a power point presentation in three modules and multiple choice question in SCM module. The students were rated on scale of 20 in business project and top 3 business plan i.e. groups were appreciated for their work. In business startup module the students were asked to present their idea individually on how tourism in Normandie can attract Indian tourist..

The Wonders of France (Paris, Belgium, Amsterdam and Switzerland)

A surprise team building activity was also organized for all in an amusement park called Festyland, where students were assigned to capture pictures and videos and finally produce a digital file which was discussed in terms of business in front of Mr. Lair, Director of Festyland.

In addition to this students were taken to Caramel D’isigny where they tasted the caramel products and were showed the entire process how caramel chocolates are made. Another excursion was also made to cider factory i.e. Billy’s farm where the students there shown the process of making cider and how apples can help in making business. Students were allowed to taste the different kinds of cider and buy these from the firm.

A trip was also planned for the students to Paris. Each student was given a blue t-shirt with the brand tag of EM Normandie on it for the trip. Students were shown the 360° view of Paris from Montparnasse tower. In addition to this student were also shown some of the major brand and historical monuments like Arc De Triomphe and finally dropped to Eiffel tower where photoshoot was done and students were allowed to enjoy on their own. Finally a relaxing trip on cruise down the river Seine was organized which proved out a great way to see many of Paris’ famous landmarks and sights.

Over the weekends everyone was allowed to go for the places they wished. Majorly students targeted Belgium, Amsterdam and Switzerland. The expense for this trip was on their own. But before leaving from the hotel they were asked to give a written information of the places they were visiting and the contact numbers, including the hotel and travelling tickets details. This information was circulated to IILM as well as EM Normandie so as to keep a tract to the student’s safety and security.

Au Revoir!

The 26 days for the student ended with lot of fun and learning at EM Normandie. Student who exceled in their work were appreciated from university side and a dinner at was organized for all in an Indian restaurant. Finally on 30^th morning the students were dropped to the Paris airport to back to India.

IILM has invited Prof. Bjorling to conduct sessions in Lodhi Road campus on Business Startup. IILM is awaiting his consent. Dr. Gurpreet Singh Bhatia has initiated case study in collaboration with EM Normandie faculty, Dr. Marie.

The students gained business-knowledge (digital and strategic marketing; operations; financials; business strategy and development; supply chain management and logistics) and the curriculum helped them develop soft skills (team-work, time management, and oral defense).

Formal Degree and Entrepreneurship: Are they complimentary to each other?

Guest Blog, Uncategorized05 DecemberDr. Vidhisha Vyas

Bill Gates(Microsoft), Larry Page (Google), Kunal Shah(Freecharge.in), Gautam Adani (Adani Group) can be considered as an informal list of some billionaire CEOs that dropped out of the high school or University and turn them into self-made billionaires.

The questions here are whether to be an entrepreneur you need to attend an Under Graduate degree program? I can’t fit into regular corporate job so what after degree? I need to enter the family business than why to study? Ask around and we will be confused with the conflicting answers. But a deep thought and few logical arguments can help one to reach a decision necessary and fruitful for the career.

Many young minds with fascinating ideas think that a formal training is optional than a necessity or compulsion, a view point that can be costly for both short term profit and long term growth. May be the young entrepreneur consider a degree course to be an expense rather than an investment. Entrepreneurs do tend to have maverick behavior and their entrepreneurial instinct provoke them to do something different than attending a well-structured degree program in class rooms.

Looking toward Indian scenario, major business houses in India are family businesses and the owners are fairly old, that means many graduated high school long back where instincts are more important than degree. However, if we assess randomly in today’s business arena, it would be interesting to note that entrepreneurs on a whole, tend to have more qualification than others.

Consequently, the idea for the need of formal training in entrepreneurship can be reinforced. Sachin and Binny Bansal (Flipkart), Maanav Garg (Eka Software), Ameera Shah (Metropolis Health care) are some of the well qualified first generation entrepreneurs. Their successes reinforce one’s belief in formal training and its contribution to the entrepreneurial success. Training should be viewed and utilized as capital investment. These formal degree programs may not be result oriented in the beginning but they establish a learning dynamics in would be entrepreneurs’ cognitive system. Along with core business learning, these formal training programs inculcate the learning culture in the candidate. This culture could be further percolated in all the departments of the candidate’s future organization. The learning process shouldn’t be targeted with budget and time related factors. One needs to sit down and assess the class room learning after every trimester or semester to identify the expectations from the course and brainstorm to make the learning outcomes effective and efficient.

It is not always relevant to focus on a handful of mega billionaires success stories and arrive at the conclusion that post-secondary education has no role to play in entrepreneurial success. Education for dome may not be necessary but statistics clearly reveal that there are many more examples of success with education than without it. A college degree is a time which provides an opportunity to grow up and expand the horizon beyond high school and home environment. The vibrant, intellectual and technology driven environment develops a vision required in today’s innovation business growth. Unless you are high school genius or have blessed talent in specific field, without a formal degree you are putting all your cards of success on luck. Hence, it is advisable to understand the role of education than to be fooled by exceptional examples.

The formal UG degree not only imparts subject knowledge and technical skills but it gives a shape to one’s character and enhance the decision making power. It enlightens and logically develops the intuitive capabilities and gives an opportunity to hone the leadership skills.

The class room teaching also explains how to balance work and personal time, meet deadlines and follow through commitments. All these skills are passive but valuable to entrepreneurs. The degree gives not only sense of confidence but also offer a certain sense of credibility when you are about to make deals with the perspective clients, investors and bakers. Without formal education one may be excelling in terms of money measures but what is lacked is the association and network formed during the college days. In future these liaisons and networks could be developed into business ventures. The success mantra for business ventures in today’s world is what you know and who you know.

The new aged leadership institutions impart entrepreneurship training not only based on complex statistical analysis and algorithmic solutions but provide hands on training through case studies, webinars, seminars and business simulations. These state of art institutions have a well-designed overall education in liberal arts which is a super requirement for the entrepreneurs to succeed in this technologically advanced and sensitive 21^st century. The courses designed by these new age institutions go to the extent to bring industry into the class rooms. Along with this such institutions arrange several conferences on their campus where young entrepreneurship can meet industry icons, future financers and angel investors.

The world’s top class Universities offering courses at under graduate level offer loan to the students to start their business, thus giving wings to the viable ideas. For example, according to Forbes magazine Babson College, MA, number one ranked college for under graduate entrepreneurship courses offer $3000 to its enterprising students. By the end of the term students are expected to return the loan and also donate any profit they make to charity. Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship University of Houston have started 66 companies and collectively raised more than $7 million as funding. Indian Universities and colleges started understanding their roles in enterprise building are offering exclusive courses on entrepreneurship at under graduate level. They offer Under Graduate degree in Entrepreneurship in collaboration with various established and renowned foreign universities. These colleges not only teach Entrepreneurship but actively engage in creating start-ups by developing incubation cells, offering mentorship and if required provide financial support as well. In the fast changing business games and super competitive environment the formal training imparted by the universities can provide a cutting edge for new era success.

But not to forget, along with a college degree to succeed as an entrepreneur, drive, determination and true passion are the key ingredients. To be cautious, never enter the University for wrong reasons or under any kind of pressure and never present half-baked ideas.

International Day of the Girl Child: Six Missions, One voice in support of Women’s Rights.

Faculty05 DecemberSanyukta Jolly

International Day of the Girl Child: Six Missions, One voice in support of Women’s Rights.

The United Nations declared October 11^th as the International Day of the Girl Child adopted by United Nations in 2011. The International Day of the Girl is an opportunity to highlight the needs and rights of girls and to advocate for greater action and investment to enable girls to reach their full potential throughout their lives. Girls face discrimination and violence in many parts of the world simply because they are girls. They face unique challenges such as early and forced marriage, violence, poverty and other barriers. With this perspective in mind, the United Nations declaration is “to help galvanize worldwide initiatives to better the lives of girls, providing them an opportunity to showcase their talents and reach their full potential.” Taking this up at an international level gives it the needed impetus and focus that it deserves. To celebrate this day, IILM Institute for Higher Education proudly hosted a panel the prestigious ‘Chat with Diplomats’ event, on the occasion of the “International day of the Girl Child”, in partnership with the High Commission of Canada.

The panel discussion was represented by six missions, one voice in support of women’s rights. The esteemed panelists were the Deputy High Commissioner of Canada, Jess Dutton; American Ambassador, Richard Verma; Mexican Ambassador, Melba Pria; Deputy High Commissioner of Australia, Chris Elstoft; His Excellency Ben Joubert, The Ambassador of South Africa and Ambassador of Finland, Nina Vaskunlahti.

Mr. Matt Friesen, Head of Advocacy, Canadian High Commission shared how the Canadian High Commission had organized the campaign ‘Run for Her’ which had more than 400 participants and how they had been looking at creative and innovative ways to celebrate and commemorate the International Day of the Girl since its inception five years ago. As part of this initiative, they had organized a Pan India competition entitled ‘Canadian High Commissioner for the day Challenge’, where Ms. Medha Mishra, an Engineering student from Jaipur who won the competition was honored during the event. Medha underlined her commitment to this cause stating that women ‘can achieve stuff’, in a few succinct words. Post this, Mr Matt Freisen introduced the topic of the panel discussion ‘Glass ceiling or a Sticky Floor’ and invited the diplomats to express their views. He opened the discussion by pointing out as to women often do not get the same opportunities that men get simply because of their gender. He emphasized the need to wrestle with this issue by asking questions like: why are most of the heads of government men, why are most CEOs men, why are most Board rooms male dominated? He added that women continue to face challenges in education opportunities and in career advancement processes. He indicated how this group, a perfect mix of people from diverse geographical backgrounds and representing both genders, was ideal for initiating such a dialogue. He then invited the diplomats to share their views one by one and moderated the event.

The Deputy High Commissioner of Canada, Jess Dutton, the first speaker of the panel, drew attention to the fact that ‘gender equality is not a just a women’s issue, it’s an issue that’s very important for men as well ’and encouraged everyone to work together to ensure that one day gender equality will be achieved for all. He also emphasized the need to celebrate the achievements in the area of gender equality while simultaneously keeping in mind that there is still have a long way to go. Citing examples from Canada, such as giving parental leave instead of maternity leave and the 50-50 gender balanced cabinet in Canada, he demonstrated the initiatives taken by the government to support this cause. In comparison to corporate Canada 48% of the workforce is women. And almost 1 million are self-employed. However, only 16% of the corporate board seats in Canada are held by women and there is a surprising wage gap in Canada, for every dollar that a man earns, a woman earns 72 cents for the exact same job, highlighting the difference in pay structure based on gender. Sharing experiences of his mother, he drew parallels with today’s organizations to demonstrate the progress that have been made. He then cited examples from India and commended the fact that India have women fighter pilots in the Indian Air Force and there are several women bureaucrats, business people, journalists, scientists, entrepreneurs joining this list. He made a reference to India celebrating the Girl Child day every year on 24^th January. He then juxtaposed with the story of a 15 year old girl from Bihar, with 2 children, abandoned by her husband, who is now attending school in order to complete her education and be and independent woman. Sharing these examples, he encouraged the audience, the future leaders of India to look out for and help such girls, not only in India, but all over the world.

Mr Richard Verma, The American Ambassador, started by expressing his gratitude to the people from his family and on the work front who were his role models and had inspired and influenced him. He specifically mentioned the role his grandmother and mother have played in being mentors for him. He appreciated how these strong women, despite of having difficult circumstances, worked very hard to provide good life and education to their children. Further he highlighted the role of leaders in bringing about gender parity in the economic, legal and political systems. Mr Verma also stated that while holding leadership positions, it’s important for the leaders to ensure gender parity and make things better for women to climb up the ladder. He added that education, economic opportunity and a fair legal system are essential to ensure level playing field for both genders. He further reiterated the need to encourage breaking the stereotypes and bringing more people to work for gender equality. He stressed on the fact that women empowerment requires collaborative effort and no one country can work in seclusion in order to achieve this.

Melba Pria, the Mexican Ambassador, started her discussion by emphasizing her concern about the need for one day for the Girl Child in the 21^st century. She raised questions about how glass ceiling is viewed. The glass ceiling actually the barrier that women face anywhere in the world in their ascending career and Sticky floors mean the downward force that keeps women at middle or low level. She passionately talked about the obstacles that come a women’s way in form of the self-censorship that women are socialized with, the prejudices that women face simply because they are female, the gender based discrimination and sexism that is prevalent. She highlighted that the glass ceiling is a powerful and invisible barrier that hinders the ascending career of women. Comparing the situation in the two countries she mentioned that in though in India 46% of women are highly educated, only 27% of those women are counted as workforce and get paid, whereas in Mexico, 48% of the women are regarded as workforce. She gave figures to driver home her point that though in Mexico 18% are Financial Officers, 14% Corporate Controllers, 12% Chief Marketing Officers, but only 4% CEO’s!. Reflecting on the reasons behind gender discrimination, she shared the Mexican saying that ‘Women usually have three jobs – they are in their jobs 100% of the time they are mothers and daughters, and then they are lovers and wives, to their husbands’. She highlighted that Canada has 27% of its parliament being women, 48% of the Mexican parliament is women and only 12% of India’s parliament is women. Adding on a lighter note she said, “I wonder if men can say the same thing”. Drawing on the experience of Ms. Bianca Trevino, of being assertive about her right to enter the exclusive club of the Mexican Council for Businessmen, Her Excellency Melba Pria brought out the lack of and therefore the need for more successful women role models for the women workforce to look up to. Citing the McKenzie report she shared how closing the gender gap can help increase the GDP of India by 60% by 2025. Stating that women are the largest untapped resource in the world, she enumerated solutions for dealing with this challenge: Break the political leadership ceiling, and conquer the traditional male associated fields. Mentioning the book Why So Slow, by Virginia Valian she too emphasized the need to acknowledge how far we have come, while being conscious of the way forward. She ended her speech beseeching the audience to be aware that ‘this is not a fight against men, it’s not a fight between men and women, and it is the fight of both genders for equality and fairness’.

Chris Elstoft, The Deputy High Commissioner of Australia, began his address by sharing that though in his early years when he was growing up, he was not concerned about the ‘He-for-She’ cause. But with the birth of his daughter, there has been a major change in this perspective and now he is very passionate about and engaged with women’s issues. Taking the example of his own eight year old daughter, Mr. Elstoft shared how she believes she is equal to her brothers in every which way, and has the same opportunities that are available to them, but he is deeply aware of the situation that there are differences that exist in society. He added that ‘her safety is not the same as her brothers’, her prospects in the workplace are also not the same. He talked about the initiative that was started about 2 years ago, where they tried to analyze and answer the question as to why, women who constitute 50% of the workforce till a certain level in foreign service drops down to 30-32% by the time thy enter the senior executive rank? What is it about their organization that sees this massive crash in the numbers of women who are entering the leadership cadre? There are a number of tangible barriers that hold women back. One is that foreign ministries in particular struggle with is because of the demands that are placed on their staff. They staff around from country to country, dragging their families’ with them, which becomes difficult for women whose husbands are unwilling to move for their wife’s career, the way promotions and recruitments are done, and some issues around culture. To help women reach higher leadership roles in the organization, a number of changes have been introduced, such as making the workplace more flexible, enabling part time work, working from home, remote work, using IT solutions to facilitate people being more productive but also being able to balance work and family to name a few. Above all, he emphasized that they are trying to drive a more inclusive style of leadership culture throughout the department. He ended by saying that having a parity of genders in organizational leadership is not only the right thing to do but it is also the smart thing to do.

His Excellency Ben Joubert, The Ambassador of South Africa started his talk by acknowledging the major role women have played in attaining freedom as well as being the real democracy in South Africa. After their constitution got signed in 1996, there was a law passed which stated equal opportunities or equal employment. Those are affirmative laws which give specific allowance for 50% of women in workplace. South Africa is a country which gives lot of attention to issues of women and child rights, there are many initiatives when it comes to that, one is celebrating their women’s day on 9th August every year. This day was specifically chosen because of the march of the women 60 years ago. At the same time he expressed his concerns regarding the fact that despite having various laws on paper, women were unable to get equal opportunities. He also mentioned various initiatives started by their Government in order to facilitate women empowerment but at the same time, he criticized the need to have so many initiatives even today, in order to get women on equal pedestal with men, he said- “when we look at these initiatives they are there because women are not in a place where they need to be in society and workplace. If you have more initiatives it means you have more serious challenge to address.”

Nina Vaskunlahti, The Ambassador of Finland, emphasized the need for a higher women representation in their political arenas because of the different perspectives that women add. She shared that in Finland, approximately half of the members in Finnish Parliament are women and they actively work along with their male counterparts in organizing political events. Ms. Vaskunlanhti stressed on the fact that women empowerment is not sole responsibility of women, it order to achieve equality, men need to be active members of the same. She also mentioned the importance of having role models and gave example of Finnish Defense minister- “In 1990 Finland got its first Defense female minister, she was first female defense minister in the whole world. A finish minority made it even more interesting. It was position taken by minority. So breaking the glass ceiling twice. First coming from minority then being a women and she did a pretty good job as minister of defense and she also opened possibilities for girls to enter military services until then it was a profession compulsory for boys but then it became sort of possibility for girls”. In conclusion she advised, “To be bold, to be brave, to be themselves” in order to break the glass ceiling.

All the panelists spoke about how important it is to invest in the education of the girl child, because when they are educated, healthy and informed they not only empower themselves, but also their families and the communities around them. The issues ranged from education to reducing gender disparity and increasing women involvement in leadership roles across organizations and politics. This initiative is a small step in this direction.

The event ended by Dr. Bhaskar Chatterjee, Senior Director, thanking the panelists for sharing their views on a subject that is relevant to all people and all geographies. He briefly talked about IILM’s contribution towards responsible management. He shared that IILM offers 10% fee waiver to all its girl students across its three campuses in Delhi NCR and offers flexible work arrangements to all women employees. IILM Institute is a member of the United Nations Global Compact Initiative “PRME” and has earned the coveted ‘Champion Business School’ status. It has a global study programme which connects its students and faculty with institutions of repute in Germany, France, Spain, Canada, the United Kingdom and Switzerland.

The evening ended with informal interactions between Diplomats and the students and faculty of IILM over high tea, leaving us all motivated to take this cause forward.

IILM Celebrating the 21st Convocation of the Post Graduate Diploma in Management Program

Events05 DecemberDr Radhika Madan

IILM has been a pioneer in offering management courses for both the undergraduate and post graduate programs. Established in 1993, IILM offers the AICTE approved Post Graduate Diploma in Management at its three well-located campuses in the National Capital. The curriculum at IILM imbibes the best aspects of courses offered at top business schools around the world. The modules are inspired by the Wharton Business School, the Harvard Business School, the Yale School of Management and the IIMs. They aim at combining theory with practical training so that students are capable of turning concepts into understanding, knowledge into action and ideas into innovation. With over 20 years’ experience in training future entrepreneurs and managers, IILM is proud to have 9000+ well placed alumni in top companies in India and abroad.

IILM offers a wide range of Executive Education Programmes on various platforms. IILM has organized Training programmes for IAS and IPS officers for over 10 years. IILM has also been conducting customized Training programme for leading PSUs like NTPC, NBCC, BHEL, and EIL. IILM also offers specialized programmes for Defence Ministry’s Directorate General of Resettlement for defence officers. IILM has recently partnered with Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs to jointly conduct programmes for Government officers and executives of PSUs and corporates. IILM Startup Labs has been launched to support and bolster a start-up company’s creation and activity in the early stages before it becomes self-sustainable. Through the incubation initiative, IILM aims to provide an environment where students and entrepreneurs get full IILM support to set up new ventures.

IILM has partnered with the Dortmund University of Applied Science and Arts, Germany for the Masters in International Business – Managing Diverse Markets Programme. The MDM programme has been a great learning for our students in terms of an international educational experience, exposure and adapting to and managing cross-cultural differences.

According to the EdUniversal rankings of best business schools in India, IILM has been ranked 11 (3 Palmes of Excellence category) for 2015. Headquartered in Paris, EdUniversal is a global ranking and rating agency specializing in higher education.

21^st Annual Convocation – 2016

The 21^st Convocation of IILM for the Class of 2016 was held on May 4^th, 2016 at its Lodhi Road, New Delhi campus. The ceremony started with the lighting of the lamp by Dr. Jyotsna Suri, Chairperson The Bharat Hotels Limited and Mrs. Malvika Rai, Chairperson, IILM. One hundred and sixty-seven students completed their post-graduate studies at IILM in 2016 and received their diplomas at the Convocation.

At IILM, placement is on high priority. In order to achieve this objective, IILM has introduced four placement weeks throughout the year. The Career Development team conducts continuous workshops to get the best internships. IILM acknowledged the summer internship projects of the students and awarded them with certificates. The best three summer internship projects from all three campuses were selected on the basis of the quality of training in job, passion, persistence and sincerity towards SIP.

Dr. Smitha Girija, Director, IILM welcomed the Chief Guest, Dr. Jyotsna Suri, Chairperson and Managing Director of Bharat Hotels Limited that runs the luxury hotels chain “THE LALIT” under the Lalit Suri Hospitality Group. In the past few years the Group has won a number of awards for its outstanding performance. Dr. Jyotsna Suri was President of FICCI for the year 2015-16. She has been listed amongst the Top 50 Business Power Women in Asia by the Forbes Asia and amongst the Top 20 Most Powerful Woman in Indian Business by the Business Today. She is the only Indian member on the International Executive Committee of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC). She has also received an Honorary Degree of “Doctor of Laws” from the University of Warwick, UK for her contribution to tourism industry.

Dr. Jyotsna Suri’s speech:

Faculty members, proud parents and graduating students. I am truly privileged to be here for 21^st convocation of IILM. Thank you all for inviting me for this very special occasion. IILM is one of the leading business schools in India offering Undergraduate and Post Graduate programs in Management. I believe the focus is to develop students as globally aware members of society who are also responsible business leaders. The initiative to encourage student from Jammu & Kashmir and North East by offering them 25% scholarship and 10% scholarship to every woman student is highly commendable. I am also delighted to know that there are 71 girls out of 167 students that are graduating this year. My complements to the founders and of course the current promoters and management of IILM. Please keep the good work as you are doing. Heartiest Congratulations to you all.

Young ladies and gentlemen, in the depressed global scenario India stands out as a bright spot. The Indian economy is growing at 7.6% and will continue to do so in the future. Historically, India is one of the oldest cultures but demographically it is the youngest nation. About 60% are below the age of 30. India with its 29 states and 7 union territories has both the demand and supply therefore its economy will continue to grow. The services sector is doing fairly well. The governments imitative of ”Make in India” is giving a boost to India’s sluggish manufacturing sector.

The Prime Minister’s call of starts up INDIA is aimed at you and he is also providing his favorite platform to all the new young entrepreneurs like yourselves to come forward. As you graduate, therefore there is a huge opportunity waiting for you. Some of you may join established or establishing firms. Some may add value to existing family businesses and some may become entrepreneurs who will not only sustain themselves but also offer employment to others.

So young ladies and gentlemen while it is extremely important to generate success and wealth, we must not forget the core value of humanity. Let me give you a fistful of values

Honesty and Integrity
Respect for individuals
Responsible communication
Devotion to duty
Minimize wastage

As you move on in your life, please keep the honesty and integrity alive in you. You must respect all the individuals, their faith, their beliefs, their backgrounds- each one has to be respected. Your communication to each other, to the outside world must always be responsible. And as you move on, whatever you may do, whichever genre you may fit yourself in, whichever company you may join always have the devotion to duty and minimize wastage. Wastage of natural recourses, wastage of water, wastage of food but most importantly wastage of time. Don’t waste your time on activities which are not going to bear any positive results.

Remember the moment gone by is never going to come back so make the most of the time you have. Now with that fist, which is very powerful, along with it I offer you my good wishes. As you step out into the world to establish yourself, do your parents, your country, your planet proud. Good luck to you. Namaskar.
Dr. Smitha Girija, also welcomed Mr. Kapil Chanana, IILM’s alumni from the first batch, batch of 1996. Mrs. Malvika Rai presented an award to Mr. Kapil Chanana, General Manager, Activation, Coca Cola India Private Ltd. The Chief Guest, Dr. Jyotsna Suri and IILM Chairperson, Mrs. Malvika Rai then presented Gold and Silver Medals to the toppers of the three campuses.

IILM honoured six faculty members with the “Excellence in Teaching” Award. The six faculty members who received this award are: Prof. Vinay Chirania, Prof. Ruchi Shah, Dr. Shivani Khurana, Prof. Raju Majumdar, Prof. Shweta Sharma, and Dr. Preethi Srinivas.

The convocation concluded with the National Anthem.

The 10th IILM Distinguished Global Thinker Award

Events05 DecemberRachna Madaan

The 10th IILM Distinguished Global Thinker Award was conferred on Prof. Ashish Nanda, an eminent academician and Director, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. The Award was presented to Prof. Nanda by Mrs. Malvika Rai, Chairperson, IILM.

Prof. Ashish Nanda has a PhD in Business Economics (Harvard), AM in Economics (Harvard), PGDM in Management (IIM Ahmedabad), and B.Tech in Electrical Engineering (IIT Delhi). Prior to his doctoral studies, he worked for five years with the Tata group of companies as Tata Administrative Services officer. A recipient of the Henry B. Arthur Fellowship, the Harvard University Center for Ethics in Professions Fellowship, President of India Gold Medal (twice), and the IIM Director’s Gold Medal, he has published several case studies and Harvard Business Review articles. He taught at the Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School for 20 years and has advised numerous professional services companies.

While accepting the award, Prof. Nanda, expressed his gratitude with generosity of spirit and warmth and thanked IILM for conferring this award.

Welcoming Prof. Nanda, Professor Rakesh Chaudhry, Senior Director IILM, shared that IILM launched the Global Thinker Award in 2006, to celebrate and honor those distinguished individuals who have contributed substantially to the global stream of consciousness, ideas, and knowledge, and have made a significant difference in the national and global community.

In the lecture delivered on ‘Profession of Management’, Prof. Nanda, spoke about management as a profession and explained the meaning of the word profession which means Profess, i.e. “making a claim or commitment to a superordinated goal.” He brought up whether like any other profession- legal, medical and military, the management profession too needs to take a vow to serve their clients’ interests and always keep the clients interest above their own. He emphasized that the necessity to vow is paramount as input and output of the services rendered by the professionals are not verifiable or measurable by their clients.

He wondered if the management can be called as a profession. In his opinion, if management is to be a profession, it needs to have its own association, cognitive base, licensing and code of ethics, which puts the moral obligation on the profession and to achieve super-ordinate goal, social status, respect, pride, attorney for the nature of work done towards their clients. Thus, it becomes imperative for the management professional to take a vow to achieve super ordinate goal that would serve the best interest of his client.

As per Prof. Ashish Nanda, “I am extremely honored by the generosity of the spirit. I just feel that I have had a very fortunate life and opportunities have opened up at various points and it’s been a wonderful journey so far and I hope that it continues to be productive and good journey. I am going to talk on the subject of ‘Profession of Management’. People have often used the term Professional Managers and the term is used very often to distinguish managers from promoters or owners of family business. That’s the way people call it, they say professionalization of firms / professional managers. In casual usage, it is supposed to be people who are in management positions, who are not entrepreneurs or not in family owned business. But if you go to a student in the field of Sociology, he would say that word profession means ‘Sociology of Professions’, so the question here is – Is management truly a profession? Should it be a profession? I am going to say a few words on that. Profession has two kinds – true professions and free professions. True professions are the kinds where actually there is an organization, there are some goals, you take a vow, and these are military organized religion. Free professions are where actually you do take a vow; you also have commitment to something super ordinate goal but you can be in multiple organizations, for example, super ordinate goal a military person commits to is national well-being.

What a professional does is he provides service to those he is serving and the service is very valuable and this service arises out of capabilities these people have developed after years of training and development. So there is a great deal of knowledge that goes into delivery of service. Think of a Heart Surgeon for example, when a heart surgeon is operating, he has worked for years on a body of knowledge and training and the service he is providing to you at that time is extremely valuable. These are the two characteristics that together determine who are professionals. One of the challenges is that the work the professional is doing, it is very difficult for the client to judge the input and the quality of output because both are non-measurable. It is not possible for client to actually make sure that the professional’s interests are aligned with the client’s interests.

What Professionals do is they take a vow to become professionals. In many countries, you do not become a lawyer by just passing LLB, you actually have to join the Bar Council to become a lawyer and part of joining the bar council is to sign a vow so there is something that you profess when you become a lawyer or a doctor or any other profession. Vow has the same characteristics. The vow is I promise to fulfill my client’s interests ahead of my own interests. If your client believes in your vow, then they will trust you to do the best for them. Now, who makes sure that you are actually following your vow, your own fellow practitioners do it.

Another very interesting characteristic of professionals is most professionals have associations for example, bar association, medical association. The reason those associations exist is they promise to society we will make sure that people who join our professions they take the vow and we will monitor ourselves carefully, in return for that promise society gives two very powerful rights – right of self-certification – accountants decide who will become an accountant, lawyers decide who will become a lawyer. Second right they get is one of self-discipline. They themselves decide who has broken the vow and will be punished. So what happens in the profession is Professionals make a promise, society trust them, they have an association which make sure that you hold true to promise and if associations work well, we will give you the autonomy / freedom.

For management to be a profession (many of us say management is a profession), it requires managers to take a vow to do things in the best interest of their clients. This is a challenge – managers will say who is my client, I have stakeholders – customers, employees, owners; theory of multiple stakeholders is applied here. Agency theorists will say that managers exist because owners tell them to run the enterprise on their behalf’s so their clients are the owners. So managers have to take a vow that they will act in the long term interest of the owners. If management is a profession what do managers commit to, what is the super ordinate goal? I think what managers can commit to is efficiency, if we have that spirit in managers then perhaps we can say that managers are professionals. There has to be an association of managers that can evaluate how the managers are doing, whether the resources are being effectively used.

Are we anywhere close to that in Management? Overall my answer is No. For management to claim that we are professionals this is what is required, not just saying that we have MBA degree, we become professionals. If they try to maximize personal returns, it reduces the possibility of becoming professionals. What helps managers being treated as professionals when they are investing for long term returns, building the assets for organization? Second thing that will make a big difference is more and more human capital in intangible assets becomes a part of the equation. So, where do I see this leading, I think technical education in skills of management has made MBA degree very attractive. There will be some institutions which emphasis to their students on their responsibility, try to have them build a sense of commitment to the super ordinate goal. Over a period of time, people coming out these institutions will be able to deliver better results and out of this category the profession of management will emerge.”

Dr. Smitha Girija, Director, IILM, thanked Prof. Nanda and the distinguished guests. The award ceremony closed with the singing of National Anthem.