Practising what they preach

IIM teachers grabbing plum posts in MNCs

FOLLOWING IN the footsteps of their pupils, quite a few IIM professors are beginning to migrate to areas where it all happens—the MNCs.

The latest to join the bandwagon is Anadi Pande, chairman and associate professor of Strategic Management Group, IIM-L. Prof Pande is all set to take over as vice president of Hero Honda Motors very soon.

This in itself is being considered a major shift as several senior IIM teachers in the past have gone and assumed directorial responsibilities, but in prominent academic organizations across the country.

But what makes Prof Anadi’s shift markedly different is that this time a management professor would get to implement what he has been teaching in the classrooms. In short, practice what he has been preaching!

Before Prof Pande, only two IIM teachers—Prof M Ravi Sunder and Prof Umesh Bahadur— have been able to make a successful transition from the academic to the industrial world. 

Prof Sunder, who was the chairman placements at IIM-L couple of years back, is at present vice president of Morgan Stanley, a prominent international corporate giant. Prof Bahadur has shifted to Mittal Steels in Mumbai on a senior position.
Prof Pande is aware of the enormous leap that he is about to make.

“Management scienceis an applied science. Its true value lies in its ability to facilitate insightful and creative solutions to real world managerial problems. The world of management and academics concerns itself with theory dissemination and theory building to fulfill this objective. The world of practice contributes to such building as also gains from it. The two are ideally intertwined in a virtuous cycle. However, regretfully the bridge between the two in India is tenuous and needs strengthening so that the virtuous cycle accelerates,” says Prof Pandey.

Prof Pande is also among the few management teachers who chose to join the world of academics while they were doing well in the industry. Before shifting to IIM-L in 2000, Prof Pande was the head of planning and head of vehicle assembly division in Tata Motors besides also having the experience of working in the export-marketing sector with Tata International.          

And having made the switch, he proved that he could excel in the world of management/academics too. He is perhaps the only IIM-L teacher to have been rated the “best faculty” twice in five years.

“I am heading back again to the world of application, to practice what I have professed to my students and executive participants. In so doing I see myself very humbly contributing to strengthening that link that ties the two worlds together. It will be my endeavour to meaningfully give back, whatever little I can, to the Institute and the students in future,” he says.

“I was around 38 when I joined IIM-L,” Prof Pande said.