Chief Guest Dr. Tushaar Shah’s Convocation address
IRMA Convocation 2017
Honorable Chairman, IRMA; Director of IRMA, the faculty and students, invited guests, ladies and gentlemen, the graduating class and parents… You can’t imagine how hard it is for me to feel like a guest in IRMA (applause). In order to feel like a guest, my wife and I forsook our regular morning walk in IRMA’s campus today so that I feel that I am coming from outside like a guest!
The solemnity associated with IRMA’s convocation is mixed with hilarity for me. I walk into IRMA every day.
It was about 3-4 days ago that Lissy had called from the Director’s Office and asked me, “Do you intend to come for the Convocation?” I told her that like always, I shall drive into the ETDC. She was aghast! She told me, “I have seen 35 IRMA convocations and this has never happened. Can you imagine Mrs. Indira Gandhi driving in a car to an IRMA convocation! You cannot drive yourself in, an IRMA car shall come and fetch you.”
Which is how it happened. An IRMA car reported at my house, which is only 200 metres from here! (Laughter and applause)
Delivering IRMA’s convocation address is an honour that I never thought I would have. Actually speaking, there is no role in an IRMA convocation that I have not played. For several years, in the 1980s, I did what Prof. Anand did this morning. That is, reading out names of the graduating class. This was followed by several years of playing a role that Prof. Saxena played. I have done things that many faculty members have not done including writing speeches for the Chairman! (Applause and laughter) And you won’t believe, I even wrote punch lines for the Chief Guest!
So, this is an honour that IRMA’s founder, Dr. Kurien, did not get. He delivered the Chairman’s address but not the convocation address. So, this is indeed, a very uncommon situation for me. And I do not know whether to laugh or feel sad about it. (Applause)
IRMA’s earlier convocations would be grand events. For example, Mrs. Indira Gandhi came to IRMA’s first convocation as Chief Guest. There were 60,000 farmers on AMUL’s lawns. Mrs. Gandhi had come all the way from Delhi on a special plane to give away degrees to a graduating class of 30 students. That was IRMA’s first graduating class. (Applause) And one of the ‘worthies’ to receive the diploma is sitting right here in front. Actually, two of them.
That year when Mrs. Gandhi had come and 60,000 farmers were on AMUL’s lawns, I was tasked with translating Dr. Kurien’s speech into Gujarati because the farmers wouldn’t speak English and Dr. Kurien couldn’t speak Gujarati. Luckily for me, Dr. Kamla Choudhry, the honorary Director of IRMA, had written Dr. Kurien’s speech. It was handed over to me the previous evening. Burning the midnight oil, I translated Dr. Kurien’s speech into Gujarati!
Dr. Kurien sent for me early the next morning- around 7 am or 7.30 am. He asked if I had done the translation. Then he asked, “Could we rehearse once?” We rehearsed line by line, he in English and I in Gujarati. Then he said, “You must not translate my speech not only in letter but also in spirit. You must emulate every intonation. You must pause at the right spot for effect. You must emulate even my flourishes!” so, we went over it again.
Dr. Kurien played to the gallery in English with 60,000 farmers attending and the Prime Minister by side. As instructed, I played to the gallery in Gujarati. The farmers were only clapping to my lines as they understood what I was saying! (Laughter) From the corner of my eye I saw that Mrs. Gandhi, too, was enjoying the theatrical duet. This was in 1980. Because I had performed so well as a translator that Dr. Kurien made a habit out of taking me wherever he was asked to address large gatherings of Gujarati farmers. Whether it was Mrs. Gandhi, Shri Rajiv Gandhi, or Dr. Manmohan Singh, I had to do all the translations. At first, I enjoyed this extra-curricular role while my primary role was to teach. I did not mind. But then, things began getting hot because the Gujarati press would come up to me sometimes with questions meant for Dr. Kurien.
Dr. Kurien would say with rhetorical flourish that “a human being is an incredible machine. The more you load it… I am sure Mr. Sodhi would have heard him saying this… the more you load it, the stronger it gets.” What he was implying was the infinite capacity of the human being. He proceeded to test his proposition on me! He would go to large farmer rallies without a prepared speech, which he would request me to translate on the spot, impromptu. Now, you can imagine how difficult this was! This was getting too much for me. For after having studied for years in English, my mind was tuned into thinking in English. That’s why translating into Gujarati was very hard. But I took solace thinking that even if I were to miss a little, how would he find out? But I soon discovered how unfounded that solace was! The Sabarkantha Union built a new dairy plant in 1984. It was inaugurated by Dr. Kurien. Some 50,000 farmers were invited to the event. Dr. Kurien commanded me to perform along with him. Suspecting that I was likely to chicken out, he made me drive with him from Anand to Himmatnagar. Seeing the farmers and their wives in their traditional regalia, he came into his element. He began by saying, “I have been an employee of the farmers for 35 years…” he paused for me to translate. I shall say this in Hindi (translates in Hindi) Dr. Kurien, hearing this said, “Don’t use the word ‘sevak’, say ‘karmachaari’ please!” Although he did not speak Gujarati, he understood its subtleties! So, this digression with Dr. Kurien during my early days at IRMA was not without a purpose.
I do not want to talk about things like water, the water crisis facing India- this topic can feature in another occasion. Today is your day. That is the reason I wanted to tell a bit about the history of this institution where you have spent two years.
An early part of the history of IRMA had to do with Dr. Kurien and the physical and intellectual impact of his presence, especially the day that IRMA evolved. Most of my students, who are now, did not have the good fortune – like some of us – of interacting with the founder of this institution when he was in his prime. This was in the 1980s and early 1990s when he was operating full scale. He was a tiger in short. In my view, the best thing he left behind was his idea of IRMA. It is my view that IRMA should do everything in every convocation to review and reflect on the life and work of this exceptional man. Because hidden in his legacy is his idea of IRMA. It is more relevant today than it was then.
During the mid-1990s, after I had relinquished IRMA’s directorship, I was asked the same question by two organizations- the World Bank which was trying to establish a world class water institute in Rajasthan and Tata Trust which wanted to give away endowments to knowledge institutions with certain potential. So, I was faced with the same question from two institutions which was: how to ensure that newly-established knowledge institutions achieve their full potential and sustain themselves? These questions are very important for a management course. As you grow older you will find that this is the central question in the life of every manager: how to build institutions that rise to their potential and survive?
At that time I discovered many books which told us how to excel in business and management. Yet there were hardly any books on how to excel in managing knowledge organizations or research institutions. Over a year, I reviewed a cross-section of 30 institutions from various fields including social studies, management schools, scientific research organizations like TIFR, even training institutions. I was trying to discover what makes management institution perform using their full potential and excel. I interviewed their Directors, boards, staff, and various stakeholders trying to find out if a magic formula existed for their excellence in building knowledge institutions. While doing all this research year-long I kept reflecting on my years at IRMA to which I had devoted half of my professional life. Eventually, I turned in my report which never got published. Yet it is one of my most widely read reports. I found that many of these organizations were mere instruments of change with well-defined goals early in their lives. My report offered a few insights regarding how knowledge institutions can become high-performing ones. Very strangely, the key had to do with the importance of birth conditions. There is very little you can do to improve the working of an institution which is born wrong. An institution that is born right or created right has greater chances of achieving its performance potential. Building high-performing knowledge institutions is an act of entrepreneurship of the highest kind. It is evident in the level of ambition, the entrepreneurial energy applied to it, the quality of analysis, thinking and wisdom that are invested in framing its governing ideas of purpose. It is also evident in the careful thought regarding how an institution is likely to realize its goals and vision. In all this, the birth process has a deep impact for an institution throughout its life cycle. I can say this because I have lived through the birth of IRMA. I have seen what happened before IRMA was born, the quality of people who brought together to offer advice on how this institution should be created, how should one go about it… At that time, no outsider would know who the Board members were of NDDB, AMUL, and such institutions. But if you were to look at the IRMA Board of that time… it comprised the Who’s Who of India. There were two Planning Commission members, some very eminent economists, and social scientists. It had Ravi Mathai who had built IIM (A) and Kamla Choudhry who had built it with him… so we had people who had built great institutions, who were brought together to think of how IRMA could be created. Once, when the Shri Morarji Desai visited IRMA, while its campus was still being built, he questioned Dr. Kurien saying, “Why are you wasting so much time? You want to create rural managers. I do not expect to see an ashram here.”
I was then the PRM Coordinator and was following Dr. Kurien and Shri Desai. Dr. Kurien turned towards him and replied, “Sir, we want to produce kings; and kings can’t be produced in a pig-sty!”
By kings he meant people who think big: People who think big, dream big and try to achieve their dreams. If you want to create people of this type (applause) you need to create a place that facilitates such thinking. He would visit the IRMA campus every week and personally supervise its construction.
At the same time, another knowledge institution was coming up, some five kilometers away, about three times the size of IRMA. This institution was born with not a silver but golden spoon, as it was loaded with money with a vast playing field. Today, some 40 years later, IRMA has established a presence for itself. It has a reputation for being a pioneer. Yet the other centre remains a little more than bricks and mortar. It slipped into insignificance soon after its birth. To the faculty and staff of IRMA, I would like to say that its promise lies in its governing ideas and purpose. I think this promise is yet to be fully redeemed- IRMA is punching far below its weight. It can, and needs to play a far bigger role, and a more salient role, in building India than it has done so far.
Last week, the editor of Fortune India, interviewed me with the question: how will management schools equip their students to deal with the increasingly uncertain national and global environment, something IRMA’s Chairman has also spoken about? How to equip managers to deal with lax monuments recurring ever so frequently? How to prepare them to deal with the unprecedented pace of technological change and the rise of artificial intelligence, block chain technology, and machine learning? How will Indian managers cope with the sudden rise of protectionism after 400 years of free trade and globalization that made the western countries as rich as they are today? How will mainstream management institutes compete with online business education? Even as he was asking these questions, I was transported back to the 1980s when we were in the process of designing the postgraduate programme. We had agreed early on that teaching of the programme had to blend in society as a unit of analysis along with enterprise. We realized we needed to blend in the social sciences with topics of the management discipline in ways that produced a hybridized vigour. Social sciences couldn’t come in as one part of the programme and management as another. There was a need to create heterogeneity; we felt the need to manage in fluid situations. We thought our students should be able to read and analyze AMUL’s balance sheets as well as The Remembered Village by M.N. Srinivas. While reading Michael Porter and Kotler for marketing they should also read Irfan Habib’s Economic History of Medieval India.
We realized that classes should be devoted more to the students’ learning needs compared to the faculty’s teaching needs. Early on, we had figured that the best way to prepare our students to deal with the uncertainties, ambiguities, and fluidities of operating within rural India was by designing intense and creative spaces for them in order to confront and engage with reality. That is how PRM became the world’s first and only management education programme with the longest spells devoted to fieldwork and organizational training (applause).
I am so glad that in spite of temptations, IRMA has stayed broadly true to this learning philosophy. I wish there was some way of reviving the early debates regarding PRM design. I wish that we at IRMA treat fieldwork and MTS as primary learning spaces with classroom terms taking a supportive role. Field segments have an immensely maturing impact on our students. If these are curated and supervised intensively, the learning impact on students can multiply manifold.
I wish we could revive the 1980s’ practice of faculty members taking the responsibility of hunting new faculty members and inducting them into IRMA’s way of doing things. I recall that some of our best faculty members were recruited not through advertisements but by the extant faculty at IRMA. So, personal search was the best way of conducting faculty recruitment.
Lastly, I hope that the IRMA faculty will constantly scout around for new ideas that move management education, thinking, and training around the world.
Strangely, in recent times, striking new problem-solving protocols are not coming from the field of management but design. I am particularly struck by the new ideas on design thinking; it is about never having to say that the plan was right, it was implementation that failed.
IRMA should take a lead in incorporating such new constructs in PRM and, more importantly, bringing them to its MDPs.
Now to the graduating batch of 173 students… my congratulations to you! (Applause)
The downside of having a former IRMA Director to the Convocation is that he does not have to beat around the bush… talking about the economy and how you can change the world.
Had I been asked to deliver a convocation speech 30 years ago, when I was much younger and knew less, I would have probably told you that the world out there is a dangerous place and how to survive in this wicked world and change it for the better.
But today, I am older and wiser. In the twilight of one’s life one realizes that trying to change the world is a fruitless business. There is more sense in changing yourself. What probably matters to each of you at this point of time is how to manage yourselves as you head out of the portals of IRMA. On this matter I thought I would find some nice inspiring quotes by the likes of Winston Churchill and hand them to you on a platter. How simple it is to do this with the help of Google! Yet I thought otherwise. I have my own musings and would like to leave behind some original ideas for you to reflect upon and mull over.
So, here are six thoughts that I have retained in my mind regarding styles of management. These are not gospel truths but do mull them over. As you grow older in your professions you will find them recurring in your thoughts too.
First, and most important: as managers, we create an ecosystem around us; our own little sub-culture within the larger organizational culture. People working with you read your ecosystem to predict how you react, what is acceptable to you, and what you value among other things. Without anything having been said you create invisible tools, allies, and behavioural boundaries. When co-workers hate you, it is not you they detest but the ecosystem that you have created, which is an extension of you. Creating a vibrant ecosystem is a glorious and lifelong challenge for every manager. And yet we think so little about this. My advice: measure your success with the success of your ecosystem. Pay close attention to it and come back to it every once in a while. Assess it, mend it, work on it, and improve it for it is the quality of your ecosystem that you create that will be written in your effectiveness, fulfillment, and the joy of your co-workers.
Thought number 2: never let perfection become an enemy of excellence and excellence an enemy of good. Productivity is to be respected and cherished. In the early years, the faculty would place a lot of stress on research productivity. Back then, one senior faculty member upheld one Italian economist – Piero Sraffa – as his ideal. This economist had written only one paper in a span of 35 years, which changed some fundamental things in Economics. He member never published anything. I do not like such Sraffas on my team. That is why I say that we must never let perfection become the enemy of excellence.
Third thought: We think too much about our roles, authority, and incentives as tools to change our behaviour. All this is highly overrated. I think authority works better when you use it lightly and sparingly. And incentives tend to get blunted with too much use.
Fourth, I have personally found feedback given to colleagues a very tricky business. It is very hard to get it right. Most often, giving feedback does more harm than good. I don’t think I have come across a situation in which I told someone “you are no good”… and doing so has done any good to that person. So, the question then is: what options does one have as a manager to shape the vibrant ecosystem?
Frankly, there are very few. But what I have found is that the game is one of managing expectations. Make very high performance-related demands on your team. Expect your team to deliver the world, but make sure that they are able to deliver through hand-holding and support. This creates an ecosystem that is quite high. It keeps the team permanently in a state of high achievement motivation. These were formulae that Dr. Kurien would use to great effect. He would make impossible demands on his people and even help them to rise to the challenge.
As you leave the portals of IRMA, I commend to you a life full of joy, achievement, and fulfillment. Find work that you feel passionate about and work honourably. Simply basing your life on a well-paid job is no fun. Take responsibility but find work-life balance.
Above all, do go back to your ecosystem from time to time. Pay attention to it and mend it whenever required.
Thank you very much and God bless you all! (Applause)
