Dr C Joe Arun, director of Goa Institute of Management, talks to SANGEETA YADAV about his plans to take the institute ahead and search for a competent faculty
What are the recent developments in the management fieldIJ
It is going through a systemic and substantive change. The focus is not on just acquiring a degree from a reputed B- school. Instead, what a student learns and develops in terms of character formation, skills and attitude, aids in getting him or her a suitable job and a better living. Management education should produce leaders, not just manager. Managers manage situations but leaders lead people. Every student should deal with cross-cultural issues and be responsive to an international business environment.
How are you planning to take the institute forwardIJ
I want to lead the school to become one of the top 10 B-schools in the country. The focus of my leadership is on the formation of character of students. I want my students to become responsive and responsible leaders. At the end of two years, I would like my students to not search for jobs and become employees, but an employer with their own businesses.
What changes will you be bringing in academicsIJ
More than teaching ideas and concepts, we’ve to help our students think clearly and independently and study skills that structure this intellectual engagement form the core of academic rigour. We need to create an environment where learning is not book-centred but innovation and critic guided. From the time the faculty and students get up in the morning until they go to sleep, the focus should be on learning and issues related to it.
Tell us about the research team of GIMIJ
Our research faculty engages in relevant research that contributes to the growth of the country by finding solutions to the problems. The outcome of research should be disseminated first in the class rooms for critical reflection and later it should be published in international journals. Goa Institute of Management (GIM) will maintain a research environment that is crucial for quality education. We will continue to enhance our library, laboratories and infrastructure that support research at highest level. Recently, we’ve put in place a finance lab with ten terminals, which is rare in B-schools in India.
Any new course you’ll be launching at GIMIJ
I would like to introduce a course on leadership. This course discusses how managers become effective leaders. Another course I’m thinking of introducing is managing value creation which aims at making leaders who become value creators. leaders create value by influencing the behaviour and decisions of those with whom they work. This course reflects the values that GIM believes in.
Any plans for collaborate with foreign institutesIJ
We plan to tie-up with schools like london Business School and Oxford Said Business School in UK and some schools in the US as well. This is in addition to what we already have with University of Antwerp, Belgium, Catolica-lisbon School of Business and Economics, Portugal and Hochschule Ingolstadt, Germany.
What is the biggest challenge you see in this fieldIJ
The biggest challenge is recruiting competent faculty. In my experience, I find it difficult to get faculty who can teach well and do quality research. Some are good teachers but they don’t do research. And there are some who do very good research but aren’t good teachers. I prefer to recruit good researchers and good teachers. I will ask the researchers to do quality research that becomes the content of teaching by good teachers. This collaborative and complimentary approach will serve the purpose.