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BANGALORE / LIFE
THE HINDU, Tuesday, June 10, 2003
A multifaceted ‘guru’
ONE WOULD not expect the Dean of one of India’s better known management institutes to spend a hot afternoon chilling out at Barista’s on Mahatma Gandhi Road. Arindam Chaudhuri does Prof. Chudhuri happens to be the youngest Dean of the Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM), Delhi.
But then it’s probably in the genes. After all, his father, M. K. Chaudhuri was the founder-Director of IIPM and a former Professor at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.
Despite his responsibilities as Dean, Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri has “managed” to find time to write three books. The latest is The Great Indian Dream due for all-India release on August 15.
But it was his second book, Count Your Chickens Before They Hatch, which got the nation hooked onto his management “mantras”.
As a student at IIPM, Prof. Chaudhuri was drawn towards Economics. He says N. R. Chatterjee, Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University the also taught at IIPM, was influential in making him take to teaching. “Our IIPM teachers changed our nation of management education,” he says Now, Prof. Chaudhuri teaches Economics and Leadership there.
But before joining the IIPM faculty, he had begun Planman Consulting a media consultancy firm. Recently, the firm forayed into making films and television serials and there are plans for a Bengali film.
“It is necessary to emphasise the practical aspects of marketing in a management course. Management is not complete without industry exposure, says Prof. Chaudhuri.
And like a true loyal Dean, he believes in benchmarking IIPM against the IIMs. “We are coming pretty close to achieving that target, what with Outlook ranking as fourth on their management interface list last year.”
Having specialized in National Economic Planning. Prof. Chaudhuri brings out an alternative budget every year targeting sectors that are not acknowledged in any way by the Government. This year, three main sectors were identified – education, health and employment. “The alternative budget is about alternative ways of managing resources,” ways Prof. Chaudhuri.
Like almost all successful managers and authors, he is into the lecture circuit. here and abroad, his latest talk was to the confederation of Indian institutes in Mumbai.
But it is as a Dean that he is most popular. And how do we know? Well, a couple of his IIPM students came up to greet their professor even as he was speaking to The Hindu.
Their love and affection was more than obvious.
By Divya Sreedharan
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