Having brought some of the top brains to spearhead the management education at India's premiere institute the Indian Institute of Management - Ahmedabad (IIM-A) the Chairman of the Board of Governors (BoG) A M Naik on Thursday announced his resignation from the post.
Chairman of India's largest engineering player, L&T, Naik took about six months to come to a decision to call it a day as the institute chairman, where he has been holding the post since 2012 after replacing then chairman Vijaypath Singhania of Raymond Group.
"It took me six months to take this decision. It was just becoming impossible to take time out of my schedule (to look after the affairs at IIM-A). L&T is a giant work. It has 78 businesses under 21 companies. And I am an active chairman. The resignation is purely out of over-work and time constraint and nothing else," Naik told BusinessLine over a phonecall.
Naik, who had been given an extension of three years early this year, had his term till 2018. He resigned in a letter to the Ministry of Human Resources Development, Government of India on Thursday.
"I did my best while being at IIM-A. I have got the best Director for IIM-A from Harvard. I reconstituted the Board and brought senior Harvard professor Srikant Datar on the Board. I am content for having been able to change the concept of management teaching," Naik said.
It was during Naik's tenure, that IIM-A's Board of Governors underwent rationalisation from 25 members to 15 members. The straigh-forward businessman within Naik made him one of the most vocal IIM chairmen to speak and express strong views about the draft IIM Bill.
Following his family tradition of being into academics, Naik chalked his own path to create an ecosystem for management education at one of the most reputed institutes in the country. "I am satisfied that I got a chance to follow the tradition of my father, who was a principal at a village school and grandfather, who headed a Gurukul about 130 years ago. My four years (of stint) have been very satisfying. I will remember it for my life," he said.
Known for his business acumen and successful expansion of the vast business empire of L&T Group, Naik set a precedence for his successors to go an extra-mile and reach out to the best needed for academics. He used his network and references to pursue Dr Ashish Nanda to bring him from Harvard Law School as the first-ever overseas director for IIM-A. It took him about 9 months to finally get Nanda as IIM-A Director.
Following the resignation of Naik, a search committee will be constituted to look for a suitable person to chair the Board of Governors of the institute.