One can only categorise comments made on IIM placements (as cattle fairs) as sloppy thinking. If anything, I insist that it is unfair to the cattle: the cattle have no choice.

If the IIMs are doing more of the same, the argument in their favour could be that it's a successful model. We're forgetting the basics. What is working today may not — and perhaps will not — tomorrow. The analytical-verbal supremacy of managers of yesterday will not suffice to meet the demands of the corporate world replete with increasing complexities. This is truer in the context of India. I believe the need of the hour is to expand the horizons. Sometimes, that is accomplished by simply shifting a lens.

Expanding horizons

Grey matter is not the prerogative of a particular gender. Even more significant than my belief that 50 per cent of the population cannot be denied education in centres of higher learning, is the conviction that we need women managers.

It's a misconception that we at IIM K have a blueprint or reservation for women students simply because we have more of them. Last year, 25 per cent of our students were women. This year, it's at 35 per cent (of a total of 326). The number of students coming in next year will be 400, but we really don't have a quota to ensure a particular ratio.

We merely ensured that it's a level playing field, by placing emphasis on consistency in academic performance through school and college, rather than just look for peak performers who ‘crack CAT'. After we placed that lens as a filter, we saw more women coming into the Group Discussion and Personal Interviews stage. In our summer placements, women have done better than men. It is not an aberration.

If organisations such as Citi and P&G have an undeclared mandate that 50 per cent of their management trainees should be women, it is with good reason. Women managers bring with them, typically, the ability to look at the softer side of things. In general, they tend to be less analytical, more intuitive. That lends a refreshing balance, be it on field visits or in board rooms.

In India, especially, there is a dilemma that the woman professional faces — of work-life balance in a life that gets more demanding during certain years. Productivity is not just a function of a few years of less work. This is a marathon. The huge life experiences of women can be converted into value in the top management. Jack Welch is no longer an icon because GE has shifted to a long-term perspective. It's time we do.

Humility, agility, not aggression

Corporates lead from the wisdom of a quarter. I don't fault them for thinking through balance sheets; you are forced to make certain choices in a rapid expansion mode. So you look for managers in whom the aggression you seek is manifest. What happens when that aggression runs against the enterprise or its interests? What happens when a manager imposes his high testosterone-driven moods on his hapless team? How can we churn out managers who will be inclined to put the organisation's interests over their own, even in times of personal disappointment? Jim Collins speaks about fierce ambition (for the organisation) and humility in the same place. Humility comes from true education.

We have no control over who applies for admission at IIM-K. Between a deep-thinking but not-so-articulate candidate and a very articulate but not-so-deep-thinking candidate, we would pick the former. We want our students to be the right synthesis of humility and agility. We don't want aggression. We walk a lonely path, sometimes.

Companies are worried about the value systems of employees. At Infosys, for instance, employees wear a tie once a week. Several of them are quick to take it off when no one ‘who matters' is looking. It's not about the tie — it's about the values.

Ethics and values have to be imbibed. We compete in a global market place, and we'll have to place even more emphasis on personal and professional values. As institutions of learning, we have the responsibility of choosing the best talent not from the lens of ones that will be sought out with the highest pay package on day one (or zero), but what is best in the long-term for corporate India.

Our job is as much to inculcate humility as it is to incubate great ideas in our institutions. In doing this, we serve the ultimate purpose of education — unleashing excellence and liberating the learner.

(Prof Debashis Chatterjee is Director, IIM K)

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