Life on IIMB campus is so vibrant, and stimulating, I didn’t really miss the fact that I rarely went to town to enjoy what the rest of Bangalore had to offer.
I arrived at IIMB in Term 5, namely September to November 2018, from NYU Stern, where I am an adjunct professor of marketing.
It wasn’t my first trip to India. I had visited twice in the past, as a tourist and a conference speaker. But this was my first extended stay, and chance to really settle in, and get connected.
Get connected I did. IIMB put me in a lovely faculty house—bigger than I ever imagined. And a comfortable office, with a view of the most stunning orange spothodea tree blossoms.
It wasn’t long before I realized this campus is an intellectual hub of great energy and variety. There were PGP classes, of course, and an ever-revolving door of exec ed groups in the MDC dining hall. There were frequent presentations by PhD students of their thesis concepts.
But what I loved particularly was the hive of conferences, seminars and confabs that gave me the chance to learn about Indian business, economics, history and culture. It wasn’t necessarily easy to find out about these events—maybe I wasn’t on the right faculty email distribution lists. But I would stumble across posters and conversations that steered me to all kinds of interesting and challenging events.
Among my first was a training for professors who were preparing to handle disabled students in their classes. What a fascinating presentation. The expert speaker was from IIM Calcutta, and she gave us not only an intellectual understanding of how mental disabilities like dyslexia are actually experienced by the afflicted person, but plenty of useful tips for how to make the classroom environment easier for them to navigate successfully.
It was at this session when I first met our Director, Professor G Raghuram, who not only took the time to attend, but also raised a number of provocative points about how IIMB as an institution seeks to accept the challenge of educating disabled students while maintaining its standards for all.
I also enjoyed the thoughtful presentation by Jayant Sinha, India’s minister of civil aviation, and a former McKinsey executive. Now, I live in New York City, and get the chance to hear plenty of interesting speakers, but in India, where transport is one of the most challenging problems, it was especially stimulating to meet with the guy at the top and hear his views. I remember with amusement his characterizing Air India as “a pension fund that runs an airline.”
A few days later, I had surprise. A somewhat breathless student rushed into my office one Monday saying “Professor, I need a case.” I said, “What?” Turned out, he was responsible for a competition that following Saturday for VISTA, a program I had never heard about, and he was in charge of a case competition for students traveling in from various IIMs. He needed a fresh case that had never been published—so the competitors couldn’t grab up any answers online. I happened to be able to supply something, a case on how Burger King franchisees should adapt to market change—a topic that seemed to resonate with the students.
I was recruited to serve as a judge in the competition, along with Professor Ganesh Prabhu, and had the fun of commenting on the student assessments for a stimulating afternoon. Plus, I learned that VISTA also had all kinds of terrific industry speakers in the auditorium, whose presentations I enjoyed thoroughly.
It seemed like every day I walked around I would learn about another opportunity on campus to learn, about India, about Indian business, and about ways I could contribute to campus life.
For example, the minute I learned that the campus housed a pioneering incubator, NSRCEL, I offered to deliver a program to the entrepreneurs on how to develop a marketing plan. That session generated all kinds of discussion and interesting conversation about the attendees’ goals, the customers they intend to serve, and the value they expect to deliver.
I also offered a session on Personal Branding to the Executive PGP cohort. They took to the concepts easily—practicing their own elevators speeches, tightening up their LinkedIn profiles—and we had a very productive session together.
Meantime, I was also teaching my elective courses in PGP, called Customer Acquisition and Retention, and got all kinds of help in making it as good as it could be for the 65 students enrolled. I learned a bunch of administrative tips from Mr. Chandrasekhar, and from the PGP Chair, Padmini Srinivasan. And stumbled my way through the ‘Sarvam’ system thanks to a tutorial from Ms. Anupama Gurumurthy.
I also learned that there were various cultural and social events on campus organized for the exchange students, and I got myself invited to some of those. And the festivals! Ganesha, Lakshmi, Ayudha Puja, Diwali—the campus never missed an opportunity to build culture and community.
I could go on and on. But what I am trying to say here is that the life on IIMB campus is so vibrant, and stimulating, I didn’t really miss the fact that I rarely went to town to enjoy what the rest of Bangalore had to offer. When I did go—to the Bangalore Literary Festival, or to give a talk at the Columbia University Alumni Club—I had a great time. But overall, I was just as happy not to buck the traffic, because the IIMB campus is as satisfying a place as I could need.
It has everything. Fine, stimulating company in the faculty, students and staff. The most spectacularly beautiful garden setting in the world. Clean, comfortable, well maintained facilities. Delicious South India meals. A community of learning, and culture, and family. Thank you all for the experience.
Ruth P. Stevens consults on customer acquisition and retention, for business-to-business clients. Ruth serves on the boards of directors of the HIMMS Media Group, and the Business Information Industry Association. She is a trustee of Princeton-In-Asia, past chair of the Business-to-Business Council of the DMA, and past president of the Direct Marketing Club of New York.
Ruth is a sought-after speaker and trainer. She has served as a visiting adjunct professor of marketing in Hong Kong, Singapore, Buenos Aires and Athens. Ruth held senior marketing positions at Time Warner, Ziff-Davis, and IBM. She studied marketing management at Harvard Business School, and holds an MBA from Columbia University.