Interview by Yash Panchal

RANA

 

Dr. Sudhir Rana is the Faculty in Marketing area at FIIB, New Delhi. Dr. Rana believes in driving and motivating academics and research in such a way that, it can be best utilized in an enthusiastic and dynamic environment to foster versatile personalities. His research profile is followed by reputed publications into several ABDC & ABS Ranked/indexed journals published by Emerald, Inderscience, Nelson, and Sage Publishing, etc.

Dr. Rana is also active as Guest Editor and Editorial Board member in many journals across the globe. He is associated with Journal of International Business Education, International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management, International Journal of Business and Globalization, Journal of Global Business Advancement and Asian Journal of Management Science and Applications to name a few. He often participates in conferences and workshops to disseminate and gain knowledge.

Working experience in this energetic and enthusiastic industry of education

This industry has been considered one of the and finest industry to work in. My experience so far been really exciting, amazing and brought a lot many good memories to me. When I look at what is good to work with the education industry is people who work outside the education industry, they always miss the student life that they had. Their college, their teacher, their peers, they miss everything that they had. The beauty of this industry is, an academician is always in touch with that kind of lifestyle, at in time, I have observed my friends who work in the corporate say ‘oh I am missing my student life’. But, it is not in my case. I am connected to students in such a way that I am still living the life that I have led in my younger days and if you look at the other aspects such Fashion, Politics, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Social Work, or any other popular culture, the seed is sowed during the student life.

It is also true that education itself with a of dreams and aspirations all its stakeholders. Hence, this industry does not only offer a platform to read certain stuff also give directions to live life and in a healthy way. In the present academic arena, the kind of exposure, experience and learning one gets to accomplish his/her dreams is quite evident all around the globe. Conclusively, this is one of the energetic, fresh, enthusiastic and mind bouncing industry.

Leadership is to a particular style or the person

When I think of a leader, many aspects keep on bouncing in my mind. I the is a guide, the is a , is an ideal person, etc. In my opinion, leadership is not limited to a style or person. It is contextual, at some point in time, you have to be at the front or back, friend or boss, motivator or critical, it entirely depends on the context. Especially in the academics, the kind of leadership we aim to cultivate among our students is not limited to the image building.

Starting with their initial leadership roles at clubs and committees, students undergo different situations. They need to feel responsible for success and failure, they need to keep people active and believe what they are doing, they need to head the situation and create value for themselves and their team. The line of leadership keeps on changing on sides of the . Being a professor, sometimes, I am the leader to make a leader; sometimes I am a subordinate to sharp a leader.

Dealing with the challenges as the Professor of FIIB

Well, I won’t say these are challenges being at FIIB. I’d rather say, there are a few aspects on which every teacher has to think. I take up a of my objectives as a . Like, there are students of a mindset and belonging to a background. Being a teacher, I take it as a challenge that everyone gets the same learning and reaches the knowledge destination. The business world keeps on changing, new practices and instances keep on taking places. Here, I take up a challenge to solve complex problems and simplify the concepts to the students. To overcome mediocracy and sliding value system amongst relationship also sometimes as a challenge to me. But at the same time, I feel responsible to maintain a balance with these challenges of the system.

Ensuring the best practice of industry through an industry relevant curriculum

The notion is, academia and industry have a gap. Industry practices often do not reflect in the curriculum. It becomes an exercise for the fraternity to opt for an industry relevant curriculum. Again, just having a is not important unless it is delivered with the best practice. While updating our course curriculum, we invite practitioners from our subject field to understand their needs and utilize their experience. And the journey continues to invite them our classes to deliver a few sessions.

Along with it, our curriculum is not limited to classroom lectures. It includes experiential projects at individual and team level. Field projects, live projects, collaborative sessions, role plays, prototypes, live cases, etc. we emphasis on overall development and delivery of the curriculum. We the course delivery with the objectives decided well in advance and the delivery of the subjects with the curriculum. We invite industry practitioners during evaluations, presentations, viva-voce and guiding the students together to ensure they are having industry ready content and courses.

Consistently providing placement opportunities

FIIB have a long and wide journey when it comes to placement opportunities that the students get. FIIB is continuously touching heights on the ladder. A legacy of 23+ years and 2000+ alumni base is a point of attraction for business firms to hire from FIIB. Along with the Management (CMC) helps in building a dialogue and network with the right choice. Keeping the industry requirements and development of the students, FIIB runs a of personality development, linguistic, Aptitude, Mock Interviews, placement preparatory sessions. Moreover, the CMC screens the company; ensure the goodwill, work culture and opportunities before putting it before the students. Having the industry ready curriculum with all the required skills, it is easy for the students to pitch upon the right opportunity as well as showcasing their talent.

A professional and emotional with the students

Relationship with the students is not transactional, it’s a association. Being their teacher, my relationship goes differently with different phases, sometimes professional and sometimes emotional. To maintain a healthy relationship with the students.

we have a mentoring program that ensures the objective based relationship between teachers and students

I am available to my students on both platforms - on the class and the class. I am also available to my students across communication channels. Being a business professor, whenever I organize events (like conference or workshop), students are there to contribute in all the possible ways.

Hence, I am available to guide them, mentor them and support them, opening new learning avenues for them. I feel that communication and relationship building is the real fruit that a professor earns an professional life. I believe in cultivating and a healthy relationship with my students where they have a comfort to come and talk to me, my door is always open.

Thoughts on an ideal school environment

The ideal school environment is the dream of every student and stakeholder. I look two sides into it. One side looks at the comfort and facilities available at the business school. These facilities make life easy. The other side is challenging platforms offered by the business school. More the challenges, more the learning. Best things are not easy to get.  One needs to take up the challenge and be dedicated, then only the desired outcome can be achieved. It is a mixture of both, challenges as well as opportunities.

When you learn with each other, learn from each other, be part of a healthy competition, debate for the development, try to explore the new ways of the framework and balancing life. An environment which benefits and uplifts to both internal and external stakeholders, an environment which differentiates the humans and machines, which works for the objectives and offers an lifelong learning experience to everyone out there, is an ideal business school environment for me.

Must-have skills for students in today’s environment

There are abundant skills available in every domain in the present arena. However, there are a few which you will find like core skills. More of these skills are soft skills leadership skills, communication skills, presentation skills, time management, etc. A few skills a role for the business graduates such Analytical skills, information technology, convincing and negotiation skills, etc.

In the current scenario, a complete package is necessary. A management graduate must possess both soft and hard skills. Every skill has own importance depending upon job role and context.

Well, my suggestions to the youth are to keep a futuristic approach rather than being transactional. They must look at the career and cultivate their foundations which help them in fanning their tiny inner sparks into the possibility of accomplishments. I agree that a few things are the of attraction, but a cost – return matrix is mandatory to frame, this will guide and help you in taking the right decision.

Don’t forget that hard-work pays, but only if it is in the right direction

Role of FIIB in the upliftment of other peer academicians and students

FIIB believes in driving the academia in such a way that it society as a . We at FIIB offer numerous platforms to shake hand with fellow fraternity outside FIIB. We regularly conduct workshops, training programs, conferences, conclaves. These platforms bring us together to debate and have a dialogue on the making of a common objective. Also, we often go for joint research.

FIIB publishes a prestigious journal ‘FIIB Business Review’ published by Sage Publications. Being Editor of FIIB Business Review (FBR), I aim bringing the fresh perspective, topics, mythologies to the scholars and academicians.