Interview-Dr. K. Sriharsha Reddy, Professor in the Department of Finance & Accounting at IMT, Hyderabad|Collegedunia

Interview by Yash Panchal

Dr. K. Sriharsha Reddy is the Professor in the Department of Finance & Accounting at IMT Hyderabad. He has a Ph. D in the area of banking sector reforms from the Center for Economic and Social Studies in collaboration with BRAOU. He has done MBA (Finance) from Osmania University, Hyderabad. He attended short-term programs at Harvard Business School, London School of Economics, Indian School of Business and IIMC, Kolkata.

Dr. Reddy has more than 18 years of experience in academics and industry. He is member of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) – Telangana, Economic Affairs & Taxation panel since 2013 and actively associated with industry associations such as Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Associated Chambers of Commerce (ASSOCHAM) and Federation of Andhra Pradesh Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FAPCCI). He has over 20 publications in journals and edited books. His areas of interests are Banking, Corporate Finance, Management Accounting, Financial Inclusion, and Wealth Management.

Ensuring outstanding teaching and learning practice across IMT Hyderabad

At IMT Hyderabad, we believe in learning by ‘doing’ and learning by ‘being’. We facilitate students to acquire the required skills and create an environment for experiential learning. Faculty members at IMT H have global exposure in terms of participant-centered learning practices and action-oriented research. Industry relevant curriculum at IMT H is co-designed and co-delivered by senior practitioners across industry verticals.

Modern and engaging pedagogical tools such as Harvard cases, management games. role plays, debates, simulations, showcases, video tutorials, organization-based projects ensure outstanding teaching and learning experience at IMT H. Faculty members driven 16 weeks’ summer internship program creates a platform for students’ experiential learning at dynamic workplaces in the industry. Finally, students acquire domain expertise through 100+ elective offering in the emerging areas of management.

Strategies for the betterment of underachievers in the classes and classes taught by other teachers in Dr. Reddy’s department

At the institute level, we have a practice of mentoring students by individual faculty members to take care of their professional and personal concerns. At course specific level, instructor identifies bottom 10% of students in terms of academic performance and conducts tutorials along with individual counselling sessions.

The vision of the ideal weekly department meeting

We conduct a monthly faculty council meeting to review academic delivery for the month and deliberate on the emerging practices in delivering high-quality management education. Area (Departments) level meetings are conducted at least once a week. Creating an amenable environment to share and discuss diverse viewpoints about designing and managing academic processes should be an ideal strategy for conducting area and institute level meetings.

Dr. Reddy on how he would respond to parents who contact him to express their concern about the teaching quality of faculty

Faculty members at IMT Hyderabad are selected through a rigorous process. Faculty members are well equipped and oriented for taking sessions for diverse students. We take the responsibility of student learning during the two years stay at IMT H. Academic Program Office at IMT H collects feedback from parents from time to time.

We sensitize parents about our student mentoring process for those students who have concerns due to the pace of learning, lack of prerequisite skills and poor group dynamics with learning groups.

Views on the important functions in a HOD role and prioritizing the same

Creating high-quality teaching and learning processes is the most important function in Dean’s role. Identifying highly motivated and passionate faculty members, designing Industry relevant curriculum, planning academic delivery and review and creating platforms for faculty and student development.

Approach to ensure that the most-able students excel in their subjects

In every course at IMT H, students are assessed on a continuous basis through class participation, written assignment, quiz, group projects, comprehensive exams. Academic performance feedback is shared several times during a term. Relative grading system helps students to excel in their section.

Views on centralizing all the department resources so that every teacher uses the same resources and sets the same tests

Faculty members should be empowered to assess students’ performance using course-specific assessment tools. For example, psychometric assessment tools may be relevant for HR courses and simulations may be used for strategy courses.

Mission statement for IMT Hyderabad

To create and develop capabilities in:

Intellectual capital relevant to contemporary business needs.
Corporate connect through training and consulting.
Promoting Entrepreneurship.

Establishing an amenable environment for a healthy relationship with the students

Students as seekers of industry-relevant knowledge and skills respect a faculty member for domain expertise and accessibility to clarify their queries. We would create an amenable environment for the student to reach us for any professional and personal concerns in pursuit of academic excellence.

Placement opportunities at IMT Hyderabad

We have a dedicated and motivated corporate relations group, which ensures high-quality summer and final placements to cater to the career aspirations of our students. Every year, we reach out to new corporates for better placement opportunities in terms of profile, package, and positions offered.

Dr. Reddy’s leadership philosophy

Academic excellence can be achieved through the involvement of highly passionate and motivated faculty members and students. Empowering faculty members and students to pursue academic excellence should be the hallmark of leadership style at IMT H and same has been practised since inception.

Suggestions for the current youth

Students who align their thoughts, words and actions to their aspirations achieve phenomenal growth at the workplace. Students should understand that technical skills, interpersonal skills, and conceptual skills would help them to excel at workplaces. At the entry level, technical skills would help them to enter the organization and interpersonal skills would help them to grow to the middle level of an organisation. But, conceptual clarity enables students to pursue ideas and sustain at the top levels of the organizations. Students should utilize every resource of the institutes like IMT H to hone their skills and acquire knowledge.