Out of the many momentous pillars at IIPM that etch indelible impressions in the minds of students and alumni, Professor A. Sandeep stands apart for the passion and zeal with which he has taught strategic management over the past two decades. He is the Dean, Research and Consulting, at IIPM. He is concurrently the Group Editor at Daily Indian Media. Professor A. Sandeep completed his graduation from IIPM and his post graduation from University of Delhi and IIM Calcutta. Professor Sandeep’s doctoral research from Buckingham University, UK, takes a unique look at Indian mergers and acquisitions. He has also been on the selection panels of both IIPM and the Indian Institute of Management (lIM) Calcutta. Sony, BAT , Electrolux, Price water house Coopers, Samsung and many more international companies have been his consulting and training clients in the past. Professors from institutions and universities including Wharton, Yale, Kellogg, Stanford, IMD, INSEAD, Chicago University, NYU Stern amongst others have conducted CEO workshops jointly with Professor Sandeep. He is also the author of Power Business Strategies and co-author of the best-seller Cult: Leadership & Business Strategy, Ruthlessly Redefined. Professor Anirudh Sharma met up with the legendary IIPM alumni one afternoon
“THERE’S OF COURSE THE INCOMPARABLE SATISFACTION ONE GETS WHEN ONE TEACHES STUDENTS AND LATER SEES THEM BECOME EXTREMELY MOTIVATED ENTREPRENEURS”
Q. Please take us through your journey at IIPM. What have some of the important milestones that you have covered along the way?
A. I joined IIP M as an undergraduate student in the year 1989. If milestones had to be chosen, then the decision to join IIP M was literally ‘the’ course-changing milestone of my life, as I never had imagined during my school years that one day, I would be undertaking my graduation in a course that covered national economic planning and entrepreneurship paradigms. Another milestone was going to II M Calcutta for my post graduate studies in management. The two years at II M Calcutta allowed me to compare and contrast the II M-way with the IIP M-way. Coming back to IIP M as a professor right after passing out of II M Calcutta was the next milestone, as that allowed me to put the lessons learnt into practise and benchmark the best of both worlds – that is, IIP M and II M – for world-class academic standards at IIP M.
Q. You are amongst the pioneers who have fueled the growth of the institute in the last two decades. Please share your association with Professor Arindam Chaudhuri during these decades.
A. Not many know that Professor Arindam Chaudhuri was my batch-mate while I was doing the undergraduate programme at IIP M. During the course, we became the best of friends, and I have to confess that perhaps the sole reason why I came back to IIP M as a professor some years later was because of him. It’s hard to believe but it’s almost a quarter of a century since we got to know each other. Stupendously exciting, is how I’ll describe the years with him as he inarguably is the primary reason for the superlative growth of IIP M in the last two decades, with his never-ceasing passionate, entrepreneurial focus and highly committed visionary approach. To finally get to co-author a book with my best friend (Cult: Leadership & Business Strategy, Ruthlessly Defined) is the latest pinnacle of our association, something that I will deeply cherish for a very long time to come.
Q. How will you sum up the growth of Planman Group since its commencement? How do you see it evolving in the future?
A. Planman Consulting (a portmanteau of ‘Plan’ning and ‘Man’agement) was founded in 1996 with two key objectives. One was to ensure that IIP M’s brightest students join us back. As not every student wishes to be a professor, Planman Consulting was a great way to encourage our most promising students to join us back to handle highly invigorating and intellectual corporate consulting assignments. The second objective was to ensure that global industries recognized the consulting competence of IIP M through Planman Consulting and contracted large scale consulting projects to us. This was important as an institution will predominantly have an academic positioning to the outside world; but a consulting brand like Planman could go beyond that into the professional and commercial arena to lobby for consulting projects from the world’s largest corporations and governments. In both these objectives, Planman has succeeded beyond expectations. Today, Planman is India’s largest multi-interest consulting group, that spans business spaces ranging from global strategy consulting, technology solutions, human resource consulting to market research, marketing communication consulting, and even motion pictures, handling projects from numerous Fortune 500 clients and governments. The way forward for the Planman Group is surely to become a Fortune 500 company itself than just service the world’s largest corporations
Q. IIPM alumni fondly remember you for the impact you generate through your classes, particularly Business Policy and Strategic Management. You are the top rated professor of the institute who endlessly inspires students to think and achieve more. From where do you find this energy and how do keep yourself charged up all the time.
A. Your words are gracious. Passion drives it all from the top. But if I have to be honest, it was actually not like this during my initial years as a professor. Although I was extremely passionate about teaching and strategy was my favourite area, for many of my initial years as a professor, try as I might, there were many other professors who would always trounce me on the faculty rating lists at the end of the teaching session. I couldn’t initially understand the reasons why. And then I decided to attend the sessions of many of the professors who were ranked above me. That allowed me to understand in real time where I could improve; and the progress thereon was quite encouraging. I also believe that a combination of continuous reading, handling live strategy consulting projects, conducting CEO strategy workshops, and most importantly, editing Daily Indian Media’s various group magazines (Business & Economy, 4Ps Business & Marketing, The Sunday Indian etc) keeps providing me with the knowledge and intellect to competently impart lessons on strategy. But the credit for the fantastic intellectual vibrance within the classroom during my sessions should go as much to IIP M students, who I consider amongst the finest business graduates in the country, if not the world
Q. From being an inspirational professor to a critically acclaimed management writer, to a journalist and a business leader – which hat do you enjoy wearing the most and why?
A. I suspect that my personality type would not allow me to be satisfied wearing simply one hat. To that effect, I enjoy all the hats that I currently wear. There’s of course the incomparable satisfaction one gets when one teaches students and later sees them become extremely motivated entrepreneurs with unmitigated passion not only for succeeding in their businesses, but to sincerely contribute to the development of the nation’s economy through widespread employment generation. This can’t be said a tad too early that the day is not far when the nation is run significantly by IIP M alumni. That’s the moment of the IIP M movement I await restlessly.
