The city of Kozhikode and its influence on the premier B school it hosts: IIM Kozhikode

The city & its world class institute:

I got introduced to the city of Kozhikode during my PGDM days in IIM Kozhikode from 2009 to 2011. One irritating question has ever since kept on hammering my head. Why the hell an institute of national importance with global ambition and accreditation was set up in a place like Kozhikode, which is devoid of any charm of a modern city, din & bustle of an economically active town area or flavour of a cosmopolitan urban civilization. Kozhikode didnt appear to have either of these characteristics despite being the 3rd biggest city of a state which proudly claims to have more than 90% literacy rate and boasts to be one of the most urbanised state. While all this statistics and reality check find no alignment, setting up a premiere management institute in such place did raise eye brows for many students like me who have a general perception towards the management institute's location, drawing references from the best well known management schools across the world. The proximity to industry, down town area, cluster of world class companies or hyper-active economic zone and its amenities is what perceived to be one of the key location criteria for a premiere management school, if not a technology or engineering school.
The city of Kozhikode seemed to have lagged behind in all these criteria to play host to a premiere management school in the country. But the institute, IIM Kozhikode, fought against all the relative disadvantages of not being close to a metro or economically vibrant and urbanized region, leveraging its sheer brand value of being one of the IIMs in the country. Its all primary stakeholders: faculty and student body have ignored this disadvantage and utilized it in their own favour. The scenic beauty of the location emerged as a major motivating factor for a world class management education. The campus, situated on the two hillocks, surrounded by western ghat range, offers its stakeholders a great healthy place to focus on management education & research.  Personality development and a holistic leadership development approach for the student is also not a far-fetched idea in this campus, earning fame as one of the most beautiful and oxy-rich campus of higher education. It's also true that its not possible to build a sprawling campus of close to 100 acres area in a metro area or even closer to one.

IIM Kozhikode campus

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The concerns:

But on the other hand, The institute has felt the disadvantages of being far away from the most developed and connected urban areas of the country. Its stakeholders have felt the need of proximity of a metro area beaming with economic activities and a cluster of world class companies.During two years, just after the macro-economic situation started limping back on track, the Placement cell & Industry interaction cell had found it difficult to accommodate all the companies and its delegates on a preferred date because of the limited air connectivity of the city of Kozhikode with other big metros and important cities of the country. For example, 1 or 2 flights only connect Delhi or Mumbai or Bangalore. Despite all poor connectivity, company delegates from different parts of the country still flock in, thanks to the brand value and reputation of such institutes. But the number of the those delegates wouldn't be significantly less who forgo the idea of visiting a far-off campus by making up for the voids from well connected campuses. Not only the poor connectivity has been the spoil sport in this case, but also the fact that no prominent company or organization has their office within 200 km radius of the campus, let alone in the city itself, has been quite a concern. Its not illogical then to think that companies with local offices would find no reason for not visiting the campus. I don't expect the head of the recruitment team of a multinational consulting firm or an investment bank or a FMCG company to just drop in on his/her way back home! But this may be the case for many management institutes enjoying a location advantage, despite being an average B school on the parameter of student & education quality.

Because of the limited connectivity with other important parts of the country, regular and easy interaction with other stake holders of the management education circle has been limited. Students from this institute wouldn't dare to think of visiting other management B schools for attending any competitions easily. Likewise, students from other prominent B schools too have paid minimal visits to the campus, in-spite of having the desire to do so.

Another very important stakeholder in a B school community is its alumni base and its equation with the institute. Though the institute is more than 15 years old now and has churned out many batches of alumni, the turn out ratio from the alumni base in various events and particularly Alumni-targeted events, have not been very encouraging. When I visited the campus in Jan 2013, during its Alumni-interaction event, I was taken aback by the very small turn out ratio of the alumni from various batches. It is not the case that the alumni wouldnt want to come back to their Alma Mater even for a day's visit but probably it is again to do with the poor connectivity of the city of Kozhikode. While the institute is situated in Kerala, less than 1 % of its alumni would be based out of Kerala and with over 90% of the alumni being based out of primary Metro locations such as Mumbai, NCR or Bangalore. Coming to Kozhikode even for 1 day would mean 3 days of leaves considering long hours of journey. Whoever comes to the campus, s/he probably plans out the visit as a part of a family trip to Kerala. As it turns out to be an expensive one, the visit would be once in 5-10 years or a lifetime may be! I don't expect that I would go visit my campus by taking a short assignment from my office in and around the city for a couple of days. But this is the case for many B schools, enjoying the constant visit, influence and support of one of the most valuable asset for a B School: its alumni base!
But despite all its disadvantages, IIM K has kept up its prominence in the management education circuit in the country by not only providing world class education but also arranging for an enviable placement track record of its graduates and a steady and healthy industry interaction cell for over the years.

The silver lining:

The recent surge in the economic activities in and around the city of Kozhikode is proving to be phenomenal. Though the visible change in the last 3 years has particularly been limited only to the either side of the National Highway 17 connecting Kozhikode with other prominent cities of Kerala like: Kochi, Tiruvananthapuram and also with other major cities like Mangalore from the state of Karnataka, the changes in skyline look quite promising for a brighter future. Even the alacrity at which the development has taken place in the last 3 / 4 years it deserves to be highlighted as a great story of a recent economic development starting from the scratch. The high rise buildings, office and residential complexes with swanky look and feel, in comparison with a rustic- village like condition a couple of years back, bring a bagful of hope for the city and its people. The coming up of such buildings is bringing a good number of IT/ITES companies home. As its a heartening news for the local talent as well as vast talent pool of Kerala, it has certainly got good news for the IIM K fraternity as well. All the above-mentioned shortcomings of a location disadvantage would be overcome in near future gradually. It's wonderful to imagine how further prominence the institute would gain out of the surge in economic development the Kozhikode city has started witnessing.

Kozhikode Cyber Park on NH17 (pic taken from a car on 19th Jan 2014)

The links to the relevant news article on this development:

1. Kerala IT

2. How the Kozhikode cyber park would connect with West Asia

3. IIM K official website

Learning new languages - part II (shortlisting languages)

In order to shortlist the foreign language I must have a goal fixed. What I want to gain out of learning languages though its not bad to learn as many languages as possible. But as I dont aim to become a linguistic expert or study only languages in my life time, I need to focus on some languages which would be enough for fullfilling my aspiration of globetrotting with understanding and knowing people, their culture.
As I browsed few websites like BBC for taking tips in how to go about, I came up with my own framework for going about shortlisting the languages I would pick up as I go on.
The objective goal:
To know (conversation level) the optimized number of languages which would cover the maximum geographical areas with high business & professional relevance putting me in much comfort level when it comes to conversing with the local people, even from professional circle.
Criteria to shortlist and to achieve the goal in short-midium time duration: ( % points in brackets indicates the weightage given to the criteria)

• Economies of scope & Ease of learning: Targetting those languages which are rooted in the same source as the languages i'm already proficient in (20%)
• Probable future foreign geographical areas for living and working ( short & long term) and the mapping of language with target countries (25%)
• No. of countries the language is an official language of (10%)
• Whether the language is United Nations official language (10%)
• Popularity of the language (15%)
• Languages with strong cultural legacy and trading influence in the global area (10%)
• Number of native speakers (10%)

Methodology:
With these criteria, the languages will be ranked for importance and prioritization in learning.
Criteria 1: Need to categorize and group languages in languages family. languages of the same family would be easier to lear and pick up. Here is the blog on world language family to refer. Languages with same family of my known language would be given highest weightage (1, 0.75, 0.5, 0.25, 0)
Criteria 2: Need to come up with the list of countries for future travel ( business & professional tour, leisure, working & living on short and long term) with the language requirement details of the countries. Here is the analysis on this parameter. Countries will be classified into three categories: High, Medium & Low. The mapped languages would be given weightage as 1, 0.75 & 0.5
Criteria 3: To come up with the list of languages with number countries its the official language. The listed languages would be classified into three categories: high, medium & low with weightage 1, 0.75 & 0.5
Criteria 4: To refer to the UN official language list. Here is the reference. All the listed language will be given weightage of 1.0. Non UN language would be given 0% weightage.
Criteria 5: Languages would be ranked on the basis of popularity among students, language learners for demand as secondary language to learn in colleges, universities. Languages would be grouped in three categories: high, medium & low with weightage 1, 0.5 & 0.0
Criteria 6: To come up with a rank of languages on the basis of cultural, historical legacy and modern influence on international trade. Here is the analysis
Criteria 7: To refer to the list of languages with number of native speakers in the world. Languages with over 100 million native speakers to be given weightage 1.0, with 50-100 million native speakers to be given 0.75 and with below 50 million to be given 0.5 weightage. Here is the analysis.

Using this methodology a list of foreign languages would be prepared. This list would be refered to as the top languages of high importance to learn.
Priority would be set on the basis of ranking, score on the "easy to learn" criteria1 and criteria 2.

( Result of the analysis would be published in part-III)

Learning new languages - part I

I'm hijacked these days with a motivation which rarely fits a lazy guy of my age! It's quite interesting though, but daunting apparently! Its nothing other than the idea of learning new languages. I already know three languages with advanced profficiency level: Bengali (native), English & Hindi. Though I will falter considerably when it comes to writing Hindi, but I'm confident it will not take more than 1 month to master the writing script of Hindi, which is based completely in Sanskrit. Ohh yaah! I forgot! I had learnt Sankrit painstakingly during my school days as Sankrit was in our VII-VIII grade syllabus. Just imagine! how valueless it was when I find no one speaking or writing or listening in this language for the argument that language can not be learnt if its not put into its best action: speaking! Not only this flaw of the education system I have undergone, but another one also made the language learning completely ineffective: Its the way of learning English! 10 years of school education had English in the syllabus without mandating the students speaking in English! The global language was to be learnt through learning grammar and reading some literature in the later part of the school days. What faulty system it was! When I grew up and went to high school, college and institutes for higher studies where English is the only medium for everything, only then did I come close to the actual and effective mastery of this language! But amidst all the negative feedback, I would like to offer my gratitude to my school education for its few positive contribution which it did make: implanting very strong base in English grammar. I can realise the merit of that while preparing for CAT (for Indian B schools) GMAT (for global B schools)! :)

Well, that's the history of my learning non-native or foreign languages! At this stage of life ( late twenties) I'm quite an advocate for the speaking-based method for new language learning. Its the best way to learn a language particularly if its your target is parimarly to able to speak in that language. The trigger to this sudden motivation or urge is working and living in a different state where the native language is not any of the languages I know. Hindi or English has enabled me to hold conversation with educated class but I found it very difficult to communicate with non-educated class like house-maid, cook, cab driver, auto driver, grocery vendor, small shop owners or the workmen in the factory of my office. Even in some situations where all the colleagues with the same native start speaking in their own language: Kannada! I find myself outlandish! I can very well demand them to speak only in English as its the official language but I think to myself: What if I accommodate? what's my loss? nothing but there will be a gain: I will be enriched more with a new language and its definitely going to be a skill! This skill not only will put me at ease in many situation within karnataka state but will enhance my social boundary, enrich my knowledge, improve my people skill, improve my general ability to push myself for more! So here I go! It kind of dawned upon me! I started questioning myself: why did I stop learning new languages after English? when being born in India gives me so much of opportunities to learn new cultures and language without carrying my passport or visa or exchanging currency I should take full advantage of this opportunity and I am ready!

This way I first got motivated to learn Kannada. But I got flooded with motivations for more! Why only Indian languages, why not more foreign languages other than English? Aravind, my friend and colleague, has a good role to play here to intrigue me with these self-challenges. He's native Indian but went to do his MBA from IE Business School, Spain. He not only earned his degree and much saught-after international exposure there but picked up a foreign language: Spanish, which is spoken all over the world like English! My earlier notion that its enough to know English to survive this world has been challenged while having after-office chatting sessions with Aravind over a mug of beer. When I dream to see myself as a globe-trotting professional with an unquenchable hunger for knowing and interacting with different people and their culture, its imperative that I know as many languages as possible in order to enhance the knowledge! This eye-opening thought occured to me and I set my goals of learning foreign languages one by one. Knowing different languages will also come handy while I will be in a foreign country reflecting my attitude of a global citizenship. Boosting up my goal of making myself a global citizen, my dream for travelling to different parts of the world and experiencing new culture, way of work & living fueled my interest of investing time, energy and passion into learning new languages. I will not stop learning the language of the state where I'm currently working and living but will expand my knowledge and skill by knowing different languages even if I have not been to that language-speaking country or currently living where it's spoken.
Being a management enthusiast and practicing manager I should have a structure, gound work done well before I embark upon a new project. Yaah, its a project with life time value and life long duration. I'll do the research, analysis and framework for adopting result-oriented approach to sustainable language learning! All the best to myself ! :)