Interview by Kritika Gupta

JIM

Dr. Kavita Pathak is designated as the Director of Jaipuria Institute of Management, Lucknow. Her education qualification includes a BA in Arts, MBA in Marketing and has 2 Ph.Ds. as well. Her experience in the teaching industry spans over two decades (19 years of teaching in India and 4 years overseas). 

Dr. Pathak research interests are in - High-tech Marketing; Marketing strategy along with Higher Education Practice and Policy. She actively holds training sessions at various national level institutions in India. In an exclusive interview with collegedunia.com, she shares her views on the education sector and quality of management programs offered in India.

Thoughts on education sector in India and reasons for its greatness

Education creates human capital. You take low potential candidates, and you work upon them and convert them into high potential human capital that is one aspect of it. Secondly, education is a life-changing process, as it gives you a perspective on life, develops you as a better human being particularly management education, which is not limited to conceptual delivery only. 

It extends itself to development of personality, expansion of the way you think and presents yourself to the world. So, in simple terms, education makes a very vital contribution to the lives of people and makes a difference.

Philosophy and style of leadership

A Leader has to lead from the front. Leadership is about gardening resources, getting people together, showing them your vision, partnering with them on delivering that vision as well as trusting that people are good enough to deliver that vision. Therefore, the result of leadership can only be achieved when they have the best intention to serve; they are provided with the strength that they need and eventually create a wholesome of a productive team of individuals.

Promise of providing world class education at JIM Lucknow

We at Jaipuria Institute of Management, look both, inside and outside. We are a very progressive learning organisation. What we have in here is a learner-centric organization across all the level. Asking questions – are we doing the right thing? Are we doing enough? What are we doing? Is it contemporary, relevant, and robust? 

We question it aggressively, so we are a very open and discussion-based organization. We question whatsoever we are doing, re-invent, reopen new vistas, so that is the way we have continually re-established learning as the central philosophy behind everything that we do.

What makes Jaipuria Institute of Management stand-out!

There is an end number of reasons to consider our B-School out of the lot. The primary reason being our college has a legacy of twenty-four years. We have an Alumni based on 4500+ spread across the globe. We have a faculty pool, which is comparable with the best in the country. Last and not the least that there are very few institutions in the country that make a massive investment in the Human resources i.e., on their faculty, on their staff and the student. I am very confident that the per capita investment or outlay on student development at Jaipuria Group would be among the highest in the private education space in the country.

Major challenges faced as a Director of JIP Lucknow

As such, I have not faced any hurdles; instead, it was a personal choice that I made for myself. I was offered the position of Heading the Noida Campus first and relocate and move away from Lucknow. It was not a hurdle but a tough personal situation. The family was in Lucknow, and I was traveling to Noida every weekend. They understood, and they stood by me, and then I got crossed over here. 

Apart from this, winning the trust of people and showing them the vision, getting people’s intent and getting their action aligned to my vision, I will not say it was a hurdle but was an exciting journey to me.

Time Management Tips from the Director itself

I manage my time very effectively and efficiently. I prepare a proper list of tasks that I have to accomplish by the end of the day. In there, I list down few things which are kept in tendency bracket, so those are the pending agenda items, there are forward-looking agenda items, and there are operational agenda items. 

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I have a list that I draw out while on the drive to work, I dispense discussions with colleagues on WhatsApp, and by the time I am in the office we also make plans, and schedule meeting and then the team comes back to me for an execution reporting, which takes place post-lunch usually. We have enough time to do what we wish to do.

Establishing a healthy repo with the students

I have two sets of rules- First, if students have an operational issue, regarding their leaves, attendance, exams then there is as channel through, which they will reach me. And, unless they have exhausted all options, and then they can walk up to me. 

In case, they want to have a casual chatter on how they want to make the institution better, they are most welcomed for a cup of coffee/ tea in my office. I follow an open-door policy, wherein, a student is welcomed in order to discuss anything related to the activities/ sports/ events and more. 

Building a brand name for Jaipuria Institute

I would say, Jaipuria has created its own brand name. But, another major factor that has contributed to its success are the notable aluminise. Another thing which is not my perception, but what I hear from the peer group is that we are a very committed, visionary and a goal oriented educational institution that is progressive as well as grounded in nature.

Upcoming goals for the B-School

The first and foremost goal is to jump up ten notches in our ranking from where we are right now. We still have a lot of value and boxes to unlock that is my firm belief and we are doing multiple interventions in that direction. I am confident that if we putting in our energies together, in the same direction, we will be able to achieve our goals sooner than soon.

Suggestions to the aspiring youth

I think the major issue in front of youth today is that they have a dearth of suitable role models in front of them. We are surrounded by a generation, which is very intelligent, focused and clear in their heads. But, two things that probably will help them in the journey is – staying mentally tough and to remain resilient to highs and lows of life.