Transition to a business school ..

I have always wondered how it would be like to move from an engineering school to a business school ? Engineering offers you technology and what does a b school teach you ? How to do business ? Yes, that is also a tough thing. How you collect the resources and what you are going to do with them and doing it in the most efficient and cost-effective way. B-school in short teaches you exactly that.

My research and Masters degree was influenced after my industry experience to a great extent. Industrial experience and the theory of Industrial Engg taught me how important it was to utilise resources optimally. In Industrial Engineering I learnt about Industry and running it with quantitative tools like those from Operations Research, Linear Programming, Dynamic programming, Queueing theory, Game theory, Project management tools and so on. It revolved around Computer systems, databases, Productivity, Japanese Production philosophy, Supply Chains, Revenue management etc.. My pet areas where I have worked and would like to teach PG students. The opportunity to interact with industry professionals, learn from them and in turn teach them something new and consult with them is what makes a position in teaching and research exciting. Else teaching would be a very boring affair. I had started to feel traces of boredom in my present assignment already.

In an engineering school at UG we get to teach the top students. Barely five percent of engineers would like to pursue an engineering PG course as a higher qualification as most are enticed by the industry and pursue a course in business administration. We cannot blame them as that is where the money is and enough job opportunities too.

The next ten twenty years we are going to see booming business and trade opportunities in India and China and also by the developed countries with India. This needs hordes of business professionals to run the Indian economy and help it to emerge as the top economy in the world in the coming years.

By joining a reputed B school finally I get to teach high quality students. At Xavier inst of Management and Entrepreneurship at Bangalore, (Electronics City, phase II, Hosur Road), I look forward to great intellectual interactions and an intellectually satisfying work environment. Electronic City Bangalore is presently the most happening place in the knowledge Industry of the country, it would not be an exaggeration to say that it is so in the world, with all IT majors having their offices / sweatshops there. That is where the growth and action really is. As I repeatedly mentioned in the interview, I do not wish to miss out on this action.

The XIME Bangalore campus is spacious situated on both sides of the road at the entrance to Phase II of the Electronics City on the Hosur Road.. The facilities are good, the boarding and hostel facilities for the students, 240 in number and better than those offered in Goa Inst of Management, Ribandar, where I was teaching Operations for two terms in 2005. I went around the campus and the labs, library on Saturday 15 Sept .

I hope the transition from engg to business school will be smooth and cool. I am confident of jelling with the crowd here well. Also it is great to be in Bangalore, where lot of action is happening. After reading Thomas Friedman's World is Flat, I have always wanted to be here to catch a part of the action and be part of the future of India.

Planning to join XIME (www.xime.org by early Oct 2007 as their second term of this academic year starts by Oct 3rd.

With each passing day I am inching closer and closer to my life dreams and ambitions. I have to thank God almighty for guiding me so carefully and smoothly through all turbulent times in life and all my near and dear, a great supporting wife, for being by me through times thick and thin.

george..