Ranjan Das, a Pioneer in Management Strategy, Interacts with IMI-Delhi Students

Ranjan Das, a Pioneer in Management Strategy, Interacts with IMI-Delhi Students

The 6th of July saw the students of IMI being treated to a whole new dimension of management education, as Dr. Ranjan Das, the pioneer in management strategy in India, spoke to the batch of PGDM and PGDM-HR 2010, opening up a Pandora's-Box of

revolutionary thinking on the importance of strategy, risk taking and innovation in modern management.

Chief Mentor & President of The Strategy Academy, Dr. Das has been associated with the best and the brightest of the country - from being a student under the luminous Dr. C. K. Prahlad, to his ongoing tenure as Professor of Strategic Management, IIM Calcutta.

In his own words, "Individuals and organizations control their futures and destinies, and the first step to realizing this potential is to be dissatisfied with the status-quo." The insurgents must challenge the incumbents and the incumbents must constantly renovate to maintain their position.

Gone are the days when the Newtonian perception of reality stated that everything happens sequentially and predictably on a handful of changing parameters. It is time to usher in the 'chaotic world' of Michael Crichton where everything occurs non-linearly. "We have challenged the deterministic view of strategy," said Prof. Das, and the result is a paradigm shift to 'i-commerce' or innovation commerce. Industrial boundaries are getting blurred as is the difference between product and technology. The best example of this would be the marriage of aviation and hospitality as initiated by Kingfisher in India.

In this scenario, where everything is dynamic and the distance between the leaders and the laggards is fast narrowing, the mantra is not just to innovate but to 'out-innovate', competitors as well as ourselves. One has to know not just how to improve but what to improve. And for this, constant learning is just one parameter - a strategist requires more than just learning, he needs to have that zeal and passion for thinking beyond the existing.

Quoting the example of how Canon, a resource challenged company, outdid a giant like Xerox, he explained the difference between old-economy and new-economy companies, between profit centered-ness and customer centered-ness. Strategy, according to him, has to be socially as well as morally correct to be successful, and inspirational to be implemented. In the end, the companies that will survive are the ones who build social capital, the companies which are 'grey-haired revolutionaries'.

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Contributed by -
Neha Gupta,
PGDMHR (2007-09),
Head - PR Cell,
Editor Arena ,
IMI, New Delhi.

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