“Context sensitivity is the crux of making good

strategy. It has truly become a craft…”

“Demand for risk takers and innovators had never been better than what it

is today. International corporations are experimenting to recruit and train

such entrepreneurial managers in order to meet the requirements of the

dynamic environment. There will be premium on such talent in future.

I am convinced that this will be the future currency of business….

To people planning to pursue a career in Strategy, exploit

as many opportunities as those that come your way:

Courses, assignments, cases, live projects & student

competitions with strategy as the focal theme.

Analysis, practice and good judgment are

hallmarks of a good strategist…”

Prof. Mohammad Akbar is a professor in the area of Strategic Management at IIM Lucknow. He is the holder of Master in Science (M.Sc) and Master in Philosophy (M.Phil) degrees from Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), in the field of Statistics. Also, he holds a Ph. D and an M.Phil degree in Social Systems from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi. He is the recipient of the prestigious I.C.S.S.R. Senior Fellowship Award at JNU. He was honoured with the best paper award in an internation-al conference by the International Entrepreneurship Forum. Prof. Akbar has also served on the Com-mittee on Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development under the Ministry of Science & Technology and the Board of studies of Commerce faculty at AMU as an external expert. He has acted as a consultant to the Inter-national Labor Organization on an assignment titled ‘Industrial Clusters in India’. He is currently on the Editorial Board of Journal of Entrepreneurship, a position that he has held for the past two dec-ades, besides being in several other national and international journals’ editorial boards. Also, he has been an active member of the reviewers of the Strategic Management society, Academy of Management (Strategy & Entrepreneurship Divisions) conferences for the past six years. We thank the professor for giving us some of his valuable time. It was both a pleasure and a privilege to have interacted with him. Here are excerpts from a long chat we had with Prof. Akbar.

Introduction

Faculty in focus An IIM Lucknow Alumni Committee Newsletter

ISSUE 10 July 2014

Thank you Sir, for giving us a few moments of your precious time. Could you tell us a little bit about your career before becoming a professor at IIM Lucknow? My career has followed a pretty

chequered path. Post my M. Phil

(Statistics) from Aligarh Muslim

University, I got selected to the

Income Tax Department in New

Delhi. After working for a year, the

bureaucracy in the government made

it untenable for me to continue in the

occupation. As I made through the

admission process, I decided to

pursue my M.Phil. and Ph.D. in

Social Sciences from Jawaharlal

Nehru University. Simultaneous to

my Ph.D. I also worked for the

National Institute for Education

Planning & Administration

(educational planning body) as a

Research Associate on a paltry sum of

INR 1000 per month. In 1985, after

having significantly progressed in my

Ph.D. work, with a thesis on

Entrepreneurship, I applied to Entre-

preneurship Development Institute

of India (EDI), Ahmedabad, where I

was offered the position of ‘Research

Faculty’. In 1987, I moved into the

corporate office of Industrial

Financial Corporation of India in

New Delhi. In early 1990, I received

my appointment letter from IIM

Lucknow, which I joined in

September 1990 at the Aliganj

campus.

What were the things that led to the development of your profound interest towards strategy, in general?

There were few incidents that

contributed to my latent interest in

strategy. Before joining IIM Lucknow

I had published two books on

entrepreneurship, one of them,

co-authored, had 26 cases that

helped me understand the impact

that successful companies create like

Nirma, MRF Tires etc. Also, initially,

I taught Quantitative Analysis for

Managers (QAM) and Business

Environment and Research Method-

ology to PGP students. However, fate

contrived and I had a consulting

assignment from an entrepreneurial

company, spun out of my MDP

program on Entrepreneurship. Due

to the departure of a colleague who

was teaching strategic management,

all of a sudden, I had a course to

teach and a company to advice. That

shifted my teaching/research focus to

Entrepreneurship and Strategy. The

second phase of intense interest grew

when we started the FPM

Programme in 1999-2000. I tried to

persuade the SMEs to build market-

ing orientation through training

programs, lecturing and working

with policy making government

organizations. I had started a

‘Centre for Entrepreneurial

Ventures’ at IIM Lucknow and

involved many PGP students in free

consulting assignments mobilized

through my contacts. One can

really see an evolutionary rather

than a planned flow to my career in

strategy..

Having been a student and then worked as a professor for so many years, Can you highlight the differences of teaching today, as compared to your study days? If I look at me as a student for

Master’s degree in Statistics, it was

mugging theorems as taught by pro-

fessors, and solving them, with no

connection with the real world.

However at JNU it was different, at

M. Phil and Ph.D. levels, as there

were no attendance rules and the

focus was on self-learning, which I

enjoyed most. One could skip

classes and still do well. I took the

route of self-study and submitted

original assignments. You could

have evening tea parties with

professors and get an F or D in the

morning. That inculcated in me a

very high sense of responsibility.

When I joined IIM Lucknow, I

found the students to be very bright

but they would be reserved with

teachers. It used to perplex me.

Only later did I learn that it was a

cautious approach to getting good

grades and terrible peer pressure. I

had a hard time in transforming to

the role of a teacher from a

researcher, as I would be brief and

crisp in what I had to say in class.

However it felt good when I would

receive dazzling presentations and

organized project reports. That

improved my breadth of knowledge

and approach to teaching. Some

inspiration came from my faculty

colleagues as well.

Could you state briefly the

factors that motivated you

to take up teaching as a

profession?

In fact I wanted to be a scholar

rather than a teacher. What

gravitated my interest towards

teaching were the interactions I

had with IIM Ahmedabad profes-

sors with whom EDI had several

project collaborations. Their

mental clarity on issues was very

contagious, which affected some

of my innovative work with EDI

Ahmedabad. Incidentally, I had

two young colleagues who had

passed out from IIM Ahmedabad

and assisted me in my research.

That was a sample of how good

the students had been at IIMs. I

saw a clear picture of IIMs and

thought it was exciting to be part

of the fraternity of quality teach-

ers and students. Another thing

that drove me towards Ph.D. and,

consequently, a teaching career

was the autonomy in working

hours and tasks, the lack of which

had bothered me in the past in

structured organizations. As I

taught and learnt, my passion grew

towards teaching. Of course,

research has always been my first

love. And I still think that I have a

long way to go before I can be

satisfied with my research output.

You have been in the teaching profession for a long time now. What is the most rewarding aspect of being a Professor? Three things contributed to the

rewarding experience of being in

this profession: When you see your

alumni doing well, yet, showing

respect whenever they meet; When

you see your research papers

published in decent international

journals, books or cases, Or when

your assisted companies are on a

high growth path, You feel that you

have made difference to people’s

lives.

You must have had a lot of

funny moments in the class-

room. Could you please share

a couple of these moments?

Temperamentally, I had been a very

serious person at least until a few

years ago. One funny moment hap-

pened, when I had a council func-

tionary as a student in my class. He

would often enter late and I would

allow him reluctantly with some

advice on the virtues of being in

time. By nature, he would default.

One day I stopped him and bowed

down and said you are most

welcome “Nawab-e-Awadh”. The

class had mouthful of laughter. He

never came late after that.

You must have had many

achievements through out your

career. Could you elaborate on

the ones that you cherish the

most?

Yes, in fact many. It was a great

moment when I qualified for admis-

sions to JNU with no background in

sociology (against the brightest and

best who competed with 5 years

specialization on that subject). I

entered as a wild card and got the best

professor to guide my M. Phil and

Ph.D. and it felt good when several

papers got published in good journals.

The following are achievements that I

cherish the most: I completed a study

on rural entrepreneurship with grant

from Ford Foundation, and took 3-

years of experimental research. An

international program has evolved out

of that research which is still a profit

engine for EDI. This model is now

practiced worldwide funded by UNIDO.

The second achievement that made me

happy and surprised was when I got the

‘Best Paper for mental clarity’ Award in

an international conference organized

by International Entrepreneurship

Forum located at Brisbane. This paper

was on corporate entrepreneurship,

which falls on the cusp of entrepreneur-

ship and strategy. The others include:

My first thesis on entrepreneurship,

perhaps the first of its kind in India, and

one of the first cases listed at HBSP by

Indian authors working in India, which

has now become a stream for both Ivey

and HBSP. I am also very proud to

co-design and consistently deliver my

course on ‘Applied Theory in Strategy

and Competition’, which is a unique

course globally and has sustained for

about a dozen years, besides designing

and delivering 3 Ph.D. & 5 PGP level

courses.

What research and consulting projects or publications have you worked on recently or are currently working on?

I have about 40 papers and as

many cases (teaching, research

and motivational) which have

been published in journals,

conferences and books, both

domestic and International. My

area is broad based spanning

across entrepreneurship, family

business, diversification, interna-

tionalization and strategy. I have

finished about twenty consulting

assignments and had run and

participated in about 100

programs at IIM Lucknow, USM/

UMP in Malaysia and MDI Gur-

gaon over the past 25 years. My

current area of research focus is

Institutional regimes and their

impact on M&A, Alliances, Social

Networks and Diversification. I

am also exploring the impact of

informal social institutions on

innovation and crowdsourcing.

IIM Lucknow has established itself as one of the best Management Schools in India. Where do you think we are heading to next? IIM Lucknow is undoubtedly one

of the top 5 business schools in

India, irrespective of the media

rankings. It has moved from a

small batch size of students in

1984 to an intake of over 500

students, offering multiple

programs, including PGP, FPM,

IPMX, WMP, PGP-ABM, EFPM,

in addition to many open

in-company programs for

executives and online programs,

located at both campuses.

On an average, this has been

achieved without compromising

on quality. Of late, there has

been an increased emphasis on

research and publications, and IIM

Lucknow is undergoing an accredita-

tions process, in this regard. To me

the research and accreditation will

help us move towards a global

positioning. However, our lack of

unique positioning in terms of

differentiation, such as Finance,

Marketing, Strategy or Organization is

something we need to work on.

What is your take on the rele-

vance of IIM Lucknow’s course

structure to the dynamically

evolving industry challenges?

Two processes keep the course struc-

ture relevant and dynamic. Faculty is

allowed to incorporate 10% changes in

existing course outlines, which helps

each course to incorporate new

changes. Secondly there is a program

review every 5 years or so to rejig the

incremental changes, where industry

executives and alumni are also

invited. Yet we do notice some

resistance to change among the

faculty colleagues. Besides, we do

experience a lag to the extent that the

material reaches the faculty late

because of publication lags in new

ideas and their incorporation in the

syllabi. We depend a great deal on

external sources of course material. To

some extent, this is tackled by faculty

attending conferences and workshops.

In sum, we are doing fine in keeping

our courses contemporary.

Every person is inspired by

something or someone. Please

tell us about your inspiration in

life that helped you become the

person you are today?

Most of us take inspiration from

multiple sources and I am no

exception. I learnt about Integrity and

hard work from my parents. To live in

dignity requires competence and

persistence which I imbibed through

the writings of Ayn Rand. My stint at

JNU taught me about tolerance for

contradictory ideas and self-learning

and finally, my students taught me the

way to manage complex learning

demands.

Do you have any message

for the alumni?

Without sounding paternalistic,

I request the alumni to keep

contributing to the Institute;

guide and support incoming

batches through remote services

and renew their bonds by

visiting the IIM Lucknow

campus. I wish to underline that

they continue to manage their

organizational roles with

personal conviction and make a

difference to the position they

hold and to the stakeholders

who are weak and neglected.

Your advice for students

who want to pursue

Strategy as a career.

Exploit as many opportunities as

those that come your way:

courses, assignments, cases, live

projects and student competi-

tions with strategy as the focal

theme. Strategy is all about

generating options for your

company or clients in the

present & the future. Always

remember how your decisions

and actions contribute to the

value creation for customers.

Context sensitivity is the crux of

formulating a good strategy: it

could be the resource profile of

the firm, the industry or the

institutional context. No

framework, no theory, no

practice works in all contexts.

Analysis, practice and good

judgment are hallmarks of a

good strategist.

You had been associated with

IIM Lucknow for a number of

years. What is your vision for

IIM Lucknow?

One needs to carve out a distinct

identity, which is known and

recognized for something in order to

be considered visionary. It is obvious

today that one needs to have a ‘Centre

of Excellence’ for cutting edge

research. That will happen only if we

can discover the problems of the

society or community that needs to be

solved. Given that we are trying to be

a global business school, we should

address the problems of transnational

corporations globally, with a focus on

Indian MNCs that need to be compet-

itive. To operationalize this, we need

to develop a center for research on

firm competitiveness, which can be

catered to by the faculty within the

organization specializing in IT

systems, marketing, operations, strat-

egy or economics. To meet that

requirement one needs faculty which

has a global footprint. That in turn

will require creating incentives and

organizational climate that is also

attractive to faculty globally.

International agreements with

established business schools could

be the first step. The second would

be to expose internal faculty to top

business schools through exchange

programs in research and teaching,

followed by recruiting visiting facul-

ty from top notch international

business schools and then recruiting

both students and faculty globally,

without losing focus on building

MNCs (both Indian and foreign)

whom IIM Lucknow would like to

make globally competitive. The

funding could be mobilized through

corporates operating in India to

begin with, the alumni and possibly

from government. We have the

building blocks: good quality

students, receptive faculty, On-going

international collaborations, strong

financial background and an well

established & active alumni network.

With Flipkart, Myntra, Taxi-

forsure and others doing

well, Entrepreneurship is

the buzzword in most B-

school campuses. What are

the latest developments,

according to you, in the field

of entrepreneurship and

intrapreneurship?

I may be outdated with the field

of entrepreneurship/ Intrapre-

neurship, but one cannot miss

the trends. Thanks to the

dominance of capitalism in world

economy, state power is reduced

to making way for the private

enterprise fuelled by ambition

and rewards. New opportunities

are emerging in intermediation

roles to reduce transaction costs

and immense opportunities of

combining newer and older

technologies, and opening up of

new consumer segments are

emerging. Increasing competition

and shorter life cycles are forcing

managers and entrepreneurs alike

to engage themselves and their

organizations in creating innova-

tion. Information Technology and

web technologies have reduced

disparity between startups and

large firms, reduced transaction

costs and the distance between

buyers and suppliers. Business

schools and media are fuelling

this demand for entrepreneurial

managers. Most youngsters are

trying newer ideas in startups and

established organizations.

Demand for risk takers and

innovators has never been better

than what it is today. Internation-

al corporations are experimenting

to recruit and train such

Created and Published by

IIM Lucknow Alumni Committee For Feedback and comments please mail to : alumni@iiml.org

terms of encouraging entrepreneurship. On an average, there is shift towards flatter structures but the role of

entrepreneurship still rests with the family members, which looks less attractive to young talent who are asked to

implement the ideas, not to generate them. But, more and more family firms are professionalizing their organization

by delegating strategic responsibilities and creating opportunities for young entrepreneurial minds. Since these

businesses suffer a great deal from control orientation and have relatively shorter horizons for investments, they do

not do enough to nurture risk taking, technology oriented and opportunity seeking talent. But increasing

competition from global MNCs will force family business groups to get involved in the innovation business. There-

fore, scope for such talent would improve in years to come. Managers are listening to their younger colleagues.

Intrapreneurship models are still under developed in these organizations, but are likely to get refined with some

amount of risk capital allocated for experimentation.

Finally, do tell us about how the perception and usage of strategy, in commercial organizations,

has evolved over time, particularly in recent times?

In the West, strategy has evolved, from planning, to managing an environment, to an approach for shaping the

future of corporations. Earlier, strategy formulation and implementation were sequentially done at different levels of

an organization. It has currently evolved into a simultaneous formulation-implementation paradigm and thus

strategy is everybody’s business in organizations today. From the specialist staff it has moved down to operating

managers. Strategy crafting is part of frontline managers responsibility and has moved to multi-business global

levels. As a discipline it has moved from general management to an integrated approach. It has moved from being

an industry-focused analysis to resource analysis, knowledge protection and management. Strategic investments are

seen as generating future options, given that the environmental uncertainty and complexity has increased multifold.

Organizations are exploiting and exploring concurrently. Leadership has evolved to focus on short term and long

term simultaneously and are encouraged to design agile and flexible organizations. Truly, It has become a craft, not-

withstanding a lot of information availability. It is expected that the young generation of managers have a difficult

strategic task ahead: to manage both ambiguity and complexity of the environment and steer the organization

towards it vision.

entrepreneurial managers in order to meet the require-ments of the dynamic environment. There will be premium on such talent in future and this will be the future currency of business.

How is intrapreneurship viewed in Indian organizations? Given the hierarchical structure of leadership where questioning seniors is a taboo in most organizations; do you think employees in India are given enough flexibility to pursue entrepreneurship? There are good organizations and bad organizations in

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