Prof.
J. Philip runs the reputed Xavier Institute of Management and
Entrepreneurship at Bangalore and Kochi. He talks about the
qualities needed to be a good leader and the students of today
Photos: Prof. J. Philip; the Kochi campus of the Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship
On
the evening of September 30, 1986, Maria Philip was hurrying back
after a day’s work on the summer project she was doing at the
Indian Airlines office in Meenambakkam airport, Chennai. She reached
the railway station, and, like most commuters, she jumped onto the
tracks to get to another platform.
As
she did so, a shunting engine came into view. Maria almost climbed up
to the platform. However, the engine gave a glancing blow and she was
thrown over to the platform. Death was instantaneous. Maria was only
22. She was doing her final year Master’s in Personnel Management
at the Madras School of Social Work.
One
week earlier, her father, Prof. J. Philip, had gone from Bangalore to
attend a function at the British Council at Chennai. Maria was also
present. When Philip was dropping Maria to the hostel after the
event, she said, “Dad, you should start a business school.” At
that time, Philip was the Director of the Indian Institute of
Management (IIM), Bangalore, which was affected by labour strife.
Philip
replied, “Will do it when the time comes.”
And
the next time Philip saw Maria was to identify her dead body.
"Maria's death was a turning point in my life," he says. "I
decided to implement her wish."
On
July 3, 1991, inside a shed at the St. Martha’s hospital compound,
at Bangalore, he started the Xavier Institute of Management and
Entrepreneurship (XIME). It was a slow beginning and took 11 years
before a full-fledged campus was set up at Electronics City, with the
help of corporates, like the Oberoi Group, the Tata Trust and Biocon.
All the classrooms have been donated by corporates or families.
Today, there are 180 students.
In
2012, Philip turned his gaze homewards and opened a branch of XIME at
the KINFRA Hi-Tech Park at Kalamassery, Kochi. There are 120
students, a mix of boys and girls. Today, Philip is the president of
XIME. And, on September 30, Philip had come to Kochi to conduct an
All Kerala Debate Competition in honour of Maria.
A
professor, who teaches time management and public speaking, Philip
has a keen idea of the present-day students. “They are laptop and
Internet-driven,” he says. “They are ambitious to succeed, and
well-informed. They know what happens all over the world.”
Like
any generation, they have a few drawbacks. “They are reluctant to
read newspapers, books or journals,” says Philip. “The
utilisation of library facilities is somewhat low. Anytime they want
something they go to Google. They want instant success and big
salaries. They become impatient and tend to leave companies quickly.”
In
contrast, Philip has had a slow and steady climb to the top. After
graduation from St. Berchman’s College, Changanacherry, he did his
law from Maharaja’s Law College in Kochi. Then he went to do a
management course in the Xavier Labour Research Institute (XLRI) at
Jamshedpur. Later,
he became a faculty member and one of the founders of the MBA (PGDM)
programme. In 1970 he became the dean.
His
later career included being the principal of the management college
of the Steel Authority of India Limited at Ranchi, Vice President
(HR) of Oberoi Group, as well as the director of the government-run
IIM (Bangalore).
When
he went to the IIM, he got a shock. There were far too many
employees. For 240 students, apart from faculty, there were 450
employees, including 63 peons. “All our governmental institutions
are over-staffed,” says Philip. “This places an enormous burden
on the institution. You have to worry about food, housing and roads.”
But
Philip turned it around. “Today, things are much better at all the
IIMs,” he says.
Incidentally,
apart from Maria, Philip has a daughter, Sheeba, who is a
paediatrician, and lives in Atlanta, USA. His son, Anil, an engineer
and MBA, is a vice-president in IBM, Bangalore.
Like
his son, Philip has been holding senior leaderships positions for a
long time now. When
asked for tips on leadership, he says, “I always wanted the
institutions I headed to be places of excellence. So there is a quest
to set a high standard.”
Other
tips: you have to be conscientious in your work, and maintain ethical
values. “You should have a vision which you can articulate to the
team and work to make it a reality,” he says.
Philip
quotes the management guru Peter Drucker (1909-2005) who said that
leaders need to have a helicopter view. “If you don’t know what
is happening in your industry and the world, you are missing out,”
he says. “When I go to America, I visit the Harvard Business School
to see how things are. In France, I go to the top three best
B-schools and soon, I will be travelling to Singapore to see the
performance of business schools there.”
Even
though he is in his seventies, Prof. Philip’s quest for excellence
continues...
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