Apart from the various distinctions bestowed on the Indian Institute Of Management Kozhikode (IIMK) already, it has earned another feat — being the only IIM to feature on the recently released Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements (ARIIA). Prof Debashis Chatterjee, Director of the institute, says that it is not creativity or imagination that leads to innovation, creativity in practice is the key. And these are the ways in which they are making it happen.
"We wanted to alter the very notion of seeing IIMs as standalone B-schools hence, we focussed on cross-fertilisation in multiple courses, even in our one-year Business Leadership programme," says the Director. Their work on making courses more flexible, which has been suggested by the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 as well, started nine years back. And then there is the gender diversity factor, IIMK famously became the first IIM where 54.29 per cent of the students admitted in the Class of 2015 were women.
In 2013, IIM launched the Indian Business Museum on its premises and this 23,000 square feet space has on display India's business history and features the contributions Indian business leaders have been making to the country. It even recently launched the Centre for Digital Innovation and Transformation (CDiT). In its fifth year, Laboratory for Innovation, Venturing and Entrepreneurship, their business incubator, has incubated 80 start-ups, received Rs 35 crore in terms of investment and has employed 370 people. "Basically, what has continued until now as Indian ethos should co-exist with innovation and that's what we have been trying to do," says the director.
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Vision 2047, which was set by IIMK, of Globalizing Indian Thought comes to mind, "The Education Ministry has also asked for help in co-creating this vision for them plus, IIT Palakkad has asked us to create a vision for them. This is a big deal," shares the director and goes on to add, "Our vision is bigger than academic or professional courses, it extends to managing the aspirations of a growing population. It is believed that the more you consume, the more refined you are, but by innovation, we will see in motion an era of changemakers."