The Loyola Institute of Business Administration, Chennai, came into existence in 1979 but it was only in 1995 that the institute?s full-time programme began,? I am told this by Prof Jayaram K Iyer of LIBA as I enter its campus in Chennai to meet Fr P Christie SJ, the director of LIBA. All around me I see the calm associated with any Jesuit institute. ?Cura personalis? Isn?t that the founding principle of Jesuit institutes?? I ask Prof Iyer. ?Indeed, the fact that, since inception, our programmes were internally developed points out to the concept of cura personalis (believing in overall personality development). We are totally home-grown,? he responds with a smile, ?And that?s what we inculcate in our students.? ?How?? I ask him. ?Among other things, we teach our students that it is not good to have ?win? as the only motive. It?s fine to lose. It?s better to think of larger, long-term goals rather than winning every small battle. That translates into our students handling stress at workplace better. Also, our students stay longer in their first employment,? Prof Iyer tells me. As we head towards the director?s cabin, I ask him, ?Can ethics be cultivated at the age of, say, 25? I mean, is moral cognition trainable at that age?? He responds, ?I believe it is. Do you remember there used to be an ad by a carmaker where the protagonist drives left right left through the traffic because his new car comes with an easy-to-use power steering? Now that was a great ad and did wonders to the product, but was that ethical?? ?Hmmm …? I am a bit clueless. He continues, ?Not exactly. Because the ad also sent the signal that you don?t need to bother about lane driving. But until I reveal this fact to you, you won?t think about it. Now when you see any ad, you will be able to realise if it is ethically wrong or not. See, I have trained your moral cognition, and you look well above 30!?

Indeed, he?s trained my moral cognition! And such are the learnings I missed out when, in the year 2002, I, sitting in my rented accommodation in New Delhi and applying to various B-schools, didn?t fill up the admission form for LIBA because the image I made, then, of LIBA, after discussing with other students, was that of a ?south? Indian business school. (You see, at that age, some have dreams of studying only in a ?global? B-school, and many of those end up not going to any B-school!) Now, 10 years later, while I am ?learning? at LIBA, I see students from not only across India but from across the globe moving around in the campus. Probably Prof Iyer reads my thoughts. ?Around 10 years ago, the campus languages were Tamil and Malayalam, now they are English and Hindi. In fact, today we hardly have more than a couple of students from Chennai. ?How did this change happen?? I ask him. ?If you do good work, it will be rewarded. This change happened as we started having more and more interaction with industry and also due to good word of mouth, especially from north Indian students who realised how good and inexpensive our programmes are. The fee for our two-year, full-time programme is only R5.5 lakh, much lower than any good B-school,? he replies, adding, ?Come I will take you to Fr P Christie SJ, the director of LIBA.? As I take his leave, I realise what 2 years at LIBA can do to you considering the fact what 20 minutes did to me!

Good morning father,? I greet Fr P Christie SJ in his office. As I take my seat I notice the calmness on his face which is usually associated with someone doing good work. ?What are the tenets of Jesuit education?? I ask him. As he offers me a cup of coffee and takes his seat, he replies, ?We believe no one should be deprived of quality education because of economic wants. One of the most important tenets of Jesuit education is looking at education as a service and not as a business. Although there are debates whether it is the right way to look at it, we believe it is the only way to look at it, because education cannot be monetised, something that the Supreme Court has been saying time and again. For us, business education is not a business enterprise. Additionally, we also believe that education as a service has to be seen with excellence and values (ethics). We believe that a person has to be morally sound to do good business.? ?Yes, today there is so much of talk about concepts such as business ethics, corporate governance and corporate social responsibility,? I say. ?Certainly, and we are one of the few B-schools that have a compulsory course on these three aspects of business!? he tells me. As I take a sip of the delicious Madras-style filter coffee, I see a printout on his table that mentions ?Mother Teresa Award?. I ask him the same. He replies, ?We conduct the Mother Teresa Award for the Corporate Citizen, which was instituted in 1998 and which is presented every year to a company that has shown exemplary commitment to the ideals of corporate citizenship. The objective of the award is to showcase a corporate that has gone far beyond its call of duty to promote welfare activities for the benefit of the poor and marginalised sections of society and is environmentally conscious.? ?And, for students, such initiatives also translate into learning, isn?t it?? I ask him. ?Certainly, they learn, and act too. We have a student group called Radius which does outreach programmes for the needy on several aspects, such as teaching, donations, health camps, etc,? he tells me.

Unlike some other good B-schools, LIBA campus isn?t very large. ?What about infrastructure?? I ask him. ?In terms of infrastructure, we are in the process of building a new auditorium, a new library, etc. But in terms of faculty, we don?t lack. Currently we have 23 full-time faculty and, of these, 19 are PhDs,? Fr Christie tells me. That makes me think about the perennial issue of attracting and retaining good faculty. ?How do you attract quality faculty?? I ask him. ?We pay faculty well, we pay them the AICTE scale,? he replies. ?Don?t you have a sabbatical policy for faculty development?? I ask him. ?As of now, we don?t have, and we believe we don?t need it. Consider this fact: if a faculty takes a full course, the time he is spending is about 180 class-hours an year. So that leaves a lot of time for consultancy, research, anything. And we also believe research should be a part of professorial activity,? he says.

That makes me think about tie-ups, visiting faculty, etc. ?What kind of global tie-ups do you have?? I ask. ?We are among the very few Indian B-schools that has tie-ups with schools from all 6 continents, as we believe giving students international perspective is of utmost importance. Our vision is to develop/train global leaders, not just leaders for Tamil Nadu or leaders for India. Our students and faculty go to those schools, their students and faculty come here. And it is not just signing an MoU, it is a strong relationship. Additionally, we also work with international organisations in the promotion of business ethics, for instance we work with the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, the Centre for Economics and Ethics at Leuven and various others towards sustainability and business ethics. We also work with the University of Dayton, with whom we organise the annual Mindful Leadership competition,? Fr Christie replies.

?We also promote social entrepreneurship,? he continues, ?Last year we inaugurated the CK Prahlad Centre for Emerging India in the memory of the visionary Prof CK Prahalad, who pioneered the concepts of ?core competencies? and ?the fortune at the bottom of the pyramid?. This centre will focus on research in the areas of strategy, innovation and entrepreneurship appropriate to the base of the pyramid and will primarily work towards addressing the current gap between idea generation and scaling up into viable business opportunities.?

?How do you promote entrepreneurship?? I ask him. He replies, ?Entrepreneurship is a philosophy at LIBA. Four years ago we started our Centre for Entrepreneurship and we also work closely with The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE). Every year we organise a business plan competition in collaboration with TiE. Although the fact remains that not many students take up entrepreneurship right after MBA, they prefer to have a few years? experience before setting up a start-up. But, in case our students wish to, we provide them every possible help.?

Then I ask him about LIBA?s annual events/conferences. ?We organise two big conferences every year. One is called Insight, which is on a special theme, and other one is called Beacon, which is an international conference, in partnership with B-schools from abroad,? he says.

It?s time for me to leave and, before leaving, I ask him about the growth path of LIBA. ?At the moment, we are focusing on growing our infrastructure. Then one area we are thinking of introducing is automotive management, considering the fact that Chennai is the hub for automotive companies. We are also planning to go full-time into Executive Education soon,? he replies. Quickly I ask him about LIBA relations with the government. ?The government is getting proactive, and rightly so, considering the fact that the number of fake universities is rising in India. Although we have never had any misunderstandings with the government but, of late, we have seen the government trying to exercise greater control over private institutions. For instance, we have to get ourselves approved every year, which is a cumbersome process!?

vikram.chaudhary@expressindia.com