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TEN LESSONS ON HOW TOBUILD GREAT INSTITUTIONS? ?

BY :

Dr. T.K. JainManagement Consultant and Career Advisor

Principal : Sri Jain PG College BikanerAnd

MentorAfterschoool Centre for Social Entrepreneurship

Vikram Sarabhai has a lot of lessons for us. He is one of the greatest institution builders ofmodern times. He followed certain principles in life, if we follow them, we can learn the lessons ofinstitution building.

I hereby present some of the lessons that I was able to derive from Vikram Sarabhai's life and

activities: -

1. Choose the persons on the basis of their potential and give them freedom: He picked uppersons on the basis of their potential. He searched for the best persons from differentsources and tried to pick the persons who would be the best for building great institutions.In the process of recruitment, Mr. Sarabhai picked up the best persons from the country,who could build a great institution. All the persons were from different backgrounds anddifferent expertise, but as a team, they formed the best team of our country.

2. Give respect to employee and understand the dignity of work : He would give respect tohis colleagues, professors and workers and that motivated them to give him respect.Respect is one such thing which easily turns back to you and the more you give, themore you get.

3. Practice what you preach : Mr. Sarabhai was an honest, ethical and committed person,

he practiced what he promised4. Focus on knowledge, skills and competency: Mr. Sarabhai encouraged his team toacquire latest learning and encouraged them to go for further learning.

5. Tie up with the best in the world : - Mr. Sarabhai requested Harvard Business School andIIM Calcutta to help in development of IIM Ahmedabad, this helped them in giving initialshape to IIM Ahmedabad.

6. Love the nature : Mr. Vikram Sarabhai had passion for nature. He was fond of trees.When Luis Kahn presented the design of IIM Ahmedabad, Mr. Sarabhai amended itwherever he found a tree being cut. When the front corridor was being built, heintervened and changed the design in the last moment in order to save a mango tree. Heemphasized that in the final design, there should be lot of trees.

7. Support to faculty members : Mr. Sarabhai gave full support to all the experiments andactivities done by the initial team at IIM Ahmedabad. All these resulted in a culture ofopenness, creativity, experimentation, freedom and autonomy.

8. Networking with the best in the country: Initially IIM was planned to be set up in Mumbai.But Mr. Sarabhai undertook extensive networking for this and requested everyone to setup IIM in Ahmedabad. His decision proved to be correct and IIM promotedentrepreneurship further in Gujarat. Everyone knows that Gujaratis are basicallyentrepreneurial persons and IIM helped them in becoming better entrepreneurs.

9. Understand the roots and develop them further : - Mr. Sarabhai understood the roots, andtherefore he established close association with Ahmedabad Management Associationand other Ahmedabad based associations. He used his institution building capabilities in

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establishing a close network between ATIRA, AMA and other institutions. His capabilitieshelped in the initial years of IIMA.