Dr. C.N. Narayana, Director, Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies, receives the Visionary Leader Award at World Education Congress 2015.

Noted corporate-honcho-turned-academician, Dr. C.N. Narayana is the recipient of the 2015 “Visionary Leader Award for excellence in Education, teaching and Leadership”. Dr. C.N. Narayana – or CNN as he is popularly referred to – was bestowed the honour in a glittering ceremony at Taj Land’s End, Bandra. The award was given at the World Thought Leaders and World Education Congress held in Mumbai on the 23^rd and 24^th of July.

The World Education Congress is an annual affair, which attracts worldwide participation. This year, the Conference partnered World Thought Leaders, and was designed around the theme “Evolving Trends in Education”. The Congress examined modern and traditional knowledge systems. The focus was to explore how education can help develop the mental, emotional and physical skills needed to help facilitate personal excellence, as well as psychological and socioeconomic well-being in the challenging times the world faces today.

Dr. C.N Narayana expressed his feelings after winning the latest award” Visionary Leader Award for excellence in Education, teaching and Leadership”. . He said I believe in what Late APJ Abdul Kalam used to reinstate about his living philosophy- “If you want to shine like a sun, first burn like a sun” and every time I am extended an award or bestowed with an honor, I make sure I stay grounded and my aspirations to make meaningful contribution to academia and world at large get multiplied. He envisions taking KIAMS to new heights, to push the boundaries of convention, and introduce novel , innovative ideas to management grads.

A Management PhD in HRM Strategies (2008) from Canterbury University, UK, Dr. C.N.Narayana is currently the Principal Director of KIAMS, one of the foremost industry-backed management institutes in the country, receiving its support from the engineering giant Kirloskar Group. Dr. Narayana comes from a sterling corporate background, where he spent nearly 25 ears, before moving into the academia in 2010. In his corporate roles, he has traversed a number of industries, with organisations like Godrej & Boyce, GE Appliances, Thermax, Xerox, RPG; Dr. Narayana reached the zenith of his corporate career at Essar Group as the Head – Global Working Capital Assurance. After being bestowed a PhD by Canterbury University, Dr. Narayana shifted into academia, starting with International Management Institute, where he held the dual roles of GM, Operations and Professor between 2007-08. He returned to IMI later in 2011, again in a dual role, as Registrar and Secretary, Board of Governors, and Chief of Operations for New Delhi and Bhubaneswar. Simultaneously, in June 2014, he was inducted as a Professor of HRM and Director of CDL by IFIM, Bangalore, before taking over as Director of KIAMS.

Dr.C.N.Narayana has received many awards both in the Corporate sector and in higher management education, including Time Research Award in 2013,  22^nd Dewang Mehta Award for Best  HR Professor Award 2014, Innovative Business School Award 2015 (DNA Award),  Best Professor of the year 2015 by Asia Education Summit & Headlines Today and now World Educational Congress and Thought Leaders “Visionary Leader Award” in July 2015.

KIAMS Director Dr. C.N. Narayana shares his views on the KIAMS differentiation in the coming year

“In KIAMS vision of ‘Excellence’, my focus is primarily to build the academic rigor to give KIAMS students the skills needed to succeed in the competitive world and to reach the pinnacle of success”, says Dr. C.N. Narayana, Director KIAMS, who has recently joined the institute. He was sharing his understanding of the vision of KIAMS is to provide society a center of learning that excels in Management Education, Research, Training and Consultancy. His efforts are directed towards encouraging the faculty members to bring more output on research and publications. “Training and Consulting will automatically follow once we excel in Education and Research”, he adds. KIAMS has the Centre for Executive Education, which is clearly focusing on Executive Education.

KIAMS, Director, Dr. C.N. Narayana believes KIAMS offer an edge over other institutes: “With KIAMS, students have the option of choosing minor electives like Marketing, Operations or even Finance, along with the major electives. This gives them a better opportunity to succeed at the time of placements”. KIAMS also has a unique Industrial Study method, wherein the students are expected to look into the excellence model of specific organizations under the framework of CII and they are encouraged to learn how ratings are done in manufacturing and other industries. In addition to this, it has an 8-week summer Internship across various industry sectors. This gives every student a deep understanding of how various industries work on a day-to-day basis before they begin working toward final placements. KIAMS continually upgrades its curriculum to meet the industry norms. Beginning in the next academic year, the institute is migrating to a semester system and a 4-month LIP (Long Internship program), which will further strengthen opportunities for both the corporate and student community as a whole. These changes have been implemented with industry inputs to make them more relevant.

Dr. C.N. Narayana shares his opinion on PGDM, saying that the program has a stronger focus on industry and student needs, vis-à-vis MBA programs. It has a highly dynamic curriculum focused on industry inputs. PGDM also includes better evaluation methods, case-study teaching and application focused delivery. These Diplomas are recognized by AICTE and commands better acceptance in the corporate world and amongst the student community, as the education and placements are better, too. He believes PGDM has and will continue to have its edge over university offered MBAs.

Work opportunities are growing today with the economic growth of the country. Employability, however, is a function of a student’s performance. Explaining the grading system at KIAMS, Dr. Narayana said that in Management Education, especially in PGDM institutions, both relative grading and CGPA is widely used. KIAMS uses a CGPA out of 4 for every subject. A+ denotes 4 grade points, A denotes 3.75, B+ is 3.25, B is 3 grade points, and C is 2 grade points. Finally, a D is 1 grade point and an F is 0 grade points. According to Dr. Narayana, this shift in grading makes sense: “ This is undoubtedly better than the 35 percent pass marks of the university grading system. The evaluation criteria is different – if you look at passing, which is equivalent to a “D”, this will be more than 45 total marks. CGPA indicates better educational performance in terms of quality. But from the organizational perspective for the recruitment of quality students, it is just the first filtering criteria.” In addition to CGPA, employers also look at aptitude and attitude when making recruitment decisions. Dr. C.N. Narayana is looking forward to leading the institute towards excellence and meeting the challenges of the dynamic world of business. “KIAMS strongly believes in shaping future leaders with holistic development apart from building budding managers. KIAMS has a consistent record of placement and has an edge over others in terms of corporate relations with the backing of Kirloskar Group.” These words, coming from an evidently sure leader and visionary, set the stage for a new way of looking at education in the 21^st century.