Shashi Bala Rai is a faculty member at ISAB, Greater Noida. She is the founder of the Management teaching, research, and consulting firm DevComm Consulting (www.devcommconsulting.in). She holds a doctoral degree in Marketing from the Institute of Rural Management Anand, IRMA. She has more than eight years of teaching and consulting experience. She has published papers in Scopus Indexed & ABDC-listed journals. She has presented papers at international and national conferences. Her Case study “Netting profits in still waters” was one of the best Case Studies of the Sitaram Rao Livelihood Competition. She is invited as a visiting faculty to reputed management institutes. She is regularly conducting workshops for research scholars and faculties in NCR. She has been invited as a jury to various B-School Competitions. Her expertise encompasses Business Planning, Social & Rural Marketing, Sustainability, Research Methods, Marketing Research, Data Analytics, and Entrepreneurship.

She is the first research scholar in the domain of Social marketing to conduct a longitudinal survey tracking actual behavior change. She published her debut novel “I am Because I Wanted to Be” in September 2021. Three of her upcoming books are due for publication in 2023 7& 2024. She is actively involved in social activities and championing skill development among young rural female students.

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Imperial School of Agri Business

Being a professor, what are your roles and responsibilities towards the students?

Apart from facilitating the course, I focus on the holistic development of the students by mentoring them to be future-ready corporate professionals. My role is to create an open learning environment for the students so that they can communicate any issues that they are facing with their studies or the curriculum with us openly.

How do you tend to establish healthy relations with the students and fellow faculty?

The classroom is a big canvas to establish a healthy learning environment for the students. My classes are more interactive. We discuss, debate, agree, and disagree, which provides an excellent opportunity to gel well with them.

The faculty at ISAB are thorough professionals. We discuss the latest trends in teaching. We interact among ourselves as and when necessary.

What are the factors that make the program you teach the best for the students to opt for?

The institute provides lots of autonomy to both participants and faculties. The two-way feedback (student feedback about faculty teaching and faculty feedback about students) provides countless opportunities for continuous learning. Students are given full responsibility to exhibit their skills through various clubs. The practical exposure through two Industrial training segments (SIP and thesis dissertation) provides hands-on exposure to the corporate world.

How does the program ensure that students are being prepared for the future?

The college organises various Expert Talk Sessions on a regular basis with the corporate professionals from the agri business domain. The placement committee is very strong and effective. The institute hosts a series of Business festivals under the able guidance of director and faculties. These events hone their leadership skills. There are various clubs with elected representatives which act as a bridge among students, faculties, corporate world and the institute.

How do you help your student to cope up with the competition being so high in the outside world?

The students are well aware of the competition outside the campus (in the corporate world). They witness the same during their field exposures through the SIP and Thesis Dissertation segments. We help them maximize their strengths and guide them to overcome their weaknesses through a continuous feedback system. As faculty, we are just a call away to answer their queries at any time.

When you came to the college, what was your vision and how are you trying to achieve the same?

My vision was to co-create the course together and thereby facilitate learning through the development of analytical skills. The participants are given cases to assimilate the theoretical underpinning, practice sets, and latest developments in the course, which are discussed in class.

What valuable advice would you like to the students for them to have a prosperous career ahead?

The students at ISAB are prepared to tackle corporate challenges in effective ways. We train them to be lifelong learners by updating themselves with the latest developments in their field. It is very important to provide them with such knowledge, which will help them face the challenges of the future and have a prosperous career ahead.

What are the challenges you are facing to improve the quality of education of your department?

I have not faced any challenges so far in facilitating my course. The quality of education provided by our college is designed in a way that helps the student learn and grow in the future. My colleagues are also on the same page as me, and they too facilitate the course smoothly.