Dr. Pritee Saxena is the Director and Campus Head of the ICFAI Business School, Mumbai. She joined IBS Mumbai in 1996 as a visiting faculty for the course in Consumer Behaviour. She became a full-time faculty in 2002 and has been contributing to the campus in multiple roles since then. Dr. Saxena holds dual Post Graduate degrees. She has a Masters of Science from Gujarat University and a Masters in Marketing Management from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies. She acquired her Ph. D in Advertising and Consumer Behaviour from SNDT University, Mumbai. She is a Ph.D. guide and has supervised Ph.D. scholars. Prior to starting her career in academia, she worked in the corporate with Bajaj consumer care, being in the category manager position, handling all india sales of various products.

Dr. Pritee Saxena

You held key positions at various prestigious institutions throughout your career. What is that one thing that made you excited and walk with IBS in the journey?

Throughout my career in the FMCG industry (over 17 years), I felt an urge to train the young field force to avoid committing common faux pax in the marketplace, which over a period of time brought out the academic interest in me. Simultaneously, I started contributing to academic institutions as a visiting faculty and then moved over full time into teaching. Soon I realized that to be in the race of academic excellence, research and a doctoral qualification are an imperative. Hence I pursued a Ph.D. while teaching at IBS Mumbai.

The excitement to deal with new students every year keeps one agile and immersed into new learnings and contemporary trends. This has a direct impact on the energy levels to cope with demands of the young students, as an outcome one remains young in mind and spirit. My grounding in the corporate world helped me greatly in understanding business education, perhaps the reason for my success at IBS Mumbai; the Campus grew and paved a growth path for me. Rest is history, the student affinity and the support and vision of the top management at ICFAI group made me travel the journey for the last 25 years, together.

What motivated you to take a leap from the corporate industry to pursue a career in academia and leadership in management?

I have enjoyed and gained valuable experience while working in many Corporate Organizations; teaching, and academics have always been a passion. One always seeks a plan B in life and academics was a natural progression from a corporate professional to a faculty and mentor to coach management students for corporate careers.

In fact, even when employed full time in the corporate world, I used to teach as a Visiting Faculty over the weekends along with my corporate responsibilities . It was only a matter of time before I decided to follow my passion and take the leap from Corporate to Academics full time. The one key thing that “hooked” me on to academics was the opportunity to interact and engage with bright young minds and use that interaction to inspire and shape their future careers.

As a Senior Director of IBS Mumbai, what do you feel is the USP or what are the differentiating factors that make IBS stand out from other Business schools?

IBS was created on the vision of Late Shri N J Yasaswy who believed in “democratizing” management education; and to provide a platform for making management education more accessible to young students who aspired for quality education which was affordable. His vision has been our guiding force and over time has enabled us to create an educational experience that is unique and enriching. While it is difficult to pinpoint just one unique differentiator, I would like to touch upon some of the key aspects of our program. Our fulltime and visiting faculty are drawn from a broad spectrum of Corporate India, they have wide ranging experience across multiple industry sectors. Most of them teach at IBS, not because they “have to” but because they “want to”. Organizationally we have a very “collegial” environment, we see each other as colleagues and not in terms of an hierarchical structure. Faculty are also empowered to be as creative as possible in their course delivery, based on the subject. Along with academics and learning in the classroom we have a large number of student clubs where students engage and participate under the guidance of the faculty head. A lot of learning happens through these activities too besides providing an enriching and fulfilling student experience. The campus has invested heavily into Technology upgradation and faculty development. Every classroom is a smart classroom, multiple IT labs have been set to train students on various IT skills required by the corporations. Our latest additions have been a state of the art Bloomberg lab and SAP lab. Needless to say IBS Mumbai is a very strong, systems driven management Institution.

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What steps would you take to ensure that the business school's curriculum remains relevant, aligns with industry demands, and prepares students for successful careers?

We have regular interaction with Industry professionals through our Placement and Internship processes and our Faculty, many of whom are professionals in Industry. In addition, we have an Advisory committee with Industry professionals who guide us in revising and upgrading our curriculum and pedagogy so that our teaching remains relevant to Corporate needs. IBS Mumbai fosters a strong culture of Industry Academia partnership resulting in a better understanding of Corporate expectations and talent requirements. The students are trained through live projects, participating in Corporate led Case competitions and corporate training prior to campus hirings.

How would you engage with faculty to promote research excellence, encourage innovation in teaching, and support their professional development?

Many of our faculty members are Ph.D. holders and continue research work along with their teaching responsibilities. We actively encourage our faculty to do research and publish in top academic journals. There are incentives for faculty to publish their research work, both financial and in terms of career progression. Faculty members collaborate within Campus and with colleagues across various IBS centers and other B Schools for research output. Our faculty members have a free hand in trying out various pedagogical initiatives depending on their subject/topic and these are shared with all the faculty across the IBS system. This helps us identify and incorporate best practices across our campuses. From time to time eminent researchers from premier institutions are invited to guide faculty members to exhibit their research scholarship in their field of interest.

How do you plan to leverage technology and online platforms to enhance the delivery of business education and adapt to changing educational landscapes?

Today's educational landscape is radically different from the traditional classroom based teaching. Specially post Covid the landscape has multiple options to interact with students. We at IBS Mumbai recognize that technology has the potential to transform learning and prepare students for their future. Access to a variety of databases, online platforms, app based skill building tools, analytical software give students’ a plethora of technology enabled resources to acquire new knowledge. The interactive simulations and virtual case studies as well as immersive online environments help cultivate critical-thinking, problem-solving and adaptability, which are essential skills for today's business environment. IBS Mumbai has invested in SAP Lab for complete hands-on understanding and practice for working in the ERP environment. Training students on data visualization (Power BI, Tableau, Dashboards), SQL, Bloomberg Terminals for live projects is a regular practice for students from all domains ready to integrate in a digitally connected world.

What are the challenging parts of being in the Director of business school role and how do you handle them?

The role as a Senior Director at a Business School comes with its challenges. These challenges present growth and development opportunities for the institute and its various stakeholders. Leveraging capabilities of a diverse set of faculty resources as well as managing their aspirations and student expectations poses tasks and responsibilities of its own kind. One has to be thinking on his/her feet all the time to do things differently bringing out the best in all. Internal and external outlook becomes essential to manage stakeholders outside the Institute, who matter to us, specially our corporate partners/ industry professionals and our Alumni. Maintaining the supremacy of the campus and its growth is yet another deliverable that marks the capability and competence of the leader that everyone looks up to. To meet these challenges, I maintain a people first approach thereby ensuring the initial buy-in and the rest of it happens when all put their shoulder to the job. It is the collective effort and spirit of all on campus that meet the challenges and helps to stay afloat.

Can you describe what is the significance and support IBS provides for entrepreneurship and innovation?

We as an institution support students who come to us with an enterprising mindset. We have an e-cell which works actively along with student clubs in the areas like live projects and social entrepreneurship. The Rotary Club also provides us with external support. The faculty mentors handhold these students all through the four semesters in helping them prepare business plans and crystallize their business ideas. We are in the process of setting up our own incubator to support these budding entrepreneurs.

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How do you envision the role of the Director in shaping the strategic direction and growth of IBS Business School?

Academic Excellence, Placements, Infrastructure that supports technical environment, leveraging the large and diverse Alumni network are few of our differentiators that helps in building IBS Mumbai as a brand to reckon with in the field of Business education. Each of these elements need consistent attention to keep pace with market forces. Complacency can lead into lack of focus and downslide of any of these pillars on which the campus rests. The fear of becoming irrelevant should always become the force to stay ahead of the competition. Hence one needs to be as grounded, digging the feet deep, not allowing any erosion or uprooting.