Strategy basis for good management - Prof. Das

Jayampathy Jayasinghe

He was a tall, proportionately built and a bespectacled man who held the audience sway nearly for six hours of lecturing on business strategy. The corporate and bank sector officers who listened intently hurled a few questions, but pin drop silence prevailed throughout the lecture.

Ranjan Das was the Professor in Strategy at the Institute of Management in Calcutta and the chief mentor and founder of the Strategy Academy India. He was in Sri Lanka last week to lecture senior managers from the corporate sector and banks on strategy of retaining and increasing profitability. The Sunday Observer News Desk spoke to him after he finished the lecture.

Prof. Das (60) read for his PhD on strategic management at the Indian Institute of Management at Amadawad. He has a wealth of experience working for 20 years as a General Manager of a multi national company and as a Managing Director of a joint sector company.

He left the corporate sector to become the Professor of the Indian Institute of Management at Calcutta. After quitting his corporate job he had been at the institute for the past 13 years.

Prof. Das is on sabbatical leave these days to set up India’s first academy on strategy that focus on emerging markets.

He says every individual and organisation has to have strategies. “It empowers and help people to become different from others. Strategy is the basis for creating wealth. If a country is to become wealthy, its citizens must adopt a strategy to create wealth.”

He said that theory applies to anyone whether he is an Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi or a Sri Lankan. “We need more strategists today because the world is changing fast. The world of business, commerce is changing so fast and to make it happen you need skilled persons with strategies.

“I am not saying that managerial skills were not needed but what is more important today is that one has to be an efficient manager to steer clear of pit falls so that the organisation continuous to be profitable.” he said.

He stressed that one can be a strategist without having a formal MBA degree. “One need not have a MBA degree to be a strategist. One’s educational background is not the basic thing to become a strategist.

“The way you think and feel determines whether your are a strategist or not. The way you feel is more important than an academic qualification.”

He said a large number of strategist is needed for an emerging country like Sri Lanka. The academy in Calcutta conducts programs for people to become strategists without MBA degrees. Strategy means to get an idea fast and then converting it to a cash box. Strategy, execution and leadership were taught at the academy.

Prof. Das said his academy has started two-way live digital programs where participants ask questions and receive answers. Through E -learning one can learn whereever the participants are. The method is beneficial to Sri Lanka without increasing its cost. Prof. Das based in Calcutta is married with a daughter who is reading for her PhD at the London School of Economics.