Management mentor

The Indian Academy of Management (INDAM) conferred its Lifetime Achievement Award on Dr Farok Contractor, Distinguished Professor, Management and Global Business, Rutgers Business School at its biennial meeting held at the Indian Institute of Management in Indore on December 19, 2017. As part of the global Academy of Management based in the US which has 17,894 members, most of whom are professors, with some executives and consultants, INDAM conducts biennial meetings, often inviting professors from overseas to give lectures and conduct workshops. A select committee identifies and then chooses an individual or two to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award every two years, explains Contractor.

At the INDAM meeting in Indore attended by nearly 400 representatives from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, UK, Germany, Dubai, Israel and the USA, Contractor accepted the Award "not only on behalf of myself but on behalf of all Indian academics who have gone through a professional journey similar to mine.” A former executive with Tatas, Contractor’s career began in Dewas, north of Indore, where the Tatas were setting up a fashion and finished leather factory.
There were three main reasons that propelled him to opt out of the corporate sector and become an academic in the 1980s, said Contractor who started with an engineering background. For years the government refused to let Tatas operate its new factory despite it being a 100% export operation using indigenous raw materials. Instead of doing productive work he was required to be a lobbyist to beg the ministerial powers for permission. The second reason was that he found the chief executive officer of the company "ethically challenged.” The third factor was his mode of calculating the capital budget for the multimillion dollar project that included "naya paisa.” The peeved board of directors sought to ascertain whether the person who had worked on the financial figures had an MBA (master of business administration) degree! Since Contractor did not have one then, he resolved to quit his job and earn an MBA and later PhD from the reputed Wharton School. Currently a respected economist, his GlobalBusiness blog that offers "unbiased perspectives has been visited by individuals from 169 countries,” he informs Parsiana.
"The transition was not easy as in the 1980s most faces in academia and business in the US were white males,” revealed Contractor reminiscing of the time when his first paper was accepted for publication in the Journal of International Business (the top journal in international business): "I agonized for days over whether I should or should not reveal that I was Asian” in the introduction to the author!
Monitoring India’s progress over the decades, he reminded the audience that according to the World Bank’s ranking of "Ease of doing business” India still stands at 100 out of 189 countries. With the World Bank’s criterion of grinding poverty as $ 1.90 (Rs 121) per person per day, 22% of the Indian population or 300 million persons are still below the poverty line, pointed out Contractor. He was happy though that global ideas are penetrating Indian business and academia and many worthwhile seeds are germinating.
According to the professor, "Some fortunate academics have seen a wave coming and have ridden it. I myself have been fortunate in riding three trends in business and economics.” The first was the increase in globalization when as professor of global management he studied foreign direct investment patterns, international expansion strategies and other topics. The second wave concerning alliances and joint ventures he found relevant, more so with his experience during his Tata days to set up a joint venture with a European firm. The third wave pertaining to changes in government regulations vis-à-vis foreign direct investment was tracked by Contractor when he was observer and researcher at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.