A passionate researcher and management professional, Prof. Kartik Dave empowers and enlightens the aspiring students

Interview by Sakshi Aggarwal

Prof. Dave is presently associated with AUD New Delhi, where he is involved in teaching, training and research activities. He brings in-rich experience of 5 years in industry and around 14 years in academics. He has published many research papers, cases and articles in academic journals and newspapers.

Prof. Kartik Dave is Management Graduate and Doctorate in Marketing Management from M L S University, Udaipur. He is a passionate researcher and management professional and strongly believes in continuous learning. He had been associated with Rouen Business School, France and ETEA, Spain and taught various courses in marketing. He has developed new courses like Challenges in Marketing in Emerging Markets, Services Excellence. His areas of teaching are Services Marketing, Marketing Management, Marketing Strategy, Retail Marketing, Branding, Social Media Marketing etc. He is also guiding Ph.D. students in the area of Marketing, Services Marketing, Branding, Luxury Marketing, Retail, Human dimension in Marketing, Skills and Inclusive Marketing.

Prof. Kartik Dave has been writing in International journals of repute published by Wiley, Interscience Publications, Emerald, Springer Gabler, ScienceDirect etc. He is a member of various professional bodies such as Indian Commerce Association. His core competence is in marketing, research and PR. He is a smart professional, punctual and possesses excellent communication and presentations skills. He is IT savvy, soft-spoken with appealing manners.

Prof. Kartik’s experience in the education sector

I have been working in the education sector since 2004 and I have worked with various institutions both private and public specifically in higher education. I have worked with BIMTECH for around 8 years and later I moved on to Ambedkar University Delhi. At Ambedkar University Delhi I am serving as a Dean and Professor in School of Business Public Policy and Social Entrepreneurship.

In India, we could hardly reach the number that we ideally should, as far as higher education is concerned. Higher education is still to penetrate in cities in some urban and sub-urban areas because its enrollment ratio is still below 30%, which is very dangerous sign for any forward-looking economy. According to my observation, in Indian education (especially in higher education) we have huge potential, and there are dedicated faculty members but they don’t get the required facilities, motivation or opportunities like European and American universities. So, if we see the horizon of next 10 to 15 years, we need to really work hard for the growth of higher education and with the help of government and private players. Though the private players have been playing a very significant role in the growth of higher education as far as quality is concerned, we still need to have a reality check that exactly how many institutions are providing quality education.

So, there is a huge potential and we look forward to have a very interesting time of education in future. Also, if youngsters are trained and educated well, it is definitely going to help overall our country in terms of economic growth as well as social justice.

Prof. Kartik’s philosophy of leadership and his leadership style

I strongly believe that in education, especially in higher education, there is no hierarchy like superior vs. subordinate. Instead, it is a team effort. All the team members are at par as far as their education and experience is concerned. So, if you want to get things done through them, then the only way is that we should empower them a lot. Also, we have to provide more opportunities and take them along for all different projects we are in. I strongly believe in empowerment, teamwork, delegation, and in providing opportunities. I believe in creating new leaders in my team so that they can take up their own task and look for its completion.

Significant challenges faced by Prof. Kartik as the Professor and Dean of School of Business, Public Policy and Social Entrepreneurship

Definitely, there are challenges in both private and public domain in higher education. Unlike private institutes, innovations and experimentation are not very much encouraged in public institutions. So, the challenge is that if we want to start something new, we have to go through a procedure. But, at the same time, this procedure is useful when it comes to quality control and the success of the program.

Prof. Kartik on the importance of time management in his life

Time management becomes very crucial if you live in a city like Delhi or any other metropolitan city as you invest a lot of time in travelling and other things. So, you have to manage your time very effectively and have to device new ways to work with your team.

For time management, you need to make very effective use of technology. You can use technology for multi-tasking and also be in touch with your team members, students and your management at the same time. You have to excel in teaching, research, administration, and also have to take your team along with you and keep in mind the satisfaction of students. I have been telling this to my students also that if they want to become effective managers and innovators, then they have to understand the value of time. You need to plan well and you have to dedicate each and every hour of the day very efficiently and effectively as there is no shortcut to this.

Curriculum in School of Business, Public Policy and Social Entrepreneurship

We do revise our curriculum very frequently and keep introducing new things in the syllabus. Also, if there is some new issue that needs to be addressed arises at a point of time, then we organize programs on the same. For instance, we had programs on digital marketing, GST etc. to ensure that students are getting cutting-edge knowledge on the same. Even if it is not a part of the curriculum, we ensure students are well informed about the issues through different modules, workshops, seminars, talks by guests from industry or in public domain or from different NGOs etc. so they share their experiences with our students.   

Growth of students through placement opportunities available at School of Business, Public Policy and Social Entrepreneurship

In our university, the placements are completely students-driven. We have a student committee for placement. Throughout the year, they organize various activities with the help of which they ensure industry-academia connect. Later, we try to convert all these connections into placement or summer internship opportunities. We have these activities for placement throughout the year and our faculty members also help our students by guiding them. We have placement coordinator who helps the students to find out new opportunities and we try to engage with industry throughout. We are a new school, therefore, the placement activities need to be given more importance in coming years. And, I do believe in that. Yes, placement is an important outcome for professional programs and we are continuously working on it.

Read more about the placement opportunities available in Ambedkar University Delhi here.

Prof. Kartik’s relationship with the students being the Professor and Dean of the university

Unlike earlier times, today there is a great need for establishing a continuous dialogue with the millennial generation as this generation is receiving information from all the corners. They are a bit confused as well as overloaded with information. So, the role of a mentor is to ensure that they understand the importance of information and only extract whatever is relevant to them. For that, we believe that a teacher should remain connected with the students constantly through various platforms available including social media. I try to interact with my students off the campus also through social media and ensure that they have good mental health and motivated.

We have mentorship programs in our university where we give them opportunities to interact with various faculty members and they are free to share any problem in academics, or even personal or social problem that they are facing. So, we try our level best to be in touch with our students with whatever resources we have.  

Know more about the faculty at Ambedkar University Delhi here.

Ideal school environment according to Prof. Kartik

Ideal school environment, specifically in higher education, is where a high amount of interaction among all the stakeholders including students, faculty, industry, etc. is there. We ensure that there is no communication gap among all the stakeholders and we use different channels to minimize any distortion.

An ideal school environment is that where students come up with their own ideas, organize things on their own, come up with innovations in terms of learning, sharing, and doing. I think that students should come up with new ideas where they would like to help and address any social or economic problem of the society and they come up with their own studies, own programs.

An ideal school environment is where a teacher’s role is not only to instruct the students but also to facilitate learning and helping them to nurture their talent. The role of a teacher should be limited and the role of a student should be expanded.

Goals in mind for School of Business, Public Policy and Social Entrepreneurship for the next few years

We are coming up with Ph.D. programs planning to have programs in public policy and social entrepreneurship. Also, we have plans for entering into continuing education through which we would like to help people especially small traders, SMEs as they don’t have formal ways of training in management. We would like to device some short-term program and do capacity building for small and medium level entrepreneurs and people who are looking for entrepreneurship opportunities, social entrepreneurship opportunities. We would like to become a platform for all these players and they come up with new ideas and we support them. In coming years, we will offer a few innovative programs. Along with that, we will be entering into continuing education domain and will try to help different stakeholders in the society.   

Suggestions for the current youth and the aspiring students

My suggestion would be that they should focus on learning and knowledge and skills with the right amount of knowledge. Apart from this, they should be able to manage their time well and should be away from distraction because there has been heavy information overload and they have been facing this problem of partial attention throughout. They should continuously think about their career goals. I would like to say that the current youth is compromising a lot with time in terms of priority to health and other things. So, I should say that they should focus more on their health and lifestyle plus, career.

Last but not the least, they have to show curiosity in whatever they do as curiosity is the crux. This is important because the youngsters are facing a lot of problems in focusing.