Interview: Mr. Manohar Thairani, Chairman at Lloyd Group of Colleges, Greater Noida|Collegedunia

Interview by Yash Panchal

Mr. Manohar Thairani is the Chairman of Lloyd Group of Colleges. Greater Noida. He is an Accountant by education and profession. He started Lloyd Law College in the year 2003 to facilitate quality education in the field of law. Under his guidance, the law college has successfully endured creating for itself a niche in the field of legal education in India. It has been his continuous effort to develop a generation of lawyers who possess intellectual genius; moral consciousness and social responsibility.

Mr. Thairani has also been the Director in Finance Department at Lloyd Electric and Engineering Ltd. Over the past years, Lloyd has emerged as an institute with immense repute and excellence not only at the national level but also, in the south Asian region, by having educational collaboration with esteemed academic and research institutions. Under his leadership, the institute runs with a human touch and excels in education.

Mr. Manohar Thairani on his education industry experience

I am a Chartered Accountant by profession and have a long corporate experience. During these experiences, I have felt that as a developing country, our higher education sector lacks the skill set development required in the modern world for establishing vibrant academia-industry connectivity. What our country needs now are socially conscious youth forces who are proactive solution definers. We have declared many national level policies to improve the skill sets but somehow, we are not able to demonstrate the results. My decision to enter education industry was the confidence that I would be able to make a change and I feel that with the support of my team, I have been successful in doing so and I wish to do for future also.

A supportive and trusting leadership style

As the Chairman of Lloyd Group, I would like to say that my strength is my team. It is all about the people we have, who inspire, lead and achieve the goals. I have realized that the most important element for a good decision-making process in an institution is to

create an open, pluralistic and fearless environment where the best debates are possible.

I provide my people with full bottom line support so that even at times when things might not progress in the intended fashion; we are ever ready to keep things hurdling forward with strength, creativity, and of course, hard work.

Dealing with the challenges as the Chairman of the Group

The challenge we face is actually faced by all educational institutions worldwide. We are in globalized, multicultural environments. The world is so dynamic with changes in terms of economy, policies, and outlook. With the digital technology added into the picture, the pace of change has increased; this is difficult to meet within a traditional curriculum challenge. The skill set required changes faster than our curriculum changes. I could say that customizing the conventional curriculum to suit industry needs is the major challenge we face now.

Ensuring best practices of the industry through a global curriculum

Our mission is to create a generation of leaders who care and contribute to the nation-building process. Even acting within the constraints of the conventional curriculum, we add and apply global curriculum and pedagogy, internationally benchmarked quality assurance systems, and a Socratic Method of teaching whereby the students would involve in practical methods of learning. The colleges also offer additional courses for each semester. This would essentially help the students to be best prepared for the dynamic world of business and service sector and take a creative part in the implementation of developmental initiatives by the government.

The growth of students through placement opportunities available at the Lloyd Group

Placements and internships are very important for the undergraduate students. Our colleges- Law, Pharmacy, Management, all have been very successful in placing our students at professional platforms to provide them with a greater opportunity to achieve further success in their careers. We have dedicated Internship and Placement Cells to assists all our students from their first day at the college, in every aspect of their professional life, beginning with developing their communication and interpersonal skills, creating an impressive resumé, helping them to enter into good internships which often lead to pre-placement offers.

We organize national level Job Fests, an open campus recruitment opportunity for graduates from all over the country, which witness the participation of top recruiters including prestigious multinational corporations, financial institutions, law firms, pharmacy companies, chambers of advocates, etc.

An open relationship with the students being the Chairman of the Institute

For me, preparing the students for their future is the primary objective. For achieving this, we try to provide them with all the resources that we can. I interact with my students on a regular basis to know their needs and requirements and provide them with the right support when required. In addition, the Directors and faculty members of various colleges of the group constantly interact with the students to identify any issues and if in any instance, my presence is required, it is immediately brought to my attention and I always take it as a priority.

Thoughts on an ideal school environment

The key phrase I would use is “equity, inclusiveness, and diversity within the campus”. An ideal school should provide a safe environment, conducive of learning as well as recreation. They should be motivated to acquire technical and professional skills. This is assured by ensuring regular lecture classes, practical experiences and attendance, assigning mentors for each batch to help students with any difficulties they are facing, and providing a campus equipped with modern technology, state of art classrooms and a huge lawn, recreation areas, basketball and cricket grounds, cafeteria, etc., for students to revitalize themselves and achieve a holistic growth. Ours is a green campus and we also train our students to respect the principles of sustainable use and inter-generational equity.

Top qualities that an aspirant must possess

Yes, there is clearly an increased interest among the students towards Management courses. In this profession, the qualities desirable is, to be a lifelong learner, be passionate and ready to take risks. The quality of perseverance and ability to solve problems, to make quick, effective decisions and think critically are also very much required. The substantial contribution of an educational institution is to equip the student to deal with any difficult situation that may arise in their personal and professional life and also balance them both.

Goals in mind for Lloyd Business School

Our main goal is to maintain a strong commitment to excellence through the professional development of students and our faculty members.

We expect to contribute meaningfully to the development goals and process of our country. This would be done by achieving excellence in teaching, student engagement, adapting the curriculum to meet the needs of the community.

We ensure that our faculty is given in-house opportunity to acquire new technical skills and support them to attend any courses which would contribute to their knowledge and help them to stay abreast of international changes. We are also looking to engage in more academic and industrial collaborations, both nationally and internationally.

Suggestions for the current youth

The young generation in India is extremely talented and I wish that they would identify the opportunities provided to them and should work hard to be professionally competent, technically sound and socially relevant to succeed in their chosen profession based on permanent values.