Dr. Ranjan Banerjee is presently serving as the Dean at BITS School of Management, BITSoM, Mumbai. Holding a doctorate degree from the University of Minnesota and MBA from IIM Calcutta, he has several years of teaching and research experience in diverse disciplines of Management. Also, Dr. Ranjan Banerjee has attended and conducted a number of conferences, workshops and seminars for students at a global level. 

BITS School of Management

What are the key factors that keep you connected with the education sector? 

“Meaningful interactions and shaping future leaders”

There are three things that I love about this sector: 

  • It is possibly the only profession in the world where reading is part of the job description.
  • I enjoy the chance to interact with young students, learn from them, and in some cases, touch their lives in a deep way.
  • We can impact the future of India by shaping the thoughts, beliefs and actions of the next generation of leaders.

What is your philosophy of leadership?

“Establishing a better learning and working culture”

Value in academic institutions is created at the interface between faculty and students, and staff and students. The role of the leader is to create an enabling environment in which that value is created. Hence a leader’s job is to understand, develop and enable the people he/she leads. The leader can create a culture where people can experiment and create; a culture of psychological safety. The second aspect of a leader’s job is to create a culture which is conducive to a deep faculty student connect. I have always been a dean who enjoys the classroom; I enjoy being approachable to students inside and outside the classroom. I believe we can create an environment where there are a lot of honest, small group faculty student conversations, and consequently deep faculty students connect. I believe I can play a demonstrative role in creating this connects. We will create a highly personalized and deep faculty student connect at BITSOM, and this will help us to build a transformative experience for each and every student.

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What would you like people to know about BITS they may not know?

“International faculty, coveted recruiters and an opportunity to create culture”

Global Faculty 

We have Global faculty on campus that is accessible both inside and outside the classrooms for individual as well as small group interactions. The faculty will also help the students to chart out a personal development plan. 

Placements

- The most coveted B-school recruiters including Bain and Company, Boston Consulting group, McKinsey and Company, Hindustan Unilever, Swiggy, and the Aditya Birla Group Leadership Programme have expressed their interest to recruit form summer internships and final placements.

- A dedicated career services team will ensure that not only are the best recruiters coming to campus, but also that our students are extremely well prepared to realise their potential in interviews, jobs, careers and life.

Being a part of the founding class the students will get the opportunity to set the ethos, create culture and take their passion to the next level by setting up clubs and starting initiatives in the campus. They will also get to interact and build lasting relationships with the faculty, GC members and mentors from the industry. They will not only be transformed by the experience; but can shape the experience for future batches to come.

What can an inbound student gain from studying here in your institute? 

“A transformative experience that will prepare them to thrive at the workplace”

As a new world class school backed by a reputed parent (BITS Pilani-an institute of national eminence), BITSOM has many unique advantages:

  1. a) We have sourced the best global faculty from across the world. Faculty from Wharton, Kellogg, NYU, SMU, Texas Austin, and Cornell will be teaching the first batch at BITSOM.
  2. b) Our curriculum is geared to prepare students to be transformative leaders of tomorrow. There are many dimensions to this:
  3. Analytics courses are deeply embedded in the curriculum, both in the first and second year, across specializations.
  4. Areas like critical thinking, design thinking (the ability to solve unstructured problems) are seen as critical gap areas by industry, and are explicitly addressed by our curriculum.
  5. Leaders of tomorrow need to balance competition and collaboration, exert influence without power, reflect and learn, and be self aware and flexible. Unique courses on workplace perspectives help to create a curriculum that balances soft skills and hard skills.
  6. A lot of personal transformation happens through small group conversations outside the classroom. Two of our faculty (Dr Leena Chatterjee and I) will work with each and every student to build a personal development plan which will help them have a focused learning plan through their two years in the program. Each faculty will supplement coursework with small group conversations.
  7. Each student will have a senior industry mentor assigned for one on one feedback. In addition, a galaxy of senior business leaders will share experiences with our students, in a fireside chat series.
  8. BITS Pilani has over 55000 alumni, many of whom are senior leaders. Many have shown willingness to support BITSOM, and we will benefit greatly from their wisdom and experience. 
  9. Our students will have an option of gaining global exposure at London Business school with an immersion programme where they will gain experience of multi-cultural settings, and solving problems with entrepreneurs in these settings. 

What do you see as BITS School of Management’s greatest strengths?

“Keeping our students at the centre of everything we do”

In addition to the transformative learning experience we have described earlier, we will have the agility and freshness of a new world class institute, and back it up with the experience, wisdom and heritage of a world class parent in BITS Pilani. We will value both versatility (achievements outside the classroom) and academic excellence, leading to a truly diverse class. The faculty students connect at BITSOM will be like no other. We will connect deeply and personally with each and every student, and create an environment of psychological safety. A world class school with a difference, based in Mumbai, BITSOM will play in the same league as the top IIMs and will be the institute to watch in the coming years.

How does the curriculum of BITS ensure the best practice of industry? 

“Embedding significant industry input and interactions”

  1. Being co-created by leading academicians and practitioners, and being current in both theory and practice
  2. Being taught by the very best academicians and practitioners, across the world
  3. Collaboration with London Business School, one of the top B-Schools in the world to provide our students with real global exposure.
  4. Supplementing traditional classroom inputs with live projects, internships, outbound workshops, and multiple dimensions of experiential learning
  5. Using small group exercises and one on one discussion to build personalised learning for every student
  6. Embedding significant industry input and interaction with top leaders through formal mentoring, fireside chats etc.
  7. Continually reviewing curriculum with cutting edge practitioners
  8. Balancing soft and hard skills, enabling the ability to connect the dots through our unique winning at the workplace courses

How do you intend to establish a healthy environment in your institute?

“Effective leadership with a culture of respect and excellence”

Every human being deserves to be treated with respect. If leaders create a culture which is open, respectful and values excellence, the rest follows. If you as a leader expect your team to imbibe a certain set of values, you must become a living embodiment of those values. You must also consciously hire for values and attitude. Demonstration, articulation, hiring for values and continual conversations about culture and values, finally, in an academic institute, the way spaces are designed must reinforce your culture.

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Any suggestions you would like to give to the current youth?

“Build the ability to introspect, learn and stretch yourself”

Know yourself. Introspect deeply; develop an attitude of curiosity and openness. Build a life around things you enjoy doing. Over a period of time, the ability to reflect, stretch and learn will be far more important than current ability levels.