Prof S. Govindrajan, the Dean of Praxis Business School, is an alumnus of IIM A (1984). He worked for 6 years in the industry and embarked on a distinguished career in academics when he joined XIM Bhubaneswar. He is a celebrated professor of marketing at Praxis and also at IIM Lucknow, IIM Shillong, XLRI and XIM B.

Q: It is good to see a residential B-School of the quality of Praxis in Kolkata. What was the thought behind choosing Kolkata as the location? And why a residential B-School?

A: Kolkata has traditionally been an important educational hub. However, it does not have a high quality residential B-School other than IIM C. As a result, students from the east have had to migrate for education. Hence we chose Kolkata.

Q: Praxis is a comparatively new B-School that has quickly become a significant name in the management education domain. How did you achieve this positioning in such a short time?

A: Good positioning emerges out of a consistent focus on quality in all processes of the value chain. The three most important aspects of an educational institution are: (a) the quality of students who are admitted (b) the quality of education imparted and (c) the ecosystem in which this education is delivered, as that is where the soft skills are acquired and internalized.

Q: You speak of innovation. Can you give us an example?

A: One innovation which embodies the honesty, transparency and teamwork at Praxis is what we call kk – or Kollaborative Klassroom (www.kk.praxis.ac.in). This is a website – and the fulcrum around which all academic, extra curricular and co-curricular activities of Praxis revolve. Students have individual pages – much like social networking sites. All reading material, lesson plans, project submissions etc. are uploaded on this website. All communication on co-curricular and extra-curricular activity is also discussed here. Most parts are accessible to everybody (and that includes people outside Praxis). Hence, when a student uploads a project report, he/she is aware that his batchmates (and
indeed the whole world can see it). And the faculty evaluating it knows that the evaluation has to be fair – as all reports are there for everyone to see.

Q: Most students link the quality of an institute with its placement record. How has Praxis fared on this criterion?

The first Batch graduated in 2009 and 43 of the 44 students seeking placement were placed. The average package was Rs. 4.19 lakhs and we had some high quality companies across various sectors – Consulting, IT, Commercial Banking, Investment Banking, Logistics, Consumer as well as Industrial products. The profiles included Brand Management, Business Analysts, Treasury Management, Corporate Banking, Retail Banking, Sales & Marketing, Corporate Finance and Project Management.


Q: In most of its communication, Praxis talks about its faculty. We would want to know more about the faculty team at Praxis.

Most of our communication is about faculty is because it is the fountainhead causing change in an academic institution. More importantly, we are proud of our Faculty!
The faculty team at Praxis mirrors the positioning of industry readiness. The team comprises of people with impeccable academic pedigree (IIT/IIM/NITIE/XLRI/University of Dallas/Iowa). This academic pedigree was followed up by commendable stints in their corporate careers (in companies like HP/IBM/PwC/CTS/Tata Motors/Tata Steel/JP Morgan).
More importantly, these people took up teaching by choice because they felt they could make a difference. The fact that our faculty team is also visiting faculty at IIM - Lucknow, IIM - Shillong, XLRI Jamshedpur and XIM Bhubaneswar gives a sense of the quality and passion they bring into teaching.
The core faculty described above is backed up by visiting faculty of equal (if not better!) pedigree. Praxis has full courses or modules taught by visiting faculty who had worked/are working in HP, IBM, PwC, Spencers, ICICI, UBS, RPG Specialty Retail and Tata Steel. These faculty members are again with strong academic credentials, for whom teaching is a passion.


Q: When you look back at your 3 year journey with Praxis, is there something you single out as your most fulfilling achievement?

Today, students are spoilt for choice as there are a large number of B-Schools to choose from. As a result, there is always a factor of dissonance after a student has joined a B-School (as the other B-School he/she had the option to join can look better). It’s a source of great pride for me that our students freely tell us that joining Praxis was the best decision they have taken in their lives. Visitors to our campus (recruiters, students from other B-Schools, faculty from other B-Schools) always remark that Praxis students are a very “happy bunch”. Nothing can give me and the team at Praxis more satisfaction. As it is the best vindication of the fact that we are doing the right things. And doing it well.