Thursday, September 20, 2001

Our Roots

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

I have been going through the e-mails of Alumni (some with very good suggestions and some sharing their concerns). I have also interacted with several of you at different times. I am glad to see all your collective abilities lending support to the image of Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar (XIMB). I request you to please try and understand what I have mentioned below:

It would be nice if we could accept the fact that we are all productive entities belonging to XIMB, which in turn is strongly rooted in the state of Orissa. The moment we say that we are entities rooted in XIMB and not in Orissa or the vice-versa, we are not contributing to make this tree (i.e., XIMB) grow mightier and mightier.

The founding fathers of XIMB had signed an MOU with the state of Orissa where they had committed themselves to be the caretakers of this Institute with support from the state. The MOU was formulated keeping in mind the needs of the state while not ignoring the needs of the Nation. Hence, provisions were made to serve the national interest by reserving one-third of the total seats for students not domiciled in Orissa. Unfortunately, our resource limitations did not permit us to cater to the needs of students belonging to different countries but having a certain interest in the general well being of this region. Today, thanks to the hard work of all the stakeholders, I am proud to say that XIMB is a premier B-School in Orissa and then in India. We have been also able to meet the requirements of some foreign firms. Most importantly, XIMB has been able to give a tough competition to other schools, which have a lot of funding support to be positioned as premier B-Schools of the Nation (not necessarily the region).

But there is a long way to go. We have not been able to fully live up to the expectations of the MOU. Let us all work towards it without taking any kind of a stance that is meant to divide us. My sincere request to all of you is to make sure that we do not do things that would sap the strength of XIMB. Please see that it grows as a mighty tree by ensuring that it is firmly rooted in its place of birth.

God bless XIMB, Orissa and all the allies.

Dr. Kaushik Sahu
(Joined XIMB in 1992)

Further Clarifications from Dr. Sahu (21 Sep 2001)

I want the stakeholders to see the spirit behind my above note. I don't want anybody to feel shy of their roots being in Orissa. Contrary to what some of you might believe, I think our alumni (as also the other stakeholders) can indeed be rooted in Orissa. However, they must first ensure that XIMB is properly rooted and nourished in its place of birth. Developing linkages with the rest of the country and the world is the next logical step. Despite our limitations we have already done a commendable work there. We do have our branches and leaves spreading all over the globe and bringing in good name to the Institute. But we want to improve further.

I would be happy if suggestions for brand building came taking all our existing limitations into account, i.e., suggestions that can strengthen our base. Please desist from suggestions that will lead to in-fighting and ultimately erode our base. There are some very good suggestions coming from the alumni. Please see the suggestions link in the alumni pages to see some constructive suggestions. My note is meant to unite these forces under one banner. I am sure you will be soon seeing the top management's commitment in uniting the differing viewpoints of various stakeholders under one umbrella (i.e., the mighty tree called XIMB).

Prof. Kaushik Sahu has indicated an article that might be relevant to the discussions on his note that appears above. The reader can obtain the fulltext of the article from him.

ARTICLE: Andy Haynes, Conway Lackman, and Audrey Guskey. (1999). Comprehensive brand presentation: ensuring consistent brand image (Journal of Product and Brand Management; 08: 4; pp. 286-300).

ABSTRACT: Introduces the concept of comprehensive brand presentation (CBP), a formalized approach to align manufacturing and communications functions in the business firm. The linchpins of CBP are total quality management (TQM) principles and integrated marketing communications. The CBP enhances success through synergistic execution of the manufacturing and marketing processes via increased focus on measuring customer response to both manufactured product and promotional efforts supporting that product. CBP defines the TQM principle of "out of control" as the variance between actual brand image and customer specifications as rated by the target customers. CBP's operational objective is to minimize that variance and, thereby, maximize the expected probability of product acceptance and subsequent target market brand loyalty.