Y.C. DEVESHWAR: Joka had better shape up

It's delicious irony. Both are engineers from IIT and neither went to a B-school, but now they'll chair the board of governors of the two most prestigious management institutions in the country. Y.C. Deveshwar, Chairman of tobacco major, ITC, was, on April 10, 2002, appointed as the Chairman of IIM-Calcutta, and, a month earlier, N.R. Narayana Murthy--the recently retired CEO of Infosys-as the Chairman of iim-Ahmedabad. The appointments come in the wake of controversial exits of their previous chairmen. Subrata Ganguly had quit from IIM-C in a huff, protesting against the government's decision to control the appointment of IIM directors and chairmen. IIM-A too lost its Chairman I.G. Patel in August 2001, and continued to be without one until Murthy's appointment came along.

No doubt their roles are titular (it's the school director who runs the day-to-day business), but when you have people like Deveshwar and Murthy around, you don't expect their personalities not to rub on to the school. So, how different will their tasks be? At the strategic level, it will be the same-of imparting a vision. In terms of academic excellence, the IIMs (especially A, B, and C) lack nothing. But the next big leap for them will come only when they are able to produce managers who can successfully lead even in times of turbulence. At the tactical level, there may be more work to be done.

N.R. NARAYANA MURTHY: On a new assignment

IIM-A has, of late, been losing ground to IIM-B (chaired by ex-Hindustan Lever Chairman S.M. Datta). Knowing Murthy-incidentally, he's worked at IIM-A, too-he'll push for regaining the lead. That apart, entrepreneurship is another area that he may want the school, best known for its general management skills, to focus on.

Over at the Joka campus in Calcutta, Deveshwar will likely drill his ''lead or leave'' philosophy into budding managers. For, despite being in an industry worst persecuted worldwide, he has managed to keep ITC flying high. So, he would want the quant-heavy IIM-C to go up on the B-school rankings. Both ways it's going to be a learning experience.

Return Of The Native

MAHESH PATEL: The gypsy spirit

In the early 40s, his father left India to seek out opportunities in Fiji. A small store in a town called Ba was the result. Half-a-century later, Mahesh Patel is back in India for exactly the same reason, and in exactly the same fashion. A little over a year ago, the 42-year-old Fiji-born pharmacist teamed up with the Jatias (of Hyatt, Delhi) to launch a chain of health and beauty stores, named Lifespring. There are six of them today (all in Delhi), and Patel is planning to open another 20 this fiscal. But business wasn't exactly what the squash enthusiast had in mind when he made his first long visit to India in 1997 (it was for a holiday). A casual chat with a retail consultant at a dinner meet got the Australia and New Zealand-educated Patel thinking of retail in India, where he also dabbles in social work. ''I am a bit of a gypsy,'' says the man who refused to join his father's shop in Ba and set out to make his own fortune. Who says dads always know better?

Zen Master Rising

SHASHI ULAL: Looking for lessons from the Vedas

For somebody newly retired, Shashi Ullal is a rather busy man. Currently, the former Vice Chairman of Hughes Escorts Communications is studying Chinese masters Lao Tse, Sun Tzu, and Confucius, besides studying the Vedas for clues to modern management problems. That apart, he is the Chairman of the Indian arm of Seattle-based Digital Partners-a body that will soon launch some projects in rural India, and planning to teach at business schools. Needless to say all these are things that Ullal had been itching to do all along. ''American (business) models don't always work even in the US, so how can they work in India?'' asks the 67-year-old. Fortunately for Ullal, this time round there are no pesky shareholders to question his unorthodox plans. Ah, the bliss of retirement...