TAPMI

The Industry Interface Day at T A Pai Management Institute, Manipal aims to bring together academia and practitioners on a common platform to discuss a topic of business & social relevance. Since 2002, the Industry Interface day celebrated by the institute has helped us to gain immense understanding about the industry & its future growth path through interactions with stalwarts from every sector in India.

This interaction with practitioners gives our students a feel of the real world of business and enables us to enrich our in-class activities. In addition to a holistic approach it also brings the essential element of topicality to the teaching-learning environment. Additionally, it provides invaluable insights into the decision-making skills required of leaders in real-life organizations today.

The Industry Interface Day 2007 showcased a topic of value and interest in the present industry scenario – “Role of Social Capital in Organizational Development.” Three panels discussed the issue under the following themes –

The issue of social capital was brought into light by the newly formed TAPMI Centre for Collaborative Learning, in the month of July 2007. Prof. Ajit Chakravarti, alumni of IIT Kharagpur and IIM Calcutta and head of TCCL (TAPMI Centre for Collaborative Learning) brought together industry experts to discuss the relevance of the topic & planned to take it forward through the Industry Interface Day.

This year TAPMI Centre for Collaborative Learning (TCCL) played the major role in the organization of the Industry Interface Day. TCCL is a platform for interaction between TAPMI and business/ non profit organizations. The objective of TCCL is to collaborate with managers to study specific problems/issues in strategic and operational areas in their organizations. The outcome of such an effort is expected to lead to mutual learning captured as a reusable knowledge asset, and improved business performance.

One can understand ‘Social Capital’ better, if one looks at it as a traditional factor of production –

“Social capital is a new production factor that could be described as an institutional, non-material informal human exchange. Norms that help build trust and assurance among actors help facilitate economic transactions, and therefore constitute a form of capital.” - Svendsen & Svendsen

The strength of Social Capital lies in the links created between personal and business networks in any organization. This link strengthens with time and organizations can use it for improving productivity & performance. . Since this capital rests on the success of the group (like the Dabbawalas in Mumbai), the exploitation of the same can only be brought about by nurturing it further as a long-term asset in the organization. This would lead to an advantage that could not be matched by any in the industry.

Is it possible to monetize relationships, especially in an industry-wise scenario? No, the closest one can get is to putting a Notional Value to this qualitative figure! It is however important to institutionalize Social Capital. This can be done by identifying the values that drive the culture of the company & that inherently, build the institutional framework of the company. This has to be coupled with an association of the right people in the right environment.

In the past, certain entities have ventured into capturing and improving social capital at their own levels. In recent times, a regular feedback mechanism by stakeholders and self disclosure schemes through Social Audit processes have made organizations quantify their network strengths and showcase the same to the world. Formulae like Trust Quotient = Num (Credibility, Reliability, Intimacy) / Den (Self Orientation) have emerged which try to bring some kind of clarity on the issue. However, for some, the issue simply boils down to finding People & Customer Value & maintaining a certain level of Emotional Empathy!

The Industry Interface Day aims to create a social capital of its own. This theme generated considerable interest in one and all & practitioners aim to take the idea forward in their respective organizations. This would be facilitated by TCCL with its orientation towards learning business better.

The TAPMI annual magazine, Amartya was also released on this occasion. Amartya, serves to showcase the industry-academia interaction by publishing articles by corporate representatives, faculty and students of TAPMI. It is created by the Corporate Communications Group of TAPMI under the guidance of Prof. Jaba Mukherjee Gupta. This year the team was assisted by a special Editorial Group. This year’s theme for Amartya is Management Practices of the new era. The soft copy of the magazine is available on the website.