Walking the Talk, MR-style

MR Rao, Professor and Dean Emeritus, retired this June and with his retirement ISB will miss one of its most ardent supporters. MR, as he is fondly called, has been one of the architects of the School’s many achievements, from its FT rankings to the AACSB accreditation. “It is hard to imagine ISB without MR,” said Deepak Chandra, Deputy Dean, in a farewell lunch hosted for MR. He was speaking for the entire ISB community that had gathered to honour the School’s much-loved and respected former dean. But as Professor Jagmohan Raju reiterated, “an academic never retires.” In case of MR, we know that he will be writing, reading, practising tennis or pondering on a mathematical problem – not the usual stuff that retirement is made of. But then MR is not your usual person – an illustrious academic, a meticulous researcher, an outstanding teacher and a great institution builder. His easy, affable manner can make you forget that there is a serious analytical side to the man, one that is “obsessed with numbers.” ISB faculty recount stories about how when approached for input on research, MR would get a pencil and paper and start scribbling numbers almost instantaneously. It is hardly surprising because as he says, “I keep thinking about problems.” Perhaps it was this drive that led him to win the Fulkerson Prize, an award sponsored by the Mathematical Programming Society and the American Mathematical Society. In characteristic MR-style he downplays the accolades heaped upon him. “You don’t work to win awards. We had solved a problem but I was still surprised when I heard about the prize.”

Professor M R Rao has had a long association with ISB, first as dean, then as professor and dean emeritus. When he took over as dean in 2004, ISB was still a fledgling institute that had been through two deans and many faculty. There were doubts regarding the institute’s financial viability. By all accounts that was not a great year to be at the helm of ISB – but this did not deter MR. He came with years of experience as dean of IIM, Bangalore. He took it upon himself to build ISB into an outstanding institute – beginning with aggressively recruiting well-renowned faculty from the best schools in the world. From four or five resident faculty in 2004, the School had hired 25 faculty in just four years--most of whom have stayed and helped ISB become the institute of great repute that it is today. However, this task was not easy. “Faculty did not believe that they could accomplish their research in India,” recounts MR but he was a great spokesperson for ISB. His credibility in terms of the papers published and the awards won, won them over. “I came to ISB, because MR was here,” Professor Ramana Sonti said and there are many others who echo this sentiment. The faculty need not have worried about the lack of research environment here because MR enforced the vision of a research school. “Peer recognition comes only with publication (in top journals) and recognition from industry follows academic respectability,” explains MR on why it was so important for ISB to focus on research at a time when other management institutes in India were not taking a similar approach. This focus has helped the School in building its reputation globally. It also helped the School
in earning the coveted AACSB accreditation.

MR has strengthened the foundation of the School and helped it grow. We must build on this and scale greater heights. That is the only way to honour him.