'Joint Families and IIM Institutes - What do they have common?'

What does 'Joint Families' and 'IIM Institutes' have in common? 'IIM Institutes' are expected to produce country's best managers to tackle business problems and foster, promote business decisions, growth. A good manager understands the traits of all the people who are critical for business and comes up with the best possible inputs from the people leading to the optimal business decisions at a given time.



In this context, joint families contribute a lot as they also help us in learning the various possible shades and underpinnings of human relationships, traits and teaches an individual how to manage the inputs of family members with the primary objective of maintaining the unit of family enhancing the social capital and wellfare at a given point of time. Possibly in practical terms, such trainings in a joint family could be more successful than the semester trained HR courses. Although joint families would not give the degree that IIM institutes give to have a social standing in terms of CTCs, financial and capital assets (which could be philosophically questioned and that is not again the subject matter of this blog). But in terms of managerial training, joint families really contribute in developing selflessness, leadership qualities, sense of understanding each other to become good manager that might not necessarily develop in management programmes.



In today's cut throat competitive corporate world, such selfless leadership could really go a long way in developing good managers that build goodwill of a company. Specially, in a corporate world of India fraught by fraudulent practices (post Satyam scam) it is really essential to produce managers with strong sense of integrity, honesty.



Having spent the first 18 - 19 years of life in a joint family of 30 people in Kolkata, everyday was a learning exercise. During those years, I had learnt from my mom (analogous to the CEO manager of the family/corporate unit) and her colleagues (counterpart of divisional managers of the large family/corporate unit) how selflessness, actions for building trust, security, integrity, dignity, respect within and between family members should be practised in minutest things and aspects to manage the family. Joint family could in the long run give directions towards building such managerial and leadership qualities.



A management institute could produce good managers for corporate sector. Similarly, the same managerial qualities could be produced by a grooming up in a joint family that builds in the essence and importance of valuing social capital that is an essential, integral component of today's efficient corporate manager.



The importance of such values in corporate managers would increase only in future at the backdrop of the growing advent of global movement of financial capital.



Anando