Management & Entrepreneurship for the Development Sector

Instructor: Prof. Somnath Ghosh Sessions: 10

The course will deal with four critical areas confronting the development sector where IIM
graduates can (a) learn about the management challenges, (b) what they can do to make a
difference, and (c) explore successful careers connected to the development sector.

The four areas are:

1. Health
2. Education
3. Environment
4. Livelihoods, including business opportunities at the bottom of the pyramid

In each of the above five areas, students will learn the fundamentals of the sector and, more
importantly, how entrepreneurial, innovative, and sustainable interventions have been made
by management graduates and others to (a) bring about better outcomes and (b) change lives
of vast majority of disadvantages Indians.

SOMNATH GHOSH
Professor, Human Resource Management
Chair, Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Development
Ex-Dean (Academics)
Indian Institute of Management, Kashipur

BIOGRAPHY

He is a HR, Organization Design and Institutional Development specialist.

With a Ph. D. from Jawaharlal Nehru University, he was Visiting Fellow, School of Industrial
and Labor Relations, Cornell University (USA) where he worked with Professor William
Foote Whyte, the legendary researcher, scholar and author in Cornell’s Program for
Employment and Workplace System (PEWS). He has also held regular faculty positions at
IIM Lucknow, IIM Bangalore, IIM Indore; International Management Institute and
Administrative Staff College of India, Hyderabad. He also does occasional teaching at IIM
Ahmedabad, and abroad.

His consulting and institutional development experiences both in the for-profit and
development sector are wide and many. Among his over twenty assignments, he has
consulted in the areas of compensation management, organization design and development,
HR systems and work practice changes.

In the arena of institutional development, he was World Bank consultant for two of India’s
largest public sector organizations, viz. National Thermal Power Corporation and Coal India
on institutional strengthening with respect to resettlement and rehabilitation (R&R) of project
affected people. He was also Lead Consultant to Development Commissioner (Handicrafts),
Government of India, for “Improving Delivery System for Artisans’ Livelihoods”. For British
Government’s Department for International Development and Public Health Foundation of
India, he did separate studies with respect to the design and delivery of public health system
in AP. Very recently again, he was World Bank consultant for “Strengthening &
Transforming Institutions for Management of R&R” for government of Andhra Pradesh. He
has also served on the boards of Institute of Livelihood Research & Training, Kriti Industries
(India) Limited, Kriti Nutrients Limited, and Cashpor Micro Credit.