The Accidental Professor!

- by Deepa Krishnan

In 2015 October I took charge of Abhyudaya, an education NGO, and suddenly found myself also becoming part of the teaching faculty at SPJIMR, which is the chief sponsor of the NGO. It was, I confess, a challenging assignment.

Never having taught formally, I found myself attending training sessions and trying to develop a teaching style and curriculum of my own. I learnt the basics of academic research, wrote papers, became a columnist for strategy+business, and got empanelled on the editorial board of an academic journal (Emerald Emerging Markets case studies). Eventually I became good at delivering lectures and academic course design. Awards and recognitions came my way as well.

But one of the nicest things in this academic journey are the student committees that I get to work with. The SPJIMR student committees are packed with hardworking and talented young people, who start out as strangers but end up coalescing into strong teams. Guiding their journey into a smoothly functioning unit is an exercise in mentoring and leadership. It has helped me grow as a teacher and as a person. Photo is from the Abhyudaya Committee dinner that we had last night. This is the fab team that organised all my events this year. Thank you AbCom for a wonderful year!