TEN LESSONS ON HOW TO

BUILD GREAT INSTITUTIONS? ?

BY :
Dr. T.K. Jain
Management Consultant and Career Advisor
Principal : Sri Jain PG College Bikaner
And
Mentor
Afterschoool Centre for Social Entrepreneurship

Vikram Sarabhai has a lot of lessons for us. He is one of the greatest institution builders of
modern times. He followed certain principles in life, if we follow them, we can learn the lessons of
institution building.

I hereby present some of the lessons that I was able to derive from Vikram Sarabhai's life and
activities: -

1. Choose the persons on the basis of their potential and give them freedom: He picked up
persons on the basis of their potential. He searched for the best persons from different
sources and tried to pick the persons who would be the best for building great institutions.
In the process of recruitment, Mr. Sarabhai picked up the best persons from the country,
who could build a great institution. All the persons were from different backgrounds and
different expertise, but as a team, they formed the best team of our country.
2. Give respect to employee and understand the dignity of work : He would give respect to
his colleagues, professors and workers and that motivated them to give him respect.
Respect is one such thing which easily turns back to you and the more you give, the
more you get.
3. Practice what you preach : Mr. Sarabhai was an honest, ethical and committed person,
he practiced what he promised
4. Focus on knowledge, skills and competency: Mr. Sarabhai encouraged his team to
acquire latest learning and encouraged them to go for further learning.
5. Tie up with the best in the world : - Mr. Sarabhai requested Harvard Business School and
IIM Calcutta to help in development of IIM Ahmedabad, this helped them in giving initial
shape to IIM Ahmedabad.
6. Love the nature : Mr. Vikram Sarabhai had passion for nature. He was fond of trees.
When Luis Kahn presented the design of IIM Ahmedabad, Mr. Sarabhai amended it
wherever he found a tree being cut. When the front corridor was being built, he
intervened and changed the design in the last moment in order to save a mango tree. He
emphasized that in the final design, there should be lot of trees.
7. Support to faculty members : Mr. Sarabhai gave full support to all the experiments and
activities done by the initial team at IIM Ahmedabad. All these resulted in a culture of
openness, creativity, experimentation, freedom and autonomy.
8. Networking with the best in the country: Initially IIM was planned to be set up in Mumbai.
But Mr. Sarabhai undertook extensive networking for this and requested everyone to set
up IIM in Ahmedabad. His decision proved to be correct and IIM promoted
entrepreneurship further in Gujarat. Everyone knows that Gujaratis are basically
entrepreneurial persons and IIM helped them in becoming better entrepreneurs.
9. Understand the roots and develop them further : - Mr. Sarabhai understood the roots, and
therefore he established close association with Ahmedabad Management Association
and other Ahmedabad based associations. He used his institution building capabilities in
establishing a close network between ATIRA, AMA and other institutions. His capabilities
helped in the initial years of IIMA.