- Introduction – Series of Changes at IBA

IBA, the Institute of Business Administration, Karachi, has established itself as a premier
business school in Pakistan with a strong track record of over fifty years of producing quality
undergraduates and post-graduates in Business and Computer Sciences. However, the institute
faces an increasingly competitive environment as world class business schools locate their
campuses in the neighbouring Gulf countries. Afraid that the graduates of IBA may be edged
out as these schools add to the supply stream, the administration of IBA, under its new Dean
and Director Dr. Ishrat Hussain, sought to catch up and meet these new challenges by
equipping its graduates with the new marketable skills that are emerging at the work place
nationally, regionally and globally.

The thrust of the strategic direction for the next five years is, therefore, to build up on these
strengths, overcome the weaknesses and steer the IBA in the direction where it can match the
standards of the leading educational institutions in the world in supplying the managerial talent
of the kind that will be required in Pakistan, the Middle East and Central Asia. To move in this
direction the IBA has decided to improvise its structure, culture and faculty. The changes taking
place aim at

a) restructuring its internal management processes and governance,

b) developing physical plant and infrastructure and remodeling and renovating its existing
facilities,
c) attracting, training, retaining and motivating a highly qualified faculty from among those
who have distinguished themselves in academia, professions and practice of
management,
d) strengthening its outreach activities through the Centre for Executive Education (CEE),
establishing the Centre for Entrepreneurship Development (CED), and Centre for Access
to Finance (CAF) to meet the needs of the corporate, public and non profit sectors,
reinvigorating the Centre for Research and setting up international linkages,
e) rebuilding quality assurance and planning expansion and strengthening of academic
programs for the future.
In this report, we analyse the change management process at IBA in the light of an in-depth
interview of Dr. Ishrat Hussain, the Dean and Director of IBA, who has initiated and is leading
the change; and surveys conducted of faculty members, the MIS department and students.

IBA aims to be ranked among top 10 in region

Published: April 01, 2009

KARACHI - The Institute of Business Administration (IBA) Karachi aims to be ranked among the top 10
in the region in five years’ time.
This was pointed out at a reception IBA Karachi on Tuesday hosted for 21 foreign diplomats currently
under training at the Foreign Service Academy, Islamabad, as part of the 20th Advanced Diplomatic
Course.
The foreign diplomats were accompanied by faculty members of the FSP. Registrar, IBA Capt.(Retd)
Ahmed Zaheer, Associate Deans, Dr. Mohammed Nishat and Dr. Sayeed Ghani and Director Public
Affairs, Zafar A. Siddiqui, received the guests at the Center for Executive Education (CEE), IBA City
Campus.
Dr. Nishat briefed the guests about historical significance of the IBA Karachi as the oldest business school
outside North America. He said that IBA is moving towards the internationalization of its study
programmes by enhancing its linkages with reputable foreign universities.
Dr. Sayeed Ghani gave a comprehensive briefing about IBA and declared it an Island of Excellence due to
its stringent admission process and academic schedule, distinguished faculty and dynamic students,
advanced research facilities and efficient job placement support for its graduates.
He highlighted Director IBA’s Strategic Vision to the distinguished audience. The plan envisages that the
IBA will benchmark itself against a few chosen institutions of India, Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan and
aims to be ranked among the top ten business schools in the region within five years.
Dr. Ghani also discussed IBA’s Social Responsibility initiatives such as Scholarships and National Talent
Hunt Program (NTHP) to attract and train financially unsound but talented students from the backward
areas of Pakistan.He emphasized that IBA’s MBAs and graduates are not limited to the Business Sphere of
Pakistan but are contributing to the entire region. Considering the fact, IBA graduates are trained with
contemporary marketing skills and cultural sensitivities.
Tajammul Altaf, Director Administration, FSA thanked the IBA administration and coordinators for
enlightening them about the dynamics of IBA and its impact on Pakistan’s economy and education.
 - What brought about the changes – Forces of
Change
Organizations encounter many different forces of change. These forces come from external
sources outside the organization and from internal sources. The following paragraphs shed light
on the external and internal factors which brought about the changes at IBA.

External Forces of change:

I. Leading local business houses are eyeing foreign markets for their continued growth. The
Middle East market will require twenty to thirty thousand managers per year over the next
ten years. Simultaneously, the competition for talent is going to be stiff as world class
business schools locate their campuses in the neighboring Gulf countries. The graduates of
IBA may be edged out as these schools add to the supply stream and hence there was a need
for revising the academics.
II. The technology was not being employed effectively to manage the institution, make the
service provision more user friendly and save time and costs for students and faculty.
Although considerable investment had been made in networking, backup power supply,
hardware and software applications, the stand-alone and disparate applications had made
operational efficiency difficult to achieve.
III. Inadequacy of physical infrastructure – classrooms, laboratories, faculty and staff offices,
seminar rooms, hostels, student centre, recreational grounds, power, water, sewerage, air-
conditioning and other facilities. IBA hadn’t added any new facilities on either the Main
Campus or the City Campus, although the enrolments and the program offerings had
expanded significantly. The institute was facing almost a crisis situation where they were
constrained in hiring senior faculty and managers because they could not provide them
office space on either of the two campuses. The existing faculty members were working
under highly cramped physical environment. Students did not have any proper place for
their daily interactions, cultural events and extracurricular activities. Dining facilities on the
campuses left much to be desired. Boys’ hostel was congested and the students were living
in less than satisfactory conditions. Although IBA is a national institute of repute, they could
 not attract outstation students because the hostel facilities were available for only 100
persons. Girls were lodged in Staff Colony in two quarters and there was no proper
arrangement for their safety. Auditoriums in both the campuses were in bad shape. Library
facilities were not up to the mark. Realizing these difficulties, the IBA Board and HEC have
approved several projects for remodeling, renovation and expansion of physical
infrastructure.
IV. Increasing competition in job market is requiring universities to deliver quality education. A
time came during 2005-2007 when IBA was slowly losing its popularity in job market, with
the rumor of there being no jobs for BBA graduates.

Internal Forces of change:

I. As a leading business school, IBA should have been the leader for the industry in
management processes that promote efficiency and effectiveness. Unfortunately, the
popular perception is that IBA is an insular, bureaucratic organization. The management
structure and processes therefore needed replacement by those characterizing an open,
service oriented and responsive organization i.e. lean, flat and non-hierarchical.
II. Due to a low pay scale, IBA couldn’t afford high caliber faculty. Investment was needed in the
area of Faculty Development to provide a regular and continuous supply of high caliber and
well qualified faculty.
III. The number and quality of faculty needed up gradation.
 - Nature of the changes

After understanding the different changes that have been taking place at IBA, it is essential to
understand the nature of the changes. The following paragraphs classify the change IBA is
undergoing using the ‘Generic Typology of Organizational change’ 1 as an adaptive, innovative
or radically innovative change.

Technological advancements: IBA's IT infrastructure, as mentioned earlier, was a serious

deadlock in terms of efficiency and effectiveness. Therefore large pools of financial resources
have been diverted into this particular area. Along with the intensive improvement that IBA has
seen in terms of networking, hardware and software, one noticeable change is the installation
of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. Furthermore it has also signed a contract with
SAP to make the IT infrastructure more competent. Therefore in light of the developments and
future plans one can categorize this particular change as an ‘Innovative Change’ in the Global
Context, however, perhaps a ‘radically innovative change’ from the local perspective.

Infrastructure Up gradation: The improvements of infrastructure and revision of academics are

changes not new to the industry and hence can be classified as ‘Adaptive Changes.’ Also the
cost associated with them is high; yet the process is not that complex.

Faculty Development: IBA understands the crucial importance that faculty plays in developing a
competitive advantage in the industry. It is therefore developing a plan where they can not only
attract good local personnel but also some competent foreign faculty members as well. A
different idea that IBA has planned to introduce is to bring in the concept of virtual classes and
the concept of conducting lectures via videoconferencing. Therefore this change is more of an
‘Innovative Change’ as it may make certain temporary faculty members feel insecure, and the
level of organizational inertia might increase as well.

Decentralized Structure: IBA, as it can be deduced, is trying to shift from a bureaucratic and
centralized structure to a more decentralized one. This kind of change can be termed as an

1
Organizational Behavior By Kreitner & Kinicki, 8th edition, Chapter 13, Managing Change & Stress
‘Adaptive’ cum ‘Innovative’ change as it is not entirely new to the industry; however it also
involves complex tasks and sufficient resistance.

Therefore we can conclude that IBA is undergoing a ‘Development change’ because of the
adaptive changes that are being implemented so as to improve certain functions of the
organization. It is also undergoing a ‘Transitional Change’ because its aim is not just to improve
its current over all infrastructures but it is also looking forward to achieving a new state that
will incorporate both the improved old structure with the new structure. This is being achieved
by the ‘Innovative changes’ that IBA is implementing. However we wouldn’t say that IBA is
undergoing a ‘Transformational change’ since there are very few radically innovative changes
that IBA is implementing. Nevertheless in order to achieve its goal of becoming a world class
business school IBA will have to undergo a ‘Transformational change’ by executing more
radically innovative changes.
 - Stages of Change - Lewin’s Change Model

applied to IBA

In this section, we apply Kurt Lewin’s model of organizational change to IBA.

Stage 1: Unfreezing and Benchmarking

The unfreezing stage is about getting ready to change to a point of understanding that change is
necessary and getting ready to move away from our current comfort zone. Unfreezing and
getting motivated for the change is all about weighing up the 'pro's' and 'con's' and deciding if
the 'pro's' outnumber the 'con's' before you take any action. This is the basis of what Kurt Lewin
called the Force Field Analysis.2 According to Dr. Ishrat Hussain, it was indeed a colossal
challenge to motivate people to change and they are still in the process of changing people’s
minds and attitudes. The reason being the drastic nature of the changes that were introduced
(hiring new faculty members, empowering students through the add/drop week etc). He
overcame this obstacle by as he termed it "walking the talk". He stressed that it is a leader's
role to create a comfort zone for the people who are working under him, by developing a
mutual trust; which can only be developed when one is able to do what they say. The
benchmarks he has set for IBA include The National University of Singapore, Honk Kong
University of Science & Technology, The Indian School of Business Hyderabad, and Tsinghai
University of Beijing.

Driving Forces of ‘Changing IBA’:

 Will be able to live up to its name and reputation

Forces Resisting the Changes at IBA:

 Lack of funds.
 Some changes would harm the interest of certain parties that had been associated with
IBA for quite a long period of time

2
http://www.change-management-coach.com/kurt_lewin.html
Stage 2: Change - or Transition

This second stage occurs as we make the changes that are needed. People are 'unfrozen' and
moving towards a new way of being. That said this stage is often the hardest as people are
unsure or even fearful and are learning about the changes and need to be given time to
understand and work with them.3 IBA is currently in this stage. The greatest resistance the
institute faces is in the area of faculty development as the director emphasizes on employment
of full time dedicated professionals and research oriented staff, encouraging them through pay
for performance.

Stage 3: Freezing (or Refreezing)

As the name suggests this stage is about establishing stability once the changes have been
made. The changes are accepted and become the new norm. However, in today’s world of
change, the next new change could happen in weeks or less. The Director of IBA is of a similar
opinion and thinks there is just no time to settle into comfortable routines and so they have a
monitoring mechanism and they meet every quarter to look at their strategy and keep on
changing it according to the circumstances.

3
http://www.change-management-coach.com/kurt_lewin.html
 - Leading the ‘Change’ at IBA
Interview of Dr. Ishrat Hussain, Dean & Director, IBA

In view of the topic that had to be analyzed, the interview was taken in a very systematic way.
The dean gave a favorable response when asked of the impression that he got on coming to
IBA. He showed deep appreciation of the solid 55 years of IBA’s legacy. This is also what he
believes to be one of the visible differentiating factors that set IBA apart from the other
business schools in Pakistan. However despite the strong edifice of excellence that IBA had; he
also highlighted that one still could not remain static in terms of change. Therefore the role of a
leader is to bring about this positive change, so that the current legacy can be taken forward to
a higher level.

He believed that high standards of entry, dearth of nepotism and corruption, absence of any
political influence and its merit based system make IBA one of the best business schools of
Pakistan. He also mentioned the vision of seeing IBA among the top 100 business schools of the
world and therefore believed that for its successful implementation, it was highly crucial to
have a back up strategy that could support this vision. Implementation and monitoring
mechanism in his view are of pivotal importance in bringing about a substantial change.

During the "unfreezing stage" he believed that it was indeed a colossal challenge to motivate
people to change. The reason being the drastic nature of the changes that were introduced in
IBA (such as hiring new faculty members, empowering students through the add and drop
week, etc). He overcame this obstacle by as he termed it "walking the talk". He stressed, that it
is a leader's role to create a comfort zone for the people who are working under him by
developing mutual trust; which can only be developed when one is able to do what they say.
Therefore he tried to bridge the gap of IBA's espoused values with its enacted values, so as to
generate an environment of trust and cooperation.

According to him some of the positive changes that IBA has seen are firstly the empowerment
of students. Giving students the control was the first step to change; the reason being that
students were eventually allowed to come up with their own events, organize them, plan and
raise funds and along with that, take up accountability for anything that went wrong. This
naturally brought in new perspective for students to act upon. Training faculty members,
bringing in new ones, and setting high standards in terms of their qualification was the second
step to bring about the much needed change. He agreed that the current situation of Pakistan
(in terms of terrorism) was impeding the change process; but he also held a strong belief that
when there is a will there is surely a way. Therefore IBA is now trying to dematerialize this
barrier by tapping on its e-learning along with videoconferencing facilities. However developing
a good faculty is the main obstacle which IBA is trying to tackle dexterously.

He concluded by saying that the correct recipe for success was a right mixture of
"vision", "direction", "execution" and "direction".
- Resistance By, and Reaction of, those Affected

By The Change

Faculty

The management of IBA is highly concerned about attracting, training, retaining and
motivating a highly qualified faculty. In this regard a multi-pronged approach is being
pursued and a Faculty Development Plan for regular teachers has been put forward which
includes measure such as the introduction of a Tenure Track System on the lines of HEC
approved scheme and revision of the compensation structure. However, the management
faces cut throat resistance from the present faculty members as it forces them to apply for
competitive research grants, develop case studies, proceed to top universities for
postdoctoral programs, and engage in consultancy and advisory services to the industry;
alongside, a pay for performance system has been introduced.

A representative sample of faculty members was surveyed and their views on the changes
in IBA are as follows;

a. 83% of the faculty members are of the opinion that IBA needed change in its
infrastructure, administration, faculty, and curriculum. A few think change was
needed only in the infrastructure and the administration – faculty and curriculum
were up to the mark.
b. 67% are of the opinion that IBA’s vision of being ranked among the top 100
business schools of the world in five years time is far fetched in terms of the time
period allotted. 33% however think, the institute is capable of reaching the position
aimed.
c. Where 50% are positive that IBA will be ranked among the top 100 universities of
the world, an equal 50% are doubtful it will be so.
d. All the faculty members considered the previous management to be bureaucratic,
authoritative and conservative in nature, less daring towards change, and lacking
ability to take initiatives and risks. It was considered to have a close door policy to
creativity and innovation.
e. Though all the faculty members disapprove of the previous management, only 50%
approve of the present management completely. Where some think there is still
room for improvement, others just approve of the structural developments being
under taken by the present management and highly disapprove of the changes is
‘other’ aspects.
f. The present management was criticized of not giving recognition to those faculty
members who are providing ‘quality’ teaching, rather, pressurizing them to ‘Do
More’; not taking the input and opinion of faculty members when making plans and
taking decisions which concern them; and, creating an environment of distrust,
competition and jealousy rather than one of trust and mutual respect.
g. Only 10% of the faculty members think IBA pays low. However, some think that
though the pay is handsome in nature, it is not in line with the quality of teaching
but in line with the degree of the teacher which should not be the case.
h. All the faculty members surveyed have been assigned as mentors, all concur that
though the strategy is well aimed, its execution has failed. Some contacted the
students but did not get a good response. Others thought the students should have
contacted them and hence haven’t seen the assigned mentees yet. One faculty
member suggested that she mentors a couple of students but it is of an informal
nature as these students have developed a comfort level with her while she taught
them a course; in her opinion, students should be allowed to choose their mentors
rather than tying unknown people together.
i. 70% are of the opinion that the change is being managed well and they approve of
the initiatives. One faculty member approved of the installation of ERP and said it
was an initiative in line with IBA’s vision and that it is highly courageous of IBA to
take such a step. A fraction , however, think that the director and co-ordinators
 should not act like bosses but work together with the faculty as a team; ‘good’
faculty should be encouraged and bureaucracy should be removed in its true
essence and not merely in words, considering IBA is a non-profitable academic
institution.

Administration Staff

The faculty survey was followed by short interviews of the people who actually run IBA by
managing its day to day affairs i.e. the administration and MIS department.

Day Program Office

According to the administration staff, one of the reasons of the stagnancy of IBA was the
lack of interest and carefree attitude of the top management. They feel that the capital
resources had always been available; it was leadership and vision that was missing and
with the new management now, they foresee a new IBA.

Transitions are always hard and the Day Program Office is experiencing it more than any
other department of IBA. The main problem they face is the additional workload of
‘managing the change’ by looking into the day to day issues of an under construction
academic block. Alongside, the changes in the chain of command have only added to their
frustration.

The issues they face include the following.

 Requirements of faculty, students and administration have been increased due to the
automation of many working procedures and strict application of rules and regulations.
 The same task has to be recorded thrice. First manually. Then using the new ERP. And
finally on the current intranet – CMS.
 Additional hierarchies have been created such as the DPO Director and the Associate Dean
overlooking the affairs of each campus. These have made it difficult for the students to
 solve their problems in a one step process and have minimized the role of the once
‘empowered’ Day Program Office.
 Previously if a student had to discuss an issue or wanted consideration of the
administration (for e.g. an extra absence), the Day Program Office had to take approval of
the Administrator and Controller Examination only before taking the decision.

Day Program
Administrator
Office

Now, however, the student has to write an application to the DPO in-charge first, who then
passes it to the DPO Director or the concerned Director of the board/program and also
asks for the approval of the associate Dean(s). They are then responsible for taking the
Dean and Director’s approval!
 Day
Associate
Program
Dean
Office

Concerned
Dean & Director
Director for e.g Director
DPO

Associate
Dean

Change cannot be brought overnight, it is only through relentless efforts and patience,
commitment, consistent hard work and clear goals that changes can be realized. The Day
Program Office hopes that the journey of transformation on which IBA has embarked will
bring success to the institution in the long run.

MIS Department

The MIS department highly approves of the changes taking place. In summers the new ERP
system will replace the current CMS. This will reduce the work load of the department by
more than 50%. Reporting is the main job of the MIS staff and by introducing ERP it will be
much easier. The new system will be accessible at home and all the faculty members,
managerial staff and students will be able to add/change and see their information easily.

In their opinion, IBA is managing the change pretty well and they suggested providing wage
incentives to the people who work in this department MIS department as well to other
departments such as DPO.

The department faces issues similar to those of the DPO i.e. workload and seeking for
approval from various authorities for meager issues such as the installation of a lock on the
door of the IBA MIS room to ensure safety of the equipment. Other problems they face
include lack of interdepartmental coordination and lack of communication. According to
the staff, the managerial staff other than the MIS department doesn’t follow or check
emails; therefore, it is very difficult to get a task done on time. They are of the opinion that
old methods of doing work i.e. reliance on manual work, should be quit completely if
efficiency of the new system has to be availed.

Students

Facebook was used as the medium to find out the opinions of students about the changes
taking place and the results are encouraging indeed.

Changes in infrastructure

The students highly appreciate the initiative of Dr. Ishrat Hussain and others to change the
physical infrastructure of IBA and considered it an essential change as IBA plans to
become a leading university. The proposed models are considered highly impressive.
However, it is believed that efforts should be made to complete projects on time as
concern was expressed over the shifting of the completion deadline of the Main Campus’
academic block from April of this year to August now. Females expressed their unease
over the presence of too many workers around and wish the process sped up.

One flaw identified in the infrastructural changes was that it is not environment friendly
and that it is unbearably suffocating during load shedding. Continuous air conditioning is
required and natural ventilation is non existent as opposed to the old classes where they
didn't even realize when the lights and fans went off. Also, concern was expressed over
the absence of emergency exits in class room and the stampede that could result in
situations of emergency considering there is only one door and that too opens inwards.

A suggestion put forth to manage the infrastructure change properly was to put up signs
of alternative routes so that students do not end up slipping in wet cement or get hurt
from the rod’s jutting out everywhere.

The new IT infrastructure was specifically appreciated and a suggestion put forth by the
students was to hire quality personnel to manage the lab and to continuously make
efforts to ensure the health of the PCs.

In all, though troubles caused by the mass scale changes were recognized, the long term
benefits that will be reaped were also realized.

Changes in Curriculum

Changes in the curriculum are welcome; however it is believed that the absence of
qualified teachers will nullify the effect of the change as students tend to lose interest in
the courses if a teacher doesn't teach well. Students wish to see a BBA program that
matches the international standard and look forward to the introduction of new courses
and revision of existing ones. Standardization of curriculum followed by all teachers
teaching a course was also appreciated along with the reduction in the weightage of the
mid term exam while some expressed their concern over the use of outdated books.

Student Societies

The autonomy extended to students’ societies is a welcome development as it is

considered to increase accountability and hence activity of the societies giving them equal
attention. However it is believed that societies have less time to plan their events as
elections stretch all the way to October and events expected to take place in spring break
especially cannot be executed well as the strenuous tasks of writing proposals and getting
approval of budgets has to be done in a period of two months only. It is difficult for
societies to organize events of national or international level which is evident form the
fact that no society was able to organize event which had students participants from
outside Karachi.
One suggestion put forth to further improve the workings of the societies included a more
rigorous selection basis for the positions of office bearers by inviting applications for the
open positions and then interviewing the candidates to check for their analytical and soft
skills. The interviews and other selection tolls should enable selectors to short list 2-3
candidates for each post. The election could then decide the winner. This method will not
allow a person to be an office bearer just because of his/her political power.

Concern was expressed over the quality of official events like the beach trip and farewell
due to fund restrictions in the wake of strict allocations and over the fact that events were
not timely planned and were too clustered in the past two months which reduced the
participation of people.
Mentoring Process

Surprisingly, a few students did not know about the existence and working of this process.
Those who knew were not comfortable with it though they consider it to be well-aimed.

Coordination problems were considered to be the main reason behind the ineffectiveness
of this initiative.

Add and Drop week

Yet another highly appreciated initiative, not executed properly. Students expressed their
delight over being able to choose the teachers they want to study with and think it
enhances the learning process. The issues identified which undermine the effectiveness of
this initiative include the incapable infrastructure to support the system and the fact that
students rely on the perception biased advice of seniors to choose the teachers rather
than attending classes during the week.

Suggestions put forth included the installation of stronger servers which don’t crash when
more than thousand students are registering courses at the same time along with
compulsory attendance to avoid it from becoming a warm up week.
IBA’s vision to be included in the top ten universities of the world in five years time

The students have more faith in IBA’s vision than the faculty members. They think the
position aimed is definitely justified and IBA has the potential to be in the top 100
institutes of the world. Five years however was considered a pretty short time period.

Change Management

The commitment of the Dean and Registrar to the cause was appreciated. One student
specifically mentioned how the previous management would go clueless if even a small
issue arose in the regular running procedures. Considering the pace at which things are
going, most students think positively about the way IBA is managing change. However, the
lapses in the course registration process were considered as evidence by some of poor
change management strategies.

The setting up of a department, to listen to people's problems in adjusting to the change,

and solving them as soon as possible, was suggested.
 Appendix

i. Transcript of Interview of Dr. Ishrat Hussain

ii. Questionnaire for Faculty

iii. Questionnaire for Administration Staff

iv. Questionnaire for Students

 I. Interview of Dr. Ishrat Hussain
Question Set

General:

Q. What was your first impression of IBA and the way it was being run?

Q. What makes IBA different from other business schools?

Q. What is the vision that you have in mind for IBA? What kind of an educational institute do
you want IBA to be in the future?

Unfreezing Stage:

Q. What problems did you face initially? How difficult was it to ask people to come out of their
comfort zone and to motivate them to help you change IBA?

Q. How did you counteract these problems? Did you follow any specific strategies or
techniques?

Q. In the unfreezing stage, we also talk about the force field analysis. What were the driving
forces in IBA’s case?

What were the restraining forces? (How did you overcome them??)

Transition Stage:

This stage is often the hardest as people are unsure or even fearful and are learning about the
changes and need to be given time to understand and work with them.

Q. What are people’s fears?

Q. How do you support them?

Q. At present, major projects have started. What problems are you are still facing? How do you
envision to solve these problems?

It's also really useful to keep communicating a clear picture of the desired change and the
benefits to people so they don't lose sight of where they are heading.

Refreezing Stage:

Establishing stability once the changes have been made. However, in todays world of change
the next new change could happen in weeks or less. There is just no time to settle into
comfortable routines.

Q. So how do you plan to ensure that IBA keeps up with standard business schools of the
world? Will there be any system that ensures change is a continous phenomenon at IBA?

Concluding Question:

Q. In your opinion, what is the biggest threat to IBA or will be in the next 5 years?

Q. What is the key to success for any organization?

 - Transcript
What was your first impression of IBA and the way it was being run?

Dr Ishrat: See I believe that institutions owe a lot to their historical legacy. So the purpose of
the new leader is, to take the institution from where he/she has inherited the legacy, work hard
and take it forward and leave it for others. So I thought it is an institution which has a very solid
record of last 55 yrs and, I got this opportunity to take it till the next level, and that’s why I have
agreed to become the Dean and Director. So, it can not remain business like usual and there
has to be change from the past because the world around is changing and we can not remain
static. And, that was the purpose why we brought a new strategy, a new direction, and I hope
that I will leave it for my successor to take it forward.

What makes IBA different from other business schools?

Dr Ishrat: You guys have maintained high standard of entry in IBA. And, only the best and
brightest people are able to enter. There is no sifaarish (source), there is no political influence,
there is no nepotism. It has a very transparent merit based system. And, the graduates who go
out of IBA are sought after and I have the best testimony about quality of IBA.

What is the vision that you have in mind for IBA? What kind of an educational institute do
you want IBA to be in the future?

Dr Ishrat: My vision is that this is the institution which should be among the top 100 global
business schools and among top 10 regional institutions, but you have to work hard. You just
can not only have the vision. You must have a strategy. And more important those that you
have to have whole lot of change management. And you have the execution of the strategy. A
lot of people have a very good vision but they can not execute it right. If you don’t have a back
up strategy to execute that you shall transmit that vision in to reality, that will just remain an
unfulfilled dream. What we have done is that we have the strategy, the vision plan and a
monitoring mechanism and complete support of our stake holders - the faculty, the alumni, the
students and the staff.

Sir, we’re following Lewin’s model of change management and first of all we have the
unfreezing stage where you have to bring people out of their comfort zone and motivate
them to change. So how hard was it?

Dr Ishrat: It is still very hard. We are still in the process of changing the mind sets and the
attitude. If you are able to demonstrate that you want effective faculty to come in and you
change the standard of entry, that anybody who did MBA became a faculty member. We have
stopped that. Either you have a foreign university degree of good university or experience as
the chief executive, CFO or a professional degree like Chartered Accountant. Then, you can
come in. When we have the best students we must have the best faculty. So eventually , we
have lots of resistance because of people who entered to whine away their time , they go and
get married, particularly the girls. Or they have married life but they are also teaching at IBA; it
has gone. Now we want full time dedicated professionals.
Problems are like when you ask faculty to be stringent in selection of teachers. You have to sit
down and see the presentation of the candidate, evaluate them, show your research - that is a
lot of work. Teaching is just not sufficient. You have to do research; we say you have to mentor
the students. You have to have office hours. So that students can go and see you. Talk about
their problems. Also, we have a very hard culture of discipline on the students, because I am
empowering the students to take their own decisions, to engage in their own curricular and
extra curricular activities. There are now many penalties which are being imposed. Giving them
positive responsibilities to be good students. Some of the ideas are not liked by old faculty
members because they think students should be treated as they were treated before. Which is
not the sign of good leader, your student should know how to make decisions. To make mistake
and help them to learn from their mistakes. You are not guided by your parents. You are not
guided by your teachers. You should have the capacity to take the decisions for yourself. And, in
the world when you go out. You are not going to run to your MAMA and PAPA.

You make the decision, you run the society, you manage, you raise the funds and you are
accountable for the societies. And, if you did anything wrong then you will be caught. That’s the
whole chain of responsibility. And your students will catch you. You being seen and reported by
your peers. I don’t nominate them, you elect them yourself.

What about the change in the management system it’s not any more a bureaucratic
organization?

Dr Ishrat: Not anymore. We have brought people from the corporate sector and we have the
service unit concept so we have maintenance, we have career development centre, we have
security, we have alumni and they are empowered to take decisions so you have a problem you
can go to them. Program office used to be controlled by the Program officers. Now we have
Program Directors who are the faculty members because they know how to deal with the
students, not the bureaucratic people.

Considering the current situation Pakistan is facing in terms of terrorism, a lot of people are
reluctant to come back to Pakistan from abroad. So what are you doing to counter attack this
problem?

Dr Ishrat: We are setting up the latest video conferencing facility, e-learning facility so that we
can tap those resources that cannot physically come to Pakistan.

At present, major projects have started. What problems are you are still facing? How do you
envision solving these problems?

Dr Ishrat: Oh we have plenty of problems one of the major problems is that I don’t have many
faculties in PhD in various fields. We have given advertisements but we haven’t got many
responses. So that is the number one challenge.

How is the installation of ERP system going?

Dr Ishrat: It is going very well. I just came back from the meeting. We have the record of being
the fastest implementing university of ERP. By summer Inshallah we’ll have the ERP running at
IBA.

I had a talk with an ex faculty member of IBA and he told me that IBA pays lesser as
compared to the other business schools.

Dr Ishrat: That is not true! When did he teach, what year?

Last couple of years.

Dr Ishrat: And they are not teaching now? Maybe they’ve failed the evaluation system so if you
are not good enough then you cannot teach here.

We are still unaware of student evaluation because students don’t know what they should do
and they are not forced by the faculty.

Dr Ishrat: We are coming up with a new student evaluation system, the questions which are
being asked some of them do not make any sense; we are shortening it and it’ll be compulsory
for everyone to do it. I am going to write about it to every student.

The no. of questions is too much and most of them are redundant that decreases the interest
of the students even I myself do not evaluate seriously. I give 5 to my favorite teachers and 1
to those whom I don’t find fit for teaching.

Dr Ishrat: That means you are not honest with yourself. You are cheating. You must be
responsible for what you are. This is not a responsible attitude. You have to be completely
honest with IBA’s evaluation system.

Globalization is happening and a lot of student exchange programs are going on. People went
to foreign universities for a year or a semester and then they come back. So what are you
doing for it?

Dr Ishrat: We are talking to many universities but the problem is that our image of Pakistan is
very negative. So even the Chinese Universities’ students, they don’t want to come to Pakistan.

What about us going there?

Dr Ishrat: Exchange means that there is a two way process, that is the whole problem, we are
trying to send you but the international fee is US $ 10000/- which nobody can afford easily.
Mashallah we’ve collected 20 Billion so we can have some for the student exchange program.

In today’s world of change the next new change could happen in weeks or less. There is just
no time to settle into comfortable routines. So how do you plan to ensure that IBA keeps up
with standard business schools of the world? Will there be any system that ensures change is
a continuous phenomenon at IBA?
Dr Ishrat: We have a monitoring mechanism we meet every quarter to look at our strategy,
how the strategy is going and we keep on changing the strategy according to the circumstances.

Are there any universities that you’ve set as your benchmarks?

Dr Ishrat: Our benchmarks are The National University of Singapore, Honk Kong university of
Science & Technology, The Indian School of Business Hyderabad, Tsinghua university of Beijing;
these are our benchmarks.

In your opinion, what is the biggest threat to IBA or will be in the next 5 years?

Dr Ishrat: If we do not get knowledge from the rest of the world to inform our students, then
we’ll be left behind. That is our biggest threat and we have to keep abreast with the rest of the
world. I go to Hyderabad, I meet Indian Business School graduates who are hired by
multinational corporations and they are paid as much as a Harvard Business School graduates;
and I see IBA and I say what are we doing. We have to bring our institution to that level where
international employers come in and hire the IBA graduates. This is our biggest shortcoming.

What is the key to success for any organization?

Dr Ishrat: The key to success is that you have clarity in vision, clear direction and execution
capability which can translate that vision into action. If you have all these three things you’ll be
successful but if you have clarity in vision and clear direction but you are poor at execution then
you’ll never succeed. Some people have fuzzy vision and they don’t know whether they are
going to South or North but they may have good execution capability that also doesn’t work.

What if you don’t have support even if you have a good vision?

Dr Ishrat: You have to cultivate it that’s where the job a leader comes in. you need to have
leadership skills to influence others by your ideas. You’ll be a loner nobody will follow you. The
leader has to lead by example. “Walk the talk” If you do things quite differently then what you
are preaching then people will not take you seriously so you’ve to be the role model, you have
to be totally induced with integrity, commitment, dedication; you maybe a very smart person
but if you are doing something which is ethically wrong then you cannot expect people to
follow you.

Thank you Sir

Dr Ishrat: Good Luck!

 II. Questionnaire for Faculty
1. In which of the following areas did IBA need change in your opinion?

a. Infrastructure

b. Administration

c. Faculty Management

d. Curriculum

2. IBA aims to be ranked among the top 100 universities in the world and top ten in the region in
five year’s time. At present it is among the top 500. Is this vision far-fetched in your opinion in
terms of the

a. Postion aimed  Yes  No

b. Time period  Yes No

3. IBA is restructuring its internal management processes and governance.

What flaws did you see in the previous management?

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

How far do you approve of the present management?

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

Are there any other changes you would recommend?

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________
4. One of the reasons why IBA could not attract good faculty is low pay scale. What is your take on
this?

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

5. Have you been assigned as a mentor to any student?

 Yes No

If yes, how successful is this strategy in your opinion?

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

6. In your opinion is IBA managing the ‘change’ well?

 Yes No

7. Any other comments, suggestions, opinions

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________
 III. Questionnaire for Administration Staff

IBA is currently going through a series of changes.

1. Do you approve of the changes taking place?

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

2. What problems are you facing?

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

3. Who do you think is responsible for them?

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

4. In your opinion, is IBA managing the ‘change’ well?

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

5. Any other comments, suggestions, opinions

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________
 IV. Questionnaire for Students

1. How do you view the following changes taking place at IBA?

a. Changes in infrastructure.

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

b. Changes in Curriculum

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

c. Birth of Student Societies and Abolition of a single political body

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

d. Add and Drop week

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

2. IBA aims to be ranked among the top 100 universities in the world and top ten in the region in
five year’s time. At present it is among the top 500. Is this vision far-fetched in your opinion in
terms of the

a. Postion aimed  Yes  No

b. Time period  Yes No

3. How successful is the mentoring process in your opinion?

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

4. Is IBA managing the ‘change’ well?

___________________________________________________________________________
 ___________________________________________________________________________

References

i. STRATEGIC DIRECTION FOR IBA : 2008/09 – 2013/14

ii. IMPLEMENTATION OF IBA STRATEGY – 1st Annual Status Report

iii. Organizational Behavior By Kreitner & Kinicki, 8th edition, Chapter 13, Managing Change
& Stress

iv. ‘IBA aims to be ranked among top 10 in the region ‘- The Nation, April 01, 2009

v. http://www.karis.biz/storage/crew_cv/types%20of%20change.pdf

vi. http://www.change-management-coach.com/kurt_lewin.html

vii. http://www.qualitytrainingportal.com/resources/problem_solving/problem-
solving_tools-force_field.htm
viii. http://www.change-management-coach.com/kurt_lewin.html
 Individual Contributions Page

Aazar Ali Noor Ali

 Introduction of the report – Series of Changes
 Participated in taking the Interview of Dr. Ishrat Hussain
 Conducted survey of the faculty (Got questionnaires filled)
 Conducted survey of the students (Got questionnaires filled)
 Transcribed half of the interview of Dr. Ishrat Hussain
 Attended Town Hall Meeting held at APWA Auditorium

Bareerah Hoorani
 Nature of the Changes
 Participated in taking the Interview of Dr. Ishrat Hussain
 Contributed questions for the Interview of Dr. Ishrat Hussain
 Wrote an overview of the interview

Fouzia Arif
 Lewin’s Model of Change
 Participated in taking the Interview of Dr. Ishrat Hussain
 Prepared and structured the question set of Dr. Ishrat Hussain’s Interview
 Formulated the questionnaire for the teachers and analysed the subsequent primary
data collected
 Formulated the questionnaire for the administration staff
 Formulated the questionnaire for students, conducted the survey and analysed the
subsequent data collected
 Editing and compilation of the report

Osama Ahmed
 Forces of change
 Participated in taking the Interview of Dr. Ishrat Hussain
 Contributed questions for the interview of Dr. Ishrat Hussain
 Conducted survey of the administration staff and analysed the subsequent data
collected
 Transcribed half of the interview of Dr. Ishrat Hussain