About the Book
A director with the Midas touch. A Padma Shri awardee.
An eminent board member. A legendary Guru.
A man who strode like a colossus across the landscape of management education in India for the last 45 years.
Pritam Singh: The Alchemist Guru is a celebration and remembrance of a pioneer in management education who has mentored numerous people in the academia and corporate sector and contributed in making them the leaders of today. The book highlights Dr Singh’s complex, multifaceted talents and capabilities by analyzing writeups and face-to-face interviews of many high-profile industry leaders and academicians such as Anil Khandelwal, Vinod Rai, N. Gopalaswami, Manoj Kohli. Dr Singh’s wisdom and unparalleled skill of effortlessly switching leadership styles depending upon the need of the situation and the role he was expected to play is commemorated here.
This is a tribute to Dr Singh’s incredible odyssey.
Table of Contents:
Foreword by Kumar Mangalam Birla
Preface
Acknowledgements
Leadership, Transformation and Institution Building in Higher Education
The Quintessential Change Maestro
A Commemoration and Remembrance
A Holistic Portrait
Appendices
References
About the Author :
Asha Bhandarker is well known in the field of HR and Leadership Studies in India as a scholar, consultant and researcher. Prior to her current assignment as a Distinguished Professor OB at IMI-Delhi, she was the Raman Munjal Chair Professor of Leadership Studies as well as Dean Research and Consulting at MDI-Gurgaon.
She has published 7 books and 40 research papers and cases in peer-reviewed, national and international journals. She was awarded the highly coveted Senior Fulbright Fellowship for research in the United States, where she studied the best business schools and their practices and pedagogies. In addition, she has, over the years, received the Best Paper award, Best Case award and the Best Teacher award.
Over the last 28 years, she has worked closely with the corporate sector in the areas of training, organization development and capability building. She is one of a handful of professors working with board levels and top management teams of many organizations. She is a recognized HR expert and has been invited on many boardlevel HR committees. Dr Bhandarker is actively associated with professional bodies and has addressed participants of national and international conferences. She has widely travelled across the USA, Europe and Asia and has rich experience of teaching and consulting in India and abroad.
Subrat Kumar is the CEO of People Labs, now a leading name in Experiential Learning interventions for corporate and higher educational institutes alike. An MBA from Management Development Institute (MDI) Gurgaon and a FPM fellow from IMI New Delhi (thesis submitted), Subrat started People Labs Pvt Ltd in 2010 (then known as Cinque Education). Before that, Subrat worked as Brand and Sales Manager at Asian Paints. In his 11 years of entrepreneurial journey, Subrat has trained more than 25,000 students and corporate professionals. He has delivered learning interventions for companies across private and public sectors including Airtel, ADP, Axis Bank, GSK, Maruti, Trident, Asian Paints, IOCL, NTPC, Canara Bank, Union Bank, PNB, Powergrid to name a few. His academic clients include MDI, XLRI, NMIMS, IIM Kashipur, IIM Trichy, IMT, IMI, BIMTECH, FLAME University, NIRMA University, IIFM to name a few, wherein his interventions range across student capability building, faculty capability building and helping institutions prepare for accreditation and rankings. Subrat has also presented and published internationally. He was the only Indian at the ABSEL 2017 conference (largest conference in the world for experiential learning practice), wherein he presented two papers. His case study titled New Holland Tractors India: Community Management and Employee Relations has been published at Richard Ivey Case Centre. He has also published in SCOPUS indexed journals and contributed a book chapter titled ‘Humanistic Leadership and its impact on Organizational Effectiveness’ in edited book.
Review :
I am delighted to see a book being written about Dr Pritam Singh, a Midas touch leader and an institution builder par excellence. I have known him for many years and found that he was a person who made one feel enthused by his sheer presence. While the legend has moved on, the legacy continues. As a board member, he used to guide us in shaping our own JK Lakshmipat University, Jaipur, and as the chancellor of the university, I found his advice to be enormously sound, pragmatic and highly progressive. In many ways, Dr Singh was ahead of his time. I compliment Professor Asha Bhandarker and Dr Subrat Kumar for documenting the legacy of Dr Pritam Singh in this well-researched book. It is indeed a marvellous effort to describe Dr Pritam Singh—the great leader, an outstanding institution builder and an excellent human being—in such a lucid manner. I highly recommend this book to professionals, leaders, entrepreneurs and academicians and all those who want to make a positive difference wherever they work.
Dr Pritam Singh was among the select few personalities who traversed the multiverse of academia, policymaking and institution building with ease. His accomplishments across institutions are indeed a testimony to his distinctive management thinking and leadership qualities. It is great to see a book documenting his life, leadership and institution building. I am sure it will be a great resource for future leaders to become effective and outstanding in their chosen endeavours.
The book, Pritam Singh: The Alchemist Guru, is a fitting tribute to the leadership and institution building of Dr Pritam Singh. The book comprehensively brings out the strategies and approaches used by him in transforming Indian management schools and provides a road map for budding leaders. I highly recommend this book to all those interested in leadership in organizations, especially in academia.
Dr Pritam Singh is the unparalleled ‘avtar purush’ (the master incarnate) of management education and practice in India. In a slim and concise work of elegance and substance, Dr Asha Bhandarker and Dr Subrat Kumar have captured the philosophy and values of the guru. Pritam Singh: The Alchemist Guru will endure as the protagonist for a long time to come.
Dr Singh has been widely acknowledged as a guru, scholar and institution builder. This book has given insights into these aspects of Dr Pritam Singh’s life. It is a wonderfully rare documentation of the life and contributions of an outstanding leader. I congratulate the authors for bringing out a fine book, well substantiated by the views of a large number of people who had the privilege of working with Dr Singh. It is a must-read for budding leaders, existing leaders and all those interested in the phenomenon of leadership.
Dr Pritam Singh was an institution for leadership and management skills. His work and life have inspired so many successful corporate leaders and transformed organizations. We are fortunate that his thoughts and legacy have been captured in this book, thereby institutionalizing his teachings for many generations to come. A must-read for current and future leaders.
Dr Pritam Singh had been a towering institutional builder. Rarely would you come across a personality who is as comfortable with policymaking as with teaching or researching. No surprise, he had left his indelible imprint on everyone he had met, on every place he dwelt. I am so thankful to Professor Asha Bhandarker and Dr Subrat Kumar, who have so painstakingly yet passionately penned this book. There could never have been a better tribute to a person who was not only a teacher but also a change agent, a master crafter and a policy drafter, all rolled into one. The in-depth analysis of the persona behind Dr Pritam Singh has made it an interesting read. The authors have been able to weave in the anecdotes in a way that people like me, who could not have the opportunity to have a longer association with this great personality, could get a greater glimpse of Dr Pritam Singh. While I must thank the authors for chronicling a management Guru, a rarity, I am sure the readers will not only thoroughly enjoy the book but will also be hugely inspired by this ‘alchemist guru’.
The legendary Dr Pritam Singh has shown that there is no end to contributions if one aims high enough. He has been a constant mentor and guide to us for more than a decade. The book nicely brings out the path he has mapped to building top-class management schools. It also reveals many of the characteristics which have influenced his towering leadership over the last four decades. I unhesitatingly recommend this book to all budding leaders, especially in academia.
This book provides an in-depth understanding of what leads to building great academic institutions. I can also relate to practices in stakeholder management for the common greater good of the organization. A must-read for both academics and corporate leaders who are interested in understanding the Indian management education landscape.
Dr Pritam Singh has not only led and built multiple excellent institutions but has gone on to mentor faculty and leaders who have built institutions themselves. He was that rarest of individuals, a true ‘teacher of teachers’. I have personally benefited from being mentored by leaders who were, in turn, mentored by Dr Pritam Singh. The book, Pritam Singh: The Alchemist Guru, by Bhandarker and Kumar, shows how and why Dr Singh was a guru and how he managed to build excellent institutions. I highly recommend this book to all leaders as well as budding leaders.
This book is a testament to the power of those individuals in our lives who touch us with their integrity and humility. The authors weave together the story of the late Pritam Singh as a thinker, leader and educationalist. Throughout, it is a study in values-based leadership, friendship and inspiration. Above all, it is a study of a man of quiet achievement, a gentle and thoughtful figure who shaped the practice and hearts of so many.
