Dr. Lathangi R is HOI and Asst. Dean and is teaching HR, OB, and Soft Skills at Amity Global Business School. She has a total work experience of 20+ yrs in teaching, 6+ yrs in Corporate, and 2+ yrs as a freelancer. Her areas of interest in teaching are GHRM, Compensation and Reward Management, Organisation, and Change Development, Organisation Behaviour. I have a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) HR from Pacific University, Udaipur. She has authored a book "Soft Skills for Managers"; 65+ Research Papers published in various National and International Journals: and attended 70+ National and International conferences. She is in an External Examiner (Ph.D.) program for a prestigious University. 

Amity Global Business School, Bangalore

You have held key positions at education institutes throughout your professional career. What are the key factors that keep you connected with the education sector?

"Transfer of knowledge and the mentoring of students"

So the young minds that we always have on an everyday basis, I get to meet and then interact with them and listen to them. The transfer of knowledge and the mentoring of students are some things that you can never get anywhere else. So, it's only in the knowledge area that I have been working. So, this is the best part of it, where you can have an integration of all of these, so that the students are nurtured better.

What is the latest program that you are offering in your institute or dept? Which will help students outperform and stand apart from the crowd?

"We have taken care of all the practical approaches that we need to give through case studies"

We have three courses. One is a BBA, a Bachelor of Business Administration, and an MBA. And there is another course that we're offering now as a Kotler business school. So through the Kotler program, we give them MBA in sales and distribution. So it's mostly the marketing area we give them. The MBA is a dual specialization and BBA is a single specialization. So these things are apt and it is at par with the industry standards. So we have taken care of all the practical approaches that we need to give through case studies and all that.

Any insights into how your university could be more welcoming to students of different races or economic backgrounds?

"All the faculty and the culture of the organization itself is such that we are open to such kind of approach"

As it is, AMITY University is known for its integration in terms of cross-cultural and people from across the globe or across India itself, because we have branches across the globe. Pan, India, we have almost ten AGBS campuses. And Amity University itself is across all over. We have Lucknow, in Uttar Pradesh then we have a similar one in Jaipur Mumbai, which is the latest. Hyderabad is going to come in now. And Chandigarh, we are going to have one more university. And abroad, we have several universities. We live in London, Singapore. Mauritius. We have Tashkent. America. We have two in the UK. These are some of them. So you can understand that's the kind of culture that we already have and so to bring in more of it, I think yes, we are all open to it. So all the faculty and the culture of the organization itself is such that we are open to such kind of approach. 

What do you think your roles and responsibilities to the University and the students are?

"Responsibility towards students is the first thing that gives them that kind of confidence to actually get into the market and then be on their own"

Responsibility towards students is the first thing that gives them that kind of confidence to actually get into the market and then be on their own. So as MBA and BBA grads they should be independent of their own choices, whatever they make, maybe in terms of jobs or maybe in terms of entrepreneurship. So if they are going to take any kind of discussion, they should be free to take anything and confident in handling situations. So that's the first thing that we will look at as a good individual and a good citizen of India. I think that's more important as educators that we are all in. So imbibing those qualities in the students is what we call behavioral science. We have something called behavioral science and through that, we give them the models, and very subtly it's very nicely told during their course, complete course every semester they have the subject. It's given a different name. Maybe it's called Creative Thinking or Analytical skill building or it can be problem-solving or anything but the model is that they are imbibing the good qualities in them as individuals.

What is your philosophy of leadership? How would you describe your leadership style?

"Be open to criticism and learning"

To make our Institute a Centre of Excellence in Higher Education by providing value-based holistic education, inculcating leadership qualities, encouraging research, innovation, and nurturing talent. Is style a leader? I think the first thing is you need to be open to criticism and maybe learning because learning is something that is not going to stop at any phase of your life. So you need to keep open and then keep learning new things. So what you say is good, sometimes it's very good, sometimes it is not so acceptable so it's okay. But then that's how you need to keep changing. It's a very dynamic situation that we are all existing in so we need to keep changing and molding ourselves accordingly. So I think taking people along wherever you are and then once you get the skills, I think those skills will never go away. So you will always have it with you and whatever may be the situation you will still progress.

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What are the interventions and approaches you bring in apart from the curriculum to train or teach the students?

"The curriculum is one part of it wherein you have a scientifically designed curriculum with knowledge sharing happening across the campuses"

So we have a team who's sitting and doing all that and sorting it out. Then filtrations are done and then we get the feedback and then see everything else that is happening in the other universities across and then we take a call. So now, apart from this, we also give other training programs to students who may be industry ready. We get industry followers to give guest lectures, guest sessions, and training programs in terms of advanced excel or artificial intelligence wherever we get from the industry. So these are some things which we give them. Apart from the syllables, that. The internship is one thing. 

What are the best practices offered by the department to the students which help them gain the necessary skills?

"We are trying to give them the scope so that they understand and then tomorrow they are more comfortable with it"

An Industry exposure, Internship, Live Projects, and incubation center. We have an internship so the students are given the proper grilling. We give them more so from the industry perspective and also from the report-making perspective because you might be very good at the industry perspective. You speak and you communicate and you're very good at it and all. But then the report part of it also forms a very strong backbone for an internship. Because tomorrow, if he goes into the industry and if he's asked to make a report, a sales report, for example, and then if he's not knowing what are the things, elements that should be coming into the sales report, it's of no use. So this is where we are trying to give them the scope so that they understand and then tomorrow they are more comfortable, they know what to do and they'll be able to handle any kind of report tomorrow. 

With the competition so high, how do you guide your students to survive in such a competitive scenario?

"Competition has taught us how to look at things in a very different way"

One is they should believe in themselves. Every individual has some strengths and weaknesses. If the weakness can be converted into opportunities, so what will happen is they are ready. They're ready to face any kind of challenges tomorrow. It can be a work challenge or personal challenge, or any health-related challenge because, during the pandemic, I think it has taught us how to look at things in a very different way. 

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Any suggestions you would like to give to the current youth and the aspiring students?

"Have more patience and endurance"

I think they need more patience and endurance because patience is something that you cannot teach. So I hope they understand that with patience and endurance, even staying in a company because we give them jobs. But then sustaining those jobs is not an easy task. So it is for them to understand that they need to have a proper picture of where they are and what they're supposed to be doing and focus on those areas instead of not having patience. And then small things can disturb them. So if that is the kind of emotional intelligence that they have, then it's going to be difficult. That's why we give them that emotional intelligence. We try telling them, but how far they're going to have that in their future is what. So I wish them all the best for having a successful career with a lot of emotional intelligence and patience.