The Hindu : National : Prof. Ramachander passes away

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Prof. Ramachander passes away

Special Correspondent

S. Ramachander

CHENNAI: S. Ramachander, former Director of the Institute for Financial Management and Research, passed away here on Saturday after a brief illness. He was 63.

A theatre personality and prolific writer, Prof. Ramachander, who entered academic field after a long corporate career, was an editorial consultant to The Hindu Business Line practically from the newspaper’s launch 14 years ago.

An alumnus of the first batch of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, along with the internationally renowned strategy consultant C.K. Prahalad, and later of Harvard Business School, Prof. Ramachander played a key role in organising the CEO’s forum, along with Mr V. Narayanan, (former Chairman of Pond’s) which the Academy of Management Excellence, an IFMR offshoot, ran successfully for over ten years.

He was instrumental in bringing the British Open university distance learning MBA programme to India, which again was conducted by the IFMR, an ICICI-funded institution. Under his leadership, the IFMR started the post graduate diploma programme in the year 2000, which is now commencing its ninth batch. He played a key role in initially shaping this programme.

A prolific writer, Prof. Ramachander wrote extensively on corporate strategy and branding for Business Line and authored three books, Ascending the Value Spiral, Creativity@Work and Manager@Work. He was an active member of theatre group, The Madras Players, in the Sixties and Seventies, recalled theatre personality P.C. Ramakrishna. He was a superb character actor who could lend “personality and credibility” to the mature characters that the plays demanded. Both of them debuted their stage career with Arthur Miller’s play, ‘The Crucible’ in 1969, recalled Mr. Ramakrishna. Prof. Ramachander was deeply influenced by Jiddu Krishnamurti’s teachings and wrote extensively on his philosophy.

Prof. Ramachander was also a strategy consultant for TVS Motor Co. Expressing grief over Prof. Ramachander’s demise, Venu Srinivasan, Chairman and Managing Director of TVS Motor, said that he admired the professor for his keen mind. “He had very good strategic insights into organisational issues and his ideas and suggestions would have a strategic fit with organisations,” he said, noting that TVS Motor had worked with the professor over “many, many issues, ranging from spare parts sales, manufacturing and dealerships. Above all, he was a great humanist with great human values.”

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