Experiences with Amma
Professor John M. Thomas
Head, HSBC Center for Global Business Leadership
University at Buffalo
State University of New York
My first opportunity to meet Amma was in 2006 as an invited guest at the darshan held in Toronto, Canada. It was for me a unique experience to see Amma greet her many hundreds of followers and have the opportunity to learn about her philosophy of humanitarianism and the many outstanding institutions of education she has created. In Toronto, I also learned of Amma’s distinction in being given the 4th annual James Parks Morton Interfaith Award of the Interfaith Center in New York. I knew this award had been previously presented to former President Clinton and the Dali Lama.
During this period, I served as Dean of the School of Management of the State University of New York at Buffalo, and we were contemplating a new joint degree venture with the Business School of Amrita Viswa Vidyapeetham. Thanks to the vision and strong support of Amma, this project was realized, and I had a second opportunity to meet Amma when the Memorandum of Understanding for the new program was signed during her visit to Los Angeles in June 2007. During this visit, I was also privileged to have a personal meeting with Amma, together with the Provost of the University at Buffalo, Dr. Satish Tripathi. Having begun my academic career in India many years ago as a member of the MIT faculty who collaborated in establishing the Indian Institute of Management in Calcutta, I have endeavored to keep up with the many economic and social issues facing India’s urban areas in the context of India’s overall growth and development. During our discussion in Los Angeles, I recall being highly impressed with Amma’s understanding of the complex policy issues necessary for solving these problems, in particular her comprehensive knowledge of West Bengal and Calcutta. This, of course, reflected her strong commitment to experience firsthand the plight of the poor in cities like Calcutta.
Without Amma’s vision and leadership, the joint degree in the Management of Information Technology Enabled Services (MITES) between the University at Buffalo and Amrita University could not have been successfully implemented. This unique program which combines the academic excellence of the Amrita School of Business and the University of Buffalo School of Management is designed to provide much needed skills in the management of India’s IT technology sector. In addition, to the principal degree program, the goal of MITES is to conduct applied research that will help us understand what makes IT enabled services organizations effective. In the field of management education, it strikes me that MITES strives to develop leadership skills which, while focused on the business enterprise, in many ways mirror several of the basic values of Mata Amritanandamayi. One of these is, for example, the need to integrate humility in one’s leadership style with a commitment to take action in the service of humanity and society.
It is my hope that the current collaboration between the Amrita School of Business and the University at Buffalo School of Management is only the beginning in a long partnership in global management education. This partnership has enormous potential to expand the intellectual horizons and core values of management students in the U.S. We have a great opportunity, for example, to bring U.S. MBA students together with their counterparts at the Amrita Business School on projects which will utilize their knowledge and skills to help non-profit agencies serving what has been called the “bottom of the pyramid” in India. Without question, our ability to work together in the global economy of the 21st century will require global business leaders who believe in and are committed to Amma’s ethic of service to those in need.