Dr. Ravi Thomas
CFO, University Associates LLC, Arizona
22-August-2009
Dr. Ravi Thomas is the CFO of University Associates LLC a partnership of University of California, California Community Colleges, Carnegie Mellon University and Santa Clara University. He is an Adjunct Professor of Economics at UCSC and an advisor to UC Santa Cruz on its Silicon Valley Initiatives and to various clean-tech and software companies.
He has held senior level executive positions at several startups. Prior to joining his first startup Dr Thomas was an Assistant Professor at the Fox School of Business at Temple University where he taught courses in economics and public finance. He has also taught at Swarthmore College and was a Visiting Fellow at the International Monetary Fund.
The session by Dr Ravi Thomas focussed on management and management schools. The aim of a good management school, according to him, is not just to teach the students the basics of accounting, marketing etc, but to give them guidance in learning how to bring together the right people and to work in an efficient way.
Dr. Ravi spent time elaborating from his experience about establishing a new business school. For this laying a strong foundation is very important. The school should focus on grooming managers with both soft skills and hard skills, which are very important to be competitive in today’s marketplace. The emphasis should be on providing students with the best educational experience possible, since the quality of students greatly influences the future of a business school.
While discussing the establishment of management school, the question of financing is sure to arise. The school should have the capability to convince the investors that it is worthwhile investing in them.
He also spoke about the process of outsourcing in companies and the role that Indians in global outsourcing industry. When outsourcing, it is essential to know how to deal with different kinds of people. That is when the new techniques of study in management schools come in to use.
