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His house lies damaged in the devastating tsunami and quake that struck Japan on March 11, his 100-year-old mother is in a hospital in Japan, but 78-year-old Shoji Shiba is back — to continue teaching his class at the Indian Institute of Management in Kolkata.
One of the world’s foremost experts in Total Quality Management, this former professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management has been teaching the Visionary Leadership in Manufacturing Programme (VLMP) at IIM-C.
In fact, he is key to the programme launched in 2007 in collaboration with IIT Chennai, IIT Kanpur and IIM Kolkata, with active support from the Union HRD Ministry and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). During the one-year programme, engineering graduates with experience in manufacturing also do an industry visit in Japan.
“I initiated the project and it is my responsibility. It is like (these students) are my kids,” says Shiba. “There is a Japanese mentality that we keep the promises we make. Till I am alive, I will keep the promise of being here.” Shiba says that since the VLMP programme is a “national project” and the Indian manufacturing industry has been going through a critical phase, he decided to come to India and teach, leaving his wife and family in Japan.
However, yesterday, when he took the first class at IIM since his return, he had one request of his students: that he be allowed to carry his cellphone with him. “My mother is ill and is in hospital. The doctor asked me to carry a cellphone. I usually do not carry a cellphone in class,” he says.
On March 11, when the tsunami struck, Shiba was at Tokyo station where he was stranded for 24 hours. “My house is at Tsukuba, about 36 km from Tokyo and 20 km away from sea. It has been damaged. I got some time to fix it. The structure of the frame is okay but the roof is broken, the furniture damaged, it’s a mess,” he says. He’s quick to add that the Ganesha statue in his living room has “suffered no damage.”
For the professor, this catastrophe was a reminder of another one when he was only 12 — the dropping of the n-bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. “Everything burnt exactly the same way that you saw water advancing all around on television. There was no electricity then and even this time, there was none. We built the country from nothing,” Shiba says.
And it’s this spirit, he hopes, that will fuel the resurgence. “But this time, we will have to go through a little more hardship and the young people in Japan who have not seen hardship will have to go through it,” he says.
His colleagues at IIM say they are amazed at Shiba’s dedication. The fourth batch of VLMP of 29 students were in Tokyo from February 27 to March 9 for an industrial visit. A K Chaudhury, co-ordinator of VLMP programme who led the team of students at Japan, said that even during the visit, Shiba was full-time with the students.
“I called Professor Shiba home on March 11. He was still stranded at Tokyo station. His wife’s words still ring in my ears — Thank God you are back (to India). Do not worry for Professor Shiba, he will be all right,” said Chaudhury.
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