The decade following independence in 1947 was witness to a surge of innovative ideas to build a fledgling independent nation into a model democratic state committed to growth with equity in the development of its people. The establishment of Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA) was the outcome of one such innovative initiative. Led by Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, Shri. Kasturbhai Lalbhai and proactively supported by the then Chief Minister of Gujarat, Dr. Jivraj Mehta, a group of enlightened individuals set up IIMA. This group ably wove together a coalition of five actors – the governments at the centre and the state, the local industrialists, the Ford Foundation and the Harvard Business School, in a true spirit of public private partnership to establish the Institute. To ensure that the new institution was not stymied by bureaucracy, the constitution for governance of IIMA was different from that for traditional universities. It was set up as an institution that would be managed by a Society, the IIMA Society, created under the Societies Act, for the purpose. The Institute was to be run by the Board of Governors, constituted by the IIMA Society; the Board would have wide representation from all the relevant constituencies to reflect the multifarious needs of a developing nation. IIMA was therefore conceived as an Institute that would be a Board managed institution, free from exclusive control of government. Thus, operational freedom is an inseparable part of the DNA of IIMA.
