GCs need leadership skills beyond legal expertise: Cyril Shroff on new IIMA leadership academy

Cyril Shroff, Managing Partner of Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, recently launched the Cyril Shroff – IIMA GC Leadership Academy in collaboration with Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA).

The Academy is a partnership between Shroff and IIMA. It is also a personal philanthropic initiative of Shroff and his family aimed at strengthening the legal profession, particularly the in-house legal community. It is envisaged as a long-term platform to develop General Counsel (GCs) as enterprise leaders, trusted advisers and stewards of governance. It will focus on boardroom and enterprise leadership, business and finance, strategy, technology and artificial intelligence, emerging risks, and global peer learning.

In a conversation with Bar & Bench's Pallavi Saluja, Shroff speaks about the idea behind the Academy and why GCs need to look beyond traditional legal skills.

Edited excerpts follow.

Pallavi Saluja (PS): What inspired you to create this leadership academy?

Cyril Shroff (CS): I think at a certain stage in your professional life, you want to give back. So, whenever you are part of a profession, first you land up learning, then you land up practising and there comes a point in your evolution when you want to start giving back to the very institutions from whom you benefited.

I felt it was my duty to start giving back to the profession. I felt that the in-house legal community was relatively neglected and I think something had to be done for them. I would, therefore, put my spotlight on that segment of our profession to make sure that we impart the right leadership skills to them, so that they can become more than just lawyers.

PS: Why now? Is it to build a legacy?

CS: I think it is part of the legacy, of course. That is one of our deepest drivers as a firm and as a family - to leave a legacy. That we are remembered beyond, for long periods of time.

The timing now is also linked with what is happening to India and the journey towards Viksit Bharat. I feel that this is a time when, as the business aspects of India, India Inc, are evolving, this is a gap that needs to be filled in. GCs can play a tremendous role in terms of driving the Viksit Bharat agenda. I actually think that we are a few years late, but it is better late than never.

PS: You have been in this space and have seen the role of GC evolve over the years. Where and what are the leadership gaps you see?

CS: When all GCs are lawyers and when they come out of law school, they come with a good bag of legal skills. What they find, as they progress in the profession and as in-house GCs, is that leadership skills are the area that requires the most attention: how to manage teams, how to manage boards, how to manage the CEO, how to deal with Artificial Intelligence (AI), how to deal with unexpected regulatory crises. Every GC or every company will have some public relations problem at some point in time. That requires a different type of skill set in terms of the resilience that is required to deal with all of this.

I think these are not legal questions. This is much beyond lawyering. It is really about being able to handle situations and being proactive, not only as a manager of risk, but also in creating opportunity.

PS: Why did you choose IIM Ahmedabad for this leadership academy?

CS: IIMA is amongst the best, if not the best. They had the right mindset to approach this. They were very interested in this topic. We have been talking to them for 9–10 months now and the kind of response we got from them was very encouraging. That is number one.

Secondly, I like their way of teaching. They produce original content and then convert them into case studies and study material and use them. I don't want to do anything which is out of any borrowed material. There has to be an element of originality.

The IIM institution has such a long history - over 50 years. They have produced some of the most iconic business leaders of India and I am hoping that with this, we will be able to create the next generation of iconic lawyer-business leaders as well. They have the right DNA and it was almost like a match made in heaven.

PS: Could you tell us little bit more about the academy and how will it be different from traditional executive leadership programmes?

CS: I think it is much beyond. This is not a training course. They have got half a floor dedicated to this, which will soon be filled with a lot of research assistants, case writers, academicians and others. So, one is producing the content.

Secondly, there will be multiple executive education courses throughout the year and the teaching methodology, the pedagogy and others will be different. One of the hallmarks of institutions like IIM is that they follow the case study method. That is what really sticks in people's minds and where the real learning happens.

Our aim is, in the first year, to do at least two proper executive education courses. There will be residential courses for two or three days at least and, thereafter, do three a year, and one of which could be advanced. That is all for the academy to decide as we go along.

But it is going to be fairly intense. Writing some of these case studies and material is a very tedious job. It takes weeks to produce a good case study and we will scan the environment around India and business and others where GCs have played a role.

Also remember, we are in the age of AI. How we are going to deal with the age of AI is a very big question as well. There will be a lot of new ideas, original content that we will be producing. I think our GCs are going to really benefit from this. This is not at all just a regular training programme; it is anything but that.