Shaheena Janjuha-Jivraj

Title: Associate Professor in Diversity & Entrepreneurial Leadership

Years teaching at HEC: 3 years

Education: PhD, Succession in South Asian Family Businesses, Brunel Business School, UK, MSc in Marketing Manchester School of Management, BSC (Hons) Management Science, PG Cert in Higher Education, UK.

List of MBA courses you currently teach:
Diversity in Leadership for MBA and Trium (Paris), Academic Director for EMBA for Emerging Leaders (Qatar)

I knew I wanted to be a business school professor when….

I’ve always been fascinated with the impact of education as a catalyst for change. The importance of education was drilled into me from such a young age. There was never a time I wasn’t aware of the importance of teaching; I used to pretend to be a teacher in primary school(!). During my degree, I experienced the impact of finding a subject that made sense and having the freedom to teach with creativity and impact. Fast forward, I’ve carved out a profile as a disruptive academic, zigzagging between organizations and classrooms, cross-fertilizing the best from each learning experience.

What are you currently researching and what is the most significant discovery you’ve made from it?

The leadership connection between innovation and diversity in different contexts, I’m finding some great insights into how to nurture an entrepreneurial mindset to strengthen a culture of innovation across teams.

If I weren’t a business school professor…

I would be an entrepreneur involved in education disruption, very close to my current world.

What do you think makes you stand out as a professor?

I’m genuinely interested in people, their lives, and how they see the world, and I want to make connections. Teaching topics on diversity and leadership can be fraught with emotions when you address sensitive areas. I find empathy and humor essential to creating safety for students to explore their reactions, share, and learn from each other.

One word that describes my first time teaching:

Hypersonic!

Professor I most admire and why:

It’s hard to name one person; I have composite role models who have inspired how I think and teach. My inspiration comes from teachers and students who have overcome significant barriers to access education formally and informally.

What do you enjoy most about teaching business students?

My subject matter allows the most wonderful and robust conversations to emerge, particularly at the intersection of theory, business practice, and personal aspirations. It’s so great to see students going through the learning process when they get those a-ha moments.

What is most challenging?

Not recognizing education is a team sport, you have a seat in the room, but that’s when the real work starts; experience is not to be confused with consumption.

In one word, describe your favorite type of student:

Risk-taker!

What are your hobbies?

Travel: I try to mix travel and work to create ‘workations’ – to satisfy my travel bug. Reading for non-work which requires conscious effort, swimming, yoga. Sewing when time allows.

Favorite place(s) to vacation:

India & Kenya because of family connections. Anywhere with the promise of adventure and exploration – my bucket travel list is still long.

Favorite book(s):

Novels that offer different perspectives from my everyday life. I rarely return to books, but I recently re-read The God of Small Things and was struck by the contradictions of life; despite vast progress, the world is still as complicated as it ever was.

What is currently your favorite movie and/or show and what is it about the film or program that you enjoy so much?

Big epic films with complex characters and great music and dance, for nostalgia, old black and white films, and Bollywood 90s films are great for music.

What is your favorite type of music or artist(s) and why?

Anything I can sing or dance to – rock, opera, Bollywood. It’s great finding new types of music and making new connections through these experiences.

If I had my way, the business school of the future would have much more of this…

Agility in what and how we teach – we need more diversity in models and research that broadens thinking and assumptions around effective leadership, more cross-disciplinary approaches to thinking, and creating space for students.

Creating opportunities to experiment more with their thinking and strengthen their growth mindset alongside technical skills.
In every classroom, we have many international students, creating a need for more diverse perspectives in our teaching and ensuring this agility is at the heart of leadership. Leaders today need to be comfortable in understanding how to navigate cognitive diversity to strengthen innovation among their teams.

In my opinion, companies, and organizations today need to do a better job at…

Today, more than ever, global organisations have an essential role in sharing perspectives across diverse cultures and promoting greater understanding of what binds us together than divides us. We can’t take this for granted, particularly when geographical borders get tighter. Taking this a step further, encouraging companies to be even more comfortable with embedding a learning culture to navigate the complexities of their markets.

Being open to new mindsets, encouraging innovation and risk and providing more tolerance for learning from failure. There is no cut and paste for this approach, but the more we collectively normalize these skills, the better-equipped organizations are to handle the complexity they face.

I’m grateful for…

The academic freedom to work hard, carve out a role, and do what I love, surrounded by people who get and indulge my many ‘what if’….moments!