Imaging: M Iqbal Shaikh

Three magic letters, many believe, hold the key to a successful career. That’s why even in the time of a global meltdown, hundreds of thousands of students are queuing up to train themselves in the field of management.

Yes, an MBA — or masters in business administration — can well be considered the modern day philosopher’s stone. Experts in both industry and education would agree that a degree in management gives a student an edge over others. And this hankering for MBAs has led to the mushrooming of management schools in every nook and corner of the country.

Currently, there are almost 2,000 B-schools functioning in India. But do all of them provide quality education? Is training at the best Indian institutes comparable to that in ace global schools? Many experts think not.

As Rajesh Pillania, professor at the Management Development Institute, Gurgaon, says, “Indian business schools stand nowhere in comparison to international ones in terms of research quality and output. We teach what others have developed and I don’t see any change in this in the near future.”

Clearly, it is time for overhauling management education in the country. The demand for change has been growing over the years. Many experts believe that India does not have a large enough trained management faculty, especially in the field of research.

“Inadequate financial incentives to both potential doctoral candidates and faculty are partly responsible for this,” says Raveendra Chittoor of the strategic management group, Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIM-C). Unless steps are taken to create additional supply — by ramping up doctoral programmes as well as providing adequate incentives for doctoral students and young faculty — the problem is likely to intensify. “It may be a good idea to attract and involve the Indian academic diaspora in the initial years, as we do not have enough quality faculty within the country to train doctoral candidates and produce researchers,” says Chittoor.

IIM-C felt the urgent need for change way back in 2003, Shekhar Chaudhuri, director of IIM-C, told a recent conclave on management innovations held at the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad. The conference was attended by deans of top B-schools, both national and international. That year, the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) locked horns with the Indian government to raise their fees in order to improve the administration, campus and physical facilities, as well as increase the number of faculty members at the institutes. Chaudhuri said privately funded B-schools were doing better because the fee structure enabled them to develop a better faculty as well as fulfil research needs.

The aim of a B-school is to nurture leaders who would have the potential to change society. Management institutes are thus expected to develop leaders who would not only recognise and solve problems but also zero in on opportunities for innovation. “We have to teach our students to be courageous, intelligent risk-takers who can come up with breakthrough ideas,” Robert Dolan of the University of Michigan told the ISB conference.

In India, quality management education has so far been provided primarily by the IIMs. The institutes have been on a par with the best in the world in terms of teaching and classroom experience. However, even the IIMs fall behind the best foreign B-schools when it comes to research. But with more international schools coming into India — such as ISB, the Great Lakes Institute of Management and others — the scenario is likely to change. “The IIMs and many other Indian B-schools focus primarily on teaching and training. It is for this reason they have not been at the cutting edge as far as research is concerned. To retain their leadership in management education, the IIMs need to quickly move up the ladder,” says Chittoor.

As for the curriculum, many feel that it should be updated to meet industry requirements. Students should also gain corporate exposure — with short-term assignments — even before they actually start working. “Theory is important, but when I go for work every day, I find that what matters more is how aggressive I am and how fast I can close issues,” says Suvrajit Ganguly, regional manager (HR) of a leading private sector bank and alumnus of the Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management (IISWBM), Calcutta.

P.K. Misra, director of IISWBM, agrees. “The pattern of education has to change from one that is focused on academics to one that stresses on developing professionals. For this, a campus is necessary where trainees will be observed for 24 hours and groomed.” Misra also advocates that in the coming years, management education should follow the model of training in military academies. This means that the first-year curriculum may follow a general pattern, while the second year focuses on specialisation.

It is also important to evolve an inter-disciplinary focus as a general manager of a company has to deal with all facets and not just marketing, HR or finance. “We create managers to solve problems. So management education should evolve in such a way that students are handed analytical tools which would help them in sound decision-making,” says Sumit Kundu, department of management and international business, Florida International University, the US.

Today, information is power. Sources of information have also multiplied. The Internet, for instance, has made huge data available at the click of a mouse. But what is important is to filter the right content out of a mass of information. That is why, some management gurus believe that people have to be coached to make sense of data and information. “The role of the teacher should tend more towards mediation of learning — helping students to see things that they otherwise wouldn’t, reading between the lines and paying attention to even the weak signals,” says Prasad Kaipa of ISB.

The last decade saw the launch of a number of new courses. These include courses on e-commerce, management of the services economy, investment management and international management. The trend is likely to continue as the business environment further evolves. “Over the next decade, we are likely to see an explosion in distance education. As the demand for management education grows, the technology for making it possible becomes cheaper. Some leading business schools have already taken the first step in this direction. In the Indian context, we are also likely to see greater collaboration with overseas schools,” says Yogesh K. Agarwal, dean of academic affairs, IIM Lucknow.

Last but not the least is the issue of uniformity. There are thousands of B-schools in India, but less than 10 per cent make it to the top list. An accreditation system that will rank the institutes needs to be developed so that students know which will give them what, and aren’t deluded by false promises. “There should be some kind of a watchdog so that aspirants know exactly what value addition they have received after spending lakhs of rupees for their MBA degree,” says Kundu.

H.A. Ranganath, director of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (Naac), however, believes that accreditation alone will not ensure standardisation of management education. “There should be legislature — state and national — that will pass the plan for setting up an institute. And this should apply to all colleges and universities as well. Infrastructure, finance and human resources should be of high standard. The huge difference in the quality of training at the various B-schools is alarming.”

A few institutions have been able to foresee the challenges and are taking necessary steps to deal with them. The time has come for all B-schools to sit up and open their eyes. There is a new world out there.