Business schools in India

MBA Universe news service
5 June 2012
While management schools have grown, management thinking in India has not. Most top business schools across the world have a research focus and implement research into management theory and practice. This is an area that needs to be addressed urgently.

Dr. Santrupt Misra wears many hats. From being a trainer and consultant to about 40 organisations in India, publishing a book and many journals, to heading Corporate Human Resources and Corporate Information Technology functions of the Aditya Birla Group, Dr. Misra has two postgraduate degrees — in political science, and in personnel management and industrial relations and two PhDs — one from India and the other from the UK in public administration and industrial relations.
Currently CEO, Carbon Black Business and Director, Group HR, Aditya Birla Management Corporation Pvt Ltd, his areas of interest include organisation development, change management, management training and leadership. Besides numerous awards, he also won a Commonwealth Scholarship in 1990 for three years, and was awarded the Eisenhower Fellowship in the year 2000.

In context of the 3rd Indian Management Conclave to be organised by MBAUniverse.com on the theme, 'Survival of the Fittest – Lessons from the Best,' Dr. Misra says that B-schools have to either deliver quality education or face the risk of being wiped out by market forces and demand.

Q. What is your take on the state of management education in the country today?

A: The state of schools today can be summarised as the good, the bad and the ugly. The good part is that we have shown our capability by building high quality B-schools like the IIMs and private institutions like SP Jain, ISB, XLRI, etc, that are of international standards. Management education has seen a lot of investment in the past years and a number of business schools have mushroomed in the country. This c;reated an artificial comfort about being capable of delivering management education in keeping with the growing demand. However, while quantity has increased, quality became an issue. To make matters worse, the sector is struggling with too many government regulations, which in themselves are not appropriate. So in a way, we are struggling with extremities. When the economy slows down, employment opportunities do too; people do not find value in the education, which in turn, results in lower enrolment rates.

nother serious issue is the lack of attention given to faculty training and education. Anybody with a degree is deemed suitable to teach – which, as we all know, is not the case. Teacher training is an important component in delivering quality education and should be taken seriously. The other important aspect is the lack of inadequate dialogue between the industry and educational institutions to understand its needs and to devise a methodology to address that need. Due to the inadequate interaction, management education is unable to evolve or respond in time. Both, the faculty as well as the industry, have to take equal responsibility to make this happen.

Lastly and most importantly, while management schools have grown, management thinking in India has not. Most of the top business schools across the world have a research focus and implement research into management theory and practice. This is an area that needs to be addressed urgently.

Q. You said that management thinking in India has not evolved. Is it only due to the inadequate attention given to research?

A: It can be attributed to a few reasons. For one, faculty is not encouraged enough to do research and the funds allocated are not large enough. The industry does not give enough access to conduct research and the management practice itself is not research driven or informed. We do not take decisions based on analysis and data. Also, we have missed out on contextualisation: for example, everybody talks of rural marketing in India. Rural marketing could have evolved as a unique model from India, but today, it is perhaps a missed opportunity. The second aspect is that of experimentation – both by B-schools as well as the industry to try out new ideas. The discourse of management in India is more centred on jargon than on the fundamental questions and analysis of what is happening and why.

Q. In your opinion, what should Deans and promoters of business schools in India today do to bring B-schools in line with the expectations of the industry?

A: Firstly, every business school should have an Industry Advisory Council. Usually, top business schools abroad have these councils that meet several times a year to discuss where the school is going, what is and what is not working; the current trends, and what the school can do to address the challenges. More than half of the schools in India do not have such advisory councils, and in the few where they exist, they do so only on paper — there is no active engagement between the corporate and the institution.

Secondly, promoters of B-schools often lack an in-depth understanding of what defines quality management education. They need to therefore, familiarise themselves on what constitutes quality education.

Lastly, there is the question of proper infrastructure. Students have to have adequate access to books, journals and reference materials online and offline; management films and a host of learning material. The rigour of the curriculum needs to be incorporated, and promoters must realise that delivering quality is mandatory.

Q. In your experience in recruiting over the years, has the quality of management graduates actually fallen, and does it still hold when we talk of the top-tier B-schools?

A: We recruit from the best business schools, and hence, we have not really felt this. However, compared to a time when there were 20 business schools as compared to today when there are 3,000, the average calibre of students has fallen.

Q. Is the concept of a fresh graduate being productive from day one practical?

A: Yes, a B-school graduate is expected to deliver from day one. However, the expectation is for him or her to be productive in the context of his or her capability and training. It is like expecting a fresh medical graduate to be able to diagnose a simple disease. Similarly, a management graduate is not expected to make complex strategies but to give quality output on what he or she has been trained for.

Q. How important is training and development for a fresh graduate?

A: Training and development is important for everyone – fresh graduates as well as executives. In fact, internal training has become a remedial process to make up for the deficiency or the lack of adequate training in the educational institution. It goes beyond mere skills and development; it is also about the company's ethos, values and philosophy.

Q. Many overseas B-schools are setting up campuses in India. What is your take on this?

A: Competition is healthy, and overseas B-schools coming to India is a good sign. However, they should bring their best faculty to India instead of treating them as the third-world branches and maintain the same standards and levels of quality as their home campuses.

Q. Has Indian management education come to the point where international recruiters would want them to be a part of their international teams?

A: Going by the fact that a lot of international companies are recruiting from the leading B-schools is a proof that they find value in students here. But if you ask — are people dying to recruit students from here? I would think not. We have not given enough reason for companies to recruit students from India. The day that Indian thought leadership in the management arena grows, more research is published, insights like rural marketing are actioned, only then will the interest about India and interest to recruit candidates grow globally.

Q. What, according to you, is the future of management education in India?

A: Management education will continue to grow and there will be mushrooming of institutions to cater to the demand. However, market forces will push good institutes to scale up, adapt and evolve. Bad institutes will be punished severely by the market, and will eventually be phased out.

With permission from the interviewee.