A RESEARCH PAPER ON

“Improving the Service Experience and Effectiveness of Management

Education Institutes in India”

SUBMISSION FOR INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH CONFERENCE ON

“Services Management- The Trendsetter”

(KBSCMR –2011)

Author details

Tushar Tiwari
Amol Pramod Ubale
Founder Directors

C-702, Building no. 27, Panchsheel CHS,

Bimbisarnagar, Opp. NESCO, Off W.E. Highway,
Goregaon East, Mumbai – 400065
Phone - +91 98211 27191 / +91 9850819101
E-mail – tushartiwari@gmail.com amolpubale@gmail.com
 Abstract

Education services form the base of a nation’s development. In recent years,

Indian education sector – especially management education is witnessing
tremendous growth in numbers but may not necessarily in quality. In the past,
some of the best B-schools in India, have created business leaders who have
significantly contributed in improving business functioning and hence, the Indian
economy. Yet, their success is limited.

A large number of second rung B-schools are far away from being capable of
churning out effective job-ready and globally oriented managers. Although, they
have copied the pedagogy and processes followed by leading global B-schools,
this situation prevails. This fact has been highlighted by different industry
practitioners from time to time. Also, these B-schools are unable to manage the
expectations of their primary customers i.e. students commensurate to the price
paid by them.

This paper has studied 30 Indian B-schools, their students and industry-
practitioners to understand this gap. Some of the attributes responsible for the
include lack of practice-orientation of B-school curriculum - largely due to our
traditional book-oriented education system, student’s socio-cultural background
and their glamorous perceptions about MBA. The study has ascertained a set of
critical skills and processes which will help the B-schools to bridge this gap and
manage expectations of the stakeholders. The paper tries to ascertain innovative
changes desired in their delivery-mechanism to make their programs more
practice-oriented. It discusses a simple action plan based on a pilot project, to
improve their programs in churning out globally-effective managers.

Key Words

Management education, B-schools quality improvement, Global managers,

Pedagogy and academic processes, Practice orientation, innovative changes,
Delivery mechanisms of education institutes, Action plan
Indian B-schools – Current status

Indian B-schools have grown rapidly over last two decades. The wave of
management education which was started in 1950s by setting up off IIMs has
grown many-fold by having 1700 different B-schools across the country. This
number appears to be significantly high, however, considering the current status
of growth in Indian economy and increasing global trend towards MBA as career
boosting tool, there is further room for growth.

Indian B-schools, lead by IIMs, have been following internationally acclaimed

pedagogy which has been successful in their American and European
counterparts. However, except for the top tier institutions, others have displayed
limited success in churning out globally-oriented managers.

However, this is not a unique situation only in India. Across the world, B-schools
have come under severe criticism owing to different factors. Indian B-schools are
often compared to their global peers on different factors and various studies have
attributed failure of the B-schools on various fronts such as lack of “thought
leadership”, Lack of adequate focus on leadership development and soft-skills
( Arain & Tipu) , Lack of employability ( Business standard-2008) and most
importantly inability to imbibe the practice orientation in the curriculum design of
MBA courses (NKC-2008) etc.

An essential question to be followed is what are the perceptible benchmarks on

which the above aspects should be addressed? The service model followed by
Indian B-schools answer it in an obvious answer, i.e. in the context of the
globalization Indian B-schools rely on following the successful models in the
other parts of the world.

This approach, although widely followed by most of the Indian B-schools may
have limitations as follows

• One may observe that most of the above mentioned factors are
dependent on different socio-economic aspects which vary vastly in India
compared to other developed countries. Hence, it is obvious that Indian B-
schools need different remedies to treat their woes. The current approach
of copying their western counterparts on case-study based curriculum or
academic programs may be successful to a limited extent for the best of
the B-schools and may not help the second rung B-schools. In the next
section of this paper, this socio-economic difference between Indian
conditions and developed counterparts is defined to understand this point
in a better manner and direct the research accordingly.

• One may observe that above mentioned improvements need a large

amount of systemic changes. In India, these changes have been initiated
at government as well as at the B-school levels for some of the top
 institutions, yet they will take time to trickle down at the lowest levels and
make formidable changes in quality of B-school graduates passing out in
masses every year.

In this paper, a pragmatic approach has been adopted to figure out focus areas
which can be addressed at the B-school level. The objective of this research is to
figure out some immediate actionable which will help improving the output quality
and in the longer run prepare help addressing most of the above mentioned
issues.

As a broad outline, it becomes imperative to understand the stakeholders and

various roles played by them in the context of a B-school. The service delivery
model in Indian context is deeply and widely impacted by the following stake
holders and their counterparts

Primary customers and major stakeholders

The uniqueness of any management institution (or for that matter any
educational institution) is in the fact that it caters to two sets of primary
customers. –

• The student community – Expectations around education from B-school

and attitudes largely define the demand structure and hence, supply of
management education ( with the increasing number of B-schools).
• The industry – is primarily responsible in fuelling the above expectations
by producing significant employment and career boosting opportunities for
the students. The industry undoubtedly is largely responsible for status of
management education and B-schools across the world.

Customers have defined the service delivery model for Indian B-schools.
However, there seems to be an apparent gap in expectations of each of the
above from the B-schools. As numerated by different studies the quality of B-
school graduates is not commensurate with the industry expectations (NKC-
2008). This gap exists with an equal significance as far as local Indian and
multinational companies are concerned. Of course, it is more profound in the
second rung of B-schools i.e. all the B-schools beyond first 15% of the quadrant.

The model obviously needs a change. It becomes even more complex as the
above expectations are a result of interaction of both the above stakeholders with
the other elements that help to completely define this spectrum of management
education.

• Demographics and available number of seats – India has approximately

1700 institutions across the country. Every year more than 400000
students appear for various entrance exams for these seats. Getting entry
into the best of these institutions is very tough with over 400 students
 competing for a single seat. This proportion is far more than the advanced
countries where for each of the
• Academic orientation – Traditional Indian academic system ( up to
10+2+4/3 levels) is largely teacher-centric, book-oriented and mostly
grade-oriented system. Whereas the developed nations have far more
liberal, customized and individual centric academic arrangements. A
drastic shift at the post-graduate i.e. MBA level to case-based pedagogy
hence needs to be adopted only in synchronization with other initiatives
which will induce habit of self-directed learning.
• Parents – In India, parents largely act as sponsoring authorities for their
wards for education expenses, expecting a decent “Return on
investment”(ROI) for their ward’s education investments. Expectations
from parents and family pressures have largely ignited need for
management education resulting in mushrooming schools where any
“price” is being paid to acquire so called “prestigious”
• The media – Media has also helped in increasing awareness about B-
school status and importance of MBA as a career option. With the advent
of electronic, internet and print media on all aspects of life, MBA is
projected as a glamorous career option which can transform one’s life.
• The society – Management education is being expected to contribute
towards social-uplift of poorer / weaker sections of the society. The social
pressures have paved way for different streams of management education
such as disaster management, healthcare, agro-based management
programs etc.
• The government – As a regulator and promoter for socio-economic
welfare of the country, the government has done their bit to boost up
management education. Some of the initiatives such as National
Knowledge Commission (NKC) and education reforms program under
ministry of HRD and education have focused largely on improving the
state of B-schools and education.

In this paper , the authors try to alter the existing service delivery models of
second rung Indian B-schools in such a manner that key stakeholders can derive
a greater level of satisfaction and result in more value creation for the society.

Objectives and scope of research

This research is aimed at

• Understanding the gap between expectations of the industry and the

students from the B-school in delivering a good quality “job-ready
managers” for the industry.
• Understanding student’s perception about services received from their B-
school tenure vis-à-vis the industry expectations.
 • Based on the above, figure out and formulate simple actionable pointers
which may help the B-schools to bridge the above gap, enhance the
customer satisfaction and improve the quality of their academic programs.

Methodology

This research is conducted in two stages carried out over a period of 3 months in
India.

• Stage 1 - Qualitative assessment of industry expectations

• Stage 2 - Based on the perceived gaps between B-school offering and
industry expectations as determined by stage 1, a quantitative
assessment of student’s experience about their B-school’s academic
curriculum and methodology vis-à-vis their experience was carried out.

Stage 1 - Assessment of industry expectations

A questionnaire was executed with to understand respondent’s views about
various industry interaction programs carried out at their B-school vis-à-vis their
utility in making them “job-ready” to a large extent.

The following discussion guide was used for conducting the interview – Main
headings indicate the broad objectives followed by questions associated with the
same.

• Understanding the recruitment experience, frequency of the chosen

organization.
o Which are the institutes does your company visit? Since when and
at what frequency?
o How often do you choose trainees for your departments?
• Understanding more on interaction of the respondent with fresh MBA
graduates
o How frequently you speak to the trainees and seek your views on
your running projects?
o What are the kinds of jobs you find that these trainees can perform
without too much of supervision?
o Where do you see them lacking very frequently and commonly?
Examples?
• Understanding the specific skill-sets within the management graduates as
desired by the respondents in order to perform their job
o What kind of responsibilities do you assign to your trainees in first
two months under you?
o How do you and how long do you conduct the induction program at
your department- what are the major components of your induction
program?
o Do you modify training methods adopted by you each year?
 • Understanding method and approach adopted by the respondent in order
to assess the strengths, weaknesses and functional skills acquired by the
trainee , which is required for performing the job assigned to her/him.
o How long a normal trainee does takes to be job ready as per you?
o Which are the most difficult cases handled by you – as far as
trainees are concerned
o Which were the best cases handled by you as far as trainees are
concerned? share your experiences
Findings

Interviews with various industry practitioners helped to identify some of the

crucial aspects about management education in India and its limitations in the
current form in creating” job-ready” managers as expected by the businesses.

• According to the industry practitioners the fresh B-school graduates are

extremely strong in terms of communication skills and presentation
abilities. They have a good understanding about gathering information
which is vital for any business decisions and most of the professionals
attribute it to the widespread use of information technology tools used by
these managers.
• Most of the MBA graduates believe that MBA is passport for them to have
high-flying jobs right from their first day in the organization. Industry
experts blame it out on media who have percolated a highly glorified
image of MBA placements, salaries and kind of managerial life expected.
• However, except for the pass-outs of the some of the top B-schools, most
of the others show a very poor ability to understand their self in terms of
abilities or limitations, which often results into a mis-match of expectations
they have from the MBA programs, which in turn results into poor
performance at the workplace. Ability to assess one’s own self is seen
as a vital skill by many of the professionals.

Industry experts feel that students mainly lack on the following important skill-
sets which a B-school should really focus on in their curriculum

• Reading and comprehension skills – Most of the industry practitioners

complain about poor reading skills, especially of the business and financial
dailies. This ability is perceived to be of extreme importance by most of
the industry professionals and they perceive that modern day managers
passing out from second rung B-schools are far away from their
counterparts from IIMs and other top management institutions.
• MS Excel – While almost 90% of the respondents felt that MS- Excel is
probably one of the most ubiquitous tool which is used in current business
environment, most of the modern day B-school pass outs from second
rung schools and in some cases even the top schools as well, lack
severely in this area. Although, they feel that management trainees under
 them show very good abilities on MS Word and MS PowerPoint which are
crucial for presentation of various projects.
• Relationship building skills – Most of the respondents felt that fresh
management graduates don’t attempt to build a successful relationship
which is one of the most important skill needed in today’s organizations.
This is probably a result of lack of previous work experience and practical
abilities. According to them, this skill set is not really dependent on the
rank of the B-school. They feel that it is the individual’s own personality,
however, they feel that it would really help if the B-schools start focusing
on these aspects as well.
• Lack of industry exposure and right attitude - to “make their hands
dirty at the ground level” – Most of the respondents felt that students
probably lack the right attitude which should be built in the B-school during
the first year of the students. This is probably because of glamorous
notions possessed by these graduates about MBA and life thereafter
which is far away from reality expect in certain cases.
• Entrepreneurial spirit - As per one of the respondents, The B-school
curriculum is built around case studies & role plays. They teach the
incumbents about how to adjust in the organization culture and use the
resources judiciously. It has a relatively low emphasis on building or
creating resources and building blocks of culture for the new
organizations. If B-schools start teaching them the basic principles of
doing business in minimum resources, probably like a street-vendor, a lot
of learning may happen.

While most of the respondents have praised initiatives like summer trainings,
visiting faculty lectures, mentorship programs, co-curriculum activities and
out of the campus projects etc. They were annoyed with the expectations of
“readymade solutions” by the students during such activates. Many of the
industry practitioners love to contribute to the above feet but fear that their job of
might not be limited to facilitating these activities and rather gets converted to
“teaching” jobs which is definitely not desirable.

In nutshell, industry expects a B-school to provide environment conducive for

their students to understand intricacies of managerial responsibility. It requires a
blend of both functional (finance, HR etc.) as well as a holistic approach and lead
others for achieving organizational objectives. This can only be possible by
enhanced industry interaction as echoed by majority of the respondents.

Based on the above inputs, the author devised the second stage of the research
was devised which not only aimed at assessing the student’s views on their own
learning experience but also an objective evaluation of various activities
undertaken by the B-schools to enhance their industry interaction.
Stage 2 - Assessment of student’s experience of industry interaction
followed at the B-school

Sample composition

The sample chosen contained 67 students from 30 Indian B-schools across the
country. The following are some of the key features of the chosen sample

• There were two major categories of the sample students in final year MBA
and those having some work experience post their MBA. As depicted by
the graph below
Year of passing
2011 2007
6% 10%
2008
15%

2010
44%
2009
25%

• The composition of sample in terms of city-wise and B-school rank-wise is

as below. For the purpose of this research, the rank of the B-school as
perceived by the student is considered rather than relying on any of the
published ranking of the B-schools

Rank wise distribution (based on student’s perception of rank of their B-

schools on all India basis)
10 to 20
0 to 10
2%
22%

More than 30
20 to 30 59%
17%
 City wise distribution of respondents
20
Respondents
18 Number of B-schools

16

14

12

10

0
Bangalore Delhi Goa Gurgaon Hyderabad Indore Manipal Mumbai Nagpur Nashik Pune

City & rank wise distribution of the B-schools

100.00%

90.00%

80.00%

70.00%

60.00% More than 30

50.00% 20 to 30
10 to 20
40.00%
0 to 10
30.00%

20.00%

10.00%

0.00%
Bangalore Delhi Goa Gurgaon Hyderabad Indore Manipal Mumbai Nagpur Nashik Pune

• Composition of their functional areas and types of organizations

represented –

Sector wise composition of the sample

 Others
9%
Hos pitality Banking/ ins urance &
3% financial s ervices
23%
Services
10%

Pharm a
Manufacturing /
7%
Cem ent/ autom obile
Cons ultancies FMCG etc
4% 13% 19%

IT/BPO
12%

Sector wise composition of the sample

Treasury /
Investments
14% Others Sales
7% 23%
Strategy and
consulting Marketing
1% 4%
Analytics - MR
HR
6%
7%
IT and Finance
Administration 19%
12%

Customer service &

operations
7%
• Almost 80% of the sample chosen represents second rung B-schools
which have perceived ranks beyond top 15

Limitations of the sample chosen

• Although, a fair representation of all the B-schools across the country was
sought as crucial selection criterion for the sample, the sample is slightly
skewed towards the B-schools from the metro and A grade cities.
• The sample is skewed towards graduates working in sales finance and
investments arena.

Methodology

Questionnaires were executed with each of the respondents to asses the

following parameters and respective scales

Parameter 1 ( P1)

Preparedness of the student on different parameters perceived important

by the industry

It was assessed on a 5 point scale – Scale 1

 1. Strongly agree
2. Slightly agree
3. Neutral
4. Slightly disagree
5. Strongly disagree

P1 – Self realization

Response Remarks
1 I had a "dream job" in my mind at the beginning of my two year MBA program.
The "right job" for a person depends upon his/her personality type and fucntional skills
2 acquired by him / her.
3 An individual's "dream job" and " right job" could be significantly different.
My MBA program offered enough career counseling and industry exposure to help me
4 understand the above difference.
I am fully aware about different kind of jobs and functions available for MBA graduates based
5 on their experience level and specialization.
I am fully aware about different companies, sectors and job profiles available for fresh MBA
6 graduates in the current situation.
My MBA program has helped me to understand my own personality (strengths, weakness and
traits) in a better manner so that I can identify a "target job" which balances of my aspirations
7 and skills.
My MBA program has helped me to improve my personality (strengths, weakness and traits)
8 and acquire skills in a suitable manner so that my target job is close to my dream job.

P1 – Important skills (Practical knowledge, communication skills, IT skills &

relationship skills)

Response Remarks
I feel confident about the level of practical knowledge I got during my MBA so as work in the
9 industry.

I am confident that my communication skills are well developed to help me in getting entry to
10 my targetted job.
I am confident that my IT skills ( MS Excel, Power point etc.)are well developed to help me in
11 getting entry to my targetted job.

I am confident that my relationship building and interpersonal skills are well developed to help
12 me getting my targetted job and emerge successful.

P1 – Need for having an industry mentor, facilitation level provided by the

MBA program and need for customization of MBA offering
 Response Remarks
During my MBA program, I felt need to have some experienced industry practitioner to act as
13 my mentor in planning for achieving my goals.

My MBA program has provided me an opportunity to build suitable contacts with the indsutry
14 practitioners who could work with me as mentor and help me realise my goals.
Such a mentor needs to be different from my faculty members so as to provide me practical
15 guidance on various issues of my concern.
My MBA program shall be more effective if it includes such an industry interaction as a part of
16 our curriculum.
By interacting with industry mentors along with my curriculum, I stand better chance of being
17 well equipped compared to my peers.

Apart from assessing the need of the B-school curriculum changes, it was
estimated that which of the different industry interaction programs can prove to
be extremely effective in grooming students for a global managerial career. It
was estimated by using parameter P2.

Parameter 2 ( P2)

Practices followed at the B-school and effectiveness of various industry

interaction programs

It was assessed on a 5 point scale - Scale 2

1. Highly effective
2. Effective
3. It was ok ( did not make much difference)
4. Not effective at all
5. Was not at all followed at our B-school

To what extent do you feel that the following initiatives are effective in enhancing
practical understanding of business during the MBA course.Pl specify your comments.
Please use the drop down menu. Response Remarks
a Summer Internship
b Visiting Faculty Lectures
c Industry exposure week
d Short term projects outside the curriculum
e Student festivals / seminars / conferences
f Mentorship programs ( formal )
g Mentorship programs ( informal)
h Alumni interaction
i Others ( Pl specify)

Apart from the above, certain qualitative questions were also asked such
as

• What do you think should be principle focus of your B-school in offering

customized solution for your need?
 • What has been your best and the worst experience where your B-school
knowledge provided you an edge over others?

Findings

Self realization

There is a complete lack of self-awareness when the student had been through
the MBA program. It seems that most the programs need to emphasize on
making the students realize their own personality in a better manner.

100%
90%
80%
70%
60% Strongly Dis agree

50% Strongly Agree

Slightly dis agree
40%
Slightly agree
30%
Neutral
20%
10%
0%
Self awareness Improvement in self Career counselling
- realization due to / exposure level
program

The same story appears to be not so true when it comes to the knowledge about
industry, perceived job exposure as indicated by the respondents. Most of the
MBA programs it seems are doing good job in creating awareness about different
job functions, however, in the wake of poor self realization, it is difficult to
estimate the contribution of a MBA program in using this awareness in the best
possible manner. This response is measured only for those students who are
currently in the final year only.

Job awareness

Strongly
Disagree Neutral
Strongly 6% 21%
Agree
30%

Slightly
Slightly
agree
disagree
32%
11%
Important skills (Practical knowledge, communication skills, IT skills &
relationship skills)

Students have a very high self perception about different skills possessed by
them vis-à-vis industry expectations. However, this notion needs to be judged
with another important factor which is based on sample composition. This is
either based on their own understanding about the businesses or likely to be a
fall-out of experienced respondents who might have acquired these skills over
the period of their working life of more than 2 -3 years.

As depicted by graph below, students perceive that they are acquiring requisite
skills in their B-school programs, which is contradictory to the industry
perception.

100%

90%

80%

70%
Strongly Dis agree
60%
Strongly Agree
50%
Slightly dis agree
40% Slightly agree

30% Neutral

20%

10%

0%
Practical Com m unication IT s kills Relations hip
knowledge s kills building s kills

We then tried to correlate these findings with the industry interaction practices
followed by different B-schools and tried to judge their perceived effectiveness.
Effectiveness of various industry interaction programs

It was found that while most of the industry interaction programs are perceived to
be effective by the students, summer projects are extremely important.

However, industry has a different perception about the same. Some of the
programs such as mentorship programs are not followed at majority of the B-
schools but as perceived by the students and the industry they may play a crucial
role.

100%

90% Not follow ed at our B-

school

80%
Not effective at all

70%
It w as ok ( did not make
much difference)
60%

Highly Effective
50%

Effective
40%

30%

20%

10%

0%
Industry exposure Short term Student festivals / Mentorship Visiting Faculty Summer
w eek projects outside seminars / programs ( formal Lectures internship
the curriculum conferences or informal)

As depicted by the last graph below where a dedicated effort was made to figure
out the important industry interaction programs students gave positive inputs on
industry interaction through mentorship which could be a long term process of
industry interaction and can be suitable for industry practitioners as well in
grooming the appropriate talent.
This graph is about responses to the statement “By interacting with industry
mentors along with my curriculum, I stand better chance of being well
equipped compared to my peers”.

Slightly agree
Neutral
13%
8%
Slightly
disagree
2%

Strongly Agree
77%

It clearly depicts the fact that although students / respondents believe that their
academic programs are helping them to have industry interactions, the said
interactions appear to serve limited purpose.

Probably such interactions, if occur in a manner and with a focus on skills as

desired by industry, conducted by the industry experts in conjunction with their
academic programs, they shall make sense to the respondents.

Proposed actionable

Based on the inputs from the students and the industry, it can be concluded that
although students seem to be satisfied with the inputs provided by the institute on
imparting various skills as mentioned above, there are gaps which need to be
addressed to help them face the challenges posed by the industry.

The delivery model seeks to undergo a change which is essentially derived out of
the following improvements at each of the B-schools

• Enhanced practice orientation through industry-focused workshops /

initiatives
• Improving the basics which are building blocks of Indian students entering
management institutions through some basic

We propose that each of the B-school along with its existing curriculum and
activities include the following 8 critical workshops in their program. We have
define these workshops as LEAP – Learn, Enhance effectiveness, Achieve
excellence and Practice thyself workshops.

• Our approach is to change the overall MBA program’s delivery

mechanism with the help of these workshops which can be run
through out the tenure of the program.
• Such workshops help the students, to interact with industry in a
more focused manner while changing their habitual , book-oriented
learning schemes.
 • We believe that these workshops run in conjunction of summer
trainings, internships, other co-curriculum activities can enhance the
attitude to students towards life after MBA. The glamorous
expectations post-MBA life shall be brought down to a far more
realistic ground levels.

The topics for these workshops are chosen based on the above research and
delivery is in a manner that students inculcate these skills in their routine
curriculum. Such a practice helps the students in facing the industry in a well-
informed manner.

The following industry oriented LEAP workshops which help your institute in
improving the effectiveness of your academic program.

LEAP Know-thyself workshop

This is the primary workshop which helps a student to understand her own
personality and career aspirations. Through a psychometric profiling test and
own SWOT analysis a student is made aware of her own strengths and
weaknesses to help them in better planning their future.

This is purely self-assessment workshop where simple techniques are guidance

is provided to the students to know the path they would like to opt in planning for
their future. Systematic career guidance is provided to each of the student and
better awareness is created about grooming themselves well.

LEAP – Reading and comprehending financial dailies workshop

Importance of reading financial dailies for a business management seldom needs

to be emphasized upon. This workshop aims at helping students to understand
financial dailies and newspapers well and use them effectively in business
decision making.

The program is spread over a few months and provides a student with an
opportunity to practice the learning of the workshop in daily life which is definitely
more effective.

LEAP – MS-Excel workshop

Data comprehension and analysis is the kernel of any managerial responsibility.

MS Excel is one of the most widely used and popular tool helping managers in
simplifying their analytical tasks. A good understanding and practice of MS-Excel
is one of the most important managerial skills which must be imparted to the
budding managers at B-schools.
This is another practice oriented program providing a student with crucial inputs
to master this ubiquitous business tool.

LEAP – Building effective relationships workshop

“Every bit of business is all personal.” – Mario Puzo in “The Godfather”

Business is all about relationships and their effective usage for creating value. B-
school curriculum seldom places emphasis on building sustainable relationships
using good communication skills, reading habits and observations.

This is practical program which helps a student with different relationship building
tools which are useful to deal with internal and external customers.
Understanding the role played by culture, background and other softer
personality aspects of an individual in building sustainable relationships is the
focus of the program. This is a very strong program which helps a student in
getting prepared for the work-life which is always oriented along relationships
which matter a lot in any business situations.

LEAP – Doing a business on the street – workshop

This is a 3 day workshop where students are exposed to the most rudimentary
business techniques which are used by street-vendors, traders and small time
businessmen. The workshop is conducted through on-street practical exercises
where students learn along with the facilitators about how to do the business in a
street-smart manner.

LEAP – Management simulation games – workshop*

The author has identified some of the globally acknowledged management

simulation games to be used for giving practical insights about managing
business in a competitive environment. This workshop is conducted in a
computer lab with students team competing against each other applying all the
principles learnt in their academic curriculum.

These games are an interesting learning experience for the students and provide
them a practical experience in a safe and simulated environment.

Gaining expertise in areas mentioned above is a long term process. The above
workshop provides a foundation. Practicing on these lines over a few months
works in a magical manner and has a long term beneficial impact for the
participants.
All the above workshops could be integrated in the B-school’s current curriculum
and may result in increasing the industry interaction amongst the students which
will help them in being locally aware and yet a globally oriented managers.

What could be so different in these workshops?

• The delivery of academic curriculum using the above workshops as

vehicles can significantly be different compared to conventional programs.
These workshops form a very strong basic foundation which is far
desirable in the Indian context.
• The above workshops are in line with what industry needs, which
can help the institute to cater the placement aspirations of their
students in a better manner.
• Focus on using various tools effectively for enhanced learning in academic
courses
• Crucial differentiator for the B-school due to the strong application
orientation of the program
• Not a teaching workshop - but a learn-practice-implement workshop, mark
a significant change in the B-school’s output capabilities.

Conclusion

Systematic mentorship as imparted by these workshops is the need of the hour

as depicted by the students as well as the industry.

Such a mentorship needs some very different delivery models which are more
suitable in Indian context. Such workshops, can supplement the case based
pedagogy and help the Indian B-schools to use the best of these methods,
without forgetting the fact that input quality of students over here is far more
different than those in the globally developed nations and hence solutions
desired by us are drastically different.

Hence, tomorrow’s global Indian B-schools need to adopt the most basic and
rudimentary building blocks for their sustainable future. Based on these blocks,
we can certainly create centers of modern management excellence with our vast
and young population.

References

1. Business Standard – Enhancing effectiveness of Indian B-schools July

-2008
2. GFRI Report on world management institutes 2009
3. Arain and Tipu – Global management education report 2007
4. Global forum for management education report 2010
5. Working report on management education 2008 – National Knowledge
commission