Management Studies Challenges

Academicians to discuss challenges in management education today March 25, 2010

New Delhi: Creating an indigenous model for management education in India today is the most challenging task faced by the business schools. With the growing demand for management education in the country, the upsurge is also felt in the challenges and opportunities. Business leaders, academicians and policy-makers will soon be discussing the challenges involved in higher education in 21st century in India while participating in the Oxford India Business Forum 2010 to be held in New Delhi today. The forum is part of the Said Business School India annual programme. The speakers include Kapil Sibal, minister of Human Resource Development (HRD), Andrew Hamilton, Vice-Chancellor, Oxford University, Meghnad Desai, director, Centre for the Study of Global Governance, LSE, Gita Piramal, director, BP Ergo and Pankaj Chandra, director, IIM Bangalore. Kunal Basu, reader in marketing, Said Business School, Oxford University said that, "Taking India as the epicenter for adapting global management education is a challenge as well as an opportunity." Although the area of action to implement management education is a global one but it is also necessary for the curriculum to reflect local aspirations. Ashoke Dutta, Director, Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Shillong, feels that the curriculum should focus on local case studies where the management principles are broadly examined, questioned and streamlined to meet the challenges of the local/national business environment optimistically. Quality assurance and research excellence are other challenges faced by the management education in India.

MBA education in India: Trends & challenges

Posted about 1 year ago by Pritika Ghura The rise of India as an economic superpower has increased the demand of quality managers who can supervise, manage and increase the growing business of India. Hence, pursuing a MBA degree is a useful proposition for students who want to start earning high salaries. The return on investment is greater if you pursue a MBA from a renowned institute.

While there is no dearth of the programmes ranging across two years' MBA degree or diploma or certificate, executive MBA, evening and part-time MBA even backed with distance learning. But it is the quality of the programme which raises doubts in minds of students and employers. There are many management schools in India which claim to be the best, but the academic standard in many business schools are not up to the mark. It is very important to choose the right B-school as a MBA education is expensive and you want the best ROI in it. It is very important to realise that management institutes vary widely in terms of the quality of faculty, curriculum, infrastructure, and placement record. Against this backdrop, the immediate challenges for management education are:' 1) Dearth of good teachers: To improve the academic standards of MBA education it is important to have well-trained and high-quality teachers. Most of the Indian B-schools fail to attract good faculty and most of them who teach do not have any industry experience. At the same time most of them do not make any efforts to overcome this drawback through keeping themselves updated on whatever is happening in Indian business. Also most of the teachers are not permanent, these teachers are visiting faculty who are paid by the hour and who teach at more than one B-school. 2) BA curriculum: A good curriculum should integrate the diverse academic disciplines for creating managers capable of making ethical and commercially viable decisions in an interconnected world. A quick glance at the MBA curricula of Indian B-schools reveals that competition is relevant only for classroom discussions. The programmes in all institutes are overloaded with a large number of compulsory courses, and there are no elective courses. Also these courses lack on focus, creativity and innovation. The large number of assignments and evaluation that go with every course is making our students only experts in cutting and pasting. The need of the hour is to need to modify the curricula of B-schools by incorporating courses on global leadership, diversity management, managing across cultures, business history, managerial sociology and psychology etc. 3) Stress on skills building: MBA graduates lack soft skills and a creative bent of mind. The B-school should train students to develop their interpersonal skills as increasing size and complexity of organisations require soft skills and counselling to manage diverse teams working in different places. Also knowledge of quantitative data analysis and modelling needs to be strengthened. Professor Bala Balachandran is considered one of the top 10 management gurus of Indian origin in the United States. He represents the first wave of Indian scholars who moved to top U.S.-based business schools and have since contributed to the growing recognition of India as a resource for ideas and academic talent.

Twenty-six years ago, Bala V Balachandran was the only Indian professor at the prestigious Kellogg Graduate School of Management in Chicago, where he has specialized in accounting information systems and decision sciences. He has been with Kellogg for the past 34 years and has contributed richly. He played an important part in the formation of the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, and in the internationalization of MDI Gurgaon. Three years back he decided to set up his own B-school the Great Lakes Institute of Management, in Chennai. He has worked with previous governments in various capacities and is an advisor on the present planning commission. He is on the board of directors of the Credit Rating Information Services of India and is working with people like Sam Pitroda to integrate information technology in states like Gujarat, Maharashta, Punjab and Rajasthan. He is also a consultant to the governments of Israel, Malaysia and Peru.