The Hindu Business Line : `Demand for professional managers to increase'

WITH globalisation throwing up lot of employment opportunities and even family-owned business in India increasingly looking for professional managers, the business graduates are much in demand and the country could do with more business schools, according to Prof S. Ganesan, Director, Jansons School of Business, Karumathampatti, near here.

He also feels that there would be shakeout in the `B' schools in the country and only those institutions that offer quality education would be in demand.

Speaking at a news conference here on Friday in connection with the "10th Directors' Conclave", jointly organised by the All-India Management Association and the Coimbatore Management Association, to be held on Dec 29, he said there were around 1,100-1,250 institutions both under All-India Council for Technical Education and outside it offering MBA programmes.

Going by the experience gained in the wake of globalisation, with foreign companies flocking to top ranking `B' schools to recruit MBAs in the country, he said India would become a `hot spot' for management education. He felt that India would need more business schools than at present to meet the growing demand for business graduates.

He said that compared to the situation a few years back, more and more family-owned businesses in India are turning to professional managers to run the companies and are engaging professional consultants. This was so not only in big metros but also in small towns like Erode. Asked whether he anticipated a shakeout in the business schools in view of their mushrooming growth, he said this was already happening in the country. Only those B schools that offered quality education would be able to survive.

On the impact of management schools started in India by management gurus of Indian origin settled broad, Mr Ganesan said it was good for the Indian business schools and said this would motivate at least ten per cent of the Indian business schools to upgrade themselves to international standards.

He said around 100 directors and heads of management institutions were expected to participate in the Director's Conclave that was an annual event and to be held for the first time in Tamil Nadu. The meeting would focus on `Emerging Contours of Business: Issues and Challenges for B-Schools'.