The Hindu Business Line : `B-schools must re-evaluate strategies in grooming students'

Not ruling out consolidations, co-operations and internationalisation of B-Schools in the process of coping with the dramatic and irreversible changes in business environment, Mr Satishkumar said some B-Schools had started to look at satellite research centres, faculty exchange programmes, partial overseas internship for their students and the like.

Coimbatore , Dec. 30

WITH technological disruptions changing business models, B-Schools can no longer afford to sit back and analyse case studies or think of building functional expertise of its future managers.

There is an urgent need to groom leaders aligned to the complexities of the global business environment, observed Mr A. Satishkumar, Managing Director, Henkel SPIC India Ltd.

Delivering the keynote address at the 10th Directors' Conclave, jointly organised by the All India Management Association, Coimbatore Management Association and Jansons School of Business, Mr Satishkumar expressed the need for B-Schools to re-evaluate their strategies in grooming future managers.

He explicitly stated that companies at present looked for good collaborative thinkers, whereas B-Schools delivered good analysts, who competed to apply formulas and for specialised knowledge useful to a particular profession, but Schools groomed generalists, who had trouble digging into special fields.

According to him, B-Schools tended to train people to simply assert their ideas.

Highlighting the issues from B-School perspective, he said it ranged from providing the necessary infrastructure for handling modern management education, to engaging qualified, trained faculty and having adequate research facilities to monitor the changing contours of business.

Not ruling out consolidations, co-operations and internationalisation of B-Schools in the process of coping with the dramatic and irreversible changes in business environment, he said some of the modern B-Schools had started to look at satellite research centres, faculty exchange programmes, partial overseas internship for their students and the like.

While acknowledging the issues confronting management education, he suggested implementation of change in six areas, which, among others include more courses in `people skills' for managing effectively; emphasis on the basic skills and tools for problem solving; providing the basic but firm foundation in theories of economics, measurement, governance, psychology, human behaviour and leadership; practical orientation and by creating differentiated curricula and allowing students concentrate in specific industries.

Professor R.A. Yadav, Vice-Chairman, All-India Council for Technical Education, said the mushroom growth of B-Schools had created regional and quality disparity.

"The gravity of this concern has gone up because of the rising cost of management education coupled with falling acceptance of management graduates. Higher education (both - management and technical) should be accessible, quality driven and transparent (in terms of placement)."