Management education system must shift to practical orientation

Management education system should shift to practical orientation rather than sticking to scoring marks and reading books. The roll of a project manager in today's environment is all the more redefined in that his skills should competitively match those on a global arena, according to Mr A Chandrasekaran, Director of the Chennai-based Infycareer Private Ltd.

“We receive bio-data of management students of Malaysia, Philippines and Vietnam and people are willing to travel across the world with the internet easing the communication. So we expect the managers to be of the global standards,” Mr Chandrasekaran told a gathering of management students of TamilNadu College of Engineering (TCE) held here under the banner of Business Line Club sponsored by Tata Photon.

As the marketing is no more confined to local areas, the project management has to inevitably embrace the concept of managing the human capital including the management of highly talented people which is no mean a task given the knowledge spread among the youth, he felt.

Turning to student project preparation, Mr Chandrasekaran has this advice: Try to fix a requirement for a project which is important; a mere assumption will do no good. Any project should define itself by sticking to a definite starting and definite ending with successful completion.

The five guiding principles are project initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and control besides the close of the project. The other essential elements of project management are the scope, schedule and cost as money delayed amounted to money denied.

Ms Anusha R. Mahesh, Chief Executive Officer, TCE, underlined the need for managers to go beyond the obvious if they wanted to face challenges in today's changed economic environment. Mr P. Vijayakumar, Assistant Regional General Manager, The Hindu, Coimbatore and Dr C. Kalaiarasan, Principal of the college spoke on the occasion.

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