‘Models of management education will evolve’

Garth Saloner, Dean of Stanford Graduate Business School, is in India to evaluate expanding its presence in South-East Asia, including India, for its flagship programme SEED. Saloner says the current model of offering a two-year MBA programme will evolve and business schools will respond by offering various formats. In an exclusive interview, he discussed the changing dynamics of management education, his school’s plans for India and the trends in entrepreneurship. Excerpts:

What is the agenda of your India visit? Do you have plans to bring any new programmes to India?

We have had tremendous success with the Ignite programme that we have been offering in Bengaluru and we intend to continue it. At Stanford GSB, we have a programme called SEED which is focussed on innovation in developing economies. This programme is already active in West Africa and we plan to do something within the following year somewhere in South East Asia. So part of what I am doing here is talking to people and getting a sense whether we want to bring it to India It's really because of the success of the Ignite programme where we are getting the best of young entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs and our general interest in India that we think are actively considering India as a possible location for SEED.

We are also interested in brining our online executive education programme called LEAD to India. While it doesn’t involve an increased footprint on ground I do think it is a way to be able to increase our reach and impact in India.

In your view, how has management education evolved over the years?

While conventionally, the two-year MBA programme has been the most common model, we are seeing many other models and formats emerge essentially because people want education delivered in different ways.

We will continue to see business schools responding with different offerings in response to these needs. On the content of the programme itself, there is a lot of interest in innovation and entrepreneurship. For us, a lot of that has to do with our presence in Silicon Valley.

How has the ecommerce and technology boom impacted the course and placement at Stanford GSB?

Currently 18 per cent of our graduate students start their own companies straight out of school.

We have seen tremendous interest in subjects such as entrepreneurship, innovation, ecommerce and technology as we are located in Silicon Valley where all of this activity has taken place.

We bring in guest speakers, lecturers from those companies in the Valley and out to keep our students abreast of these changes. So, we are in somewhat of a unique position to constantly update the curriculum.

Our elective curriculum, which students chose in the second year changes very rapidly where about 28 per cent of the classes we offer are new every year.

Have you seen an increase in students and alumni from Stanford GSB return to India for work opportunities?

Yes, we definitely have seen an increase over the years. Ten to 15 years ago, a lot of Indian students were attracted to not just to Stanford but to Silicon Valley.

But now with the incredible growth in India and increasing transformation of the country towards a digital economy and the emphasis on startups and ecommerce, our Indian students see enormous opportunities back home and most of them are coming back.

There have been considerable discussions on increasing the representation of women in B-schools. What steps have you taken at Stanford?

The role of women has been a strong focus of ours and particularly mine as the dean. We now have within our MBA programme 42 per cent women, which is a significant increase from seven years ago.

This is important because it changes the character of the classes that students are in and that has been a goal of ours where we have made a lot of progress.

At the same time, we have made a lot of effort in increasing the proportion of our faculty, who are women because we think it is important that students in class see role models in front of the class that they can easily identify with.

Currently, women constitute 40 per cent of our junior faculty which is a significant increase from few years ago.

How have the scholarships process and funding process evolved for Indian students at Stanford GSB?

We work very hard in increasing scholarship for all students and more than half of our students are able to get financial support. The Ambani scholarship has been there for a number of years and is well-known among Indian students who want to come to Stanford and has played an important role in attracting a diverse set of Indian students.

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