Are our B-schools doing the job?

Undoubtedly, some of our B-schools are excellent. But many more are still stuck in the classroom-and-lectures routine

In order to survive and grow in the current highly competitive and rapidly changing global business environment, the expectations of business and industrial organisations from business schools are rising.

B-schools can groom managers to meet the challenges only by imparting high-quality education with an international orientation. This means B-schools need to introspect and re-examine the roles they are performing at present, and reorient themselves to the task of providing quality management education.

Are they doing this now? A close scrutiny shows that barring a few good institutions, most business schools do not think they have a role beyond awarding an MBA, PGDM or such similar degrees to students who are willing and able to pay their high fees. They seem to see their role as 'imparting knowledge' on theories and concepts in management to such students, and to help them find suitable and highly-paid placements in business and industry.

The consequence of such a limited role definition means that teachers in B-schools limit their agenda to completing laid-down courses through lectures and assignments. For their part, the students see passing the exams with good marks as their primary goal. This process of teaching makes students passive and dependent. Some teachers even discourage bright students from asking questions, who are sometimes forced to comply because of the significant component of marks assigned to internal assessments, which are handled by teachers.

Such teaching hardly develops in them the ability to apply knowledge to practical business problems, improving analytical and diagnostic skills, and developing the ability to take their own decisions. The teaching process does not help students develop imaginative and innovative solutions to deal with real-life business situations. Much less does it develop their ability to work as effective team members and leaders, teaching them skills to handle tough human problems.

As things stand today, very few institutions utilise the dynamic and interactive methods of learning that are required for developing the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values for effective management education. These methods are interactive, group-based, case-study based, field-based, and role-play and simulation-based. Business games and real-life organisational problem studies are the other student-centred learning methods that need emphasis.

QUALITY MATTERS MOST

Sadly, the problem is most B-school teachers come from classical disciplines and are, therefore, not familiar with such methods. Sometimes, they do not also possess the necessary attitudes and skills to utilise them. Since most of the students in such courses are usually very bright, they learn and acquire the desired skills and competencies needed to face placement interviews, group discussions, and other competencies required by the employers on their own outside the classroom.

A good business school ultimately has to be judged by the quality of the business leaders and highly competent professional managers it produces. Such schools should see their roles as developers of change agents, knowledgeable problem-solvers, creative thinkers, effective team members and team leaders, entrepreneurial risk-takers, and persons who acquire deep theoretical insights with skills to apply them.

They utilise learning processes and experiences for students and participants to enable them to develop the ability to continually acquire insights from new knowledge and experience for enhancing self-awareness, personal development, interpersonal effectiveness, as well as conceptual sophistication in strategic thinking and operational applications through what is described as 'double-loop learning', i.e. the ability of 'learning to learn'.

Further, as stated by Charles Baden Fuller, "The mission of a good school in management is not just to educate and develop aspiring young managers. It is also to develop ideas, theories and evidence that will shape management practices in future." In other words, good quality research and development of new ideas is critical for good quality education in management schools. If a teacher is not engaged in research and development of new ideas, he or she has hardly anything to contribute to a bright student.

There is nothing he can teach that the student cannot learn by himself or herself in these days of information explosion and Internet access. Unfortunately, we have developed very little good quality research and cases to support Indian context-based management education. Students are generally taught through textbooks, cases and research findings developed in other countries, some of which may not work as well in our culture and business environment. We are not tapping the vast reservoir of knowledge, experience, insights and wisdom gained through good scientific research and case development in our own country.

ELUSIVE CENTRAL POINT

The central point, which is often missed in management education, is that it is paradigmatically different from the traditional education in humanities, commerce and social sciences. Management education is multi-disciplinary, applied, and professional in character, and is therefore closer to the system of learning in medical education.

For management institutions, close interface with organisations is as essential as a hospital is for the medical college. And yet, the interface of business schools with industry is limited to placement, summer training or a few guest speaking engagements.

In Europe, on the other hand, long internships in industry or 'sandwich' programmes with long durations of exposure to industry are common. Partnerships with public and private sector organisations are considered to be of strategic importance, not only for financing and placement, but because of substantial support for the development of cutting edge knowledge and intellectual challenge.

The business environment in the present century is going to be increasingly global, technology and knowledge-driven. In other words, highly dynamic and changing. In every product or service today we have a high component of knowledge and technology application as compared to materials and skills in the earlier eras. Business is now increasingly being transacted through the electronic media and the Internet.

Managers are required to negotiate business and to work in different cultures. They have to deal with high-profile knowledge workers. These changes require new levels of information, insights, skills and cross-cultural sensitivities among managers.

To develop these competencies, an international orientation for management education, and exposure of students and teachers to business and education in other countries is becoming important. Some of the leading schools have already introduced international business courses, student and teacher exchange programmes, and joint research projects. However, in most other institutions, such orientation does not exist, or is confined to a few MOUs with overseas universities, which seldom fructify as effective programmes.

Managers in the present era have to learn to manage high complexity with simplicity, as Jack Welch did. Further, they have to manage paradoxes, as Percy Barnevik did.

In addition to the paradoxes of global and local business, a number of other paradoxes are to be managed, such as centralisation and decentralisation, control and flexibility, systems and innovativeness, high stress and relaxation, work and family life, ambition and humility, passion and serenity, entrepreneurship and professionalism, discipline and spontaneity, competition and collaboration.

Some highly effective change leader CEOs describe themselves now as constructive CDOs, i.e. Chief Destruction Officers, who question and challenge most of the existing ways of doing business, managing organisations and systems, use of existing technology, processes of decision-making and implementation.

Organisations are recognising the criticality of effective implementation and rapid responses as much as that of superior strategy. Modern management is about creating and delivering value to customers and consumers through people, technology and organisation in the most superior way.

Business leaders and managers require great clarity of thought and vision, well-articulated objectives and priorities, and the ability to inspire people to give their best in highly effective teams. They have to be able to add value at each link of the supply chain and the value chain. They need superior business models to develop a competitive edge.

THE PANACEA

Above all, business leaders and managers need to think big and have a passion for extraordinary achievements. Contrary to these requirements, as CVC N. Vittal stated at a conference, "When McKinsey goes to Indian companies, their main problem is that their managements are thinking small. They are suffering from what you call 'The aspiration deficit'."

To deal with the issues mentioned above and for grooming managers for the twenty-first century, we may like to examine the European Quality Initiative for management education. Six management associations of European countries came together and formulated "The Equal Dynamic Model for Quality Development" in management education on an invitation from the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD). The model identified nine domains for improving the quality of B-schools.

These are: context and mission, students and participants, programme design and delivery, personal development, contribution to the community, faculty, physical resources, corporate connections, and international issues. Based on this model, the Equal initiative creates a Europe-wide system of quality recognition and development.

To sum up, we need high-quality, Indian context-based management education and world class B-schools with an international orientation for grooming managers to meet the challenges of globalisation in the 21st century. This will enable us to develop our organisations as global players, and can push our country several notches above the present rank in the worldwide competitive index.

(This article was first published in the May 2002 issue of Indian Management)