Its A Tough Year For Recruiting, Says Wharton Dean

Patrick T Harker, the 12th dean of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, is on cloud nine. He has just finished with a Wharton India alumni association meeting in the afternoon but images of the pervious evening still preoccupy him. "You should have seen it. The who's who of India Inc was here.

It was absolutely packed," he gushes, "That is the worth and power of the Wharton alumni." On Monday evening, the Wharton Alumni Association had hosted an interactive panel discussion on "Challenges of leading change in turbulent times" at the Taj in Mumbai. The panelists included Reliance managing director (MD) Anil Ambani, HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh, McKinsey MD, Rajat Gupta, ICICI MD & CEO KV Kamath and ITC chairman Yogi Deveshwar. The dean's visit is all about re-establishing contacts with alumni, making a sales pitch to prospective students and pitching for endowments. Excerpts from an interview with Business Standard:

 

How has the management education scene changed after 9/11?

Obviously, the economy has slowed down. It is a tough year for recruiting. Our traditionally large recruiters, large investment banks and consulting firms, are not hiring. Perhaps, because they are overstaffed in relation to the business they have. But the impact of the slowdown is not uniform. There's a lot more demand from other companies, the smaller and non-traditional firms for management students.

What are the specialisations now in demand? Is finance still the favoured or marketing?

At Wharton, education is not so much about specialisation as it is about leadership. We focus on leadership skills that are most needed today. Our education attempts to blend specialisations in a way that our students can think in an integrated way.

Are you regretting the idea of elevating e-business into a hallowed management program?

No. When we started this program, our idea was to apply the existing body of knowledge to the e-business sector. Indeed, when I inaugurated this program I had said: The purpose of starting this programme is to kill it. That is because our idea was to transform this knowledge about e-businesses to transform even existing businesses. E-business is all about new supply chain management, vendor development and even human resource functions. This can usefully be applied to even existing businesses.

Why is that lots of global management schools have set up off-site campuses in Singapore?

One big reason is that the Singapore government is very supportive of higher education. They want Singapore to be the knowledge hub of Asia.

Do you plan to set up an offsite campus in India?

No. Our presence is already here through the Indian School of Business (ISB)in Hyderabad. We are not looking at 'exporting' campuses but setting up local partnerships. And we value the India connection immensely. Indian students form the largest constituent of Wharton students. Four Indians are directors on our executive board for Asia: Anil Ambani, Atul Choksey, Adi Godrej and Narayana Murthy. In fact, Murthy is a co-sponsor of the Wharton-Infosys Business Transformation award that will roll out in Spring 2002.

How does the ISB fit into your plans?

Wharton sees ISB as a very important partner. It helps us gain first hand knowledge about India and is a great supporting node in our network of two campuses in the US, the Singapore Management University and the INSEAD in France (with a campus in Singapore). The future of management education is in networking, in the sharing of knowledge and information. But in order to know, we must find strong local partners all over the world. Hence our commitment to ISB as a founder.

Do you foresee tougher US visa hurdles for students?

At the moment, there are no changes in visa rules. But the US Congress is deliberating the matter. But my advice to all prospective students is to apply early. Then perhaps we will have an early decision for them and they can better plan their visa procedures.

Finally, why Wharton?

Three fundamental reasons. Firstly, because it has the most diverse, international student body among management schools in the US. With INSEAD, we have the most diverse student body in the world. Secondly, due to the depth and strength of our faculty. Thirdly, our students have the benefit of plugging into the 74,000-plus global alumni network.