 "Sushil Vachani")
The newly-appointed director of Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB) Sushil Vachani has set his eyes far for IIMB. The 63-year-old Professor of Strategy and Innovation at Boston University’s School of Management is on a five-year contract for the post. Vachani tells Praveen Bose about his vision and the direction he wants to steer the IIM. Excerpts:
With your vast exposure abroad, what would you implement from your learnings?
The more different settings you operate in, more ideas you get. We need to go out of the country to see what others do. We have to expose students and the faculty to global experience. They have to be convinced about how things work abroad. I have seen how the Japanese work. I have taught Japanese students and worked with Japanese companies. I have been trying to change the way of thinking. In the US you have a strong international exposure. We will consult the major stakeholders and we will have clarity on the different things to have for a much stronger international exposure. That's what the Chinese do. Go to Beijing... You have groups of 30-40 members doing courses exposing them to other countries. They learn about the socio-economic environment of the different countries. The Chinese's realisation that they need a change in perspective to understand the world made them change their outlook. We have to change too. If the Chinese do, the Japanese do, we have to do. We need a good understanding of the markets globally.
What would be your main focus?
In India, education is excellent. From the international perspective, though, there's a shortfall. One of the main focus for me will be to give more international exposure to the students.
Another area of focus for me is the way education is delivered. There's a large population that gets no quality education. They are natural assets. Now we have world class faculty. We need to make a social impact through entrepreneurial programmes, and then deliver education. Hence, the three major areas of focus are first, give a global perspective; two, have a social impact; and three, use technology to reach out to a larger population.
Would reaching out to the larger population include MOOCs or the Massive Online Open Courses? What's the take of the new government on MOOCs?
The use of technology for education will eventually happen. In future, however, MOOCs will allow quality education of the best kind. It has to be creative. It's very different from what's delivered in long distance education. But, first we need a platform. The delivery of courses has to be combined with something to make it interesting. It will happen in real time, for the individual. MOOCs are platforms to deliver education. and reach out to a larger population. You don't need to be here on the campus. Suppose you have a small business, but are struggling in marketing... then we have a short programme in marketing. We can create a large army of trained personnel. Hence, we have a social role to play with technology.
The present government is interested in MOOCs. The government is on the ball on that. An impact of MOOCs would be that the faculty delivering the course has an opportunity cost. A lot of investment will have to be made, both in terms of time and money. Once you have access, then you become good at it. Then many benefits come. The biggest benefit for the faculty is from their exposure to offering distance education and then improving education inside classrooms. They will engage with thousands of people, and for this you will have to have an intelligent system. Once we have figured it out, we will learn what we can teach, and what would be useful. In 5-10 years, the faculty will become richer. Also, we will know what would be more useful in the class.
What are the issues in delivery of MOOCs?
All IIMs have their own courses. A platform is the most important one. But, a platform is very expensive. The government could set up one. The Chinese have their own platform. Unlike, distance education which has been there for 20-30 years and often was not of good quality. There was no branding there. Now we are making a quantum jump. There would be pressures too. IIMB will be delivering MOOCs as IIMBX. It will offer on edX platform, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based non-profit enterprise created by founding partners Harvard varsity and MIT, offers interactive online classes from the world’s best varsities.
What are the benefits and impact of MOOCs?
MOOCs allows education to come on smartphone and 80 per cent of the people today have smartphones. We are very excited about the opportunities for the masses who would have had no hope 10 years ago. But, MOOCs will be a costly affair since we have to do so much learning. We need to develop the infrastructure. In the beginning it will be an investment. Right now, we have an entry barrier. Access to platform is the entry barrier. It's no cost for the person taking up a course on MOOCs.
We don't know what education will look like in the next 10-20 years. But, in five years, through MOOCs we can deliver knowledge to a global audience. I don't know what the contours of it will look like. Globalisation of education will happen for sure. It will be wonderful for people to know what is happening across the world. Education will happen all the time.
With new IIMs being mooted, would it be a challenge for them to find the right faculty?
Right now, the IIMs and IITs, and probably the new IITs, in particular, face difficulty in finding good quality faculty. IIT, Kanpur, had faced a similar situation many years ago. The same problem existed even 10 years ago. But, it's not as bad today.
We have to find the faculty with the right training. So, I think we have to make sure of world-class teaching while we have a stronger education system. We need stronger doctorates and faculty. But, we should not hold back. There are teachers available from abroad. They could be NRIs who want to come here and many are those who can be attracted to come and teach.
Look at the airlines sector; pilots are from Russia and South American countries. We have to find NRIs, and have to find people from other geographies for disciplines where people are not there here. We have earlier examples of the Nizam of Hyderabad or Akbar who brought good quality teachers from all over the world. We should not compromise on education. In short, run well, and you attract people from abroad. We have to take the help of the alumni, and retired executives, as sometimes they provide more insights than what a professor can.
How much of a challenge is it to attract faculty from abroad to teach at IIM?
Today, the excitement about India is much more. Now, suddenly, there is more excitement from people abroad to come to India. Even in slower times we have had interest from abroad. There's opportunity for such people at new IIMs. Even during the previous government's tenure when the growth rate was slow, we have had faculty coming from abroad to teach here. There will be more excitement from people abroad to come here. People wanted to come to Bangalore, and come to India.
If you provide a beautiful campus, even if it is far from the city, such as the IIM-Kozhikode, and provide facilities, faculty will come.
Do you see the cost of education coming down?
The pricing of education is also subject to the law of supply and demand. More the supply, the cost will automatically come down. The market will decide. If you keep increasing prices, and MOOCs come, then the increase in cost of education for the students will be much lower than inflation. The real cost of education will come down.
Will executive management programmes remain cash cows?
I think executive management programmes are more than cash cows. It allows IIMs to give what the people want, and IIM can give the best combo. It would be a waste of resources for them otherwise. It will give targeted courses that meet their needs. Customised programmes will remain important.
