The Hindu Business Line : B-schools at the crossroads

From adopting integrative curriculums to placements that look beyond plum positions, B-schools have to reorient themselves to meet the demands of tomorrow..

The MBA … the starting point for a lifelong journey of learning.

Arun Pereira

(The second and concluding part of an article that looks at the changing face of management education and the agenda that the B-schools of tomorrow need to pursue to meet the changing expectations of MBA graduates.)

Integrative, interdisciplinary curriculum

The curriculum in B-schools continues to be silo-like, functionally focussed. Not surprisingly, the mantra that has echoed in the halls of B-schools in the recent past has been “integrative thinking”. Although that is vital, tomorrow's B-schools will fail in their mission if they are focused on facilitating integrative learning of the business functions only; these functions are obviously critical, but they may not be sufficient for successful business leadership.

To help produce the type of transformative leaders discussed in the first part of the article published last week, B-schools should provide students access to non-traditional knowledge areas. For example, the training one needs to run a successful financial institution goes beyond the knowledge of business functions and likely includes an understanding of public policy, law, and politics.

The importance of New Delhi to Dalal Street or Washington to Wall Street is more critical than we think, and the distance between them is shorter than one would imagine, if you are trying to succeed in business.

We can expect tomorrow's MBA aspirants to seek out B-schools that offer flexible curriculums to help them succeed in diverse industries, and to enable them to navigate through the fundamentally different cultures and processes seen in public institutions, private-public partnerships, multinational corporations and entrepreneurial ventures.

Students will expect variety in curriculums that could range from subjects such as the environment, energy, and public policy to healthcare and design. Equally important, there will be a need to integrate these topics within traditional business courses; for example, students working on assignments should not simply measure the impact of a business decision on say, market share, but possibly, analyse its short-term and long-term impact on say, the environment.

Further, tomorrow's curriculums in B-schools will have to break free of the legacy of Western business education and focus on the unique needs of the vast growth markets of tomorrow — that include Prahalad's insights on the “bottom of the pyramid.”

Success in these markets imply overcoming challenges in the context of consumer literacy, communication, and distribution, all of which call for content that will need to diverge from traditional, Western approaches to business education.

Thus, for example, tomorrow's curriculums must include a focus on enabling innovations in emerging markets and methods to tackle its associated challenges. These challenges, including new financial instruments that cater to developing markets, be it methods to identify credit-worthy customers among unorganised labour or expanded microfinance products such as micro-lease, micro-insurance, micro-pensions and the like. Also, new methods of marketing research for the “bottom-of-the-pyramid” require creative approaches to survey and measure key issues such as customer needs, preference and choice because of hurdles such as customer illiteracy or semi-literacy. These methods are being developed and can be expected to become a part of curriculums in the successful B-schools of tomorrow.

Placement redefined

Jack Welch, the famed former CEO of General Electric, once said that MBA schools had become glorified placement agencies, rather than the place where great business leaders are born. Although that remark may have been made tongue-in-cheek, Welch was making an important point about the misplaced attention given by students, the media, and many B-schools to placement statistics of graduating students.

The B-schools of tomorrow must convey the relevance of the MBA as the starting point for lifelong learning that goes hand-in-hand with a growing career.

In this model, students who forego traditional placement for entrepreneurial activities are valued as much and may be, even more, than those choosing traditional placement. Thus, not-for-profit social entrepreneurs and traditional entrepreneurs who have the potential to make an impact on society and the economy should be celebrated as much as those who get the immediate rewards of a high-paying consulting job.

The often talked about notion of “it's a marathon, not a sprint” with regard to post-MBA success should become an important priority for the B-schools of tomorrow. To do so, B-schools will have to provide resources to help guide such a “marathoner,” be it in the form of stipends and incubation facilities that reward, say a far-thinking social entrepreneur with a vision, or provide alumni access to mentoring and opportunities for continued education, so that “life-long” learning is not a hollow promise, but a real differentiator between excellent and mediocre B-schools.

Conclusion

Today, management education is at a crossroads. There are unique opportunities emerging from the changes, challenges, and expectations shaped by technology, market needs, the public's perception of business, and discerning MBA aspirants.

The B-schools that excel tomorrow will likely be those that grab these opportunities by modifying existing curricula to address the public's expanded expectations of business leaders and cater to new priorities in emerging markets.

Further, these schools will need to make available to their students areas of knowledge outside traditional business functions, and facilitate life-long learning for their alums by providing access to modern knowledge from faculty involved in cutting-edge research, and offering these faculty incentives to be involved in beyond-the-classroom teaching and mentorship.

This is a high order; however, the B-schools that pursue such an agenda will likely emerge as true catalysts of change in the personal growth of budding business leaders, and through them, in the growth of corporations and communities of tomorrow.

(Concluded)

(The writer is a Clinical Associate Professor of Management Education and Head, Initiative for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at the Indian School of Business. This article was published in ISB Insight, the journal of the ISB.)