I have been very critical in my judgements recently about how MBA education in this country has largely become a business which is ruining the possibilities of young talent availability for the corporate world. Additionally, I am sure that a vast majority of the institutes present today in some form or the other are bound to close down if certain important and parallel trends are to be considered.
In the midst of all these, I have been closely following certain Universities for sometime now and it is actually great to see that some of these Universities are actually taking great strides in getting the neccessary internal processes in place to support the MBA program as it should be. They may not have an excellent past record (as some of them are new Universities) but with their current ways of work, they will probably find themselves as leading national brands in the next 2-3 years.
Some of the names that I am mentioning below are based on my understanding of how Universities may probably change the way management education is viewed in India and bring back the rigour and excellent back in the system.
The ones that have future potential and could be excellent places to study in the future are: (not in any order)
1. VIT Vellore - Institute of Business Studies
2. Amrita University
3. Saastra University
4. Karpagam University
5. Prist University
6. Vinayaka Missions University - MBA
7. Veltech University
I have had close interactions with their Deans, faculty, and the administration to understand the ways they would want to go ahead with their programs and the ways they feel MBA should be taught in India. The answers have been commendable and thats really a good thing. It gives me, after my stint of understanding the filth in the system, a feeling of calmness that all is not lost and there will always be Universities and Business Schools like these who will take on responsibility and do the good work.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
12 Things that Indian Business Schools will have to Stop Talking about
In the last decade, there are quite many things that B-schools in India have showcased to lure/attract students into their programs. Due to the excessive usage of these so called "Unique Selling proposition" or at times the "Unique factors" by almost every b-school, these terms have now become irrelevant and are not associated with the way aspirants choose their Business school or programs.
The following things will probably be done away with:
1. Approvals - of the program (mostly AICTE). This no longer has any significance as the majority of the ones with the approvals are the ones sulking and possible are the worst examples of how a b-school shouldn't be.
2. AC Campus - How does it matter?
3. Well Stocked Library - Isn't this the bare minimum of a good MBA/PG program?
4. Free Laptop - Sounds like some Free Lunch being distributed at some temple and therefore will attract people to join. Heck! Why would someone who is paying Rs.5,00,000 as a course fee and additional expenses along with that have pains to buy a laptop worth Rs.25,000? And more so, how can this be a salient feature of a program?
5. Placement (100%) - A closer look with say how much of this is true. Some in the industry speak of horrific stories of how HR departments are paid money by a bschool to get the student an offer for 3 months and then probably chuck him out. If this is true, then thats a big scandal in itself. The important question is - Do I want to join an Educational institute or a Placement Agency to find me a job?
6. Additional Program of SAP - This is actually laughable stock. I mean, there are so many credits available for students in some of the best institutes that something like this is hillarious.
7. Hostel Facility - Why does anyone have to mention this as one of the key features?
8. Visiting Faculty from XYZ Institutes - Which means that full-time faculty strength is low or absent and therefore academic rigour is absent. visiting faculty is always a way of saving cost for any b-school.
9. Hygenic Canteen - As if food in other campuses kill aspirants.
10. Wi-fi Campus - If I belong to the 1990s and have slept after that to be woken up to do an MBA, I may say "wow" to that. People who understand the way technology has evolved and the requirements to be provided to MBA students, they will find this mention amusing.
11. Scholarships - At the counseling stage, this becomes "Discount". Education becomes some kind of bargainable commodity. This factor has been overused and aspirants have no respect for something like this anymore, therefore this too is avoidable in communications to aspirants.
12. International Curriculum - Some even go the distance of saying that their curriculum reflects those of Harvard's or Wharton's. For the unknown, this might be an attraction, but for the larger section of aspirants who are aware of facts and do their research, this is a LIE. You cannot ever replicate the curriculum of those Universities because the kind of credits available and the amount of teaching hours and number of Professors teaching there is not possible to be replicated by even some of the best in India.
If B-schools avoid these and get into properly identifying themselves with the aspirants, it will be better for the bschools in every possible way. The question is - do they have anything substantial to talk about if they choose to omit these from their Advertisements?
The following things will probably be done away with:
1. Approvals - of the program (mostly AICTE). This no longer has any significance as the majority of the ones with the approvals are the ones sulking and possible are the worst examples of how a b-school shouldn't be.
2. AC Campus - How does it matter?
3. Well Stocked Library - Isn't this the bare minimum of a good MBA/PG program?
4. Free Laptop - Sounds like some Free Lunch being distributed at some temple and therefore will attract people to join. Heck! Why would someone who is paying Rs.5,00,000 as a course fee and additional expenses along with that have pains to buy a laptop worth Rs.25,000? And more so, how can this be a salient feature of a program?
5. Placement (100%) - A closer look with say how much of this is true. Some in the industry speak of horrific stories of how HR departments are paid money by a bschool to get the student an offer for 3 months and then probably chuck him out. If this is true, then thats a big scandal in itself. The important question is - Do I want to join an Educational institute or a Placement Agency to find me a job?
6. Additional Program of SAP - This is actually laughable stock. I mean, there are so many credits available for students in some of the best institutes that something like this is hillarious.
7. Hostel Facility - Why does anyone have to mention this as one of the key features?
8. Visiting Faculty from XYZ Institutes - Which means that full-time faculty strength is low or absent and therefore academic rigour is absent. visiting faculty is always a way of saving cost for any b-school.
9. Hygenic Canteen - As if food in other campuses kill aspirants.
10. Wi-fi Campus - If I belong to the 1990s and have slept after that to be woken up to do an MBA, I may say "wow" to that. People who understand the way technology has evolved and the requirements to be provided to MBA students, they will find this mention amusing.
11. Scholarships - At the counseling stage, this becomes "Discount". Education becomes some kind of bargainable commodity. This factor has been overused and aspirants have no respect for something like this anymore, therefore this too is avoidable in communications to aspirants.
12. International Curriculum - Some even go the distance of saying that their curriculum reflects those of Harvard's or Wharton's. For the unknown, this might be an attraction, but for the larger section of aspirants who are aware of facts and do their research, this is a LIE. You cannot ever replicate the curriculum of those Universities because the kind of credits available and the amount of teaching hours and number of Professors teaching there is not possible to be replicated by even some of the best in India.
If B-schools avoid these and get into properly identifying themselves with the aspirants, it will be better for the bschools in every possible way. The question is - do they have anything substantial to talk about if they choose to omit these from their Advertisements?
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
[Fiction] - The conspiracy theory behind 2nd rung B-schools failing in India
Story:
Some years back, when management education was just accepted as the most important thing to happen for India and people started participating in entrance tests with a lot of interest, there was a growth story that tickled many educators to start their own management schools and programs.
The biggest and the best names were definitely the IIMs (at that time, there were only 5 of them). Therefore most of the new business schools replicated what worked for the IIM.: curriculum, project work, case studies, etc. Some even went to the extent of creating illusionary cut-offs so that they are perceived in the same league as the best institutions.
What did this mean?
Ans: This meant the following:
1. If the IIM was charging a fee of Rs.4,00,000 for the entire program, these bschools too charged same or a bit less to maintain parity
2. If the IIM was showing certain trends in placements, these bschools too tried to get similar companies for their own placements.
3. If IIM was saying that an X-factor is important in the GD-PI or industry interaction was done in a "Y" way, then these bschools also tried to do the same.
So what transpired is that for every move the IIM made, there were about 1000 business schools who followed the same and talked the same language. Everyone talked about infrastructure in hostels, classrooms, library, industry interaction (Heck ! some even got themselves ranked as the ones who are the best in Industry interaction), PLACEMENTS, etc.
Anyone with a little analysis and common sense would now understand that whatever the IIM did, these bschools were certain to replicate that.
Things like these (replication i.e.) work for sometime and it did for a lot of these bschools.
Now, all of a sudden, the IIMs raised their tuition fee to about Rs.8-9 lakhs. This was interpreted by the other bschools as - "Students will now feel that with lesser fee, our bschools are providing lesser quality education. So let us increase our fee as well."
And they did!
The point missed by them was - the parity between the fee paid and the placement achieved along with the brand-value of an IIM is unbeatable and that IIMs will always have that leverage in the mindshare of aspirants.
They will never get there because they didnt have the number of years as a proof of quality educator and they also dont have the intellectual property that an IIM commands. We should also remember here that the IIM is a body thats supported by the Ministry of HRD itself.
Add to the this entire situation the current trend of aspirants profiling wherein about 60% of the entrance test takers are with prior work experience. these are people who are wary about the ROI equation and brand leveraging in their careers.
Almost every other business school has increased its tuition fee and therefore cannot back-track and work out any reduction in prices in the coming years. Which means that they now face a challenge of answering very tough questions -
Q1. Are they in the same league as of the IIMs with similar fee structures? So is it worth going for them vis-a-vis the IIMs who are now coming up with new branches? (they already have 6 campuses).
Q2. Given that placement figures from these other b-schools cannot provide anything similar to the IIMs, how will they ever explain the ROI of investing so much money as fees?
Q3. Most of the 2nd rung b-schools are run on leased premises and have high advertising costs and operations expenses. How will they manage the mathematics of survival given that admission rates will drop?
As of now, the future game looks like this:
-> IIMs and some other top-Business schools will open multiple campuses across India.
-> Their intakes will increase - it is a trend already and they can support such intakes with their infrastructure and Govt backing.
-> Placements will continue to be good at the IIMs due to their brand equity and also due to their Alumni base in India Inc.
-> IIMs will probably set the work-experience barrier and convince India Inc about the advantages of the same. This will lead to further narrowing down chances of survival of other 2nd rung business schools.
What does this mean for 2nd Rung Business Schools?
- End of the way: they will not be able to survive if IIMs increase their capacities and campuses and provide more choices to the students.
- These institutes may then get into super-specialized programs providing inexpensive solutions to certain domains.
It seems unlikely that the best minds in the IIMs were not aware of the trends that would happen after every action of theirs. They knew that every action they would have taken, things would have changed in the domain. And it really did. Thats the power of controlling the mindshare of lakhs of aspirants in India.
Some years back, when management education was just accepted as the most important thing to happen for India and people started participating in entrance tests with a lot of interest, there was a growth story that tickled many educators to start their own management schools and programs.
The biggest and the best names were definitely the IIMs (at that time, there were only 5 of them). Therefore most of the new business schools replicated what worked for the IIM.: curriculum, project work, case studies, etc. Some even went to the extent of creating illusionary cut-offs so that they are perceived in the same league as the best institutions.
What did this mean?
Ans: This meant the following:
1. If the IIM was charging a fee of Rs.4,00,000 for the entire program, these bschools too charged same or a bit less to maintain parity
2. If the IIM was showing certain trends in placements, these bschools too tried to get similar companies for their own placements.
3. If IIM was saying that an X-factor is important in the GD-PI or industry interaction was done in a "Y" way, then these bschools also tried to do the same.
So what transpired is that for every move the IIM made, there were about 1000 business schools who followed the same and talked the same language. Everyone talked about infrastructure in hostels, classrooms, library, industry interaction (Heck ! some even got themselves ranked as the ones who are the best in Industry interaction), PLACEMENTS, etc.
Anyone with a little analysis and common sense would now understand that whatever the IIM did, these bschools were certain to replicate that.
Things like these (replication i.e.) work for sometime and it did for a lot of these bschools.
Now, all of a sudden, the IIMs raised their tuition fee to about Rs.8-9 lakhs. This was interpreted by the other bschools as - "Students will now feel that with lesser fee, our bschools are providing lesser quality education. So let us increase our fee as well."
And they did!
The point missed by them was - the parity between the fee paid and the placement achieved along with the brand-value of an IIM is unbeatable and that IIMs will always have that leverage in the mindshare of aspirants.
They will never get there because they didnt have the number of years as a proof of quality educator and they also dont have the intellectual property that an IIM commands. We should also remember here that the IIM is a body thats supported by the Ministry of HRD itself.
Add to the this entire situation the current trend of aspirants profiling wherein about 60% of the entrance test takers are with prior work experience. these are people who are wary about the ROI equation and brand leveraging in their careers.
Almost every other business school has increased its tuition fee and therefore cannot back-track and work out any reduction in prices in the coming years. Which means that they now face a challenge of answering very tough questions -
Q1. Are they in the same league as of the IIMs with similar fee structures? So is it worth going for them vis-a-vis the IIMs who are now coming up with new branches? (they already have 6 campuses).
Q2. Given that placement figures from these other b-schools cannot provide anything similar to the IIMs, how will they ever explain the ROI of investing so much money as fees?
Q3. Most of the 2nd rung b-schools are run on leased premises and have high advertising costs and operations expenses. How will they manage the mathematics of survival given that admission rates will drop?
As of now, the future game looks like this:
-> IIMs and some other top-Business schools will open multiple campuses across India.
-> Their intakes will increase - it is a trend already and they can support such intakes with their infrastructure and Govt backing.
-> Placements will continue to be good at the IIMs due to their brand equity and also due to their Alumni base in India Inc.
-> IIMs will probably set the work-experience barrier and convince India Inc about the advantages of the same. This will lead to further narrowing down chances of survival of other 2nd rung business schools.
What does this mean for 2nd Rung Business Schools?
- End of the way: they will not be able to survive if IIMs increase their capacities and campuses and provide more choices to the students.
- These institutes may then get into super-specialized programs providing inexpensive solutions to certain domains.
It seems unlikely that the best minds in the IIMs were not aware of the trends that would happen after every action of theirs. They knew that every action they would have taken, things would have changed in the domain. And it really did. Thats the power of controlling the mindshare of lakhs of aspirants in India.
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