Saving Indian B-schools from extinction

I have written in the past about how b-schools in India are on the verge of closing down (about 2 years back), and then I had predicted that there is a probability of a second wave of growth in the domain to allow some of the borderline players to actually top-grade and survive.

In the past 1 year, a lot of things have changed (for bad) primarily based on certain decisions made by regulatory bodies in the MBA domain that were backed by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (that oversees and kind of controls regulatory bodies like AICTE, UGC, etc).

To begin with, the AICTE introduced a common test (the CMAT) to replace most of the state run entrance test (like the Maharashtra CET, GCET, amongst others). The idea seemed to be providing a common platform and standardized testing for students who would now be seeking admissions into bschools that were under the purview of AICTE (which is almost everyone actually). The perceived objective (as mentioned by AICTE during their concerns over standard of education in MBA colleges, while representing themselves in front of the Supreme Court of India), was to provide some semblance in the selection process to allow colleges under AICTE to get access to good quality students. Therefore other tests (like the MAT) were taken out from 2012.

I have my own reservations on how CMAT will really solve the problem and I have written against the same before. I still stand by my observations that this test will produce no measurable results and good quality improvements across AICTE regulated bschools.

I am worried on the flip-side of the whole exercise - that which takes into account the number of bschools across many states (those that were til date getting students through State_CET and common counseling process) who are going to find themselves with empty classrooms even in this year (this has already happened last year).

The real problem is the perceived lack of quality in these bschools along with structural issues that do not allow such bschools to be a part of the mainstream action. This kind of mainstream action is enjoyed by the top100 bschools in any rankings and these bodies are now expanding their reach even outside India with their international campuses.

Out of the 2000 odd bschools in India, probably not more than 15% are above the perceptual barrier of applicants looking at MBA (that number amounts to about 70% of all MBA applicants in India who are looking at applying to only 15% of the bschools)

The solution is not another test, and it never was.

To my mind, the process should have some reflection of the points suggested below:
- Make a list and then a category of bschools under AICTE that have everything else (infra mostly, and are not insolvent) other than the students

- Once the bschools are categorized, include them into a 7-year plan of improving these bschools into seats of excellence

- Introduce a bill or special conditions in the existing bills of higher education investments/funding,
wherein International Universities and b-schools can only tie-up with the shortlisted bschools (from the above point) in India

- Make this compulsory and provide excellent sops to these international Universities who will associate with these existing bschools. The Univs get to access the infra and land through these existing bschools, and in return they make the Indian institute their partner in this venture. All faculty, books, collaborations, etc can be renewed under the new umbrella brand and therefore a leash of life will be given to the Indian bschool

- Allow 7 years for the new JV to flourish with Govt funding, relaxed norms, and other advantages that will allow the International University to make this concern grow and be one of most sought after destinations in India

- Regulate the admission process, but allow autonomy in terms of the curriculum etc so that such things can become the USP of most of these revamped colleges

- Go for a Round 2 with the next category of bschools in India

I am looking at saving about 1000 more bschools in India that will DIE if the right set of measures are not taken. Students just don't choose these bschools due to reasons other than ease of application. A Student would want to associate with a good brand and the Min of HRD will do good work if they allow these bschools to flourish as brands rather than solve the gateway problems.

Some critics might say that we cannot depend on foreign Universities solving our problems. To them I want to say that our problem at most times is the lack of vision and unavailability or no-access to quality courseware and talent. In a country where the high watermark of MBA education in an IIM, then we ought to do something improves the quality of talent available for our future managers.
I hope something like this can be done as soon as possible and then AICTE allows the autonomy to these institutions to become excellent examples/models for other to follow.

Else we might witness more bschools closing down in the coming years.

Are we still producing "Glorified Clerks"?

A long time before independance, Indians were a part of the workforce that was created by the East India Company (at first) and then the British Government. Some of those early sought-after jobs were the Writers (probably you will remember the Writers' building Kolkata) wherein Indians were hired and became the standard of the best job that a middle class or an aspiring Indian can find at that time. The job (people called them Babus, a word that probably originated from the then British Capital - Kolkata), gave these selected Indians an access to a better life and obviously the social status of something that wasn't replicable by anyone else.
So given that was probably the genesis of Corporate Life in India (since no other recorded organnization had any structure that reflects present day worklife before the Britishers brought that in), the very same premise has designed perceptions over the last 60-80 years about job, career, social status, etc into the lives of millions of Indians.
The British Education system took care of the rest - by defining that if you are educated in the english medium schools (then started by the Missionaries), you had a better chance to "good life". For us Indians, a good life obviously meant - owned property, good investments and bank balance, perks like cars and maids, and socially accepted aura that you are the one who "made it" amongst others.
This was also the reason why many of pre-independance rich families always wanted the British to rule since it meant acceptance from the very people who set those standards. If you can remember, some of the well known families sent their sons for learning Law at Oxford or Cambridge.
In the meanwhile, post independance the nearest and easiest way to map the standard of life which can be replicated across the population and available to the then aspiring middle class was - the remains of the British legacy. It defined the way their sons could actually become better in life. Everyone wanted a certain way of life defined by our Masters.
Tne trouble is that some of it still exits today and one can see the DNA of the aspiring classes of India still defining careers, success, ideologies, etc in the same vein. It is the reason we have glorified academic achievements and government jobs for more than 40 years post Independance, and very recently we Indians lived upto the fact that even the private sector is something that we need to now exploit.
So for the government jobs, we had standardized entrance tests (like the UPSC) and parents wanted their children to study on for that no matter what the sons or daughters wanted to do in life. Something similar happened for private jobs - we started producing Engineers for the first phase of companies that were doing good in India (namely Manufacturing, Oil, IT etc) and then resorted to producing MBAs for the remaining of the growing sectors.
So today we produce Engineers who are rushing to join a Business school with "passion" for finance or marketing or some wierd thing. They are "passionate" about "numbers" and have "analytical skills" and therefore they want to dedicate their lives for the MBA program.
It looks like there is no end for the aspiring population of India (mostly the middle class, who need a guarantee for even the Fan they purchase) to create the best clerks again for a companies that reflect almost the same class-structure that existed probably a hundred years back. The difference is that today, the divide is between the same countrymen who want to distinguish themselves by the kind of pedigree they have got (from a certain college), and then engage in creating no value for theselves of their company. It is all about - security, politics, better cars, better apartments, better food, etc.
When will the DNA change? Who will make that happen? What is the cost for making that change happen?
The Call-center industry showed that we can still be trusted to do the dirty work of others at a cheaper price. Are we still the unevolved "babu" inside? Is that the best that we can achieve?
Do we need someone else to tell us about our true worth?

The Risk of maintaining status-quo

In the recent times, most of my sales reps ave got stuck after brilliant interactions with the client-side teams and doing everything right as per the best B2B practices followed by every individual.

The troubles always crept up after the final meetings were held and somehow each deal went into a rotting period wherein nothing really came out of any followup call or mail or fax etc.

We were successful in convincing them on the solution and all the hard work that went behind getting them to understand the value of our solution was well accepted by each client-rep at the meeting. Everyone agreed that the proposed 360D approach on digital marketing suggested by us and the kind of inputs given by us were amazing.

As a part of new age consultative sales, we were successful in getting the facts and obvious benefits of associating with us, etc RIGHT and therefore it was difficult at first go to understand what caused such delays.

After some recent reading of articles related to sales, I have come to infer that what we missed in the whole picture was actually the center piece of the puzzle - that we didn't establish the fact of the degree of RISK involved in maintaining their current status-quo of not solving their problems TODAY. What's the risk of maintaining status-quo? What's the risk in terms of brand, revenues, future revenue losses, results, growth etc? Why should they be convinced that they need to do something and do it now? Why should they then look at solving that issue from the best solution-provider? What's the cost that they are then ready to pay?

I don't think I need a sales team that sells according to the whims and fancies of clients or customers. That's because if it will be always according to the timeline and needs of the customer, why should I have a field-sales team for B2B? I can suffice by hiring an inbound-sales team that will act more like a call center.

Without crossing this first level of prospecting objective - "to ensure they understand the cost and the risk of maintaining status-quo", I am sure my solution level selling will hit the bottlenecks that it is hitting right now. Given the profile of clients that are stalling such deals (bordering the limits of laziness in innovating and implementing new systems) such an added level of getting them to agree that they need to act and act fast to win the losing battle needs to be done by each sales rep.

One of the toughest questions to answer for any sales rep is - "What happened to this deal that you said will finalize in the next few days?? Its been more than a week now?"

For practitioners of consultative sales and mostly in B2B sales, one usually focuses more in getting the right kind of process flow, meeting the right people, convincing every person in the decision tree that the solution is the best, and then propose the best possible program for the client, following-through the commitments and creating an excellent premise for customer delight all the way. But as it is proving out to be, these are not completing the entire picture for a sales rep. They now need to also ensure that they get the client to agree that the organization needs to act and come out of status quo.

Is it a sales problem? I don't think so. Because if its attacked via sales, the problem and then the latter part of the solution selling will blow the sales cycle out of proportion. I will want to give the power of marketing to the sale rep and let the person design the marketing program effectively to specifically address this very problem.

The rising of a Second wave amongst Indian B-schools

The Indian MBA scene is a classic example of "how not to do things by copying others". This statement can be supported by the following facts:
- There are only a handful (about 5-7 bschools) that can be considered in the top league attracting applications from majority of the applicants base in India
- The only claim to fame for the remaining bschools is how their processes mirror either the pedagogy of certain IIMs or how they have faculty that's ex-IIMs. Thats the best that this other section really care about
- On any given day, applicants who take up the CAT (Common Admission Test), are aware of not more than 50-60 bschools in India, amongst whom there are about 30 that they will individually list down for applications
- "Case Study method" is the best that the other majority has been able to match up with, given that's something followed at some IIMs. However, majority of the bschools don't even have the intellectual capacity nor the desired objectives for such a delivery mechanism
- Majority of the bschools in India run with empty seats - a fact that has been highlighted many times in the last couple of years

What's the problem really?
These schools have a basic fault in thier DNA. They are founded by people for whom the IIM is the pinnacle of all innovations and high watermark of MBA education. There is absolutely no desire to understand (as a founder) and design benchmarks that are different and probably better than what an IIM can do for itself. But since we started copying an IIM, how can we do anything that can be better than an IIM, or in that case any other top notch bschool in this country?
This whole problem of copying and limiting one's intelligence to such standards has harmed our MBA scene already and if corrective measures are not taken right away, then it will hurt us more. Our MBA programs throughout the country are nothing but failed attempts at addressing something that is obsolete already. We don't produce grads today who are "in the zone" and know what they are doing with their careers.
The age-old problems like the "herd" behavior wherein people in middle-class India joined MBA due to a sudden golden opportunity that they saw their neighbours' children get, has added to the rot that begins with too many faulty institutions and programs.
A quick look at the representation of the Indian bschool's scene will reveal the kind of trouble we are starting into but are probably choosing to ignore:

This diagram will allow us to understand the fact that majority of our Indian Bschools are considered "Similar and Average" in nature thereby slotting them into a large category. This is significant, because all new bschools and programs that are talking almost the same language are being shunted into this category by applicants themselves. This is no media ranking. This is based more on perceptions of students who are the prospective applicants for such bschools.
The number of preferred bschools, according to this curve, is around 15% of the overall population of bschools in India. The current trend amongst these bschools is the fact that they are increasing the number of new campuses and programs under their umbrella brands. They definitely have a reason to believe that this will work. The following diagram will show you why:

About 70% of the overall CAT applicants are people who would like to get an admit into the 15% of bschools  in India. The remaining 30% of the overall CAT/MBA applicants population is what majority of our bschools will have to fight for. Therefore a strategy for these 15% A category bschools should be use the flux they are receiving through their application windows and arrange for new campuses with larger intakes and new programs to take in najority of the applications they receive. This is also an excellent business proposition.
People with similar and copied pedagogy plus same levels of communication and counseling talks are left to fight for 30% of the population. This is a main reason there are seats left vacant in bschools across India.
The CMAT Factor: I would like to mention the CMAT factor here in addition to the data from CAT, wherein the new test is also an online test. Given the trends that CMAT is showing of replacing state level CET exams, there is now huge amount of doubts on the future of State level bschools that used to rely solely on CET scores to fill in their seats. Last year, under MAHA-CET, thousand of seats went vacant amongst bschools in Maharashtra. Everyone was worried if MBA is losing its charm, but the fact remained that the Share-of-Voice for these bschools in the overall scheme of things is pretty bad. With CMAT's entry, I feel the number of un-filled seats will increase and there will be overall chaos in the admission processes in this country. There are institutions in Tamil Nadu that are supposed to dedicate about 50% of their intakes to TANCET, and therefore will now have an issue in getting applications for their seats. Some also survive by training below par talent for MBA and then placing them in call-centers claiming 100% placements, but we are not talking about them here.

So the problems are defined:
(1) Perception of most bschools in India are below average and similar with no big differentiation to allow for a second segmentation
(2) There is an unbalanced bias of about 70% of MBA applicants towards 15% of the bschools in India, which is now being funnelled in through new campuses, programs, etc.
(3) With a scary trend of State MBA colleges relying on State CETs not getting their seats filled, new tests like CMAT might add to the misery
(4) There can be exponential damage in the 3 factors above which may affect many bschools and MBA institutions adversely

What's the solution?
The second wave - This would have to be the step that wil save a portion of the bschools in the mid-section of the first bell-curve, and most probably allow these bschools to be compared amongst the best in India. This second wave should constitute of the following:
(1) Get a robust and innovative new system internalized at first. Spend some money and get education experts from Harvard or Wharton to come in and map the steps that needs to be taken for developing your knowledge centers, delivery mechanisms, faculty training and classroom scheduling, along with everything that goes into making a brilliant institution
(2) Get serious about reaching out to the "early adopters" amongst MBA applicants - these are the ones who will push your ideas and messages into their networks that trust them. Directly hitting a 70% of the applicants base is impossible and neither I nor anyone else can provide you with a marketing pitch that will give these applicants the idea that applying to you is one of the best things to do this year
(3) Reach out to the applicants base in places wherein they spend most of their preparation time and places wherein they network amongst other MBA applicants. You will need your communications to be read multiple times by the same person and then that being shared amongst their networks - as soon as possible. Pace is important here, along with the engagement.
(4) Stop talking about the kind of things that will pull you into the black-hole of the 80% population. Please note that its easy and kinda no-brainer to say things that others are doing (lest you be left behind) but creating communications that identify with the requirements of students and their concerns in individual careers are more important and hard-hitting than run-of-the-mill marketing messages (No one wants to know if you got some aware somewhere - what does it mean to anyone?)
(5) Remember - Create a product that some people will love rather than a product that everyone will probably like (eg. Apple iPhone). Dedicate yourself into improving the product and get specialist for every other activity in your institution.

We can visually depit the shift of the second wave in this manner:

Aegis Global Academy - The case of a wrong positioning

In the last 2-3 years, some of the corporate bigwigs in India have ventured into the education space through some way or the other aimed at solving a diverse set of problems. One of the recent ones that I can remember is - Aegis Global Academy, which is a part of the Essar Group.




2 years back when I was invited to meet the founding members of the academy (mostly the top guys within Aegis and Essar), I was presented with an idea that they felt should revolutionize the way people learn about Customer Experience Management, thereby helping people to become better at their jobs in a service economy like India. The debate was that unlike other economies and other educational-ecologies, India had different needs of growth and a different set of people coming from a monolithic educational system.



Along with IIM Indore and SQC Singapore, the Academy was aiming at bringing some of the best learning from service industry right into their classrooms. They had an excellent press meet (at the Essar HQ) and then went onto implement a massive pan-India branding program (in the lines of other Universities and FMCG) to attract some good number of applications for the program. Since it is a certificate program, the number of seats abailable for the course isn't limited.



After a disastrous 1st year admission cycle (and I was a part of meetings, discussions, feedback etc with their team all this time), the program took off at their campus in Coimbatore. The next year, they went back to the same drawing boards and then repeated the same go-to-market strategy yielding similar results. As a partner from the same domain, I was pushing them to go beyond the norm. But sadly that didn't happen.



Some of the major mistakes that rocked their boat were:



(1) A below par go-to-market strategy including a one-size-fits-all communication strategy



(2) Placing their brand amongst the audience that are supposedly the worst kind of decision makers, without directly having any engagement with the influencers



(3) Insisting to follow the examples of a communciation strategy that works well for FMCG, Telecom, (mostly products) etc.



(4) No learning from the feedback of the market



I believe all of these would be looked into by the team at AGA and I guess they will get to the right answers for themselves. However, there is something that I feel went fundamentally wrong in the first place:



Aegis Global Academy wasn't meant to be kick-starting its programs as fill-time options and for the same crowd who take up MBA/PGDM programs through CAT/MAT/XAT etc.



I believe that their first and foremost mistake was to take the same route as any other new MBA institution who join the same bandwagon as 2000+ b-schools have done before them. In one of the discussions with their core team, I had share the data that how over 80% of all B-schools in India fight for only 30% of the MBA Applicants' base, and the rest (i.e. 70%) of the candidates fight to get into 20% of the Institutes in India.



Although its their prerogative and strategy to use the program as a full time option, I believe that given the state of things in the jobs space, and the way people are trying to re-skill themselves while wanting to either keep or upgrade their jobs, the PGP of Aegis Global Academy could have been introduced as a "exclusive club" reserved only to some of the best talent wanting to get under the Essar Group umbrella for a better career. The probable options for the program could have been either distance learning or Online. I would have voted for Online, as if there was an opportunity, I know of people who will give their right-arm to get into the Essar Group and do so through some sort of a credible process.



The PGP then would have attracted more participants from across India (who anyways form the majority of CAT applicants - 2010 CAT had more than 70% guys with work-exp), and enabled these people to compete the 15 months program in say 12 or 9 months while being selected into Essar.



I am sure that there was some relation of the productivity of this program and the objective of Aegis to build up an excellent talent base for itself internally, but in the current state nothing is really happening. There are operational reasons for that too. I am sure every institute of program will have to have a minimum threshold of student-numbers that needs to be achieved to run the program even for one cycle. Aegis' only hope now is to either redirect and redo their Media communications program and hope to engage a bigger audience, or provide the Online program option to people who can do the same through separate campuses of Essar across India.



The problem is that once you position the product, its very difficult to re-position the same parallely. It takes a lot of courage to actually accept the market feedback and understand a new behavior that's affecting the very existence of your program. However, for the sake of this excellent program and its existence, they should give themselves one chance to revive the strategy and implement the same from this year itself.

A Pagalguy model to fix the challenges in Education (in India)

After reading about the game changing initiative by M.I.T. in launching its free online learning initiative (the M.I.T.x), I was wondering if such a system of disruption can take shape in India or other developing countries wherein two important and common factors run in the DNA - expensive & low access to quality higher education, and growth of internet usage (high speed data connectivity)

One look at the current scenario of higher education in India, and the kind of talent gap that really exists, one is forced to ponder upon disruptive ideas to break through the shackles and provide some genuine solutions to our problems. The initiative by MIT has a different ecology and probably a different set of people who would be using the same for their own developmental purposes, but it also gives us food for thought on how such a thing can be replicated in India by some organization that has already proven itself in the online domain.



The requirements for creating such a disruption are:



1. An established online community in education



2. Access to users who can contribute and design content for the new platform



3. Sponsored by companies/advertisers - so that the platform remains FREE for all students



I then focused on the online portals I know of that also have strong and established educational communities. The largest among all of them, and thankfully operating in the MBA domain is - Pagalguy.com. The portal gets over 600,000 unique visitors every month who contribute to over 300,000 pages of content that is Free for everyone to read and research on the portal. Even though the current usage of the portal is primarily focused in providing info about management education, preparations, experiences, alumni networking, etc.; the model can also be extended into providing MIT like initiatives that will add more value to the larger audience that uses Pagalguy resources.



So what have we got already working for Pagalguy.com?



Community - Already, the portal has a community of MBA applicants and b-school students who interact with each other and carry the feeling of being a member of this large community into their own networks, thereby allowing more people seeking info on MBA to use the portal. Since this factor is already taken care of, the first level of challenges that any product will face - like introduction to early adopters, etc - can be taken care of.

Profile of the users - Since the site is dedicated to MBA and related discussion, its evident that the users have a certain profile suited for such online course-ware to flourish. Some of the important factors are - (a) Usage of internet beyond basic levels, (b) Networking and knowledge of people's development systems and expertise, and (c) Ambition to get a better life.

Free Content - At present the portal is Free to all its users and it has worked (against all suspicion of credibility) very well for the users as well as its contributors. In the future, such a model can still exist and a revenue model to sustain such disruptive program can be designed without any hitch.

Customized design of content - The forum content on Pagalguy.com is the biggest draw for the website, wherein people find the type of content, that will suit their understanding/lingo/learning pattern, pretty easily. Imagine a similar situation for the new disruption, wherein content is still contributed without any fee by the users and they impregnate their own learning methods into those models or learning aids. The present theories of learning and intelligence bases state that people aren't getting their individual best ways to learn in standardized teaching, and therefore this model might also be taking care of that large problem and making life easy for thousands.



According to Prof. Clay Christensen's disruption models, the best way forward is to figure out the non-competition. In the case of this model, Pagalguy.com, and its users, this will be a brilliant canvas wherein no other new player or even existing players will have the success-factors, the user profiles, and the revenue model to sustain such innovation.

If this disruption comes into being, then a lot of so called distance learning programs, expensive yet inutile certifications, bridge courses, etc will thankfully stop functioning and spoiling the talent of this country.

Imagine a database of content contributed by some of the best in Corporate world, b-schools, NGOs, from Universities abroad, and all that being designed to suit your own developmental process - at the exact speed and learning ways that help you learn. This is definitely possible.

Why NITIE Mumbai has to redefine its objectives?

One look at the kind of exponential growth stories associated with Universities and Institutions in the developed world will raise questions for similar institutions in India that are still playing catching up with the magnanimity of the sort of profile of students, research, teaching methodology, vision etc of institutions abroad.


For today's case study, let's consider NITIE Mumbai and closely understand the meanings of statements that the institution has made about its vision, mission etc. I, for one, am a firm beiever if there is no clarity in the vision and mission statements of an organization, then neither its office bearers and nor the systems have any scope of understanding the requirements to top-grade and be counted amongst the best in the world.

So, if one visits the website of NITIE, one will read the following in the vision and mission statements:

NITIE is dedicated to help Indian businesses to make their presence felt globally. NITIE has decided to act as driving force not only in manufacturing sector but all dynamic sectors of the Indian economy. It has aligned its vision and activities in line with the current and future needs of the Indian economy and its vibrant and growing sectors.

Vision
“To be a leader in the knowledge led productivity movement.”

Mission
“To nourish a learning environment conducive to foster innovations in productivity and business development.”

Decoding Vision:

AS an institution, the dedication of helping of Indian Businesses to make their presence felt globally statement doesn't give out any sense of clarity for someone who does not know what is NITIE. The statement gives an idea that perhaps NITIE is something associated with some kind of global partnerships or fund house or something to help Indian BUsiness houses in their growth of their Individual businesses.

This doesn't connect at any level of creating value in education or community or the talent in this country. Someone might point out that this is all related, but the fact is that anything that needs to be analyzed and then decoded can't be a vision statement.

Then it states: "To be a leader in the knowledge led productivity movement"

Again, no clarity. First of all, someone needs to define knowledge led productivity movement. In which domain? In what space? In how much time? Where? I don't have absolutely any idea of which "movement" is being talked about.

The only place where they come anywhere close to talking about their main objective is the mission statement, wherein the words "nourish a learning environment" is mentioned. But words like Business Development and Productivity are never a part of the process that office bearers can identify with, and neither can their reasearch talent.

Just because they have some of the best talent teaching industrial engineering isn't enough for the institution to create ownership amongst its own people. These are the people who will take some of the most important calls in its history, in the forthcoming future. If each of them have their own versions of downloaded Vision and mission statements, then it will be enough to invite trouble. Also given that such institutions are constantly under the scanner for being productive in providing some of the best talent in the country, it is pertinent that such important things are always in place.