As private enterprise gains in strength and influence in the Indian economy, there has been a rapid growth in the number of B-Schools to cater to the huge shortage of managerial talent. Unfortunately, few of them have a genuine vision to align budding managerial talent to the needs of the industry and society at large.
Leaders need to think intuitively and come up with out of the box solutions, while courses tend to follow the gravy train and emphasise on hard number crunching, which is not always the key to long term success for them or the companies they will lead in future. This is not unique to India, as Warren Buffett, Chairman, Berkshire Hathaway, once admitted, “Business schools reward difficult complex behaviour more than simple behaviour, but simple behaviour is more effective.” After all, complex projections by some of the best managerial talent led to the sub-prime crisis. With India’s transition from a closed, savings based economy to a globally integrated capitalistic one, it is as important for Indian B-schools to make their students understand the relevance of sustainability in business and how sustainable business practices can be implemented in the corporate world.
Post slowdown, the Indian economy is recovering phenomenally well. Real GDP has grown at 7.2% during the just completed fiscal year 2009-10, up from 6.7 per cent during 2008-09 and the Reserve Bank of India is highly optimistic of an 8% growth. But the bigger question is whether we are ready for an 8-10% growth, and how inclusive it will be. Will its benefits reach the bottom 80%? Does India have the kind of natural resources or the ability to manage them efficiently to sustain the numbers? After liberalization, our economic model has shifted to export led growth and we have lived almost a century of development in just 20 years. India as an economy needs real planning as it prepares to humble China on GDP growth rates, and we need to develop technology and infrastructure to support the growth levels, keeping in mind limited natural resources, global warming and the growing population. Also, our financial institutions have to grow in size and stature, but also remain systemically strong to absorb the associated risks. These and many similar issues ensure that India Inc. has a far greater role to play, and consequently, so do Indian B-schools. Prof. Sushil Kumar (Centre for Food & Agri Business) of IIM Lucknow tells B&E, “Sustainable development is an important aspect and it should be part of the B-schools in India looking forward to shrinking resources.”
From entrepreneurial education to business policy making to sustainable development, new age subjects should be introduced in the B-school curriculum to introduce aspiring managers to the larger picture beyond financial numbers. Sustainable development is what the economy of India requires to be at the next level where it could be head to head with economies like US and Japan.
In a recent report from Accenture, 766 CEOs around the world have showed a deep rooted interest in ensuring sustainability and have figure it to be a key reason for success in business. 66% of CEOs around the APAC region have taken into consideration that consumers are an important aspect in driving the sustainability revolution in the long run and 50% considered their employees to be a strong driving force to sustainability. Besides these factors, educational reforms, financial reforms and new concepts of value would be critical drivers to help businesses reach the tipping point on sustainability. Ashok Mittal, Chancellor, Lovely Professional university tells B&E, “Sustainable development will certainly give the push to the (Indian) economy in the long term but for that, our tomorrow has to be planned today itself.”
India Inc. has to operate in a fast changing and integrated global economy. So the curriculum should be a reflection on the current state of the global economy and not on the past trends that are no longer relevant. American capitalism can no longer be considered the ideal model on which to base B-school education, as the past recession has proved. Businesses are already waking up to the criticality of sustainable development. It’s time that the courses in Indian B-schools also mirror that trend in the real world and produce world class leaders for tomorrow
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