The new business schools
The current business climate across India and the globe continues to flourish, resulting in an increase in per capita income and manifold opportunities for the individual. The conglomerates and even the SMEs are keen to bring in professionals rather than legacy holders at the top management level. The influx of independent directors is another reason why more and more businesses are run with a systemic depth.
This, in turn, brings about a mushroom growth in Business Schools, requiring an exhaustive curriculum virtually tailored to produce a future CEO, who walks out of it with a graduation hat and a degree in hand.
In fact, the UNESCO International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (IESALC) conducted a research including some policy analysis identified the three major global transitions that the human race is experiencing – digital, social and ecological. What this means is that the template of not only MBA but any higher education course – be it engineering, law or medicine – must be caricatured to combat the shifting ecosystem with its 21st century problems. It is not rocket science to infer that the 20th century education cannot deal with the problems plaguing today.
In fact, it could well be that even basic education could undergo a sea-change, where academics realise that some of the courses are redundant in a world replete with technology. For example – given the GPS system and the Google maps, who needs something more than a basic course in geography?
Today, the Master of Business Administration (MBA) undoubtedly, is one of the best options for post-graduation. A survey conducted by the Graduate Management Admission Council’s (GMAC) Corporate Recruiters shows that potential companies look for these prized candidates during both on and off campus recruitment.
The reason is that they know that the MBA programme is structured in a manner that hones the management and leadership skills. Assignments and workshops besides the rigorous curriculum sifting the wheat from the chaff is a constant challenge for the top academic institutions to retain a competitive edge and, at the same time, ensuring that the huge tuition fees charged is commensurate to the education given and post campus life – a cushy job, guaranteeing a return on that substantial investment.
As a result, the ‘Masters in Business Administration’ title may yet be the same, but the structure and content have undergone a revolution. Global leadership, experience-based teaching, digital literacy, honing creativity and focus, technical know-how, team work, emotional intelligence and cultural adaptability are some of the things that go to make an MBA curriculum. The specialisations are now artificial intelligence, financial technology, sports management, et al, moving away from the traditional finance or marketing electives.
There is a surge in Executive MBA programmes, where people in their 40s and 50s go back to school for about 4-8 weeks to upskill or reskill themselves. These skills play a pivotal role in this diverse and small world of internet connectivity and mutual interdependence.
The curators of these executive programmes say that it the advent of Artificial Intelligence that is causing the hike in these programmes but we believe that it is the competition and the desire to remain the best that is driving the corner offices to remain empty for a few weeks.
Covid taught us the importance of having a strong WiFi and to what use! Universities worldwide could conduct their courses or even their exams online in a bid to ensure that the students did not suffer and graduated in time.
Sceptics were amazed to see that the MBA programmes were not as ineffective as they thought them to be given the advent of technology. Who does not prefer to have his/her own home-made tea beside a laptop!
The resurgence of the Chief Ethics Officer is another unique development in the corporate landscape. Companies both in India and abroad are keen to have a savant who keeps the executives and the management in check. The role of the Ethics Officer is different from that of an independent director – who generally is not privy to the day-to-day operations of the company.
The Ethics Officer, to the contrary, seeks to ensure that the Rubicon is not crossed and certain fundamental values are retained as those are directly connected to consumer satisfaction and the resultant robust market capitalisation.
Courses in Ethics abound across Educational Institutions beside expertise in AI. Modules giving hypothetical ethical problems and testing the moral compass of the MBA candidate are surfacing by the day much like the Vikram-Vetaal TV folklore.
It is pertinent to note that the Business Education comes under the umbrella of Higher Education. Given the tectonic shift that the world’s problems have gone through, the curricula of secondary and higher education will have to change significantly.
Suffice it to say, that parents and students alike will be reluctant to sign up for a programme, especially a degree programme, that is not tailored to prepare the graduate to live a full life whilst being able to pay off the students' loans within a short time.
We are emphasising on business programmes here because we believe that the progress of any nation, whether it is the US in the late 1800s or early 1900s or India in the late 1990s or early 2000, was paved through industrialisation.
Industrialists built empires, gave jobs and took the economy of a country to an enviable position. Stock market indices across the US, Hong Kong, Japan, Brazil and India became the go-to-section first for someone, who opened the newspaper besides the goals scored by one’s favourite footballer.
Business houses are willing to pay top-dollar to only those graduates who mature faster and are warm bodies ready to deliver and put in long hours that may be necessitated. A global language would be a required addition as the world is becoming smaller and the expanding spree that most corporates revel in.
One would notice that some of the largest endowments have gone to the field of Business or Engineering. The combination of both these degrees looks antipodal but then to that corporate recruiter it is a devastating combination.
We as Ethicists believe that higher education will play a major role to ensure that India sits on a high-backed Seat at the global negotiating table – whether it is the G-20 Summit or COP28 or the UN.
Many decades ago, India attracted the top academics from across the globe at the Nalanda University and it taught the world many things for the betterment of the human race.
We believe that with Indians occupying the highest echelons on global boards or academic institutions or governmental think-tanks, India’s time has come to have a stronger imprint of the pen on the global business paper.