Transformation and response
Business education is becoming more relevant as business contexts and models are evolving rapidly. The era of natural resource optimisation and tech transformation presents a new set of expectations and challenges for managers. While navigating geopolitical risks and global uncertainties, companies need to balance the diverse stakeholder interests including environmental, community, investors, employees and others, explains a McKinsey article, 2020, on companies in 21st century. Accordingly, managers need to responsibly leverage data and technology to drive productivity, efficiency, business models, functional integration, transformation and culture. It is in this context that we discuss the business education which not only meets talent demands but also provides research support and capacity building to companies and government.
Acknowledging the challenge?: Since the MBA is no longer compartmentalised as it once was, today’s graduates are expected to acquire business knowledge while also mastering the data driven insight, situational resilience, and new business models for growth margins. Traditional position-based work is fading, giving way to project-based work as the new normal.
Universities or academic institutions are expected to meet the knowledge and talent needs of society and business. As business schools, we need to ask ourselves if we are quite ready to new developments. We need to ask if critical stakeholders such as leadership, faculty and systems are ready to respond and adapt to changes in the business world? Do we recognise that there is a transformation in place and business schools need to prepare for the future in collaboration with industry and relevant stakeholders?
Biggest mistakes?: First, a narrow focus on infrastructure investment, often driven by compliance requirements, has overshadowed the need to invest in knowledge and research resources. By treating research investment as optional, universities have ceded space to commercial entities that prioritise profit over educational and social value. This has led to a national concern about the relevance and quality of business education, which worries employers the most.
Second, vision and leadership are the biggest challenge for any domain to evolve to next level, its true for business education as well. University boards and executive leadership lacked the foresight to anticipate future needs, something that corporates have managed effectively with help of industry chambers and consulting firms. Thus, majority of the business schools engaged in delivering commodity programmes with average quality, not preparing the talent pool for market. This gave productive space to certification programmes offered by finishing schools.
Third, the educational institutions did not invest in creating academic and practice faculty pool which is singular critical resource in building knowledge ecosystem in any discipline. The lack of leadership and financial commitment to develop faculty to remain relevant and competitive at national and global level has created big challenges.
Finally, the trust and confidence of industry and government engagement with schools is limited to countable institutions. In developed economies, industry and schools’ partnerships work closely and corporations show interest in engaging in developing joint research and fund generously for various academic purposes. This is a challenge in the Indian context with due expectations of industry and government from academia with limited commitment of long term defined engagement in return.
Business education is still deprived of a strong chamber or association like NASSCOM that brings stakeholders to partner and contribute value.
How do we address in the short-run?: At the structural level of the programmes, we should review the requirements of teaching and training. Some of the traditional curriculum is not required in present business deliveries. This will need industry partnership to manage the new age knowledge and skills.
Both at undergraduate and graduate level, an interdisciplinary and integrated approach is mandatory now. The line function and service function in industry is modified with time, academia should appreciate the transformation and amend the degree designs. New cadre should be developed both in class and the field or office set up with one internship annually. Functional courses should be introduced in early life of management programmes and new sector courses should be partnered with industry for offering to be relevant.
Specialised degrees are the future as companies look for specialised knowledge and skills. We already have provided specialized sectoral programmes in areas such as in accounting and finance; new disciplines have emerged demanding focussed knowledge and skills set such as logistics and supply chain, infrastructure management, energy management, data analytics, information technology, health administration, sustainability, digital business.
(Views expressed are personal)