In a flat
world order, leading B-Schools of India should be getting used to creating more
room at the top. Older IIMs at the top need to imbibe lessons in design thinking
to promote greater public good. Instead of competing with each other to be at
the top, they need to create healthy collaborative networks. It is important for
them to create an ambience where autonomy percolates right down to the bottom
of the “hierarchical Indian academic pyramid”.
Before discussing
more about IIM-A, here is one article by Gurbir Singh titled “
A teaching
experiment that failed in success”[TNIE, 30 Jan 2013; pdf version]. Though segregation
of “good” from the “not-so-good” is unhealthy, in this case it accidentally
resulted in transforming the less gifted students. Thanks to a gifted teacher
who adopted a totally different pedagogical approach at the bottom of the
pyramid.
Design thinking organizations make conscious efforts to promote such
initiatives. The academic regulators in India need to take cognizance of this
fact and allow autonomy to the teacher who shoulders greater responsibility in
transforming the less gifted students in schools that do not belong to the top
league.
[Quote]
“The fall from
its perch was stunning, but it appears to have been an aberration - IIM-A has
roared back to the top in the 2012 survey…….The institute scored well on brand
value……Where it fell short was on the living experience, return on investment
and, in what should be a big cause for worry, the learning experience.”
"B-school
education of the kind exemplified by IIM-A is rooted in the assumptions of an
earlier era," says Santosh Desai, MD and CEO, Future Brands, and an IIM-A
alumnus. "The traditional MBA programme was created for a time when
managers were the most vital part of large, stable businesses operating in
limited geographies." Desai, considered a branding and marketing expert,
says that the focus today has shifted from management to creation, where
volatility is the norm and culture is a key determinant of success or failure.
"The
operations research based approach followed by IIM-A needs to give way to a
more complete one that incorporates areas like behavioural economics,
anthropology and design thinking." The lack of dynamism, Desai believes,
will hinder the institute from fostering entrepreneurs and leaders capable of
creating businesses around ideas rather than around historical infrastructural
advantages, as has been the case with traditional businesses.
Future Brands's
Desai believes IIM-A needs a complete overhaul to prepare students for the real
world. "The institute taught me nothing about marketing. If anything, it
impeded a deep understanding of the subject by making it a sterile exercise in
rudimentary logic," he says. "It did not open my mind enough to new
modes of thinking, and while it spoke of 'thinking outside the box', it spent
all its energies in building the box instead."
[Unquote]
These are
indeed some constructive criticisms coming from an alumnus of IIM-A. Apparently
he understands the importance of design thinking for developing managers and
its distinct absence from a premier B-School of the country.
[Quote]
A battery of
powerful CEOs, many of whose careers were birthed at IIM-Ahmedabad, are
rallying in protest against a government proposal seeking greater control over
the 13 IIMs in the country.
"Any move
to control IIM-A, now run autonomously, will bring down the standard of the
institution as well as dilute a global brand," said AM Naik, executive
chairman of engineering giant Larsen & Toubro
"It ain't
broke. Don't fix it," said Phaneesh Murthy, chief
executive officer of iGate who graduated from the institute in 1987. "It
is amazing how with so many problems in education the government wants to
divert its efforts to the one thing that is already working well."
"I do not
believe that issuing a degree is any great incentive for an IIM to lose its
autonomy," said Manvinder Singh Banga…. He
is an IIM-A gold medallist (1977).”
“While newer
IIMs are happy to trade autonomy for the greater credibility that a degree
brings, older institutes, led vociferously by IIM-A, didn't fancy the deal, ET
had reported.”
[Unquote]
While the move toward any
form of unhealthy control must be rejected, it is important to look beyond the “It
ain’t broke. Don’t fix it” mentality to a continuous improvement philosophy. Thus, instead of reacting to IIM-A losing its
autonomy, these CEOs of corporate India should be aiming to create viable
collaborative networks to promote greater shared outcomes for the stakeholders
of the Indian Education System. This brings me to one blog post by Nigel
Scott titled “
The
Social Network vs. the Collaborative Network” [30 Mar 2012]. In the first cartoon clip the biggest ant wins and all ants want to be like the biggest ant. A more healthy model is presented in the second clip. See the
excerpts following the cartoon clips.
Hence, instead
of IIM-A trying harder and harder to be the lead ant “always”, it will do the
country good if it learns to share the harvest with other ants. Corporate India
needs to provide the necessary guidance in doing so. As rightly observed by one
alumnus of IIM-A, it is time they did some serious “out-of-box” thinking for
shouldering the inclusive growth challenges of India.
That means
students at all levels of the pyramid need to be trained with the help of newer
methods. Instead of blindly following their respective lead ants (i.e., the
role models in their league) they need to be taught to explore for food (i.e.,
knowledge in the new economy).
Related
posts: See under the label “design thinking”
