There is an explosion of B-schools everywhere. What according to you are the three basic strengths that helps a b-school sustain in the clutter?

I agree, there has been an oversupply of B-Schools over the last couple of years and unfortunate declining demand for business education amongst students. This calls for a deep introspection that every B-School needs to do. In my view, some of the drastic questions that need answers are:

– Curriculum & Delivery: Is our curriculum relevant to the industry? And what kind of Academicians and Practitioners are delivering this content?

– Partnership: What level of Industry–Academia partnership is being done to create compelling value propositions for MBA as a product?

– Deep understanding: Are we creating an environment that fosters deeper business understanding within students or running generic programs that are making people just Jack of all trades?

– Job-oriented: Are students getting real MBA jobs or some jobs for which an MBA wouldn’t have been a requirement at all?

– Practical exposure: Are we doing enough to get students the necessary practical exposure?

FABS itself being a new b-school, what is your vision for the school and how do you plan to ensure that it grows from strength to strength every year?

The vision for FABS is that it closely, nay, very closely aligns with its defined customer: the corporate. Everything will begin and end with this definition. We started with 3 cities and from 6 corporate partners to 20 plus corporate partners today. Our constant innovative approach and practices is helping us win corporate mindshare. All this at a manageable price point will seek to make FABS a zero-cognitive dissonance purchasable product for parents and students.

FABS provides confirmed letters’ of intent from employers to students right on the day of admission. What is the whole objective behind this program? Is it to recruit the best talent for the b school? Or is it just another marketing stint? Please elucidate.

Objective behind the program is very simple – how do we best reduce redundancy in all existing programs offered in the market. In all my 18 years of academic experience, I have noticed that almost 9 months (2 month unproductive internships, search for jobs and near no studies once placed ) are wasted in a 24 month program. We channelized this 9 month into a near full time internship role. This was possible by getting companies to sign up first, select students and then groom this selected batch for the Organization that selected them.

Again due to prefixed roles, students now get to :

– Know about the company, its values, norms and its products

– Work directly on their own SWOT and work on developing Work place ready competencies which are really the essence of continuity, belongingness , involvement, professionalism, culture amelioration, output and inter-personal relationship etc.

Likewise the corporates get practical trained resources who fundamentally agree that:

– Life isn’t rosy by just being a B-School pass-out

– I am not here to deliver strategy on day one, I need to execute and demonstrate my skills as I move up the value chain

– I understand accountability? numbers?

From the business stand-point there is an argument that there still exists a lot of disconnect between industry and academia in India? What are your views on this? Do you concur with it?

I fully concur that there is a lot of truth in it. Academia feels that business is too practical, too short-term oriented, not learning & development oriented and contented to only somehow deliver. Business thinks that academia are in an utopian world of their own, very impractical (unrealistic/ idealistic), have no professionalism, are too petty and egotistical, and very short on execution and delivery.

Personally having spent enough time with both industry and academia, I strongly feel that both need to converge somewhere and loads of good initiatives are being taken now. I am happy that FABS has been able to demystify some of this complex task already.

What are the top 4 factors you would look into a student when you are recruiting him/her for an MBA program?

1. Ability to sell himself beyond his need for the degree to get placed.

2. Through willingness to work 24/7 and go through a “hellish experience”. Life at corporate is tough, why have cozy 2 years at the academy?

3. Cognitive knowledge / Solution-orientation and ability to Unlearn all myths floated about MBA

4. Temperament which would help student get along well with others

You have been involved with the field of market research at various levels both in the industry and academics. What are your views on Big Data Analytics and its scope?

Especially for India, it is a gold mine opportunity in big data analytics. Indians by virtue of having high analytical skills and need for “moving up the value chain”, we have seen significant upscale transactions in the outsourcing industry on more cerebral work. The additional benefit of more technical education institutes is helping the analytics practices to grow in India

At FABS – we make sure that students of corporates that need to work on Analytics are given enough training on various tools and techniques that they will use on day to day basis while they are in the corporate environment.