(As iterated by Dr. Joe Arun, Director, Goa Institute of
Management)

When it comes to expertise
in Consumer Behaviour, Social Entrepreneurship, and Crosscultural and Conflict
Management, Reverend Dr. C. Joe Arun is peerless. Now at the helm of affairs at
Goa Institute of Management – an established ‘Top 20 B-school’ – it is not
surprising that Dr. Arun is already looking beyond rankings and surveys. A
Doctorate in Anthropology (PhD) from Oxford University (London), Dr. Joe Arun
has single-handedly built institutions (Institute of Dialogue with Cultures and
Religions or IDCR, and XIBA, Palayamkottai in Tamil Nadu), and evolved an
Indo-French model of educational and cross cultural leadership at Loyola
College, Chennai. His experience in education lists institutions like XLRI, IIT
Madras, and Loyola Institute of Business Administration.
Much of his world vision toward Business Education springs from his teaching
experience at ISEG School of Management (Lille Catholic University, France),
Angers University (France), and as a Professor of Crosscultural Management at
an Audi plant in Ingolstadt School of Management (Germany), and Department of
Textile and Fashion Technology, Fujen University (Taipei, Taiwan).

In a freewheeling chat,
Dr. Joe Arun, Director, Goa Institute of Management, talks about the
fundamentals that young management aspirants will do well to embrace and embody.

1. Start Early. Start with the basics.

It’s the first rule of
thumb at Oxford, Cambridge or Harvard, that a general first education should be
the first priority. Anybody who goes for a specialization in these institutions
must go through first aesthetics, philosophy, logic, and a general
understanding of the world. If I do not know all of this, I cannot be a good
student of chemistry or physics or whatever you do. Foundational education is
very important. To anybody aspiring to pursue a career in management, I would
recommend General Management first, and then, based on your interest, you can
go after a specialized diploma/ certificate course.

After a 2-year general
MBA, you will come to know all that is under the umbrella of the field of management.
But if you proceed directly on a one-and-half year specialization in, say,
Marketing, you are likely to end up saying to yourself “I do not know any other
thing, apart from Marketing”. At times, management graduates tend to block
themselves like this. It’s like a disproportionate human body, where the legs are
too big, and the head too small. Grind yourself into theory and practice in all
possible aspects of management in a two years general management course, and
then you can specialize.

2. Be it an individual
or a B-School – what matters most is the core.

A core education is what
you should judge before deciding on a B-school. These 3 should be central to
your decision:

a)
Diversity – At GIM, we like to like to keep both the students
and the faculty in diverse groups.

b)
Excellence – We at GIM follow the principle of Magis (pronounced Mah-gis), which in Latin means ‘more’ or ‘better’. It is a Jesuit
principle of performance management. Look for a B-school that is not satisfied with
mediocre Performance, but is always striving for the better i. It is the
principle of Magis on which Fr.
Romuald D’Souza founded the Goa Institute of Management.

c) Infrastructure – Despite
all kinds of budgetary constraints, GIM today is established on 50-acres of
beautiful landscape. We’ve shifted from our Ribandar campus to this sprawling
Sanquelim campus just about 4 years back, and ever since, GIM has been
recognised among the ‘Top 10’ beautiful campuses in the country. We have been
working consistently on the quality of our faculty, and now that we have a
world-class faculty of 35 – 36, we are focusing on doubling this strength to 70.

In these ways, we have
always looked on areas by which we will always better ourselves… and the basic
set of values that we would like to promote among our students.

3. It might be a
B-School, but you still have to place Education above Commerce.

Liberalization in India
(early nineties) made an impact on management education in India – and life in
general- it was looked at more in the light of commerce and markets. Educational
institutions became shops for jobs It is not the Indian way of thinking, which
has always looked upon education as building character and learning to be cultured.
This was lost to globalisation; and management studies was the epitome of
evaluating people as ‘salary giving’ objects. . MBA students should develop an
amalgam of different areas.  You must be
physically fit, emotionally mature, and intellectually sharp and spiritually sound.
PQ, EQ, and SQ are all important. Above all, look for an integral education, so
that you are integrally developed as a person.

4. You are out to build a
career. Academic rigor has to be the top priority.

I suggest that students
first look at the academic rigor of the B-school. Say to yourself, “I am not
going there for fun. My learning can be fun, but only when there is academic
rigor.”A good faculty and a well thought out Programme are crucial. Next comes
the Infrastructure that contributes to your learning; and only then, the
placement and the salary.

5.     Connect
to industry produces the best.

A company like Tech Mahindra will go to the best campuses, select the
best students, train them for a year or two and make them fit into their
company. Individuals are made into ‘Mahindra subjects”, similarly every
B-school has an emphasis or an approach to learning that forms the character of
students in that way.  If this process is
connected to industries, every B-school will be able to form leaders with
competencies needed for different roles in a counter.    

6. If you are looking at a ‘specialized’ MBA, don’t go by rankings.

B-schools have similar
courses. What makes one stand out is the emphasis. If your emphasis is in Marketing,
then you’ve got to go to Harvard. Going by rankings will get you nowhere,. Rankings
are all about perception. For example, a person who has not come to GIM at all,
and does not know anybody who has studied here, will still speak of its
beautiful campus because he or she has read it somewhere. The media constructs
an impression based on what they call ‘identity construction’. Social realities
are always constructed. When the rankings are done in metros, small cities with
amazing B-schools are often not viewed. So do a complete research before taking
any decision. . Be extremely rational and have your facts in your file that
leads to a discerned decision

Doing an MBA means that
you are getting grounded on basic and foundational principles of business.  For that you need a proper environment and
competent faculty to accompany you with the process of formation.  Leaving aside the rankings, you should look
for a B-school that forms you to become competent, committed, creative and
compassionate persons.