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1- Being the founding dean at various institutions and with your experience in education sector, how do you view the Indian Management Education in Global scenario?

Talent pool to teach in management schools in India continues to be stagnant whereas some of the well known business schools in the US, EU and UK manage to continuously inspire talented youngsters to take up teaching. The other side of the coin is the student uptake in to the industry. The industry, for decades, has been struggling to establish a strong reason why a management graduate would be an ideal choice to add value to his business. If at all, they go to premier schools to recruit, it is to find the best brains there. This volatility in defining a clear purpose in terms of domain expertise and skills is largely missing in Indian management education. The curriculum seems to call for better definition at the fundamental level keeping the industry’s basic needs.

2- What were the challenges faced in establishing institutions of international presence?

Replicating the proven models has been the preference of promoters of new institutions. Any new idea needs time to establish and the investors invariably loss patience in the run and compromise heavily in the vision. It has been a difficult proposition to build institutions around a strong theme and drive it over a period until they discovered their soul. I have noticed many such institutions quickly slipped into the bandwagon and started facing competition which is not a good idea for a long haul market presence.

3- What wisdom would you share from your own path and the importance of being diligent?

Taking up the challenge to start a new venture under private investment goes with certain risks and benefits. While you can implement a new idea, it is not always possible to control all variables for all the time. Once the institution starts finding its own feet and starts walking, there are bound to be forces coming in and trying to pull strings in all directions. If you are not made for handling multiple aspirations or you feel it is not your job to be involved in managing operational issues, then better to let go and move on. One need not be talented to handle things across all domains of all phases of the life cycle of a project. Another important aspect of being involved in a start up is that your professional success has nothing to do with the success of the organization. Success or not so successful or failure – not all variables go right or wrong all because of you.

4- Is there any myth about MBA programs that you want to break?

It is not that a serious management course can be pursued only after a basic degree. If a student has developed interest in management even while in school, there should be a serious option to take up management course. The current bachelors course of three years offered in most places are seen not as a serious option but just as a fall back. Universities and premier management institutes should design a robust curriculum of four years that should be offered for fresh plus two students with right aptitude and ambition. This is somewhat like engineering programs. There are well defined career tracks such as accounting and finance, sales and marketing, data sciences and analytics, organization and leadership, supply chain and logistics. The only catch is that these bachelors programs should never be offered under three year format.

5- What would be your advice to students who are graduating this year and looking to start a tech company or join other companies in managerial roles?

Starting their own tech ventures and taking up a job in a company are two different pursuits. Starting on your own needs a strong idea and passion to make it happen. Just passion to own a company will never take you anywhere nor just an idea without passion. Whereas, if you are looking to take up a job, then be clear as to what are all the things that you can do for the company. Clear set of skills is what most companies will be looking for.

6- What is the grand vision of NCU for the next five years?

I can speak for the School of Management in NCU. Building a strong corpus seems to be on the priority. The intent is to attract talented students to consider NCU for their masters, bachelors or doctoral and money should not stand in their way. Adopting a liberal approach to award scholarships to deserving and interested students seems to attract my attention more than anything else. I also intend to introduce a few professional programs of four year duration at bachelors level with robust curriculum and content. Other activities of the school will be built around these growth strategies.