It was early September 2010, that I proceeded on a tour of well-known b-schools in India’s north and north-east. A month earlier, I had started making calls to the student media representatives and Public Relations Officers (PROs) to help fix appointments with faculty members, directors etc. I called this PRO from a b-school in Kolkata. His response was, What do you mean you want to visit the school. You cant just call me up and say you want to visit the school. Its not so easy. Nobody can meet you like that. You send me a mail, and then we will see.” I sent the mail in the next twenty minutes but the PRO never responded, not even after several reminders, not even after twenty days.

So I just barged into the campus of that b-school and walked into the in-house PR (different from the earlier PRO) office and asked for help. Was again asked to send a mail which I did and received a response to with a deans email address and number, a day later. I called the dean, he did not answer the call. I continued calling and he answered the phone next day. I told him that I was interested in meeting him and writing about any relevant research that his b-school may have conducted.

Give me a call tomorrow at 5 pm and we will speak, was his response. I called the next day, though not at 5 pm, as at that time, I was running after every yellow cab on Kolkata roads (it was a strike and the cabs had decided to stop plying since the afternoon).

The dean did not pick up, not that day, not for several days later. Once, I managed to get him on the phone and said, Oh Professor _____, I have been calling you for so long. I think youve been busy and so we have not been able to speak. I was… (I was interrupted). He shot back, What do you mean you have been calling for so long. You make it sound like you have been calling for years and I have not been responding. Please do not talk like that. We have just begun to speak. Patiently, I told him again that I was looking out for research material. He asked for an email and disconnected. I sent the email and sent many more later. I have never heard from the dean since then, except for a strange SMS during Diwali last year apologizing for keeping me on hold about the research. I messaged Diwali wishes in return. And that was it. The festival of lights refused to bring light to my conquest of research from the school. Six months now, not a word.

Singapore

Apologies for such a huge description about this one school but it was only to describe how the system of interfacing works in India. And this I know because in March 2011 I visited some of the finest b-schools in Singapore and its been the most satisfying experience as far as interfacing with an institution to get news is concerned. Be it INSEAD, Chicago-Booth, National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University or SP Jain Singapore it has been a dream to tour them. It took me just a week to call/email and confirm appointments with PROs and directors in Singapore and exactly five days to cover five of them. From a few hours to spending a day with some of the brightest minds in Singapore was so easy a task. And I am not saying bright because of the PhDs or the years of academic experience they have behind them, but just because they seem such a bunch of uncomplicated people, leading busy but simple lives. They were punctual, met as per schedule and also promised to email information across (which they have been doing even after coming back). Not that they had all the time to spare all had mounds of papers on their table since it was admissions and placements time. This time of the year is the busiest for b-schools.

Time of the year

Speaking about time of the year, a couple of months ago, I called/emailed a couple of senior faculty and directors across b-schools in India and asked them to write columns for us. It has been three months, not a single article from a soul. Last week when I followed up, one professor (an admissions director) mailed that he was having starting problems (what does that mean?), another (also an admissions director) said that he completely forgot and a third (a dean) outright asked me what I was talking about. I sent the dean the correspondence of emails I had with his secretary about the article he apparently had agreed to write. No news since then.

Another former director of a big b-school in Ahmedabad acted quite pricey, when I called him. His assistant came on the line and told me that he does not have time to reply to small issues. Some days later, the same director sent us an email on the placements at his new b-school (a new one, yet to make a significant footprint in the applicant community). We did not publish. And so, the next time when I emailed him asking for his comments on an issue, his reply was on the lines of, Why dont you first use the information I have sent. Then, we can think about other things.

Am sure this director is a busy man but so were the professors and directors in Singapore. In fact, it is not just Singapore. Getting information from a Wharton, Duke, Dartmouth, Darden, Oxford, Cambridge, Richard Ivey, China’s CEIBS, Hong Kong (HKUST) at any time significantly easier than from most b-schools in India. The other day my colleague wanted to confirm a sensitive piece of information from London Business School and all it took him was about two hours to do it, despite the time difference.

Students

This time of the year is hard for student media representatives too. I emailed one of them from a b-school in Indore about a recent study conducted in his b-school. No response to the mail, so I called. I was told by the media representative, Its difficult for you to get information on the study as the first year students are going to be out on internship and the seniors have already left. There is no one in the college. Call up the board line and ask for the concerned faculty. I asked for the boardline number so that matters could be speeded up and he told me to look it up on the net! Now, arent media representatives supposed to help the media and get their school maximum media attention? But when I emailed a Cultural Committee media representative from Nanyang (he is an American), he mailed back within three hours with the information needed.

In the same vein, many student media representatives are quite over-protective about their b-school. Instead of trying to better things, they would rather throw a cloak over its bloomers. One important b-school I visited in India’s north-east, to know what all it has in store for medical emergencies, the media representative did not divulge that 25 of the students had suffered a bout of typhoid only recently. All she kept telling me was that her school has a jeep on standby day and night for medical emergencies. Ironically, the director confirmed this information to me.

But in Singapore, it was different. Students openly discussed controversial (school-related) issues in front of their seniors and administrative staff. For instance, the students of both INSEAD and NUS said that their respective colleges could have done more to help them with getting accommodation in Singapore, right in front of their administrative staff.

The small things

Its not all about the big stories or the meetings, the small things count as well. Almost every b-school in Singapore had made arrangements for my lunch since I was spending so many hours with them. Of course I politely refused the lunch so that I could meet one more person during that time. But in India, its different. I remember once, when I was covering an event in a b-school in Ahmedabad, I was told by the media representative, You want to have lunch go to the lunch arena and eat. Of course I knew where the lunch arena was and would have eaten anyway his tone was just not right.

Less stress

The one week in Singapore was most fruitful. After the first day, after I met SP Jain Singapore and thereafter INSEAD and Chicago-Booth, I was certain it would be a successful trip. What I covered and learnt in five days in Singapore, I will probably take five months to do it in India or even fifty months. Mentally, I knew I would get all the information required from Singapore b-schools without having to mail or call any one person hundred times and that made my visit so much less stressful. I enjoyed travelling to the b-schools which were in fact at a distance because at the end of the journey, I know there was worthwhile information waiting.

Why

Why do b-schools in India and Singapore operate so differently? Why is the business etiquette of returning calls, replying to emails and keeping commitments that is so absent in Indian b-schools something that b-schools abroad consider basic courtesy?

A speaker, a senior editor of a business weekly print magazine once commented at a high conference of Indian business schools, “In order to compete globally, the first thing that Indian b-schools ought to do is start answering telephone calls.”

This b-school in Mumbai has a lousy phone line system. Since the director is not comfortable parting with his cell number, one has to call the board line. But it takes some twenty minutes for anyone to pick up the board line. The director knows about this, since I discussed it with him but nothing has been done about it.

Is it something to do with the fact that the students in Singapore are older, with more work experience or is it a culture thats signalled down from the top in the school. Unlike in many schools in India, in Singapore students wear shorts to class. Its what we learn in the classroom thats important, not what we wear, said Mohit Belani, student at INSEAD Singapore. In India, the old time-warp never gives way of students being brought up to not criticize their school and college because traditionally they are holier than thou places. And seats of education too, over the years like to think that they are some great service to society, so should be kept above all kind of criticism.

And yes, the India experiences, I have narrated are no blanket ones. I have made friends in some b-schools in Ranchi, Shillong, Kolkata and also receive instant information when I call some professors and directors in Lucknow, Hyderabad, Ranchi, Chennai, Mumbai but all these because I have cultivated them from an outdated system of functioning. And yes, the fact that information and people are not readily and happily available in India also makes my job so much more exciting and challenging. At the end of the day, digging for information is my job.