Dhanush during the recording of the Kolaveri Di song
Business has changed, but business education has failed to keep up and stay relevant. This column in the Financial Times articulates what has changed about business,
The world of work my father knew was pretty much as follows: a job was for life, career progression depended on deep, often technical expertise, on time served and working the hierarchy; the career itself, was often linear within one particular profession. Communication was one way: top-down, there was a strong sense of right and wrong and organisations were internally focused. That was the world of work for which the MBA was developed and for which the skills it supplied were appropriate.
That world no longer exists. If you are an American male in his mid-40s, you are likely to have had 10.8 jobs to date. In general, the idea of a job for life has long gone and there are plenty of other changes as well. Many now work outside the office, or leave large organisations to pursue independent careers via small networks, or have multiple careers. It has become less about what we know, but more about how and where we apply our knowledge the much cited knowledge economy. Throw instant communication and global reach, crowd sourcing, open source and open innovation into the mix and you end up in a world of work that is distinctly different from the one my father knew.
The recurring themes across curriculum revamps at top US business schools however are ethics and social responsibility and business in a global context. This story in Businessweek discusses the plans b-school deans have for 2012 and quotes the Kellogg School of Management dean Sally Blount as saying,
Looking ahead to 2012, it is critical for management education to inspire students, the next generation of business leaders, to think deeply, creatively, and boldly about solving the complex, large-scale problems facing our global society. As educators, this means we must push boundaries in how we approach teaching and research. We must go beyond what has worked in the past to meet the current needs of this dynamic, vibrant planet of 7 billion people.
International student enrolments are on an upswing again at US b-schools and have reached the same levels as before the 2008 recession, writes Businessweek. The goal of these students, however, is not necessarily to settle in America after graduation.
Many of these students are coming to the US to get their MBAs, hoping to return to their home countries and fast-track their careers at a multinational company, says Shantanu Dutta, vice-dean for graduate programmes at the University of Southern Californias Marshall School of Business. The school offers a one-year international MBA programme in which 75 percent of the students hail from Asia, he says. These countries are becoming wealthier, and more students than ever can now can afford to come to the US, Dutta says. They are more confident about the economy back home, and there is a lot of high energy and enthusiasm.
MBA programmes in the West, however, may be turning out to be more beneficial for international students than they are for locals, argues this column in Canada’s Financial Post.
Many do. In recent years, increasing proportion of Asian graduates from North American MBA programmes have been returning to their countries of origin. Although tightening US visa regimes are partially to blame, the attractiveness of opportunities in countries like China often trump the options available in the mature North American markets. The talent is flowing back where it came from.
As a result, Western companies (and governments) are facing global competition staffed with professionals who understand well how the other side thinks, measures risk, and executes. Many of your Asian counter-parts went to the same schools and did the same cases as you have. They understand what is needed to compete in YOUR market. The difference is that they also know how to compete in their markets, which is where an average western MBA graduate falls short.
In my opinion, the way our MBA programmes are set up favours international students and short-changes the local ones.
Back home, a column in Firstpost criticises the tendency of Indian b-schools to view all creative success in films or music from the lens of marketing and trivialise the role that content creators play. Taking the example of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad offering a session on the success of Kolaveri Di song for its MBA students, the article argues,
Dhanush might swear up and down that the Kolaveri crew had no grand viral marketing plan, that they merely uploaded that video and Kolaveri Dis success just happened. But we wont rest until we find the long tail in every cow-u cow-u, holy cow-u.
Of course, we dont need an MBA to understand that talent isnt always enough. We have to be smart about marketing it. But we seem have reached the tipping point where the marketing is starting to trump the content that is being marketed.
That is bad news for content. Vidya Balan might pour her heart into a role the likes of which has rarely been seen in our commercial filmdom a woman, unabashed and unapologetic about her sexuality, a vamp who revels in her vampdom instead of saddling it with the woe-is-me baggage of childhood abuse and marital rape. Here is a film thats selling on the star power of its heroine, unheard of since the Rekha days. But the only lesson we look for is the marketing mantra so that you can replicate The Dirty Picture over and over again. In other words, how do you reduce Vidya Balan and her tummy rolls and thunder thighs to a Powerpoint slide?
Rambhai Kori, the legendary chaiwallah outside IIM Ahmedabad who has become an inseparable part of fables surrounding the school’s student culture is in financial trouble, reports the Times of India. The students have however pooled in money to help him out.
For nearly three decades he served tea and cigarettes to students of IIM-A from his stall outside the campus, and befriended many of these bright-eyed youngsters. Wanting a similar future for his grandson, Rambhai had admitted him to Sainik School, Balachadi in Jamnagar. Today the boy has reached class X, but the family is struggling to pay his fees. The school even sent the boy back home briefly because of the default.
Not surprisingly, when some IIM-A students heard about Rambhai’s problem, they came to his rescue. They circulated mails and collected Rs 49,000 overnight, which covered a part of the debt. “With that money, we negotiated with the school authorities to take the boy back,” says Rambhai, who does not want to disclose the boy’s name, fearing it would embarrass him before his classmates.