In
India
As business leaders try to navigate and rebuild economies savaged by the global meltdown, business schools around the world are rethinking leadership and how to train the next generation of managers in the midst of unprecedented challenges. It is not time to tweak what has been done before. It is a time for reinvention of management education.
The reinvention may well be led by India, where explosive growth in demand for management training has opened the door to massive growth and innovation in the business school sector. I heard firsthand many of the newest ideas and opportunities being discussed by the elite of Indian business schools, government officials, and corporate leaders in August in Delhi at a global conference called Rethinking & Rebooting Indian Management Education, and also had a chance to visit with individual deans and faculty from a diverse array of institutions.
India has a one-of-a-kind combination of location, culture, and demographics. Like a developing nation that skips the messy stage of telephone poles and patchworks of wires and goes straight to high-speed wireless, India has the opportunity and motivation to leverage the lessons learned by the Western world 's business schools, and create a management education system that will spur economic growth—and become the ultimate state-of-the-art laboratory for global business education innovation.
Following are six opportunities India has to reinvent management education in a way that can catapult it to the forefront of leadership and management training worldwide.
1. Skip the academic silos phase.
The world-class Indian engineering education system, the business education sector, and private enterprise can join forces as part of a national initiative to mine the rich intellectual capital of India—and harness the palpable entrepreneurial energy of the massive Indian population. Cross-disciplinary educational programs will foster new levels of
References: 1. Dhar, Upinder, Managing: Educational Services with special references to a management education in India. University News, 38(20), May 15, 8-11. 2. Narendran, R & Narendran,V(2000): Changing Scenario of Management Education in India , University News, 38(50); December 11;4-5 3. Stuart Crainer: "Key Management Ideas "Macmillan India Ltd., 1997, P-195.