Redesign & reinvention: the only way for successful business & managers

Jayita Ekka updated on : 21 Oct, 2015 0

“Excellence in business education and the assurance and advancement of academic quality require the academic business unit to develop and implement a comprehensive plan for assessing educational outcomes”, says Dr. Manoj Bhatia – Director, AIMSR.

With over 20 years under his belt as a leader, motivator & team builder (setting up and managing a new campus) in management education in India and abroad, Dr. Manoj Bhatia is an icon in the academecia. Currently, he is the Director at Aditya Institute of Management Studies and Research, Mumbai (AIMSR) spearheading the academics and business functions. Prior to this, he has worked as Director at Sanghvi Institute of Management & Science Indore (SIMS Indore) as well as Director Icfai Business School (IBS) for the Ahmedabad and Indore campuses in India and Adelaide campus in Australia.

Dr. Bhatia has set up campuses and results-driven business solutions dedicated to maximizing profits, providing impeccable customer services, and creating an atmosphere of exceptional employee morale. He is a resourceful decision maker who combines integrity, exemplary leadership and proven operational skills to lead complex projects from conception through completion.

In an exclusive interview with Campuswalkin, Dr. Bhatia – Director AIMSR shares his inputs on need of the hour vis-à-vis management education and the expectations of the job market.

Excerpts from the interview:

20+ years as a leader, leader & team builder - how has the journey been so far?

It has been amazing journey that has let me work on things I never dreamed would be possible. The reality is being successful takes a lot of time, a lot of hard work and there is just no getting around it.

I think it is important to not only share your process and ideas with the team but to develop a culture where the team will constantly try to pressure test and find weak spots in those ideas to make them stronger. It is something that requires strong leadership so that everyone doesn’t feel like that are being attacked or their ideas are being put down but instead allows everyone to contribute and take ownership in creating the best ideas.

Having worked both in India and abroad in the education sector, what were the major differences you witnessed in approach?

While students go abroad for further studies, most parents are not clear about the distinction between academia within India and abroad. Some of the basic differences lie in the academic structures and grading systems itself.

In India, colleges follow either the semester based or the yearly examination patterns. Whereas, most universities abroad especially in countries like USA, UK, Canada, Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong offer course credits.

Students typically receive credit hours based on the number of "contact hours" per week in class, for one term. (A contact hour includes any lecture or practical session when the professor is teaching the student while they apply the course information to an activity.)

The educational environment offered by Universities abroad is one of the most holistic ways for personality development. Even though factors like research and practical approach does play a key role, the way weekly study hours are segregated is also most impressive. The way graduate and postgraduate study hours are planned out allow students’ to allocate their time for everything related to academics, including an hour to simply pursue pleasure activities.

Which areas in imparting management education do you think we need to focus the most?

In recent years, managers have had to grapple with an additional source of uncertainty: the challenge to redesign, even reinvent their organizations and businesses on a continuous basis. The pace of change has accelerated. We live in an increasingly interdependent world. Product development times and lifecycles are shorter. There is greater diversity in the workplace. Few firms cling to fixed beliefs about products, markets, and operating procedures, and expect to succeed.

So while imparting management education I think we should focus on primarily:

To prepare students to make them achieve high levels of performance on a consistent basis
Add value to students in a way that that endures throughout their careers

Over the years, the strategy of management education has drastically changed. What major changes have you seen? And foresee?

Since its inception management education has gone through various phases. Until mid-50’s, most of World’s renowned institutions were created in the west. These institutions were in need of quality faculty and other resources.

The next 25 years management education was at a boom and the number of graduates worldwide rose multifold annually. Business schools were the important suppliers of managerial talent to U.S. companies.

After 90’s, management schools flourished and were challenged to make the curriculum more relevant to the business needs.

Today we are at threshold in the field of management education. B-Schools have two options –

First they can continue to do business as usual and risk growing irrelevance
Or they can re-visit their mission and objectives and come out with agenda that have significant value for both students and society

What makes AIMSR a coveted institute to study in?

A solid foundation of conceptual knowledge is essential for effective performance and that is what is provided in AIMSR through the formal instruction and learning experiences. The coverage of both, pertinent business concepts and ways of thinking in a rigorous and logical fashion is a major focus in AIMSR. This knowledge is translated into action by providing action skills at AIMSR. Each classroom gets converted into an Action Skills Lab.

USP’s of AIMSR?

Innovation, Excellence, Integrity, Agility, Trust, Mutual Respect

What are the MBA specializations of the future?

Agri Business
Innovation
Health Care
Social Entrepreneurship
Wealth & Asset management

Core academics and soft skills training – do you think it is necessary to be adept in both to be successful? How does it help?

Effective communication and interpersonal skills are crucial to increase employment opportunities and to compete successfully in the business environment. The real key is the ability to put their domain knowledge into effective practice. In this context, soft skills have a crucial role to play. The soft skills program is about enabling and empowerment. With these training programs students’ have a smooth transition from aspiring students to young successful managers.

As an educationist, do you think that B-schools are cognizant of the industry demands in terms of curriculum and skill-set requirement?

Employers clearly expect certain functional roles to be filled by fresh MBA graduates. A hands-on approach to work is one of them. This indicates that while rebalancing their curricula, business schools must retain a focus on their current strength in the “knowing” dimension, while augmenting their stress on the “doing” dimension.

It is the “being” dimension that seems to call for attention while making any attempt to rebalance the curriculum. Leadership means taking responsibility for implementing change, developing a certain depth as a person, willing to shed any stereotypes that one may have carried into the job, understanding the balance between a career and commitment to an organization, developing a commitment to practice, understanding one’s own limitations, and working out one’s expectations in a reasonable manner. In addition, developing an integrated perspective is an important aspect of developing the “being” dimension. This is where the challenge for B Schools lies.

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