In this Issue:

More about us at: http://acharya.ac.in/asm.php

ASMaCOM OLKC 2010 Conference
OLKC Teaching Workshop
NEN Orientation Workshop
Quality: Foreign to Education
OLKC 2010 Conference, Northeastern University, Boston
Vol 2, Issue 5-6-7 Whither Goest Thou, Indian
Education?
Prof Srinivasa Rao participated and presented a paper in the International Conference on
Pedagogy: Lessons from Football Organizational Learning, Knowledge and Capabilities (OLKC), 2010 hosted by the College
Tackling Placement Issues of Business Administration, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
May-June-July 2010 The conference was held from 3 – 6 June, 2010. The 2010 OLKC conference is the fifth in an
Branding Indian Mgmt Education
Brain Teasers annual series which brings to a common platform researchers in the fields of organizational
Answers to Last Issue Brain Teaser knowledge and learning. The conference is international in scope, and inclusive of a wide
July Theme range of intellectual perspectives which have helped to make the field of organizational
Welcome knowledge and learning one of the most vibrant areas for contemporary research and
debate.
From the Editor‟s Desk
The theme of the 2010 OLKC Conference was 'Learning to innovate; Innovating to learn.'
Dear Reader Selected papers had contributions which were theoretical, empirical and a combination of
both. The Teaching Workshop prior to the OLKC Conference was from June 3-4. The
The last month was vacation time at ASM. Apart from pursuing leisure activities and Conference started on the evening of June 4 with an inaugural dinner. The presentations
personal commitments, ASM faculty used this vacation to do some work of academic started on June 5. The key note speaker during the presentation session was Professor
interest as well – submitting papers for journals and conferences, and attending Dorothy Leonard, the William J. Abernathy Professor Emeritus of Business Administration at
conferences. So it was a judicious combination of pleasure and work during vacation. This Harvard Business School. Professor Leonard teaches courses in corporate creativity, new
issue carries reports of the conferences attendance by ASM faculty. product and process design, knowledge management, and innovation. She is the author of
three books on innovation: Wellsprings of Knowledge: Building and Sustaining the Sources
We have new faculty joining us in time for the new term starting in August. The new 2010- of Innovation, When Sparks Fly: Igniting Group Creativity, and Deep Smarts: How to
12 batch starts off with a one week orientation program on July 26. We eagerly await the Cultivate and Transfer Enduring Business Wisdom. The theme of her keynote address was
new batch as do the „seniors.‟ "Deep Smarts and How Organizations can Cultivate Them."
The senior batch has had their first exposure to corporate life, working as summer interns In addition, there was also a panel discussion on "Knowledge Management & Learning at
in various companies in the fields of HR, Marketing and Finance. This hopefully has given World Bank" by Larry Prusak and Klaus Tilmes. The conference had 6 parallel sessions
them a better idea about the practical aspects of the function as well as a peek into spreading over June 5 and 6. Each parallel session had about 6 different streams and in
corporate way of working in general. each stream there were 3 paper presentations. Prof Rao‟s presentation was on Saturday, 5th
June. It was under the stream "An Institutional Theory Perspective to Knowledge
The theme articles discuss whether the proposed changes in the higher education sector Management." My topic was "Commercializing Organizational Innovation Requires Loose
will cure it of its malady(ies) or position it better amongst the clientele. Coupling.”
Campus Placement is the most sought after deliverable at the end of the day for the The conference was interactive and more than the research methodology, most participants
graduating students and the institute. We provide a placement officer‟s insights on the seemed to be interested in the context in which the research was set and the possibility of
preparation that is required, from both the students and the institute, in ensuring its cross-country studies.
success.
The next year‟s OLKC Conference will be held from April 12-14, 2011 at University of Hull,
Do write to editorasmacom@acharya.ac.in to let us know what you think about this issue! UK. For more details about OLKC 2010, visit www.olkc.net.

Happy Reading! Page 1

Madhavi Srinivas
Pedagogy: Lessons from Football World Cup 2010
As I looked at the final scorecard in the Germany versus Argentina quarter-final match of
FIFA World Cup 2010, I wondered what I should make of it. The score card read 4-0 in
favour of Germany. That reminded me of the predictions I read the previous day and the
theories I read a day earlier in mainstream newspapers. The failure of some the European
biggies had ensured that articles could be written on how professional European football
team interests meant that it would be impossible for people to work as a united team while
playing for National teams; after all successful players through individual brilliance could
personally gain much more than being good team players. Also the tons of money in
European professional leagues were a big distracter and World cup football was no longer
the mother of all football tournaments for European players.
Suddenly all those theories had to be shredded. Theories built on small sample size or the
immediate past data all look very credible till the next event which proves it wrong. Most
predictions expected an Argentina team win and if at all Germany won, it would be a close
match. Why, then, did all the pundits go wrong?
The first reason I guess is in general the "settled debate that South Americans play the game
true to the purists and therefore their winning is good for football" and the second was the
a priori performance of both the teams in the World Cup 2010 so far. We will leave
psychological aspects as dealt in the first and move onto the second. Anything written in
numbers is often taken as the gospel since the evidence is irrefutable. What is missed, and
missed by many, is the fact that numbers have to be embedded in a context and only then
will they have predictive strength. It would be foolhardy to look at the score card and say
Germany is infinitely (applying the ratio scale) more competent than Argentina or going by
the interval scale "four times more." Either way, the score card obfuscates rather than reveals
the relative capability. Instead of simply looking at the score card of both the teams in the
past few matches, one has to look at the style of play of each team, their relative strengths
and weaknesses, and yes, the form of the composite whole.
Is there a lesson or two for academicians in the field of management learning? I believe that
there are many and the most prominent of them is the reiteration of the importance of the
case method of learning. We will just stick to this one for our current discussion. Robert K.
Yin (1984) defines the case study research method as „… an empirical inquiry that
investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context; when the boundaries
between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident; and in which multiple sources of
evidence are used‟ (the emphasis is mine and not that of the original author).
The performance of a company in terms of its profit and loss account and stock price
movements is a reflection of many context embedded decisions taken by the company itself,
its competitors and the exogenous play of the macro factors like regulation, technology, and
economic policy. Cases thereby bring in the richness of the context and remove the
drudgery of reading just facts. Our schooling system where the study of History required
nothing but memorizing various milestones is a reminder of how passive learning
pedagogies can defeat the very purpose of an academic institution - provide a forum for
intellectual slugfest and thereby lead to knowledge transfer, and better still knowledge
creation.
Prof C Srinivasa Rao
srinivasrao@acharya.ac.in
The superiority of the case based learning emerges from the fact that it is based on a non
linear process and also that it believes in mutiple paths (or solutions) to a given problem
depending on the assumptions one makes. The process instills in the learners confidence to
negotiate real world problems by developing skills to work in teams and by honing decision
making abilities. The most pertinent reason, in the words of Charles Gragg (in the Harvard
Alumni Bulletin, October 19, 1940), is simply that “Because Wisdom can‟t be told.”
If I wanted to predict the result of a football match I would have looked at more qualitative
information - the strengths and weaknesses of the various players, the style of play, ability to
possess the ball…and many other themes - something I should not attempt collating, given
my superficial understanding of the game of football. Did I hear someone say “Forget
analysis – quantitative, qualitative, case… - and ask Paul the Octopus and he will whisper in
your ears all that the future has in store?” ***
Welcome to ASM @ Acharya
We are glad to welcome Prof Arun Bhattacharyya who has
joined as Faculty in ASM in the area of Marketing. Prof
Bhattacharyya is a Mechanical Engineer from Utkal University,
Orissa and a PGDBM from IIM Kolkatta. Prof Bhattacharya‟s
corporate experience of 17 years included a long stint with
the Dalmia Group for 16 years designing machinery for Steel
Plants and allied industries; and in the area of branding, sales
and distribution management, and project marketing which
included overseas projects as well.
Prior to joining ASM, Prof Bhattacharya was with Jaipuria Institute of Management (JIM),
Noida where he undertook courses in Product, Brand and Category Mgmt, International
Marketing and International Business, and was also involved in NEN Entrepreneurship
program and helped JIM attain the runners‟ up trophy in 2009 and 2010.
Prior to JIM, he was associated with Modi Institute of Technology & Science, Rajasthan.
He has presented papers at national conferences held at IIM Bangalore and IIM Lucknow,
beside others. His case study has been accepted for publication in Vision, the management
journal of MDI, Gurgaon. Besides this, two other papers have been published as chapters in
two books.
His areas of interest include: The role of brands in B2B markets, especially in small and
medium scale firms; the inter-linkages between marketing and sustainability of SMEs; the role
of entrepreneurs in the development of start-ups and dynamics of supply chains and
networks in terms of developing sustainable relationships between firms and suppliers.
We welcome him into the Acharya Family!
Page 2
Branding Indian Management Education in the Present Scenario – Making Sense Out of the Mess
With globalization, the depth and width of competition has increased multifold, and the
education sector has not been left out in its wake. The proposed opening up of the Indian
education sector to cross-border participants may usher in an era of heightened competition
with foreign universities and institutions vying for a share of the potentially large aspirant base.
Historically, prospective Indian students aspiring for a management degree from a foreign
institution would necessarily have to go to that institution and spend time and money
(comparatively higher than that in India) there. In the present day scenario, however we find
a plethora of alliances between Indian institutions and willing partners from abroad, offering
undifferentiated products, selecting amongst which is a nightmare for prospective students.
This is a recipe for commoditization, with most firms trying to replicate similar strategies. To
avoid this gravity pull of commoditization and be sustainable, it becomes imperative that a
branding strategy be instilled in a firm‟s overall growth strategy. Without a successful branding
strategy, a perceived advantage can diffuse into a confused marketplace with its impact
dissipated, or become yet another forgotten initiative.
Branding does not mean simply putting a name and logo on a product or service offered by
the institution. A brand allows ownership of a new offering, adds credibility and legitimacy,
enhances visibility, and helps communicate facts. It has to be part of a rational strategy,
supported by actively managed and adequately funded brand-building programs, by all the
partners. Branding the offering can potentially help advance the business in some distinctive
ways.
▪ It can create the offering, making it more differentiated and more attractive. In this context,
the offering can be represented by a branded (or sub-branded) product or by a branded
feature, or service. The new offering can have its own brand (e.g. Lexus) or an endorsed
brand (e.g. Apple‟s iPod), the aim being to seek loyalty of existing customers through
differentiation.
▪ It can create a new category (or subcategory) to change what customers are looking for, for
example the teaching pedagogy in the case of management education. The branding
challenge is to manage perceptions of the category (or subcategory) and to influence which
brands are relevant to it, thereby providing a vehicle to define, position, and dominate the
new category (or subcategory). The challenge is first to make sure that the category (or
subcategory) is selected by customers, and second to make the brand the dominant choice.
For example a predominantly “off-classroom” pedagogy offered by an institution could gel
with Indian students, who are primarily exposed to “class-hours” environment.
▪ It can affect perceptions of the organization brand with respect to differentiation in order to
make it respected, and to make its offerings more credible. The “differentness” image of the
organization brand is benefited. As a result, the branding initiatives should be designed not
only to create new products, but also to affect the perception of the organization in the
marketplace. The “off-classroom” pedagogy mentioned above may make the institution
different in the eyes of the prospects.
Lea
Prof Arun Bhattacharyya
arunbhattachary@acharya.ac.in
In each of the above roles, the ability of the offering to achieve its potential impact will be
enhanced if it is branded, of course assuming that the new offering merits branding and
that the brand strategy is well conceived and implemented.
What is required at the end is the creation of value and its deliverance to the customer.
Simply put, value (which is always perceived) is what the customer is willing to pay and can
be represented by the following equation:
Value = Benefits (perceived) of buying it – Price paid for buying it
The value can be enhanced through a well crafted and implemented branding strategy,
wherein the customer perceives that s(he) is getting a differentiated offering as compared
to the competitors‟ offering. The differentiation achieved through branding also allows
them to self-justify the price differential, if any. The customer compares the perceived
benefits offered by all the players in the market and sees who is giving the best value. This
can be represented by the following equation: Value =  (Benefits – Price) f, c (f and c
representing the „firm‟ and „competitor‟ respectively).
The value to the customer is the incremental of the benefit/price difference of the offering
with respect to similar products offered by competitors. The brand specifically says that the
benefit was worth branding and the prospect might instinctively believe that there must be
a reason why it was branded. The brand name can help make the offering visible by making
it “news-worthy”, enabling higher recall and recognition scores around it. It is much easier
to remember a brand name than the details of a new offering. In the Indian context, as in
other emerging economies, price is a crucial factor and hence the benefit/price differential
must be large enough for the customers‟ to justify their choice.
The firms must also look into the launch decision of the new offering, because it can be
fraught with uncertainties which may include:
 Technical: Will the offering be feasible? For example, what would be a differentiated
design of the offering – the right mix of subjects offered and would the right faculty
be available in-house?
 Commercial: Will customers buy the product? For example, will the launch of a new
program attract the right number of prospective students?
 Competitive: Will competitors be offering similar or better products? For example, will
another institution be early on the market and set the quality-price benchmark?
 Regulatory: Will the regulations be favourable? For example, will the Indian
Government specify the holding pattern of the alliance between the Indian and
foreign institutions?
In order to be recognized in a crowded market-place of “me-too” offerings in management
education in India, it is necessary to design an offering and create a brand, supported by a
branding strategy and an actively managed brand-building program. Otherwise there is the
risk that an offering could fade into the marketplace and its life shortened, resulting in a
possible reduction in the return on investment. In addition to adding credibility and
legitimacy, enhancing visibility and improving communication, the creation of a new
category (or subcategory) through a brand can help to define, position, and dominate that
new category (or subcategory). In addition, a strong branded offering can affect the
reputation of the organizational brand. ***
Page 3
Tackling Placement Issues of Management Students: A Pragmatic Approach
We are in an era where the standards of the college are measured not by any other
achievement but by the quality of placements of its graduating students. It is indeed a
challenge for every institute in the race to put in high six and seven digit figures towards
offers received in the campus recruitment process.
Bangalore, aptly known as the Oxford of the South, houses more than 150 Management
Institutes offering post graduate management programmes in various fields of specialization
like marketing, human resources, finance, operations, retail, telecom, insurance, IT and
healthcare. All these programs are offered in two different ways, viz. some of them are post
graduate diploma or degrees recognized by University of Bangalore or Visvesvaraya
Technological University and rest of them are autonomous programs offered by the Institute
with the approval of AICTE. Thousands of students pass out every year, with nearly all of
them looking for job opportunities in industry.
Many management institutes have lately realized, and hence dedicated a team of
professionals to provide training and placement support to the students seeking
employment opportunities in the corporate world. The training for placement consists
of grooming the students on basics like personality development, effective communication
skills, effective resume writing, behavior in group discussions, handing a job interview, basic
business etiquette and general interaction. This part is taken care of by the expert faculty
who are working permanently in the Institute and sometimes supported by external
resources as and when required.
My suggestion would be to choose a placement officer who is also a trainer. That is when
s/he actually gets to interact with the students and know their capacity and capability, which
in turn helps to target the companies. On the placement front, the 'Placement Cell' or
'Corporate Relations Department' organizes a lot of activities to make the industry interface
with the students of the Institute. At the year end, this culminates with the Industry offering
placement opportunities to the passing out students in its areas of vacancies at entry level as
'Management Trainees.' As we all know, this is nothing but the "Campus Placement" or
"Campus Recruitment" Process. Success of this process lies on the one hand, on the efforts of
the team of professionals, the Placement Cell take to make the Institute known to
the corporate world and on the other hand, the kind of demand or requirement on human
resources at entry level the companies therein come forward with, where the brand of the
college in the market helps. Thus these two factors play a very important role in campus
recruitment.
In the current year‟s Campus Recruitment, we find that the demands from the participating
companies have gone up. Many of the companies are recruiting with the turn of the
economy. But, the interesting fact to note is that most of the companies mention a caveat to
the salary payable – „based of the performance in the interview and skill sets of the
candidate.‟ It is a very alarming situation for the final year students of many Management
Institutes as it is still very much true that students lack in various skill sets including basic
communication. What ought to be the Action Plan?
Prof Vasanth Kiran
vasanthkiran@acharya.ac.in
I have a few suggestions to offer on this front:
1. Placement Training should not be just a last minute preparation but an integral part of
the curriculum to be covered over the 2 year period. This will give sufficient time to be
spent in the process o develop students to the next level.
2. Placement should be considered a vital deliverable by one and all concerned and not
just a casual activity at the end of the year.
3. Focus should be on quality of industry interactions to help the students as well as faculty
improve and update on the current trends and understand the expectations of the
companies.
4. A full-fledged „language laboratory‟ should be made available to help students improve
their English communication.
5. A well designed brochure highlighting the campus and student activities and
achievements might help attract a few recruiters.
To make Placements easier for the graduating students, there are a few things that they
also have to bear in mind.
1. It is imminent for the students who seek employment opportunities to be less rigid on
industry or location issues, as it is better to be safe than sorry.
2. The students need to remember that what matters most in this process is getting a job
through the Campus Recruitment Process while completing the course simultaneously.
As many students who have already graduated would concur, not getting a job
through the Campus Recruitment Process by being very choosy at that point in time is
something which one regrets at a later point in time.
3. Students, through internal and external sources, should be in touch with the
developments in the domestic and international job markets, so that they get the real
picture as to what is happening in and around on the employment front.
4. A student representative body should be formed to participate in the 'opportunity
searching process' along with the Placement team, serving as a conduit between the
student body and the Placement team.
5. The entrepreneurial spirit should also be encouraged for the students strongly inclined
towards it. Interaction with entrepreneurs might boost the hidden spirits in students.
Let us not forget that what matters at the end of the day is “quality and skill sets of the
students than what course s/he does.” So it is high time the colleges and students
concentrated on it. ***
Answers to Brain Teaser in Vol 2, Issue 4, April 2010
Train Name: Duronto Express; Destination Station A: Howrah; Train from Station A: Gitanjali
Express; J Junction: Jharsuguda; IS Express: Tata Alleppey; C Junction: Coimbatore; Next
Train: Coimbatore Nilgiri express; Alighted at: Mettupalayam; Holiday Destination: Ooty
While we did not receive a fully correct response, Ms Dipanwita Roy of ASM came close to
it. We appreciate her effort.
Page 4
OLKC Teaching Workshop
If we thought the situations we face in Indian classrooms were unique, this workshop was an
eye opener. Such situations are similar in countries as far apart as India, Norway and US.
Generalizing this very broadly at a continent level, classroom issues faced by Faculty at the
graduate and post graduate levels are common in Asia, Europe and North America! This is the
case, despite the differences in focus, technology and intent behind the education experience.
This was my deduction as a participant at the Teaching Workshop, a Pre-Conference
Workshop at the OLKC 2010 Conference.
The Teaching Workshop (http://www.cba.neu.edu/olkc2010/workshops/teaching-
workshop/) was held as part of the larger OLKC 2010 Conference
(http://www.cba.neu.edu/olkc2010/). This workshop was facilitated by Professor Russ Vince
of the University of Bath, UK (http://bath.academia.edu/RussVince) and Professor Mike
Reynolds of the University of Lancaster, UK (http://www.lums.lancs.ac.uk/profiles/mike-
reynolds/). Both are eminent in their field of work. Professor Vince works in the area of
Leadership and Change while Professor Reynolds works in the area of Management Learning
and Leadership. Professor Reynolds has worked with the likes of Kolb, Rubin and McIntyre,
famous for their work on the Learning Styles. He has the distinction of publishing in all the
decades since 1970‟s at the Academy of Management, a record hard to be beaten by
anybody in the near future.
The other participants for the Teaching Workshop, who were either academics or
practitioners in a different setting, came from Finland, Norway, Germany, Scotland and the
US.
The workshop started on the evening of June 3 with a short introduction to the genesis of the
workshop, the intent and the people behind it. It was followed by a round of introduction of
all the participants present – their educational background, their current academic affiliation
and what brought them to the Conference. This was followed by dinner, where we got to
know the other participants a little better.
The opening session the next morning was that of Professor Vince, where he put across a
powerful message about the theme “Learning and Innovation in Organizations” by illustrating
the 4 managerial conflicts that reflect in the dichotomies of learning:
 Champions of Change Vs Guardians of status quo
 Radical potential of learning vs the Political Purpose of Learning
 Learning promoted by anxiety vs Learning prevented by anxiety
 What do I want individuals to learn vs what organizational processes do I hope to
illustrate?
This set the tone for the next small group session where we were divided into groups of five.
We followed this process: One group member spoke about his/her experience with the
process of learning and the issues s/he was facing currently. The rest of the group discussed
the issue while the speaker heard the entire discussion from the sidelines. At the end, the
speaker clarified any issues s/he had with the points raised by the group. This process was
repeated for all the group members, where each one got chance to share their experiences
and raise issue/s for discussion.
The beauty of the session was in the process. As the speaker, I raised an issue and let it be
discussed within the small group without interrupting them. The perspectives this offered
were immense. I got to hear cultural differences and similarities to the process of learning,
various individuals‟ perspectives on learning, and above all saw their urge to share their
insights.
Prof Madhavi Srinivas
madhavi@acharya.ac.in
The small group setting was ideal for this purpose. It gave just the right amount of time
for each person to be heard and the issue discussed. Since each speaker raised an issue,
there were a variety of issues discussed and insights shared. Though it did not offer
solutions in all the cases, it definitely gave a different approach to it. It was in this session
that many participants discussed about engaging the students in class, especially those
students who did not have any prior work experience.
Post lunch, there was an interesting session on the use of Social Media for the purposes
of class room learning. This was an experiment conducted at the University of Oslo,
Norway, where a class of students were given learning inputs regarding a course, not
just in the classroom but also through social media like Twitter and Blog. The aim was to
study the students‟ involvement with the social media for a very different purpose of
course learning and how they adapted to it. This was an interesting study, given that
the student world is very active on the electronic social media. The students‟ reaction to
the use of social media for curricular purposes was mixed, even though a large
percentage of the class used it for curriculum discussion. The study also brought to light
interesting aspects of students‟ classroom and online presence. Maybe a similar
experiment with our ASM students?
The workshop closed with all the participants sharing their views on the process and
the usefulness of the workshop. All the participants agreed on the format of the
workshop, which restricted the participation to small numbers and had ample time for
discussions. ***
Brain Teaser
At the FOFIITB School of Management, the finance head was looking at the P&L of the
college. The first batch of students had just passed out at the end of a grueling two year
academic work, but fortunately a wonderful placement season which justified all the
unending and tortuous course work. The P&L account for FOFIITB School of
Management, for the two years, was being tabulated but some numbers weren't very
clear. All the expenses had been accounted for and there were no capital expenditures,
in these two years. Also the School hadn't raised any capital and all expenses were
funded through internal accruals.
The various heads of the total expenditures for the two years were computed. What
was very clear was that the School had spent a fourth of the yearly income in rent and
computers, one-fifth in faculty expenses, one-tenth on transport and one-sixth in other
ways. At the end the bank balance showed a balance of INR 7.7 L. The income data was
all messed up and could not be accounted. The total income during both the years was
equal since there were some changes in the fee structure and the intake. Can you help
the finance head identify what the total income was during the period?
Other than ASM faculty and staff, this is open to all other faculty, staff and students.
Send your response to editorasmacom@acharya.ac.in. The correct responses should be
received before the due date. Don‟t forget to mention your name and the course you
attend or the college you teach. Last Date is 26 July 2010.
Page 5
Whither Goest Thou, Indian Education?
This is SOME campus! Building after building after building, interspersed with large
landscaped gardens. Well maintained pathways that make it a pleasure to walk through
the otherwise arduous distances. A voluminous Snell Library, stocked with a variety of
topics and disciplines. Innumerable volumes of books and many computer terminals stare
at me as I sit at one computer terminal in the library to write this article. Northeastern
University (NEU) in Boston, Massachusetts, is a place to visit. Surrounded by interesting
neighbours like the Wentworth Institute of Technology, Boston Police Headquarters and
the Museum of Performing Arts, serviced by two metro stations, Ruggles of the Orange
Line and Northeastern of the Green Line, NEU is a happening place. As I walked through
the campus to find my accommodation and conference venue, I realised there were as
many as 3 International Conferences happening there at the same time. There could be
more!
As I walked through the campus after my conference, what struck me were the facilities
available at the University. There was a dedicated student centre, called the Curry Student
Center, which serves as a meeting place for students. There are as many as 250 student
associations co-existing, catering to different student affiliations. This center serves as the
hub of student placement activities, providing information about part time, full time and
co-op opportunities.
There is a Student Admissions Centre to meet and greet new students, give a guided or a
self guided campus tour, provide all required information to new joiners and
accompanying parents. These tours are conducted by senior students themselves.
Another thing that struck me was that any desk that I saw was usually manned by
students themselves. The library, the visitors quarters, the conference enquiry - it is the
students all around. I am sure it gives them a good exposure to work, apart from adding a
few greenbacks into their pocket!
One fascinating aspect was the quietness all around. In spite of all the students, faculty
and conference attendees, the campus was still very quiet. This speaks volumes about the
decorum and discipline, combined with respect for the others' privacy.
These were the “hard” facts of NEU that I could see for myself during my 2 day visit. I am
sure there are many more aspects to NEU that I have not seen or experienced. Ranked by
US News at number 80 in its 2010 rankings, NEU is listed as a Tier 1 National University.
How do we compare with such universities? Can we boast of physical infrastructure? Or
are there other aspects we can highlight?
Prof Yashpal‟s Report (Report of “The Committee to Advise on Renovation and
Rejuvenation of Higher Education‟) focuses a lot on the processes to be followed in higher
educational institutions. While it is difficult to gauge what comes first, the place or the
people (a good place might attract good people while good people might also make a
place good), it definitely calls for a process orientation to get things going.
Prof Madhavi Srinivas
madhavi@acharya.ac.in
The Report bemoans the relative absence of an inter-disciplinary approach to research (a
higher order of things) and also mentions the failings of the current system (the bare
minimum required) – student intake 5-6 times more than the sanctioned capacity,
insufficient faculty and infrastructure, shift system of classes – to mention a few. While
calling for adherence to the regulations laid out by the concerned bodies, it also advises
introspection by the management within each institution. It calls for a balanced approach
to regulatory bodies – there is a need for focus on various streams of education (Technical
/ Medical / Legal…) but not at the cost of losing out on the benefits of an integrated
approach. The report also highlights the need for good governance of the academic
institutions, demarcating the academic and administrative responsibilities of the powers
that be, autonomy in financial transactions and accountability for outcomes.
This is not to say that everything is fine with the likes of NEU and we have to ape them.
NEU is set in a context and works well within it, at least to an outsider like me. Our
institutions also work in a context but well below what they can do. It does not require a
Professor Yashpal to tell us that we need to focus on faculty, infrastructure and processes.
Yes, it is apt for him to look at the macro picture of education and say we need an
interdisciplinary approach and a well balanced regulatory mechanism that can promote
the same.
There are management institutes that run out of a few rooms, engineering institutes that
run without labs and medical colleges that run without attached hospitals. The faculty
resources are meager, the quality very poor, the remuneration just manageable. What ails
the education system in India that it cannot attract the best in the field? It is a very different
scenario from the times when the teaching profession was revered, respected and sought
after. Have other professions become relatively more attractive or has the rot set in the
education sector? It is a tragedy that the output of the education sector is the input to
many other sectors. So, has rotting time set it for the other sectors too?
If a University ranked number 80 in the US can boast of the „hard‟ facilities it has, will our
top ranking educational institutions measure up? Can we intellectualize about the softer
aspects, in the absence of those above? We don‟t stand a chance of doing so! So will
having such willing universities set up shop in India, solve the problem? Not till the context
in which we operate changes to promote a quality consciousness at every level. It is high
time the education industry practiced the quality concept. ***
Snell Library Building@ NEU, Boston Inside the Snell Library@NEU, Boston
Quality: Foreign to Education?
India‟s high economic growth has added a number of high paying jobs, especially in the
services sector. This led to a sharp increase in the demand for qualified professionals. The
education system responded by setting up new educational institutions and producing
millions of graduates. But Industry complains that most of them are unemployable. There is
an increase in quantity but not in quality. During boom times, most of these so called
unemployable graduates are absorbed by the industry, but only after some training. But
during tougher times, they would not be able to find jobs.
What should we do to increase the quality standards in the education system? In the
education sector, the regulations focus on the input quality – qualifications of the faculty,
infrastructure facilities and the course structure and content. The aim of the regulations is to
provide quality education at a cost that is not prohibitive, aiming at efficiency in providing
education. It is very difficult to regulate the output quality and that is left to the market
(employers) to assess. Competition in the education sector has obviously led to an increase in
the output of certificates, but not an increase in quality of output. One suggestion to take
competition to a new level is to permit the entry of foreign educational institutions (FEIs) into
India.
Do we need foreign educational institutions? A domestic institution can hire high quality
people from all over the world. It can invest in world class technology – there is hardly any
lead time in technology being available in India compared to international markets. It can get
access to current literature through online databases. It has access to the course material and
methodologies of some of the best schools in the world. With all these, it should not be
difficult for domestic educational institutions to offer high quality education. But all these
inputs, by themselves, cannot bring in quality. Academic learning is only partly due to the
inputs received from faculty and most of the learning is through self-learning and assimilation
through discussions with peers. For this, the overall atmosphere of the institution is as
important, if not more, than the physical infrastructure and facilities.
Without an atmosphere conducive to learning and research, it would be difficult to produce
high quality output. We do need islands of excellence in education with the right atmosphere
to serve as hotbeds of innovation. If FEIs can replicate their main campuses in India, that
would be very much welcome. But that would be near impossible and most top universities
are not eager to set up campuses abroad. Besides, to operate in India, managing the context
is a necessary core competence. Those who would jump in initially would be the ones who
are eager to commercially exploit the market. They would be no different from some of the
private enterprises providing education in India. For the prospective student either, the FEI
campus in India would not have the same appeal as an education in the main campus. Until
the late nineties, before the discovery of the H1B visa, foreign education for most Indians was
a route to easy emigration.
During liberalization in India, import of technology and capital goods was made easier. This
helped us improve industrial productivity substantially. Though foreign investment was also
liberalized, it was a small portion of the overall investment in India. In the same way, in the
case of education, though we should welcome foreign investment, the bulk of the
investment has to come from domestic players – private and public.
In the context of the immediate requirements, with demographics pointing to an increasing
proportion of working age population, we need to equip the new workforce with skills that
are in demand. The efforts should focus more on raising the average quality of educational
institutions than on building more centres of excellence.
Prof Kanti Kumar
kanti@acharya.ac.in
To raise the quality of output we need to develop proper incentive structure for the
institutions. One way of doing that is to increase or decrease the sanctioned admission levels
based on the quality of output to drive this change and not just based on the infrastructure
facilities of the institution. ***
Theme for August 2010 Issue
Learning from Practice and Practising to Learn
The field of management has had wild swings of pendulum regarding who controls the
mainstream gospel and often has shifted between academic scholars, management
consultants and management practitioners. The focus of the July 2010 issue of ASMaCOM
will be on reconciling some of these divides by understanding how practitioners and
academicians can come together in the process of knowledge sharing so as to help future
practitioners of management acquire knowledge today - both efficiently and effectively. of
Please send your articles by 9 Aug 2010 to see it in print. Please refer to the author‟s
guidelines published in the Vol 1, Issue 3, Dec 2009 issue of this journal.
Report on the NEN Orientation Program
Prof Arun Bhattacharyya attended the program hosted by National Entrepreneurship
Network on 19 June 2010 in Mount Carmel College. The objective was to introduce the
concept of entrepreneurship education and sharing of information regarding running of
such programs. The idea was to lay a platform for faculty members of the participating
institutes to form, nurture and grow campus E-cells. The focus areas were:
 Identifying and building of an institute‟s (campus) ecosystem and targeting the
entrepreneurship education in each of the constituent parts
 The role of NEN in facilitating such building-up exercise
 Methodology of generating business ideas for start-ups, from newspapers. Here the
learning was that about 97% of ideas were not new-to-the-world but incremental
innovations on existing products and services
 A typical venture life cycle and the role of faculty members in facilitating each stage of the
life cycle. Here an analogy was drawn between a real life cycle and the launch of an E-cell
in an institute
An entrepreneur, Mukesh Bansal (graduate from IIT, Kanpur) of Myntra, Bangalore provided
insights into his journey from a job to entrepreneurship and the problems he faced. He
stressed on the fact that finance is one area where each and every entrepreneur must be
proficient in.
E-leaders of Mount Carmel College, Bangalore shared their experiences in the formation of
the E-cell and how they were able to rope in members of other departments (e.g. Arts,
Science, Maths and so on). They have formed a company and are running three businesses:
Manufacturing writing chalk, advertising magazine and book binding.
NEN facilitators gave an insight into the activities of NEN and how NEN has been growing
with over 500 institutes being NEN members as of 2009. A schedule of the forthcoming NEN
programs was also provided. Henceforth NEN would charge a fee for each of these
programs and the institutes have to register for it beforehand. ***
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