I present to KMA my vision of Management and Management Education in India.
Since it all starts with education I shall also start from there.
Management Education System In India.
India has produced among the finest franchisees of management education in the form of the IIM, a brand well recognized all over the world. The speed, accuracy and the analytical ability of average IIM student would be the best in the world.
After the IIM there are top 20 or so management institutes in the country who started their management programmes some 20 years back, much before management education made business sense.
Then there is other, who are over 20 year old, but did not catch up to the brand positioning and have faded over the years.
Then there are new breeds like the IIPM’s and Amity and similar to name a few. However there has been several cases where students of these institutes are complaining of poor placements and poor quality of Education they got for the money they paid.
Then there are MBA offered by engineering colleges, where they decide to utilize the 10 cents of land that was lying vacant for MBA programme.
The quality of MBA Students, has deteriorated beyond acceptable norms.
Most MBA’s of our country join MBA because
1. Its lighter to study
2. 2 yrs of fun and time pass
3. Extend your wedding
4. Easiest entry and the lowest cost
5. Being a under grad is not respected in the society and for improving your prospects of wedding.
So where should this change start from
The faculty
Being a faculty is not an attractive job, will any student who are studying now would ever say that they want to become a faculty. The answer is NO.
Most of the faculty is there because either they have some personal commitment at home, or some other reason best know to them, but surely it will not be because they want to be a great faculty.
So as a RULE 1
Remuneration of those who intend to be a faculty should be so attractive and comparable to the banking and the software that prospective people start to think of shifting towards teaching as a profession and makes a huge business sense.
There is a serious need to correct the body language of the faculty members.
KMA’s Programme PGDTRM (Post Graduate Diploma in Teaching and Research in Management) is a great beginning, however attending the inaugural session and seeing those who have taken up the course made me sad, they all had a very poor and negative body language, therefore I believe the first lesson that should be taught should be body language and posture that reflect positivity in the faculty only then we can make great managers and entrepreneurs of the future.
Dr Raman Nair of SCMS who have attended the faculty training programme at IMDI Switzerland would give KMA more insight into this.
Education business is like any other business in India, the students, since they are 18+ are considered should be considered as a consumers or customers therefore regarded as customers first students later, so can we have a customer satisfaction index.
Management education should be a 3 Year Programme.
1st Year learning basic management covering all aspects of management.
2nd year work in a company for a minimum remuneration.
3rd year back to college complete the course and be ready for placements, if you have made a great impact in the company that you have worked as a trainee, then be rest assured you can dictate your salary terms and not the company.
KMA Should Promote Simple & Large Organization in Kerala.
Management, the term seems only applicable to the corporate world, we talk about top level companies in India but if we need to learn the real management, we have true examples right here in Kerala, there are several companies in Kerala who are not very media savvy but have more than 500 employees, and have policies and practices that can put many of the so called professionally managed corporate companies in our country to shame.
For an eg many of these companies do a lot for the community and the society but they don’t term this act as Corporate Social Responsibility.
Kerala being a state with such vigorous militant labor acts how does these companies survive and where employee management is a serious concern and how do they become successful.
The efforts of all the office bearers of KMA in conducting the recently held KMA meet is truly praise worthy, the theme Emerging Kerala, was truly a great subject.
However bearing the fact that the efforts of KMA’s activities got sufficient intended media coverage what is the step to change, that has happened.
We need efforts like Jassica Lal Case with the help of media to bring change in Kerala and to Kochi.
Kerala being a tourism potential state, what is the progress that has been made in these efforts.
We need roads that are well laid, like the present kaloor kadavanthara road, the authorities who made this happened should be given awards by KMA, such kind of recognition will make the people behind the scene feel pride in what they have done and encourage them to do such sincere work in the future as well.
Entrepreneurship Cell.
In India we need to create more jobs, so i would recommend that all colleges should have a Entrepreneur Cell to promote entrepreneurship culture among the youth in the country.
Most common thing that we hear about very successful business entrepreneurs are “he was my neighbor, he use to travel in a bicycle, if he had not got the funds, he have done enough fraud etc etc.
But from many of the super powerful businessman that I have met, studied and done research on, I have concluded that they have few traits that many of them do not know,
They are great visionaries,
They are very positive in approach,
They have a sharp business sense
But I would quote, they are what they are because they are multi talented, multi dimensional, “wowsome” personalities and they work very hard for it, very very hard.
Show me one super powerful business man who does not have any of the above mentioned qualities.
The problem is, unlike in US they do not write any books on how they made it (just kidding)
The objective being
To develop budding entrepreneurs specifically to promote investments in Kerala and generate more employment.
Assign sector heads for each industry type.
Eg. ITES, Food Processing, Coir Development, Organic Farming etc.
If anyone wants any information or help they can approach KMA and Kma shall direct to the sector head who shall do the needful further.
Compulsory student membership for all management students with a nominal fee. “larger the member, Stronger the association”
Membership development should also be a key focus of the key KMA members.
“More members, wider the network”
Every management college should contribute to KMA journal there shall be an award for the best informative and strong message delivering contribution.
There are Possible, Marketable, and profitable tourism promotion plans that I can suggest to KMA which in turn should be handed over to the tourism minister.
Jai Hind.
