In an exclusive interview with Higher Education Review, Prof. Himanshu Rai, Director, IIM Indore shares his valuable insights on the Indian MBA education landscape, the increasing popularity of Executive management programs, importance of sustainable development practices in management education and more.
The global market for executive management education programs is currently valued at USD 2 billion. How do you see the market for Executive management education programs evolving in India?
The market for executive education programmes in India has been growing since the beginning of the pandemic. There had been considerable demand for enrolments into online programmes, which executives used as a vehicle for upskilling. While during the pandemic, there was a dip in the traditional (on-campus) Executive Education programmes, we are seeing a lot of organizations opening their training calendars in 2022. This has led to significant growth of traditional (on-campus) programmes owing to the pent-up demand during the pandemic. Overall, there is a significant growth in both online and on-campus executive education programmes, which we foresee being on the rise in the short-term. Executives have specific demands for niche programmes and are driven by the immediate application of these programmes in the contemporary business environment. While there is demand for General Management programmes, we are seeing a steeper growth in specific niche topics like data sciences, business analytics, digital transformation, digital marketing, fintech, blockchain, and such. To raise the growth wave, educational institutions must ensure that they are suitably placed with internal expertise in such topics and have industry partnerships to foster a contemporary, challenging, and engaging curriculum.
One of the many challenges of today’s leader would be to manage a diverse and multi-cultural team and provide solutions to global customers. To be successful, the leader must have an inclusive mindset, appreciative of a diverse team, and sensitive to myriad cultures. How can such a mindset be inculcated through a global immersion MBA Program?
Globalization and its associated challenges will come to MBA students much more in the near future. It is no more a phenomenon; it is now a constant force demanding outward-looking managerial capability. In this regard, the home campus internationalization and internationalization module for the MBA program is crucial. International immersion modules help to understand the global business environment, international best practices, cross-cultural sensitivity, and a globally competent workforce.
Live industry projects during an MBA program are a must, as they provide real-time professional management experiences and make learners corporate-ready. How are b-schools empowering students by providing maximum opportunities to solve real business problems in a live corporate environment?
Industry projects are a very relevant source for connection with practice. However, introducing such a course at an appropriate level in the MBA curriculum is crucial. The projects should be introduced in such a way that it will help to apply the classroom learning appropriately. Moreover, there should be a mandatory component to give feedback to the industry from the project output.
There are around 5000 MBA colleges in India. In your opinion, what are the things a student should consider before choosing an MBA college?
The essential aspects are an institute’s performance alignment with its declared mission, international rankings, infrastructure, faculty strength, international exchange opportunity, alumni career progress in past years, placements, and how rigorous the candidate selection process, or what the candidate rejection rate is - for a robust selection process ensures quality.
Today, global companies look at applicants who have shown their commitment to sustainable development goals through being part of socially impactful projects, as they can be budding sustainable development practitioners. How are management institutes working on initiating sustainable development practices both in curriculum and managing the institutes’ ecosystem?
Sustainability practices should not be mere institutional activities. It is more appropriate to make the institute and programme mission-driven. The overall learning objectives of the sustainability courses should be aligned with program learning goals, and these sustainability-related programme learning goals should be aligned with long-term institute goals. This process will enhance student learning and augment the institute’s external stakeholder engagement.
What are the key driving forces and common factors for the success of a B-school?
It is simple – to remain “contextually relevant”. The B-school relevance will be judged from its focus on institutional mission and vision, quality faculty strength, home campus internationalization, student selection, and their career progression, research output, contribution and connection with the world of practice, infrastructure, alumni network, and overall institute reputation.
