'Let's be Knowledge Samurais, not Knowledge Coolies'

Curricula

Although he is not dressed in his usual crisp-white kurta pajama, Dr Pritam Singh, director, Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon, quotes from the Bhagavad Gita to drive home the point that it is crucial to have thought and action work in tandem to achieve prosperity.

"We in India are great thinkers but lag behind when it comes to action," he says, "An inward-looking attitude works for meditation but if you have that approach for business, you are in trouble." And that's why he wants MDI to become a global business school.

Awarded the Padma Shree this year, Dr Singh took over as the director of MDI in August 2003, from IIM, Lucknow, an institute where he raised management development programmes (MDP) revenues to Rs 3 crore from Rs 21 lakh, increased the revenue from consulting to Rs 1 crore from Rs 7 lakh.

Total revenue jumped from Rs 5.30 crore to Rs 23 crore during his tenure. He was also instrumental in doubling the faculty strength.

On his agenda for MDI is all this and more. He wants MDI to be a corporate lab to maximise interaction between the industry, the faculty and the students.

"Otherwise, it will be a case of blind teaching the blind. One has to simulate a realistic world for better teaching," he says.

He also plans on having a 20-suite building in the campus, where the CEOs can stay with their families over the weekend.

But what are the things he, who has also been a director of IIM, Bangalore, doesn't want to emulate from the IIM culture? He likes the fact that MDI is completely self-funded; one of the few B-schools of the kind.

"When you are funded by the government, there is some amount of bureaucracy that you have to deal with. And let's be frank; there's no autonomy without financial autonomy," he says, adding, "Also, implementing new things is a little tougher since a change in one IIM has ramifications on the rest, which may not be conducive to all."

"But the intellectual freedom at IIMs is fascinating and that is something I'd like to bring about in a bigger way here at MDI," he says, revealing his plans.

And what are the challenges Indian management education faces today? "We in India assume we are not as qualified as people in the West. But let me tell you, the people who are groomed by the best institutes here are equally good, if not better, than those from the best institutes in the West," he says.

"IIM-A is the only Indian management school that features on the global list, that too in the 45th position. But when I joined Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI), Jamshedpur, after my MBA from Indiana University, Bloomington, USA, which was ranked number seven worldwide, I noticed that XLRI was just as good."

Thus the decision of working towards catering to the global market. "Why not have our schools in other countries before institutes from all over the globe come to India? Unless we have global operations, we will always be seen as a second player," says Dr Singh.

His current challenge at MDI is to get more world-class faculty and keep its standards high. Thus, he encourages the faculty to do a lot of research, training and consulting, and integrate their learnings in the day-to-day teaching.

But after all that on-the-field learning, does the faculty have time for the students at all?

"No professor teaches more than three subjects. With a strong faculty of 45 full-time professors, which will soon increase to 70, I don't see any problem there. If we want, we can generate Rs 30 crore from research and consulting, but we have our priorities," says Dr Singh.

MDI certainly doesn't have a financial crunch "" it had a surplus of Rs 3.9 crore last year from a turnover of Rs 16 crore.

In his first stint with MDI as director from 1994 to 1998, Dr Singh was instrumental in developing and starting the full-time two-year MBA programme for graduates and increased the revenues of the institute to Rs 12 crore.

He wants to concentrate on the enrichment of the course too. In keeping with the goal is introducing the post-graduate human resource (HR) programme in association with HRD Network, the largest association of people in HR.

The association will deliver 50 per cent of the sessions, has promised placement for three years, and has also identified 50 organisations where the enrolled students can work as a part of their training.

Dr Singh is trying to work out a similar deal for the regular MBA programme wherein students can work in organisations for at least two days a week for that mandatory industry exposure.

Dr Pritam Singh is also concerned about the growing "alliances and franchises" that B-schools are signing with foreign universities. "I feel strongly against the management schools signing so-called MoUs with other B-schools; institutes that don't have a standing in their own countries."

But he's open to customising education. "However, I was not liked at IIM-L when I said students are our customers and we are here to serve them. There were talks about the faculty and the institute being all about vidya (knowledge) and that I was talking about commercialising it, which is not true. All I'm saying is that we need to keep in mind who we are catering to, what we are preparing the students for."

His other concern is maintaining the increasing human capital in India.

"Research shows that in 2025, the US will have a working capital of 14 million, Russia six million and China ,11 million. India is the only country that will come out tops with a working capital of 47 million. We stand one of the best chances in the manufacturing and the services sector. But are we only going to train peons, coolies and back office people? We should not be Knowledge Coolies, we should be Knowledge Samurais." he says.