'Management Institutes Teach You Skills, Few Develop Competencies'

Bridging the gap between industry and academics is the big challenge

For Supriya Atal and Rohini Vijaygopal teaching ambitions prevailed over their decade-long stints in the corporate world.

As teachers in Mumbai's B-schools (the former is a visiting faculty member at B-schools in Mumbai, while the latter is a core faculty member at Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai) they reckon that the area of "academic management" has thrown up huge challenges.

The challenge of teaching at B-schools arises right from the way a management course has been viewed as a product.

Vijaygopal draws a co-relation between an MBA and the "product concept" in marketing management where manufacturers get attached to their product and keep improving it without looking at what customers need.

She says, "Most B-schools have treated the MBA degree as a product and the focus is on improving it over time. We often forget to concentrate on what the industry needs."

"Management institutes teach you skills, few develop competencies," says Atal. The corporate world recognises the need for a competency like leadership, ability to motivate, influence others as opposed to skills like research methodology, marketing planning, cash flow management and others from an MBA graduate.

According to them, competencies are critical, irrespective of the function (finance, marketing, HR or IT) and skills are more basic.

For example, market research techniques can be picked up through classroom learning. "Most people can acquire skills, but what makes a person successful is competency. Very limited structured inputs are currently imparted in the area of competency development," they say.

"Competency can't be entirely taught in classrooms because it's experiential and process driven," adds Atal. She recommends that just as in parts of North America where an MBA can be a four-year postgraduate course after high school, students spend substantial time in a company to understand the way an organisation works.

In parts of America and UK, students spend as much as nine months working in an organisation during their management course, as opposed to the six to eight weeks of summer training in companies that Indian B-school students undergo.

"We feel a traineeship stint of six months at the beginning of the pre-final semester would give more real-life exposure than a two-month summer traineeship. Summer trainees are rarely given serious work," says Atal.

Most concepts that are taught in classrooms are within a limited and finite set of variables. However in business more often than not, they are infinite and unpredictable.

For example. if CAS (conditional access system) is implemented in satellite television, media deliveries are uncertain and, therefore, the media plans of companies may need an overhaul.

Tackling unforseen global circumstances like the impact of a war or a disease like SARS requires tremendous thinking on one's feet and crisis management techniques.

"When uncertainty is tossed in a classroom or workshop it will still be finite. Till you experience it and actually solve a problem or make a decision that is going to have a consequence it is difficult to understand problem solving and tackle uncertainty," says Atal.

As importantly, the course content can, at times, be far different from what industry needs. Atal points out to a recent study that was conducted among 50 junior and middle-level executives in banking and finance companies. It revealed that 80 per cent of the job content for these executives was marketing.

However, most finance students tend to skip subjects like product management, strategic brand management, and customer relationship management.

Also students from all kinds of disciplines (from engineering to arts) do a management course and the corporate world recognises them only with the tag of an MBA.

"An electronic engineer may do an MBA and finally end up selling soap, thus making his core competence redundant," says Vijaygopal.

According to her, cases like these increase because of the filtration process during admissions of MBA students.

For example most admission tests are highly quantitative. So engineering students with a quantitative bent of mind easily get in.

Atal feels that by adding elements like psychometric testing, essay writing and goal orientation as a part of the filtration, the dependence on raw intelligence as a qualifier for B-school education will be reduced.

At present a handful of colleges have taken up a market-oriented approach at B-schools and introduced courses like "managing a family business" or "pharmaceutical management".

However Vijaygopal points out that in sessions with students of the "family managed business" programmes it was observed that though the basic marketing concepts would remain universal, they could not relate to mega brands and large advertisement budgets.

"They are aware of their limitations and are appreciative only when you tailor the subject to issues specific to their businesses," says Vijaygopal.

"The challenge is to teach them principles that are practical and actionable to their nature of businesses," she adds.

Also B-school teaching has to deal with softer issues. As corporate philosophies like "perform or perish" take executives away from being sensitive to colleagues and to society, egos tend to dominate.

As a result, most decisions are ruled by the head and not the heart. "There is a need for compulsory modules that enable understanding of the human factor in some depth and courses that help subdue the ego and thus improve the management of human relations," says Atal.

She concludes that while it is necessary to have an ego to lead, too much of it is counter-productive.

Bridging the gap between industry and academics through need based and specialised MBA programmes will be a big challenge. Though efforts have begun on this front, there is still a lot to be done.

For example, a course on retail management could have prominent people from the retailing industry suggesting the curriculum with moderation by an experienced faculty. Companies would then get MBAs who are sculpted to perform when lead times get shorter.