MBA Colleges in India: What B-schools must focus on to groom future leaders

MBA Colleges in India: The traditional way of leadership has transformed significantly and those who are unable to adapt bear the risk of fading out.

As the world reinvents itself to get back on track and move ahead, we are all aware that the future is going to be more dynamic than what we had envisaged. Organizations, businesses, governments, and people have all changed how they think and function over the last two years. Irrespective of their scale and diversity organizations are changing to respond to the demands of the rapidly evolving economy. With the large-scale adoption of technology, workplaces have become borderless, multi-cultural, and cross-functional.  As a result, we require leaders who recognize the need to re-tool and re-skill themselves to lead the organizations and workforce of tomorrow.

Our world demands managers who are emotionally, socially, and culturally intelligent.  This requires them to prioritize between People, Purpose, and Profits and also maintain a balance among the three, which is an extraordinary feat, given the complex scenario we are living in currently.  We want leaders who can inspire trust and commitment among their colleagues and reciprocate by practicing empathy and putting people ahead of profits even in times of adversity.  There have been several instances around us in the past few months of exemplary leaders who supported their people even while they navigated their companies through the crisis. Parallelly, leaders must also be willing to accept failure and look at it with a development mindset. By promoting a culture that allows failure will generate a feeling of psychological safety among employees, which will motivate them to experiment and take risks for their organizational and professional growth. We need more leaders who can establish such confident organizations.

I foresee a central role for B Schools in producing the next generation of highly intuitive, agile, emotionally, socially intellectual, and responsible leaders. This calls for a multi-dimensional approach to renewing management education. Designing new programs, retooling their curriculum, refreshing their research practices, and imparting transferrable skills will enable the institutions to groom well-rounded leaders who can take on the mantle of leadership. B schools must focus on the below-mentioned additions to their teaching and learning in the endeavour to groom the kind of leaders we wish to see in the future.

It is time management teaching that integrates elements of multi-disciplinary education to ensure a 360-degree development of students. The National Education Policy 2020 has been a timely directive to higher educational institutions to clearly outline their academic plans in this regard.  Multi-disciplinary education emphasizes the fundamentals of equipping individuals with life skills and knowledge that prepares them for the unknown future. It fosters intellectual curiosity, critical thought process, self-reflection, leadership and teamwork skills, acceptance and respect for diversity, commitment, and a heightened sensitivity to one’s socio-cultural and ecological environment. The pandemic has brought forth the importance of EQ, managing adversity, and building resilience in one’s professional and personal life. These are highly valued skills and assume significance for leaders and those who wish to step into leadership positions.

A distinctive necessity for every leader today is in being culturally intelligent. As organizations expand across the world and collaborate with professionals and organisations from different countries, leaders have to be extremely nuanced while demonstrating cultural intelligence. It is expected that they promote a culture that encourages and celebrates diversity in ethnicity, language, customs, and traditions, religion, gender, lifestyle and food habits in the organization. It is only when leaders are capable of genuinely supporting their teams cutting across a diversity of every kind, they will be successful in receiving the trust and followership of their workforce. This will be the pre-eminent skill for leaders in the years to come.

B Schools must focus on inculcating this transferable skill among their scholars through various interventions within and beyond the classroom. Offering exchange programs across countries, cultural immersion tours, admitting international students into their courses, and hiring global faculty are some ways in which they can provide a much-needed experience and groom management graduates to become more culturally intelligent and globalized in their outlook.  

Digital transformation is at the core of every organization in the current world.  Whether it’s a start-up, not-for-profit, or a large corporate, leaders and their workforce need to be digitally savvy. A leader today has to be conversant with the latest IT trends and promote a mindset that embraces technology and innovation. When tech-enabled decision-making and operations cascade down every level, organizations can become more productive. More importantly, since the leader has to lead an organization of a smart, tech-savvy generation of employees, he/she requires a command over this skill. Not equipping themselves with these skills cannot be an option for leaders today.

Since IT has infused every sector and area of business, B School curriculums have to ensure their students are tech literate. From product design and launches to manufacturing, delivery, and customer engagement, management graduates must be knowledgeable about the use of technology and its implications. Subjects like Big Data, Design Thinking, AI, AR VR, Machine learning, technical writing are the current hot topics that B School graduates must be familiar with. As disruptions continue to take place, the frequency of upgrading IT skills will become a priority for tomorrow’s leaders.  

Climate change has emerged as an existential challenge to human civilization in recent times with profound environmental, geopolitical, and public policy implications. The pandemic has brought home the truth of the devastating impact of uncontrolled growth over the decades. Leaders have to be responsible for the impact of their businesses and clearly outline conservation as one of the primary ‘Purpose’ of their organizations.   They can further contribute by investing in innovation, advancing sustainable strategies, and setting an example by personally demonstrating environment-friendly behaviour. As influencers, they have to be role models and change-makers.

Sustainability and climate change should be made mandatory subjects and integrated into every aspect of business studies as a part of the learning outcomes for all courses and programs.  It is equally important to encourage management graduates to use real-world environment predictions and come up with solutions to the issues. Working with the broader society and solving their problems will deliver them an advanced learning experience which would be of help when they move into responsible positions in the future.

The traditional way of leadership has transformed significantly and those who are unable to adapt and respond to the changing times, bear the risk of fading out. B Schools have an absolutely crucial role in shaping the outlook of the future by grooming the next generation of new-age leaders.