MBA Faculty Members attend ‘Indian B-Schools Leadership Conclave 2021’
29-Apr-2021
Dr. Vishal Samartha, Director-MBA and Prof. Sushma V, Dept. of Business Administration, attended the ‘Indian B-Schools Leadership Conclave 2021’ which was held during April 27 to 28th’2021. The two-day virtual Conclave on the theme - ‘Indian B- Schools: Navigating a sustainable future by merging local & global best practices’ was jointly organized by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), USA and Education Promotion Society for India (EPSI). More than 20 thought leaders, deans, directors and policymakers in management education deliberated various issues faced by the educators in B-Schools in India and the world.
Inaugurating the event, The Vice President, M. Venkaiah Naidu referred to the India Skills Report 2020, which pegs the employability of MBA graduates at 54 per cent in the country. Urging the B-Schools to think of ways of bridging this gap between enrollment and employability, Mr. Naidu called for increased interaction between academia and Industry so that students get exposure to real life situations and hands-on learning.
Dr. G. Viswanathan, President, EPSI; Dr. Anil D Sahasrabudhe, Chairman, AICTE; Dr. Geoff Perry, Chief Officer Asia Pacific, AACSB; Dr. H Chaturvedi, Director, Birla Institute of Management Technology; Dr. Prashant Bhalla, Sr. Vice President of Manav Rachna International University; Vice-chancellors, Deans, Principals, Professors and students from various Institutions were among those who attended the virtual event. Galaxy of speakers touched upon several topics.
Key Takeaways of the Conclave:
• Business cases are strong pedagogical vehicles for building the confidence and critical thinking. Students need to boldly take a position and convincingly express their ideas.
• With the global pandemic still, educators need to acquire new skills to succeed in an online learning environment. Educators should continuously design, plan and adjust courses for online delivery.
• While the past year has been a time of great challenge for business schools, it has also been a time of great innovation.
• B-schools have to prepare students for unknown jobs in unknown companies. Future belongs to blended learning. The pedagogy for a fresher and a work experienced should be different. To make our student industry ready there is a cost. The pedagogy should be learner-centric, keeping the learner in focus.
• Employability and lifelong learning are the new norms.
• Skillsets are continuously changing. We live in a FLUID world where F stands for Future, L for Leadership, U for Uncertainty, I for Intellectual capital and D for Data and Digital strategies.
• B-Schools should focus on 3 I’s – Emotional Intelligence, Social Intelligence and Cognitive Intelligence while preparing students for their career
• Organizations cannot be a learning ground and they expect Industry/Future readiness in MBA Graduates
• Project Management, Learn on the Go, Work on Tight Deadlines, Volunteer to participate, Have a USP, Innovative Thinking, See through the Data, Entrepreneurial Mind-set, how sensitive are you to the Eco System – These are the competencies, the organizations expect from the MBA Graduates
• Pursue Short Term Courses on Future Skills – AI, Data Analytics, Robotics, Cyber Security and so on
• Assign Industry Mentors to students
• Faculty to pursue projects in Companies – Join hands to solve issues in organizations
The programme concluded with a message – “Changes in industries are happening at a faster pace and B-Schools should gear up with speed”.
