Mr Shivakumar’s talk resonated well with more than 150 Chancellors, Promoters, Directors and Deans from 75 leading B-schools from South India.
“The world we live in is seeing hyper change. We are overloaded with too much information. There is a mad race for material successes. There is a clash between needs of businesses and expectations of society,” Mr Shivakumar said, adding, “These changes are propelled by massive rise in social media.”
Mr Shivakumar pointed out that management education has performed an important role in the last few decades because it does a few functions well.
“Management Education is organizing simplicity in complexity. It makes you action orientated and reflects on issues. It creates entrepreneurs. It generates respect for consumer, customer, and partnerships. Overall, it creates value for stakeholders,” opined Mr Shivakumar.
However, in a fast changing world, management Education is failing on a few counts. “Is our management education society driven, or is merely serving goals of businesses & economy. Are we creating mercenaries who are only focused on jobs, salaries, bonuses?” he questioned.
He also questioned the contribution that management education is making in creating useful management concepts. “Peter Drucker created a revolution by creating concepts like ‘span of control’ in 1950s. Later CK Prahalad coined concepts like Core Competence and Bottom of Pyramid. Where are the contributions from management educators in last 10 years?” he exhorted the MBA educators.
He called for MBA institutes to offer interdisciplinary integration, and develop a passion for life-long learning in its students. He also called for more focus on teaching ethics and integrity in MBA schools.
MBAUniverse.com Directors’ Round Table theme was: ‘Doing the Doable: The New Models for Sustainability & Growth in MBA Education’. The speakers highlighted what progressive B-schools are doing to sustain and grow, even if the environment is tough & unpredictable.
Other distinguished speakers who shared their insight on the programme theme include Dr. Sylvia Ann Hewlett, ranked at number 11 on the Thinker’s 50 World’s Top Business Thinkers & Harvard Business Publishing author of 11 books on Talent Management & HR; Mr Manish Sabharwal, Chairman, TeamLease Services; Mr Abhijit Bhaduri, Chief Learning Officer, WIPRO Group & Author of ‘Don’t Hire the Best’.
Many more academic thought leaders also addressed the forum including Prof J Philip, Founder, XIME & Founder-President, AIMS; Mr Sanjay Padode, Secretary, IFIM Business School; Prof William Verdini, Associate Dean and Director of External Relations, MYRA & Prof Emeritus, Arizona State University; Prof Swaminathan Murthy, Dean, M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Management, Bangalore; and Dr. N.R.Parasuraman, Director, SDM Institute for Management Development, Mysore.
Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more news and updates on MBA education in India.
