MBAUniverse.com Directors forum at IIM B brings 50 leading B Schools together

The3rdMBAUniverse.com Directors Roundtable Conferenceorganized at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore onWednesday, November 27, 2013 has been a great success. The theme of the conference was Conquering the Chaos: Preparing globally relevant MBAs.A total of 75 Directors and Deans from different B Schools of South India participated in the forum.

Mr Ravi Venkatesan, Director on the Boards of Infosys and AB Volvo delivered the keynote address in which he presented the corporate perspective based on how to conquer the chaos. He said, Most MNCs get trapped into the midway trap. They are unable to create required volumes by just serving the top end of the customer, and they find the bottom of the pyramid to be too price-sensitive. This is true of B-schools. Most of them get trapped into the middle of the pyramid, unable to define their value proposition clearly. They need to make strategic choices to move up the pyramid. Fellow of the Center for Higher Ambition Leadership, Boston, Mr. Venkatesan has served as the chairman of Microsoft India from 2004 to 2011 and has also been a member of Global Alumni Board of Harvard Business School. An alumnus of IIT Bombay, Purdue University and Harvard Business School Mr Venkatesan is the author of the book, Conquering the chaos: Win in India, Win Everywhere.

Dr S Raghunath, Dean (Admin) and Professor of Corporate Strategy atIndian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore delivered the special address in which he said Indian B Schools need to create their own intellectual capital. There are some wonderful path breaking work happening in India, and we need to conceptualize it, and bring into the classrooms, rather than be reliant only on the western cases and reading material. His area of specialization is Strategic Alliance and Strategic Leadership. He was a visiting scholar at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University and also a Visiting Professor at INSEAD, France and HEC Paris, amongst others.
Dr Raghunath unveiled a new course at the Directors conference. IIM Bangalore has developed this course based on the book by Ravi Venkatesan titled Conquering the chaos: Win in India, Win Everywhere.

The panel discussion was based on the theme, Conquering the Chaos: Strategic Choices for Indian B-schools in which the respective speakers discussed about what strategic choices Indian B-schools can make to conquer the current Challenges & Opportunities in Indian MBA education? Each speaker identified one big challenge that they (and their peers) are facing (like Curriculum, Pedagogical-innovation, Faculty, Research, Admissions, Placements), and how they propose we can meet this challenge.

During the panel discussion Prof. J. Philip, President, XIME Bangalore said, While there are B-schools which are closing down, we need not worry too much about it. Those that offer quality education at affordable prices will survive and thrive. Quality is key!

While offering the mantra of innovation to get out of the current chaos, Dr. MJ Xavier, Executive Director, VIT University, Chennai said, The old MBA model, borrowed from the western B-schools, is dead! We need to innovate what we are teaching and to whom. We need to create course which are relevant to current Indian business context. Merely copying the western models of MBA education will not help.
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Mr. Sanjay Padode, Secretary, Center for Developmental Education - IFIM Business School asked, Time has come for true market segmentation by Indian B-schools. We are all trying to be National and International schools. Why? Why cant we cater to local needs?

Dr. Rajesh Panda Director, SIBM Bengalurusaid, I agree that our MBA programs are becoming commodity. We are taking a sector specific approach by offering courses in cutting edge areas like Business Analytics.
Prof William Verdini, Associate Dean & Director- External Relations and Prof Dr. G. R. Narayanan, Dean (Research) of Alliance University also addressed the forum.

Directors and Deans from other well known B-schools including Fr. Sebastian Thekkedathu, Principal, Kristu Jayanti College, Bangalore; Dr. Subhash Sharma, Director, IBA Bangalore; Prof. Chowdari Prasad, Chairman- admissions, T.A. Pai Management Institute, Manipal; Dr. Bhavesh Patel, Dean, Amrut Mody School of Management, Ahmedabad; Prof. Gautam Ghosh, Director , Thiagarajar School of Management, Madurai; Dr. Latha Krishnan, Director, Sona School of Management studies, Salem, participated in the forum and also shared their views.

The B Schools of South India that participated in the MBAUniverse.com Directors forum include Alliance University, Bangalore;T.A. Pai Management Institute, Manipal; NMIMS, Bangalore; Sona School of Management, Salem; Jain University, Bangalore; Myra School of business, Mysore; IBA, Bangalore;PES Institute of Management, Bangalore; VIT University, Chennai; Acharya Institute of Management & Sciences, Bangalore; Amrut Mody School of Management, Ahmedabad; Hindustan University, Chennai; M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Management, Bangalore; Thiagarajar School of management, Madurai; T. John Group of Institute, Bangalore; Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication, Bangalore; Vanguard Business School, Bangalore; AMC City Institutions, Bangalore and Community Institute of Management Studies, Bangalore.

Mr. Pawan Choudhary, Country Manager, Fulcrum presented mementos on behalf of the organizers. As an IBM Advanced Business Partner, Fulcrum works jointly with IBM, a global technology and innovation leader to lay down the Technology roadmap for leading institutes worldwide and meet rapidly changing needs of Student, Staff, Faculty and Alumni.

MBAUniverse.com Directors Roundtable Conferencehas been attracting well known speakers earlier also. In 2011-12 and 2012-13 conferences Ms Vinita Bali, former MD, Britannia Industries; Mr Subrato Bagchi, Co-founder, MindTree; Mr D Shivakumar, CEO,Nokia;Dr. Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Ranked #11 on the Thinkers 50 Worlds Top Business Thinkers; Mr Manish Sabharwal, Chairman, TeamLease Services; Mr Abhijit Bhaduri, CLO, WIPRO Group and others participated in the event.

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Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more highlights related to the Directors Roundtable Conference.