The dynamics of management education landscape

As per the findings of a study undertaken by Council of Graduate Schools, application by students of foreign-origin to American graduate schools have gone up by 9 percent over previous year. This recent surge in application is attributed to the double-digit increase in the number of application from the PRC (china).

{The study encompassed 230 institutions and was conducted between January and March. Hence the results must be treated as preliminary as most students tend to apply in more than one institution and the admission cycle was not yet completed.}

When it comes to application from India and South Korea, the growth has once again renewed after being near-flat last year. India, china and South Korea were the three countries to export the largest number of students to USA.

The global downturn has taken a toll on many graduate schools with prospective students unwilling to leave their job for a tryst with full-time education. It is quite understandable, the job market has become very competitive and thus their decision seems wise. But the growing applications of students in foreign institutions may dispel the notion of a yet another bad hair day for them.

On the upscale, the recent news coming out of top-tier management institutes in India seems to downplay the slowdown in the real-economy. The fat pay packages being offered to IIM graduates exude the aura of hunky dory. Although the enrolment numbers have dipped significantly in the past few years, according to a report in the Times of India, with fewer number of student taking the coveted CAT examination. And in few cases the enrolments have dipped as high as 50 percent. Pundits are of the view that the uncertainty in the economy has made the applicants-especially engineers- vary of pursuing management studies. This group comprises the largest number of application thus uneasiness within them is sure to affect the enrolment numbers.

While there may be disconnect between the global scenario and that in India, it can be attributed to the Pride-sentiment. No matter how shaky the economic prospect is, anything with a label of made-in-west is sure to command currency. Many people may take offense to such articulation as being a hang-over of our colonial past. Being delusional never provided any solutions but being objective certainly did.

An average engineering graduate, in current time may not see a significant increase in his salary on the account of his management degree and therefore the money-motivation is less. On the other hand, student who is focused on creating a future in management will continue to pursue it regardless.

In all these, the byliner crowd who pursued MBA and other elite courses for its style-quotient are the ones who have fled the scene. Most people have realised that a fancy MBA from a top-tier education institutes is neither easy nor cheap.

Again, it cannot be ascertained with considerable surety that the MBA has lost its sheen or is on its way back to its glory of the past. As the nailing-data for it is not available however, one can draw conclusions from the registrations for CAT, MAT etc. In the current academic year, many institutions have lowered their guard when it came to selection criteria in order to keep their bottom line above the red. The enrolments in top-rungs IIMs are unaffected by any of the extraneous factors because together between them they hold only 1.5% of the total available seats in the country.  Hence, any new development in this space must be approached with a bit of scepticism.

CSR or is it C$R ???

{According to a recent poll 44% of the respondent in UK believe it is very important that a company shows a high degree of social responsibility when they buy a company’s product.  86% of consumers have a more positive image of a company that is seen to be doing something to make the world a better place.  Corporate Social Responsibility is now an integral part of building and maintaining a market share in a competitive market}.

But let us take a holistic view of this term in vogue. Let us not confine the term corporate to individual enterprise or for that matter just a petty firm. It is much more then what meets the eye. In this age of globalization, world has become a village. Where countries are corporate which have their interest in other countries for markets or as a source for their wants. World economy is highly integrated in this era. Where in a fall on the Wall Street have its repercussions on the Dalal Street. We can no more work in isolation as was the Indian norm of the past i.e. pre-liberalization era .When united states presidential candidate Barack Obama uses the word ‘Bangalore’ in his speech twice it send jitters down the Indian outsourcing fraternity.

Take a small case of ISRAEL for example. Israel occupies 98% of the west bank that officially belongs to the Palestinians and they also are de-facto rulers of the Gaza strip which is now commonly known as in media and political circles as the largest open air prison in the world. The operation cast lead of January 2009 was unanimously regarded as crime against humanity by the world community. This tarnished the image of this tiny nation which boasts of unconditional support from the only remaining superpower of our time i.e. the United States.

Now what does this entity do to re-build its image and credibility to be again counted amongst the civilized nations. Well it is rightly said that one man’s suffering is the other man’s gain. The dawn of 2010 saw the most impoverished country in the western hemisphere devastated by a major earthquake .The country in consideration is HAITI. Now how does this all relate to CSR? This question begs an answer.

The Jewish nation saw an opportunity in this despair. A field hospital was immediately set up by the country through a NGO called ZAKA. Now a country which is a stone throw away from the United States gets a field hospital from a country which is as we commonly say in our bollywood movies as ‘Saat Samandar Paar’,before the United States can. In a first couple of days a child is also born which is named after the state of ‘ISRAEL’. What is this entity trying to do is a question to ponder and is a subject of innumerable debates. This entity has got a legal and moral obligation towards the Palestinian people but to subdue the voices of the legitimate people of the land and divert the world’s attention from the mind numbing horrors of GAZA it is taking up an assignment which is across several continents so that it can be counted again in the list of so called ‘socially responsible states’.

A twister but its true ……

Raping the natural resources and indigenous people off their livelihood for their sinister interest be it Australian aborigines or American Red Indians. Then whitewashing their sins by this malicious tool provided to them by these ‘new order’ Economist/Anthropologist/Thinkers. Whether this weighs down on any thinking adult’s mind is a subject matter of another debate.

Democracy is Hypocrisy

Rule of the people, by the people, for the people is democracy in its classical sense. Rule of the majority, interest of the majority is the essence of democracy. It is all concerned with the will of the majority no matter how skewed it may be. Unlike other forms of governance, democracy does not give any wieghtage to the competence of the leader while electing them to govern. Even a handicapped, alcoholic, addicted or a mob boss can be elected with the will of the majority. Needless to say that, the will can be tempered at various levels. Even the elected leader does not have much say when it comes to confrontation with the majority, only vested interest of the elite are looked after. A classic case would be president obama’s health reform bill. The whole population understands its necessity and the urgency and supports his initiative but, he is being confronted by his own colleagues in the white house. What is at work here is not the will of the majority but the vested interest of the insurance companies and its influential lobby.

One of the central tenets of democracy is protection for the minority. This in true sense is not possible. take the recent case of the furore on “ VANDE MATARAM “.it is being imposed on the minority to sing the song regardless if it goes against the prime pillar of their religion. Even sidelining the fact why it was not chosen as the national song at the time of independence. Here, the FARCE called democracy is exposed to its roots. We should rather call it as a DICTATORSHIP of the majority.

P.S: dictatorship means one person ruling over the majority against their will.

The Theory of Differences

Oligopoly is a term widely used when economist lock horns with each other over categorization of a market. Instead of getting embroiled in the semantics of this word lets deal with it in the context of social anthropology. Oligopoly is a condition wherein each component tries to portray itself differently vis-à-vis its peer although they belong to the same category of activity. This concept does not only apply to markets alone but significantly to humans as well.

Let’s analyse a classroom situation; there maybe an average of 10-12 good students in a class of say 60. If one goes by the law of entrainment or the law of synchronicity it will be not weird to suggest that they will form an informal group within the class. But, it hardly is the norm of the day. Here science which tries too hard to gauge the human mind fails miserably. Well someone once said that science is a good benchmark for judging a religion but it cannot become a religion on its own (are the atheist listening). What makes this group of students act in such illogical manner which is not expected? There is something at play here, a force, and an inner desire to stand out of the crowd, to be Different.

Every individual in this materialistic era is yearning to be a millionaire yet they want to be different. Some will differ in their lifestyle while some will differ in their approach towards life. Everyone seems to be chasing the magical five letter word called MONEY. They differ in means which in many cases reduces their guilt. Every mortal is marching with the crowds to the destiny called success. The chances of which the theory of probability says is very little. Yet every other person we meet always cribs about the glitches and hurdles he faces. It is beautifully summarised by this two verses of a great poet of our time Prof.Waseem Barielvi he says; ‘ Har Shaks bhaagta hai yahan bheed ki taraf , who yeh bhi chahta hai use raasta mile ‘. Which literally means everyone is running towards the crowd and at the same time also wants a separate path to tread.

The Dark Black Cloud

1929, it was the great depression across the trans-Atlantic. The rise of Hitler in the imperialist German motherland. The sowing of the seeds of centuries old anti-Semitism. What followed next was known as the bloodiest century in history. What bonded this whole episode together was land and money, although it was disguised in the veil of nationalism and religion. What shame!!!!

2000 come the dawn of the twenty first century. The world still stuck up to old xenophobia’s. Greed for oil was in the name of a new crusade called ‘pre-emptive’ self-defence. Greed for land turned into a holy cause called ‘the promised land’. Rounds and rounds of bloodshed sometimes catchy sometime sober. The big guys got all the money, power, land and ‘oil’. Who suffers???? The common man sinking deeper into the dark black hole of poverty, despair, violence.

To live with your head high, victory over evil is essential. We as people have to rise like the prophets and fulfill their prophecies to rid this society of all the evils that has shackled its growth. We grew over the years monetarily, technologically, materialistically but at the same time we lagged behind, far too much, to progress in a humane manner. At the outset right from childhood to school, school to college, and from college to the trendiest b-school we are been fed with an idea that one man’s loss is the other person’s gain. The management philosophy of WIN-WIN sounds like SOCIALISM i.e. equality to all, but in reality a closer look and the propaganda is shattered into pieces infinite.