The MBA Batch of 2019-21 is about to graduate soon. The final semester examinations are due and the students shall soon walk into the World of Work. The Boys and Girls in our class of MBA have turned into Gentlemen and Ladies, soon to be Managers. I recall the transformational journey vividly today. And I wish them good luck and Godspeed.
The Business School Campus is a Dream World for the student-aspirants and their parents. Once a student is enrolled in a reputed B-School, everyone in the family assumes that a new star will emerge and sign bright in the sky, high and bright enough to proudly point a finger and tell everyone in the neighborhood, “Thats my kin”!
The student finds the B-School, upon joining, a strange place which resembles physically the college and the classroom of the undergraduate days, but hardly anything beyond that is the same. The subjects taught are diverse though related incoherently with subjects learnt in undergraduate classes or at the high school. The faculty follow different ways to teach, interact and evaluate student performance. The student’s behaviour and conduct inside the classroom and outside the class is as much a factor as the accuracy of written answers in the examinations held.
A buffet of courses are offered to students, to choose from and fill their individual plates within a limited ceiling. A bouquet of co-curricular programs are offered to students. They can choose their roles and participate showing initiative or even lead. These programs come thick and fast, in a series, as an overburden on top of the punishing academic routine, causing enormous pressure on free time to relax. In order to stay afloat or stay on top, the student must budget for the time as the most precious resource. The students approach and attitude define the availability and usage of time to apportion for each activity. The process teaches them to learn the infinite value of time and how to extract maximum value out of the same 24 hours available to all!
The faculty at a B-School play a different role compared to their teachers and tutors until graduation. They stand like steady lamp posts at every turn in the maze throwing their light both ways, some glowing bright and some emitting dim rays! The diversity of guidance challenges each student to concentrate and bring out the light within. The classic B-School faculty is considered more of a facilitator and less an instructor. They are more like the mentor and less like the coaches. A good number of co-Educators from the corporate world, quite frequently descend in the campus as Visiting Faculty and Corporate Mentors, to bridge the gap between theory and practice.
Students get exposed to all kinds of emotional stress and anxiety along with a good dose of theoretical knowledge inputs for understanding and dealing with different emotions. Peer group interaction and learning from peers through peer observation, pool side walk in the evenings with animated conversations, corridor chats, rendezvous in campus parks, play a huge role in shaping the future manager. Everyone gets equal opportunity for pursuing hobbies and interests. Extra-curricular facilities for sports and games are provided within easy access.
Traditionally the role of a manager was described in relation to the variety of human resources at work in the context of a business objective by using the people for operations, sales, financing, book keeping and sundry administrative errands. Information Technology became a new factor and came to play a differentiating role since the advent of the internet and soft-computing. AI and IOT have provided a biting teeth to machine automation. The appreciation and understanding of IT with all its emerging applications for business provides the cutting edge in competition now. Therefore IT, which was taught as a subject of general understanding before the google era, has graduated into Business Analytics in the curricula of the B-School from the perspective of appreciation and decision making.
In short, the experience of every student in a B-School is that of a subject as well as an object in a dynamic human process laboratory. It is like a grand maze through which each student has to run, to figure out one’s natural calling, elect a career, and step out of the campus with courage of conviction and the wherewithal to succeed, acquired and honed at the experiential laboratory in the Campus. Finding the way through a myriad of brain teasers like projects, cases and competitions, hones critical thinking and problem solving skills alongside development of confidence, communication and collaborative networking among the peer-group within and outside the B-School.
The overall process of teaching-learning is a powerful pedagogical intervention at KIIT School of Management, for transforming a tentative Individual into an effective Manager, combining qualities of an excellent team player, potential entrepreneur, future business leader, and a compassionate human being. Our faculty draw immense satisfaction to see our students develop and spread their wings and take off to the sky. Do well and make your kith and kin take immense pride in your flight.