Tailoring Curriculum

TALENT HAS TO BE IN SYNC WITH organisational needs. For this, business education must change to meet the changing expectations of the industry.

Tody, B-Schools stand at the intersection of knowledge and skill. Talent mapping needs to begin from B-Schools themselves. Future-proofing students to succeed and support businesses not just today, but five-10 years down the line and beyond is critical in a world where technology is transforming how organisations operate at the very core of business.

Today, a student with a management degree venturing out into the real world is expected to know the basics of business and have the functional skills. However, value can be added by the B-School by cultivating in the students the ability to think unconventionally with innovative thinking, problem-solving skills and the willingness to learn and adapt to change.

Students must be agile to respond rapidly to changes in the business environment. They should be able to use this agility to improve productivity and engage across an organisation. These are the skills which will help students meet business needs and support the industry in contributing to the nation’s economy.

One of the easiest ways to do this is through industry partner­ships with business schools. A B-School-industry partnership aims to prepare students for professional and personal success after their formal education. While most B-Schools have an internship or summer training at the end of the first year, a B-School-industry partnership should go beyond this and work towards a continuous programme with periodic projects.

These partnerships should not just enhance the educational experience but also enable students to gain practical experi­ence. It is an opportunity for students to connect their academic learnings to a real-world context. They can learn people skills that are necessary for effective interpersonal interactions in the workplace. B-Schools with industry programmes are at an ad­vantage as their students have the opportunity to gain technical and professional skills by working on real-world projects with budgets and deadlines. They are exposed to cutting-edge tech applications as well as manufacturing systems and operations in action. This helps students learn to deal with actual problems.

The fresh perspective that students bring also helps the industry in exploring new initiatives and solutions. Active en­gagement with business leaders can go a long way in assisting students to achieve professional and vocational success. It also allows them to decide which area of work is of genuine inter­est to them. These students will be ready to enter the workforce with an understanding of what it will take to succeed and grow.

For industry, fostering these relationships with B-Schools and their students is a win-win situation. It helps them to iden­tify students who will fit into the company’s culture. It is these students who can become future employees and contribute to the company’s growth.

A new job is very similar to a party where you don’t really know anyone. You will either try and fit in or look for the first opportunity to jump ship. An organisation’s culture is often re­ferred to as its “beating heart”. A lot of our waking time is spent working. Kantar’s Global Issues Barometer stressed on how In­dians are working longer hours to meet rising costs. So, we must make those long hours happy ones. And one way to achieve this is by ensuring a strong, positive work culture among both the existing and new employees.

The hiring process has undergone a huge change in the last few years and the lockdown has impacted it irreversibly. In many industries, hiring is now no longer restricted by location, and virtual interviews and online onboarding are commonplace. Of course, the virtual experience makes it difficult to pick up on body language and read someone through non-verbal cues.

Evaluating whether a potential hire will make a good fit comes with its challenges. It is here that the skill of the hiring manager comes in. They need to understand that each potential hire for a job has to be evaluated in the context of the organisation and its unique culture and make-up. We need to focus not just on the work that they will do, but also on how and why they will do it. It is for this reason that once hired, ensuring a structured induction is important, especially for fresh hires from B-Schools, with a focus on mentoring, shaping and guiding them so that they ease into the company culture.

Finally, we live in a world that is just emerging from a pan­demic that led to an economic and societal crisis. It demonstrated the importance of developing preparedness to avert a crisis and minimise the long-term impact of one. But human tendency is to overestimate ability and underestimate what can go wrong.

It is here that B-Schools can play an important role. They can prepare students to be ready for what Nassim Nicholas Taleb calls “the impact of the highly improbable”. This will be a criti­cal skill for the future and prepare the B-school graduate to go beyond core business skills and develop the ability to recognise risks, get out of their comfort zones and adapt. It is only then we can truly say that B-Schools are nurturing talent for evolving business needs.

About The Author

Priyavrata Mafatlal

Priyavrata Mafatlal is vice chairman, Arvind Mafatlal Group