Being a B-school Teacher....

By

Pramit Das
B.Com(H), MBA, PGDJMC, Fellow-HRD,CSMT, AIMA
Faculty Member-Marketing
ICFAI
 

Zunis, a tribal group in Western New Mexico have a different perception of life. They belief in their collective ownership and sharing and their children in their learning process do not receive harsh punishment. Contrarily Kwakiutl living in the Vancouver Island of British Columbia gets motivation in competition. Kwakiutl's children take achieving and conquering as very high prestige in the social order.

K.C. Pratt, A.K. Nelson and K.M Sun's in one of their researches on nursery school student , states that, "human instinct are either very few or there is no existence of them in any pure and unmodified form." So Zunis collective ownership and Kwakiutl's competitive attitude are instinctive or an age old doctrine of survival. Cats kill rats because they have a killing instinct, instinct itself is a doctrine of survival.

What I have felt over the years, while taking sessions in Marketing and Business Strategy, that learning management concept should be a fun and to be applied instinctively. Corporate life is not a joy-ride, one has to face a lot of critical situations supplemented with internal and external competition. Every move has to be precise base on self strategic planning. Strategic planning is again based on internal cognition process, future forecasting and empirical evidence. Decisions made on available alternatives are again instinctive.

I was a big fan of Gagne's Hierarchical Theory, when I make a strategic shift in my career from corporate to academics. Gange describe learning, 'as a change in human disposition or capability, which can be retained, which is not simply ascribable to the process of growth.' The main objective of learning is exhibited in form of changed behavior or an application procedure under a given or observable condition. I have relied on this philosophy in the beginning of my academic career where I considered every student's response as changed behavior. Response to particular stimuli (the concept that is being taught) is automatic and involuntary and is simultaneous with the process of internalization. This approach works as wonder while teaching specific analogies and during concept elaboration. This is where instinctive learning takes a back stage.

What we teach in B-School is all conceptual? That is why, I have a serious objection with the term "Management education". What is education? It modifies human behavior. What is behavior? It is he response to a situation which a individual confront. What is management? In simple words, it is a process of attainment of certain objective with disposable resources. Management programs is not all about modifying human behavior for achieving corporate goals or to mould and adopt oneself in accordance with various corporate cultures.

Educating individual to become global managers is highly debatable same as whether "Managers are made or born". Standing on 2008, today what I feel that, managers should have a beautiful mind, What is the definition of a beautiful mind – one should be Thinking, Problem-solving, Imaginative and  Creative. Is there is any educational format in this planet earth to produce beautiful minds?  To name a few beautiful minds; Elton Mayo (Hawthorne Studies), Peter Drucker (MBO) to Jack Welch (GE), Bill Gate (Microsoft) to Steve Jobs (MacBook Air laptop), Ratan Naval Tata (Nano) were never hardened through such educational programs.

General Motors & Toyota had became Big Brothers in the automobile arena by adopting two different management styles and their products depicting two distinct Brand cultures same as Zunis of New Mexico and Kwakiutls of British Columbia. Corporate Brands to human civilizations, GE's turnaround strategy to world's smallest car, slimmest laptop are all outcome of human survival instinct. Beautiful minds have the best survival instincts.

B-Schools are actually mind enriching schools, where balanced minds are converted into beautiful minds. We play with their survival instinct, we put them into various modules, simulations, real life situations and stretch their innovative abilities. Here text-book hardware knowledge are put into back stage, case oriented approach becomes key learning software, interpersonal skills act as an interface and the final output is a deadly human instinct.

Day by day I am becoming a more matured person, because every hour I am out in the open to a unique opportunity of playing around with would be beautiful minds. It remembers me the campaign of Indian Army, the outraging tagline 'Do you have it in you – at the age 21, 30 men are ready to die at your command'. When I enter in the class, I feel like leading fifty odd beautiful minds to reach their individual glories. What a remarkable moment in life being a B-school teacher.
 

Pramit Das
B.Com(H), MBA, PGDJMC, Fellow-HRD,CSMT, AIMA
Faculty Member-Marketing
ICFAI
 

Source: E-mail April 16, 2008

Articles No. 1-99 / Articles No. 100-199 / Articles No. 200-299 / Articles No. 300-399 /
Articles No. 400-499 / Articles No. 500-599 / Articles No. 600-699 / Back to Articles 700 Onward
Faculty Column Main Page