Redefining Management Education

This book is created as a recorded eye-opener to sensitise aspirants, students, freshers, executives, employers, academicians and even institutions on the huge void to be closed between ‘Management’ as taught under MBA programs (classroom learning) and real world practice of ‘Management’. It is the creation of an Engineer & PhD in Management from a tier 1 IIM (Indian Institute of Management) with four decades plus diverse experience in consulting, research, academics, independent working and authoring. Objective of this book is not to educate the reader on any advanced management tool, technique, technology or process in any ‘management’ area, function or domain; but to highlight the need for ‘recognition of the interplay / integrated nature of standalone ‘management’ disciplines in practice, gain insight into cross-discipline influences and ‘contextual considerations’ that drive real world practice of management. ‘Management’ learnt in classrooms unwittingly carries a message that real world of Management practice replicates the ideal conditions / discipline / area approach to handle management problems. Many elements of consideration in real world rarely find explicit space in formal ‘management’ classrooms, are beyond the ‘standalone’ pigeon holes of formally taught disciplines / tools of ‘management’ such as finance, OR, statistics, economics, mathematics or even digitally driven tools of analysis; that are considered progressive, logical, rational and statistically valid and amenable to mechanical application. Reality is far from it.
Drivers of response to a situation leading to a decision are complex, subtle, unknown, interconnected and dynamic. They encompass (subtle) individual factors, scarcely documented but significant; even to situations that have no element of ‘Management’ as taught under formal management education. Individual ‘traits / skills / knowledge’ are acquired from own experience in subtle ways, retained in memory as learnings; that influence response to situations one encounters. Individual traits encompass: the unique mental map, recognition / assessment of the situation in ways less articulated; individual risk appetite / tolerance to ambiguity, stakes, daring to experiment and preparedness to take the ‘next step’ … based on ones prior experience and learning from it; that shape outcomes to responses … ‘Management’ is not ‘mathematics’ that lends itself to ‘one right way’ / digitally pre-programmed / AI driven solutions approach. Expectation of replay of outcome in its holistic sense from past experience turns out to be an illusion, many times. We cannot draw a one to one correlation between past experience and the present one to be, as there is no previous case that 100% replicate / a mirror image of the present context, in its subtlety, entirety and context. ‘Judgment’ that goes into decision making is a function of knowledge plus individual trait and assessment, learnings from memory recall from near comparable prior experience. No two individuals / situations have same traits / context / experience / ability to deal with the outcome, from a decision or action, in the same way. Teachings and learnings are only guidelines, and how one puts the complex set of knowledge in ‘perspective’, in real world context, is unique and dynamic.
The dynamic, contextual, amorphous, complex, interdependent and holistic nature of demand on ‘Management’ are exposed under discussion topics such as formal management education, systems approach to management, know your enemy within – bridging knowledge and practice, knowing the rules and learning the ropes, MBA to Manager – the transition dilemma, employability, recent addition to complexity ‘Role of AI Chatgpt in management education’…. Attempt is made to carve a holistic perspective to the subject, based on decades of real world experience in consulting to diversity of clients, academics across geographies; and authoring.
MBA programs tend to focus on theory and analysis of management / economic / business problems, situations and decisions, tools to apply the theory / concepts, technology to drive the tools; perceived as stand-alone elements in a specific problem area or domain. What is inadvertently missing is the ‘contextual / human’ element that looks at cross functional interplay and beyond’ in driving actions from analysis’ outcomes. Analytical results rarely lead to formula driven decisions and actions. Analysis’ outcomes are used by the complex human mind to drive decisions and actions in a ‘situation’ with complex dynamic considerations. This gap in Management education can only be bridged by repeated exposure to real world scenarios; from problem statement to analysis, understanding, decisions, actions and outcome; and learning from the ‘chain of events’ when the loop gets closed. These learnings are subtle and can rarely be subject of a programmed treatment. This book is an attempt to bring this undefined / less articulated element of complexity, interdependency and human role (intelligence / traits) beyond concepts, tools, techniques and analysis, driving actions and outcomes.
Many successful individuals (business men / managers / administrators / policy makers / even rulers) don’t necessarily adorn a ‘Management’ degree that has taken them where they are. These are leaders who carry qualities of ‘leadership’ that are beyond knowledge of management tools / techniques / technology, individual traits to understand, assess, evaluate and drive decisions, using resources (knowledge, men, material, tools … ) in an orchestrated manner, to drive and deliver outcomes.
Digital tools and products have added one more dimension to the complexity (aid?) of considerations to the task of ‘Management’ and Management Education. The discussion here is a reflection of the need to holistically revisit ‘Management Education’: definition, objective, process, outcome, caveats and prescriptions, even in the ever evolving larger context of AI / Technology driven space too and not to belittle the value of formal education.
The book offers a practical, holistic, humane, real world, non intimidatory approach and exposure to practice of Management to freshers and working professionals tasked with new responsibilities or opportunities in their career. The book is expected to help in coming to terms with reality and not feeling belittled or intimidated when confronted with situations, as never before. The book is meant to be a peace time reading to aid in preparing for the unexpected … mimicking a war zone and develop maturity in handling shocks or surprises. Highly recommended for students, those entering the field, practicing managers, and even management institutions and academicians to use as a reference to sensitise students on the reality of the real world of management