ROLE OF MEDIA IN DISASTER MANAGEMENT

By Sudarshan Srinivasan - President, Prognosys Perceptions Plus
Email : ssudas@gmail.com

Saddam's execution on December 30, 2006, can be considered a watershed event, for a guard filmed the entire sequence uncensored and uploaded on the Internet for the world to see.  No media in the world would have dared to show such a clip on their channel on account of censorship rules, but one was encountering a challenge of a different kind.  The development in convergence technology, camera based cellphones with video and the integration with Internet has made broadcasters out of individuals.  This was the ultimate proliferation of media in the hands of an individual who through something never imagined as media before was able to reach out globally.  The video, transformed Saddam into a hero in certain quarters, despite the fact that he had been pronounced guilty and sentenced to death for mass murder some twenty five years back.

We are living in a time of bewildering change and headlong progress –  economic, social, political, scientific, and technological.  We have begun to witness how pressures on public thought and conviction have been greater than ever before.  We also had instances pointing to the fact, "with public sentiment nothing can fail – without it, nothing can succeed."

Communication channels are churning with assorted information designed to influence public opinion and thinking.   Our response is becoming more important year after year for the simple reason that people are concerned with and participate in different departments of human endeavour than in the past.  On a grand scale, huge enterprises and wings of government are seeking to adjust to the global village of disparate cultures, values, and standards of behaviour.

At the local community level, life is strained as jobs fall victim to technology or are moved to an area of lower wages and costs, resulting in the tax base and public services such as education suffering.  With the Social, Economic and Political forces that singly or through interaction shape the environment within which the free enterprise exists.

Important thing is that the medium as a cultures uses to transmit its messages be it spoken words, printed words, radio, television, or other electronic means – forever changes the members of that culture as well as what is communicated by that medium. Electronic medium (radio, television, the Internet) dominate our culture today, influencing the methods of persuasion in our cultures.

Stripped down to basics, the mission of the news media is to inform audiences quickly, accurately, and fully on matters in which audiences express an interest and on matters that affect them significantly, whether or not the audiences have expressed interest, or are even aware.   The freedom of the news media to inform the public and to interpret information  without bias is assured across democratic societies.  Abuse of that freedom could lead to loss of credibility with the audience, loss of revenue from advertisers, and public censure.  Thus, while news prerogatives are jealously guarded, journalistic education and practices emphasize self-discipline.  A high degree of ethical responsibility involving moral standards and integrity is implicit in serving the ultimate best interests of the public.

Delving deeper into the topic of Catastrophe or Crisis, to pen down some learnings, was to try and divide catastrophes and crisis in two parts: 1980 – 2000 and then 2000 till date.  When quizzed to name the catastrophes of the times, most of the respondents seemed to name Bhopal Gas Tragedy (1985); Latur Earthquake (1993); and being from Mumbai,– Communal Disturbance and Bomblasts (1993/94).

When aided further, with topics like: Operation Blue Star, Indira Gandhi's assasination; Golden Temple; Pledging gold; Rajiv Gandhi's Assasination; The Babri Masjid demolition, Kargil War, people seemed to realize and add more incidents like cyclone.  In this phase when you quizzed them for international catastrophes, the only one that typically came to their mind was the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.  On further aiding, they were able to cite the US Invasion of Iraq for liberating Kuwait and earthuquakes in Armenia and so on.   Interestingly they wanted to equate the Y2K bug also as a catastrophe or crisis.

Coming to the catastrophes in the Millenium, the immediate recall was on 9/11; 7/7 and 7/11, referring to the Twin Towers (New York); The Tube Rail blasts (London) and The Local Train Blasts (Mumbai).  They had to be aided on Katrina, Rita, The Iran Quake.  When provided the dates of 01/26; 12/26; 07/26 and 12/08, people seemed to be clueless, though they identified these as Gujarat Earthquake; the Tsunami; the devastating earthquake in Kashmir and the Mumbai deluge.    Very clearly, the television images of these disasters have made people relate to them and become aware.

In each of  these cases , when people subjected to great emotional stress, their normally self-controlled behavior tends to become irrational and unpredictable.  Their reaction turn down the steps of Maslow's hierarchy of human needs, and tend to cling to physical needs. One step above are a person's safety needs.  When people feel that physical needs and safety needs are threatened, they are prone to panic.  In panic, people's baser instincts for survival take command.  This "survival" might be physical, financial, social, or some other component vital to a person's emotions and actions.

These phenomena became immediately apparent in such catastrophic circumstances as fires, floods, explosions, and tornadoes.  The same pattern emerges, with less severity, in non-catastrophic situation.  The symptoms of potential panic and the concern for self are there.  Similarly, sensations approaching panic may invade us when it appears that we may miss a departing air-flight, lose a dear friend, find ourselves unexpectedly deprived of light in our home at night, or walk a dark street to our parked car.

Because a true crisis is a turning point, after which things may change drastically, an organization not prepared to deal with crisis is constantly at risk.  Even sudden emergencies of crisis proportion can be anticipated – if not avoided – so risk management, issue anticipation, and crisis communication programs have become an important part of communication technology.  Despite this sophistication in the work, the term crisis management does not imply that an organization or its communication staff can manage external influences.  What can – and must – be managed is the response.

Crisis as "a significant disruption that stimulates extensive news media coverage.  The resulting public scrutiny will affect the organization's normal operation and also could have a political, legal, financial, and governmental impact on its business."

Not every crisis is of the "instant" variety.  Some crisis develop over a period of time – days, weeks, or even months.  Nevertheless, these events are just as much a crisis as those that are fast-breaking.  The four basic causes of a crisis listed are :

1. Acts of God (storms, earthquakes, volcanic action, etc.)

2. Mechanical problems (ruptured pipes, metal fatigue, etc.)

3. Human error (the wrong calve was opened, miscommunication about what to do, etc.)

4. Management decisions, actions, or inaction  (the problem is not serious, nobody will find out)

Most fall in the last category and are the result of management not taking action when they were informed about a problem that eventually would grow into a crisis.

There are two basic types of crisis, depending on the amount of warning time:

(1)  a sudden crisis, which comes without warning (employee injury, death of a key executive, oil spills, product tampering, etc.)

(2)    a smoldering crisis, which is generally not know internally or externally until it goes public and generates negatives news coverage.

These problems are operational or organizational weakness, bad practices, and other discoverable or predictable bombs waiting to explode.  The consequences for managing a crisis, for keeping credible communication flowing, are intensified when the situation drags out.  In any case, the public expects the leaders of trusted organizations to act with total honesty and sensitivity during and after a crisis.

Philip Lesly, a veteran public relations counselor and philosopher/critic of the field, developed the following model to understand how people typically respond to issues.  On any given issue dividing public opinion, people will fall into these groups.

Zealots will be the first to take firm stands on the issue – for and against.  The majority, however, will watch to see which way the opinion leaders go before they are firm enough in their views to speak or act.  Public relation efforts must on the opinion leaders – the 8 percent who can influence the 90 percent.  Resist the temptation to capitalize on the zealots who support your view.  They anger people on both sides of the issue, including those inclined to agree with them.

Keep in mind that opinion leaders are rarely the visible leaders (elected officials or organization officers).  Look for them at all levels and in all segments of society.  The opinion leaders are not necessarily the educated and articulate, but are always the familiar and trustworthy.  Most of us are inclined to seek reinforcement for our choices from people who are in the same situation we are, not from people who are "different."

THE ROLE OF COMMUNICATIONS

Contemporary culture presents us with a complex web of influences, many of which we cannot ignore of which we do not consciously choose. Persuasion is vastly different today than it has been for centuries.  Media, and other forms of technology, have altered individuals and cultures and consequently the ways we produce and receive persuasive communication.  Because in today's world the media serve as intermediaries in the communication process, coming between audiences and persuaders and affecting the information that passes between the two, we can be said to live in a mediated world.

Each medium creates different ways of thinking, different ways of feeling, and different states of awareness.  That is, a medium alters the consciousness of a user.  One could identify four major types of media in the world's history: oral, written, electronic and hypermedia.  For a given culture, one form of communication will be dominant.  Electronic media – specifically television – today dominates global culture.  The implication of living in a culture dominated by electronic media is that even our face-to-face interaction with others is influenced, in some way, by our media environment.

CHARACTERISTICS OF MEDIA CULTURE

Walter Ong (1982) - Persuasion in Contemporary Society

Persuasion in oral societies takes the form of story telling, in which one communicator relates a traditional story to an immediate group of listeners.  In literate societies, persuaders use evidence to support their claims, to create logical relationships between their ideas, and to call upon their audiences' emotions.

As culture moves from orality to writing to printing to televising, its ideas of truth move with it.  Truth arises in how we communicate about and through particular media.  Intelligence is often seen as determining what is true, so it follows tha a culture's measure of intelligence are derived from the nature of the media that penetrate that culture.

We are living in a time of chaos, instability, and upheaval.  A confluence of forces – technological and cultural – influences how we communicate with others.  We live in a time when television dominates how we experience the world.  A medium such as the television is often viewed only as a channel, or way, of transmitting information.  It is important to realize, though, that television, like any medium, does more than serve as pipeline for information – and it changes those who receive the information, those who send it, and the culture in which the information is transmitted.

In recent years, few would argue that news media have been responsible carriers of information needed by citizens; most would say they have concentrated on scandals and titillating trivialities that provided public entertainment.  There is no doubt that the interpretation of public events affecting our lives falls heavily on the news media.  Any uses of rights surface most often when fierce competition among the media makes a competitive advantage more important or urgent then simple truth and accuracy in protecting the public interest.  In doing so, the media cannot be oblivious to the facts of :  the public and political environment in which the crisis is occurring, the culture and inner workings of the organization facing the crisis and human nature of how will the persons and groups involved most likely react to the crisis itself, to attempts to alleviate it, and to various communications, events, or activities?

Lacking trust-worthy information, humans tend to assume the worst.  Trust must precede information.  The ability to communicated trustworthy information, whether directly or via news media, is a measure of a communicator's effectiveness or ineffectiveness.  In unexpected situations of disaster, crisis, or emergency, the news media and the practice of public relations have had their examples of public service and their most severe episodes of failure and ineptitude.

Many misunderstandings and poor public relationships occur because a legitimate inquiry is not promptly and properly answered by deed or word.  Many others occur because responses are ill-timed, inaccurate, or altered by the interpretation given by a critic, or they are blown out of proportion by news media seeking sensational headlines.  Naturally, given a choice between spot reaction and time for a thoroughly considered response, pr practitioners would not prefer a spot reaction.  Sometimes there is no choice; microphones are being thrust in your face or a political figure is waiting impatiently in the reception area.  The substitute of a thoroughly considered response is a strategic plan that anticipates atleast broad topics that are likely to arise.  Specific problems that affect public opinion and relationship rarely exist in isolation.  Each one is connected to larger matter of public concern.  By considering, these problems in a plan, in advance, one often can deal with a problem before it arises.

The media is a reactive force.  It has been having important role to show the dept of the catastrophe or crisis to the world.  With the growth of satellite channels, media organizations are in the race.  During crisis or catastrophes, media tends to react to the lack of information by speculating or sensationalizing information.  The essential role of media during these type of events should be make an inventory of positive initiatives and project them, instead of drawing attention to deficiencies and errors in disaster warning and prevention.

Media people should draw a boundary line for themselves while covering the disaster. Disaster prevention, Disaster mitigation, disaster preparedness, emergency management, disaster recovery are five phases in disaster management, and media should ensure accuracy and level of news to be reported in each of these phases.  Media is an inevitable part of the community.  Singe voice,, positive stories, level of accuracy, self regulation and above all burying the hatchet mutually in their own community in the larger interest of the society during such incidents would only go to show their magnanimity.

REFERENCES

1. Public Relations Practices – Allen H Center, Patrick Jackson, Sixth Edition (Prentice Hall of India)
2. Persuasion in the Media Age – Timothy a Borchers, Tata Mcgraw Hill
3. Media and Disaster – Experts views on Role of Media during Disasters

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CONFLICT  RESOLUTION

By Prof Cajetan D’Souza
Conflicts in relationships are a fact of life.

No one is an island and hence we get into conflicts. The first and foremost question in our minds should be on “What you do with them when they do come. Conflicts happen in all groups – small and big in Society..

People often fight in ways that leave lasting emotional scars. What we want to do is to fight without leaving any personal damage. Bible gives us ways and means to do this. The critical QUESTION to be asked is: How do we respond when confronted? Do we react in anger, sorrow, self pity or even a spirit of revenge? Or do we act in humility with a spirit that teaches us that this could be an opportunity for growth?

Hence, the THEME is on HOW TO HANDLE CONFLICTS WHEN THEY COME.

We sow the seeds for further discord by fighting / confronting improperly

We say something careless or bring up something needless and hurtful and this leads to further discord. This creates a culture for dissension. Being a peacemaker is in the best interest of both parties.

The worst fights are commonly over small or unimportant things

Beware of anger over small or seemingly inconsequential things as the people’s worst fights are on them, because they catch you unawares and are least prepared for them. Fights over weighty matters are thought through and are worked through with care and deliberation.

PREREQUISITES

Before we can do the right thing in a confrontation we must first be the right kind of people. This is a non-negotiable given. If we fail to exhibit good character, then no "how-to" methods, no matter how successful, will work.

The first prerequisite is humility. This is so important as we have to look to ourselves and to our own weaknesses and feelings to keep things in proper perspective.

The second prerequisite is love. If you don't love the person you don't have a right to confront them.

The third prerequisite is patience. We need patience in order to have proper self-restraint and hear the other person out. Impatience is a source of anger and intolerance—and it has no place in conflict resolution.

A fourth prerequisite is to be without hypocrisy. If we are living a deluded lifestyle, we can't see clearly enough to qualify for correcting other people. If we want to confront somebody about an area of sin (or even of non-moral issues) we must first have demonstrated victory in this area ourselves.

Few Effective Guidelines for Conflict Resolution

·         We cannot follow exact same procedures for everybody.  Be wise and be sensitive to the “need of the moment.”

·         Focus on issues and solutions: Ask yourself "What are the real issues involved?"

·         Pre-decide your rules of engagement: The heat of argument is a poor time to think of proper boundaries.

·         Reduce conflicts to the smallest dimensions

Dealing with conflicts is like putting out fires. It does no good to chase a spreading fire. The key idea here    is containment. Here are three ways we can contain conflicts:

• Don't bring up past conflicts
• Don't escalate matters
• How you phrase things is of utmost importance

·         Intensity of confrontation should correspond to the importance or recurrence of the problem

Match the intensity and directness of your confrontation to either how serious the problem is or how often it comes up. Don't make a bid deal out of a small problem or something that has just started as a problem

·         No one has the right to withdraw from a confrontation before arriving at a proper resolution. Once in a discussion that requires resolution, no one should withdraw until the matter is talked out sufficiently and the issue settled. A half-settled argument is an on-going argument [open-ended argument].

Even if the discussion is painful or frustrating, we have no right to escape from it. Is the discussion painful?  Are we frustrated because the communication requires so much effort? Most religious books say that "love is patient." Tough love consists of tough patience, and this is precisely what is needed if communication is not functioning at its best. Stick it out and hang in there until the matter is settled.

What are your Sacred Cows?

There is a common tendency for us to blindly accept things the way they are. We don’t challenge the veracity of the system choosing to blindly follow it because thousands are doing so. We suppose that there must be a good reason for the system to exist, And we follow it.

Take the following account:

Eight monkeys were kept in a room with a bunch of bananas hanging from the ceiling. The monkeys were intentionally kept hungry. Each time a monkey tried to reach out to the bananas, all the monkeys were sprayed with ice water, which made them miserable. Soon enough, whenever a monkey attempted to reach the bananas, all of the other monkeys, not wanting to be sprayed with cold water, set upon him and beat him up. In course of time, none of the eight monkeys ever attempted to get the bananas.

One of the original monkeys is then removed, and a new monkey is put in the room. Seeing the bananas and the ladder, he wonders why none of the other monkeys are doing the obvious; but, undaunted, he immediately begins to climb the ladder. All the other monkeys fall upon him and beat him silly. He has no idea why?? However, he no longer attempts to climb the ladder. A second original monkey is removed and replaced. The newcomer again attempts to climb the ladder, but all the other monkeys hammer the crap out of him. This includes the previous new monkey, who, grateful that he's not on the receiving end this time, participates in the beating because all the other monkeys are doing it. However, he has no idea why he's attacking the new monkey.
One by one, all the original monkeys are replaced. Eight new monkeys are now in the room. None of them have ever been sprayed by ice water. None of them attempt to climb the ladder. All of them will enthusiastically beat up any new monkey who tries, without having any idea why.

We behave like the monkeys, blindly following established practices. We have absolutely no idea why thye system prevails or why the others are following it. We are apprehensive of doing something about it for fear of reprisals from our fellow colleagues. They may frown upon us walking into unknown territories. We fear their scorn or even isolation.

Let’s take a real life example to illustrate.

Back in the 1870’s, Sholes & Co, a leading manufacturer of typewriters at that time, were inundated with complaints from typists about the typewriter keys sticking together if one’s typing was too fast. In response, the company’s engineers brainstormed on the problem and then hit on the idea of slowing down the typing speed of the operator and thus avoiding the “key jamming problem”. But, how was one going to slow down the speed of the operator? The answer was to have an efficient keyboard configuration whereby the operator perforce had to slow down his typing speed. For example, the alphabets “O” and “I” are the third and sixth most frequently used letters in the English language, and yet the Sholes’ engineers positioned them on the keyboard so that the relatively weaker ring and little fingers had to depress them. This” inefficient and warped logic” pervaded the keyboard, and this brilliant idea solved the problem of keyboard jam-up. However, the QWERTY keyboard design still continued to be in use despite the fact that technology in typewriters and word processing machines making phenomenal leaps and   outputting work much faster than a person can type. If the original reason of “jamming” had disappeared where was the need to stick to the cumbersome QWERTY system? Once a system or rule or technology is universally acceptable and has been in force for years, it is difficult to change it even though the original reason for its generation has disappeared.

Some of these rules and systems are so highly successful over time that we tend to ignore its relevance to changed circumstances and continue to adopt and even adapt to them. These are called “sacred cows” and people are scared stiff to slay them.

Another thing, we tend to fall in love with our ideas and pet theories. Don’t! It’s hara kiri!

Chase your sacred cows. From time to time, challenge the very veracity, viability and effectiveness of your ideas.  Put them under the scanner. Ask yourself, “Is this still good enough?” or “Is it relevant in today’s context?” Most importantly, find out if the original need or reason for the idea still exists failing which the baby and the bath water should be thrown out immediately. This then becomes the starting point for innovation, the big idea for what was there before now becomes an open field.

In our Indian culture, more particularly our educational system, we frown upon someone deviating from established practice, for flouting well-entrenched rules. All our exams barring a few are based on how well we are able to regurgitate information previously “mugged”  - sometimes even without having the slightest idea of what the whole thing means!

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Famous last words!

Today’s society is so problem-steeped that we actually try to avoid problems if we can. We are allergic to changing the system. We continue to use the same old systems blissfully oblivious of its obsolete nature. Also, if something is not a problem we tend to accept things the way they are. Why disturb the status quo. There are hundreds of other problems that keep us occupied and hassled. Why add to this already tiresome burden? Even if a system is not running that efficiently we avoid disturbing the system for fear it might bring on some other set of problems which might not be that solvable. For years, Mumbai’s local train ticketing system was characterized by long serpentine queues. I failed to understand why the railway authorities weren’t switching over to a more reliable and efficient system. Why were they adhering to a system that was patently obsolete? Years before the advent of the current CVM’s now installed at all platforms, I had an almost-similar idea. Arguably, my ideal based on a vending protocol, is better than the current system. However, when I approached a senior manager in Western Railway he didn’t seem enthusiastic.

China’s GDP is far ahead of thatof India’s. One of the reasons for this according to top economic analysts is the laid back attitude of the bureaucracy. If a system is working why try to fiddle around with it. China, on the other hand, is proactive - revolutionizing every aspect of its working system and the result is there for all to see.

Prof A  R Kini

Visiting Faculty (HR) based in Delhi and a very well known name in management circles

Being overly MBAtious!

An MBA degree from a top B-school has for years weaved its magic spell on many who felt that it was some kind of “open sesame” to the cave of management riches. MBA then was everything. The ultimate gilt-edged degree.

However, to some of the more knowledgeable including MBA students, the gilt is slowly been replaced by guilt!

And why.

Undergoing an MBA from a prestigious management institute is a big-ticket item. Some spend Rs 3, 00,000 or more to earn the degree (not counting the Rs 10, 00,000  upwards for a ‘paid seat” at a top B-school), confident that it will propel their career into overdrive — and often that’s not an unreasonable expectation. To many hiring managers, an MBA on the resume is a sure sign that the candidate has long-term, corner-office potential.

Yes, the once-golden MBA is slowly losing some of its luster. There’s a quiet revolt brewing against MBA programs, and the sabre-wielding barbarians at the gate aren’t outsiders but rather the B-school front-benchers.

In India, we have over 1600 B-schools – and counting! Just the other day, a leading daily in Mumbai had a full-page ad for the launch of a new business school that promises a train-load (read Shatabdhi Express!) of academic goodies. Wonderful! I believe they would. But, what about the others? Do they actually deliver the goods?  If you teach in some of the B-Schools, you’ll be quickly disillusioned. A quick tour of some of the B-Schools will leave you disillusioned, if not disgusted.

Practicality

When it comes to the practicality of the MBA course, the once-subdued tone of dissent has, has in recent years, metamorphosed into a full-throated chorus of criticism. Among their litany of  accusations: The degree is over-hyped, MBA curricula are out of touch with real-world demands, and many programs have a culture that turns a blind eye to absenteeism, project-plagiarizing, cheating etc. business schools. Many of the rank-and-file suffer from outdated textbooks, professors who do not keep abreast with current economic trends, and lifeless curriculums that may be deemed DOA.

Poor faculty

Many institutes hire visiting faculty who have no business to be in the business of teaching! They lack teaching skills. They lack qualifications. And worse, they lack industry experience to bring to the table. I know of quite a few faculty lecturing on strategic planning and marketing strategy when they haven’t even cut their teeth in the industry. Sales, advertising and marketing are some of the subjects that cannot be taught by merely reading a text book and regurgitating the same in the class-room. It has to be bolstered by appropriate examples that can only emanate only from solid industry experience. I was fortunate to attend a lecture by a well-known and highly respected marketing professor. The long three-hour non-stop talk was generously interspersed with scores of appropriate examples – no, not shamelessly lifted from Rangaswamy or Kotler but hand-picked from his very own, very rich garden of 29 years’ experience. Here was a man, a real man of flesh and bones and carbohydrates who had painfully obtained marketing nirvana in the trenches where one gets a bloody nose fighting ruthless, no-holds barred marketing battles. A lecture garnished with one’s own rich experience not only creates a voracious appetite for knowledge among students but also, and what is more important, helps students to better understand theoretical constructs and their applications in the real world. Nothing is nebulous. No amorphous little bits of theory floating lifelessly around. There was pin-drop silence in the large, over-packed auditorium as students hung on to every word of his and scribbled furiously in their notebooks.

Contrast this to another lecture I was privy to only last month. Though I had a ring-side view of the power point and the lecturer’s poker face. I felt I was attending a bhog ceremony. The speaker’s sepulchral voice was one flat monotone like a saxophone with only one key. His accent was obnoxious and his command over the England language atrocious.  The guy went on and on and on, oblivious to the theta effect he was having on the class.

How was it that the institute allowed a  monkey into the lecture room?

Because many management institutes pay peanuts!

It isn’t that institutes are cash-strapped and can’t afford to pay more – after all they charge an arm and a leg from candidates. Isn’t it ironic that whilst students of an average B-school get an average entry-level salary of Rs 7 lakhs, core faculty earn less than half of that even after several years’ experience?

This dismal situation isn’t much different for the visiting faculty. For a three-hour session, some institutes pay anwhere from  – hold your breath – Rs 200 per hour to Rs 1200 per hour - an amount that deserves a good belly laugh.

So, why do people lecture at B-schools?

For a variety of reasons depending on how one is hard wired. It could be passion. Or  satisfaction. Or  social gratification. Or the need for recognition. Or maybe simply to get away from their mothers-in-law. Some do it for the status and prestige teaching confers. Some, in riches or in retirement, do it simply as a pass time. One elderly professor who has been at the helm of teaching for many years told me in a somewhat conspiratorial tone that he enjoyed being with young people as it made him feel young! Of course, there are some who do it for money otherwise why do they take classes right throughout the day. For these, it is a livelihood, the peanuts and TDS notwithstanding!

A recent article in a mainline newspaper wrote about the pathetic dearth of good faculty and how top professors of well known management institutes were moonlighting at another. Industry pay-scales being more lucrative than those offered by academics as led to this acute faculty crunch. There are visiting faculty members who do the rounds of several management institutes. I know of some professors who lecture at two or three colleges a day and do this for six days a week, some for even seven! I wonder what happens to the wives.

Admission process

An MBA, like any other kind of education, can be a total waste for some who aren’t manager material. An MBA certainly doesn’t carry a golden warrantee against all “manufacturing defects”! Neither is it an albatross. An MBA simply allows you to accelerate your learning curve. The degree doesn't make the manager. It’s the person that makes the manager. The degree only gives the person that has what it takes a toolset to work with.

So, shouldn’t B-schools be more meticulous and stringent when screening candidates at the time of the GDPI and ensure only those with appreciable management and leadership qualities be admitted?

This isn’t the case however with most B-schools. After all seats have to be filled in order to have a healthy bottom-line!

A recent  study conducted by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) revealed that barring the top 30, faculty in most B-schools in the country lack fundamental economic awareness. Imagine a whopping 89 percent of

the faculty didn't know the GDP growth rate in FY 2006-07. Here’s a bigger shame - the survey further divulged that hardly 6 percent of the lecturers surveyed read any business newspaper on a regular basis.  Most of the case studies or examples discussed in the class are outdated, out of sync with current trends and very seldom are these dovetailed into the Indian scenario.

Holy MBA Moses! This is like the blind leading the blind!

Management institutes world-wide are undergoing tectonic shifts in how they operate and interact with their "customers": students, alumni, faculty members, and admin staff. The highly specialized knowledge imparted by these elite institutions and its availability to wider economy is of paramount importance for national growth and competitiveness. Vibrant software-based tools for gathering, collating and disseminating data have come centre stage. Technological, economic, and sociological factors are drastically shaping the contours of education, which in turn are impacting its institutions, faculty, the student community, funding sources, and its core function in society. To unleash the latent and dormant potential as well as  helping students with manager material  to gain crucial management  training, whatever their educational or work background requires a well-thought through customer-centric approach to education. Institutions need to implement strategies that make them more proactive and responsive to their core target segments. Students are  increasingly perceiving themselves as savvy customers in the market place on the look out for the best deal from competing management training providers.

Wake up B-schools, wake up!

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