MARKETING BUSINESS EDUCATION - Searching for Innovation
S.S. George
Dean, ICMR Case Studies and Management Resources
Today's business environment is characterized by change and complexity. Product
life cycles are shrinking while consumer preferences are changing frequently and
dramatically. Technology is no longer a trump card for gaining competitive
advantage, but more a wild card, with an unknown value and an uncertain impact
on performance.
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A number of technologies are available to achieve a
particular end in any given industry, and in most cases, it is almost
impossible to foretell which will fail and which will succeed. In such an
environment, innovation is critical to an organization's survival and
growth. This is particularly true in activities related to marketing such
as new product development or product modifications and process and
communication changes - perhaps more so than in any other function. As
with business, so with business education. While the demand for management
education is growing in the country, business schools are also facing the
fallout of the turmoil in the business environment, having to cope with
profound changes in their markets. This article discusses why business
schools in India should become more business-like, and begin to practice
some of the theories they have been teaching for so long. |
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The Business of Business Education
Traditionally in India, education, even business education,
has not been viewed in terms of products or markets. Instead, education has
been viewed as the responsibility of the government. Consequently, educational
institutions have for long operated in an environment quite different from the
one businesses operate in, following practices and approaches far removed from
the rough and tumble of corporate life.
However, this situation is now changing dramatically, in much the same way the
rules of doing business in India have changed in the past decade or so. The
financial crunch facing both the central and state governments has resulted in
a reduction in the government's role in providing education, particularly
higher education. Now, due to reduced funding from the government, most
government funded educational institutions are not in a position to expand or
change to meet the demands of the marketplace. In this changed environment,
business schools are realizing that they operate in a marketplace, and that to
survive they must begin applying the theories they teach to their own
operations.
A business school serves two markets – one consisting of prospective students,
and the other consisting of prospective employers. There is what is sometimes
described as an 'implicit understanding' between the student and the business
school (or at least the better schools) that the student will get a job if he
completes his course successfully. Hence the critical role of placements in the
success or failure of a business school.
Both these markets have now become more fragmented, dynamic and demanding.
Students today are better informed than ever before, and have a variety of
educational options and institutions to choose from. Potential employers, faced
with challenges of their own, are looking to recruit people who fulfill
increasingly tougher requirements. New areas of study are opening up, and at
the same time, new demands are being placed on management graduates.
While the demand for business education is becoming more and more complex and
unpredictable, the providers of these services are increasingly hamstrung by
inadequate budgets and antiquated work ethics and organization structures. The
work culture of these organizations is more attuned to operating in the
comparatively placid, government controlled economy of the last century.
In the absence of funds from the government and other institutions, business
education, to be successful, must be managed like a business. Without subsidies
and external funds, neither a business or a business school can survive if the
scale of its operations falls below a viable threshold. In much the same way
that most of the enterprises in the small scale sector in India are unviable,
business schools below the threshold scale will find it difficult to compete
and grow.
Scale is important because of the virtuous spiral that signifies success for a
business school. For business schools to succeed, they must attract talented
students. The best students flock to institutes which draw recruiters.
Recruiters go only to those institutes where they can find talented employees.
To break into this virtuous cycle, business schools must be able to make large
investments – in research, in salaries to star faculty, and in top of the line
infrastructure. With the government no longer willing to play the role of a
benevolent sponsor, and in the absence of private charitable endowments to
educational institutions, business schools must look to other ways to succeed.
To achieve the required scale of operations , business schools must learn to
market themselves. Since all business schools know and understand – or are at
least expected to know and understand - the principles of marketing, to
succeed, a school must market itself innovatively.
Innovation: The Heart of Marketing...Next
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