Assembly lines mass-producing managers or India?s icons of innovation in management? Nearly two decades after economic liberalisation and thousands of successful graduates stepping out of their portals, India?s premier management institutes are still grappling with the existential question.
Students from the country?s top-notch B-schools have made their mark in transnational blue chip corporations, but the schools themselves are still far from the Ivy League standards of becoming centres of knowledge creating new models, theories and principles in management through research and innovation. If our premier B-schools wish to leave their footprints on the global arena, they have little choice but to foster innovation in management at a regular pace where research forms the backbone of such innovations.
The schools themselves seem to be conscious of the urgency. IIM-Ahmedabad has set up 10 research centres to extend the use of management science to various sectors of the economy while IIM-Calcutta boasts of four such centres.
Every year, around 10-15 doctoral candidates each pass out of IIM-A and IIM-C. To attract more research-oriented students, IIMs this year increased the grant for research fellows. The institutes, which regularly bring out journals, also conduct working paper series to help faculty and fellowship students publish initial drafts of research findings. Consulting projects to help corporates and non-corporate organisations, public institutions and the government through analytical and problem-solving support are also frequently undertaken.
Nonetheless, experts doubt the quality of research conducted at many institutes, saying there has been little investment in research. ?Only the likes of IIMs have even a semblance of research and even that is few and far in between. We don?t even invest enough for new case studies. We need to find the right models and investment patterns to make this happen. Initially, we need to invest in learning various models of research and development through collaboration with foreign universities who have been doing this for decades,? says KPMG executive director Narayanan Ramaswamy.
Though some Indian management institutes have produced illustrious business gurus like CK Prahalad, Indian B-schools have generally fared quite poorly in global rankings. This year, though, IIM-A and ISB Hyderabad figured in The Economist?s and The Financial Times?s global ranking of B-schools with IIM-A ranked 85th and ISB ranked 12th, respectively.
Indian institutes often fall behind global peers in ranking due to relatively low research output or intellectual capital. ?Barring a few exceptions, management institutes are all geared towards placements and getting students into high-paying jobs. There is a need to push the doctoral and research programmes more,? said Ravi Lochan Singh, MD, Global Reach.
?Indian B-schools are not tracked because of limited research. The quality and content of research is very poor. There is a need to focus on research on the lines of international B-schools,? said Bharat Gulia, senior manager, education practice, Ernst & Young.
Corporate involvement
Across the world, the involvement of corporates in research is almost as important as the institutes carrying out research. When asked about the role of corporates in research in India, Sougata Ray, dean of IIM-C, said: ?India is in the early stage of the positive learning curve. Companies have recently realised the value of research. In the West, companies get into hagiography where they reserve the right to edit the final product. Such research work puts the company in good light. India needs to guard against such phenomena as it takes away the credibility of research.? The ideas generated by research papers affect business practices and governance norms in the society at large. ?Faculties are sometimes not motivated to undertake research work with companies as findings sponsored by them are restricted to the use of the company and not used for public consumption,? says Ray.
Research scenario
Research can be fundamental or applied. A fundamental research is path-breaking and provides disproportionate results. It improves teaching, training and consulting assignments. ?Ground-breaking research happens only when there is dedicated research. Corporates should sponsor this, along with academic institutions and co-own results. In this manner, even the fundamental research output can be more in sync with corporate requirements,? said Ramaswamy.
The quality and the volume of doctoral fellows and well-regarded outlets of research are equally essential in generating a virtuous cycle in which every worthy idea is researched, published and recognised by the business and society. ?In the management institutes of India, there is a presence of the vicious cycle of low quality and low volume of researchers, educators and opportunities,? points out Sibashish Dey, dean, IIM-Kozhikode.
Says M Akbar, dean, (planning & development), IIM-Lucknow: ?We need to link faculty incentives to risk including promotions. Along with providing databases, the government should increase support for PhD programmes and corporates should provide endowments for research?donations, chairs, etc.?
The institutes are promoting fellow researchers to attend international conferences to allow them to discuss and share research findings, finetune their output and network with the broader academic community. As the world eyes emerging markets like India and China for growth, it is time to grab the opportunity to develop the management education for the new world order. Even as institutes have a long way to go, it is heartening to see them taking confident steps in the right direction.
sonali.chowdhury@expressindia.com
