How well are our B-schools equipping young professionals to meet corporate challenges that are unlikely to have past precedents to go by? Not very satisfactorily, it seems. At a recent Tata group event attended by B-school students, Tata Steel?s managing director B Muthuraman was at his candid best. Taking a dig at the lack of ?innovative? minds, Muthuraman narrated an episode to illustrate his point. While conducting campus recruitment interviews at a prestigious B-school, he recounted, he was disappointed to find that all five candidates gave the same solution to a problem posed to them. ?I decided not to choose anyone from that lot,? said Muthuraman, wrecking any preconceived notions about what is demanded of managers in a ?sedate? industry like steel. The gathering included representatives of the said institute. Eavesdropper can?t wait to find out how seriously the knowledge byte was taken.
CFO power
At the same event, Tata group?s head of human resources, Satish Pradhan, who anchored a panel discussion, was explaining how informal structures within groups can facilitate better ideation and innovation. Addressing S Ramadorai, CEO of TCS, Pradhan said, ?Ram, can you tell me why we encourage the use of first names in our organisation, where even you?re always referred to as ?Ram??? Ramadorai was quick to respond: ?Yes, all of us are called by our first names, except for Maha, who is referred to as ?the CFO?.? Ramadorai was talking about S Mahalingam, who holds the company?s purse strings. No one messes with him.
