MERGING TECHNOLOGICAL & MANAGEMENT SKILLS
7.1 IITs have established a name for themselves as institutes of technological excellence. Studies however reveal that 30 percent of the graduating class of B.Tech students opt for a post- graduate degree in management. If note were to be taken of students who migrate, almost 50 percent of the graduates eventually end up in Schools of Management. The emerging industrial scenario with its emphasis on global competitiveness calls for all managers to have the ability to assess and analyse the situation beyond the confines of technology. In other words, leadership qualities have become imperative to deal with increasingly complex business situations. The solution lies in the acquisition of a wide range of management skills by engineers, encompassing marketing, finance, human resource development, corporate strategy and organisation behaviour.
7.2 Recognising the need for this important input, IITs already have departments of Management Studies which offer a M.Tech degree in management related fields. The Group concludes that given the imperatives of the current situation where the under-graduates feel that an MBA course alone puts them on the "fast track" for career development, it would be appropriate for the IITs to have a fulfledged School of Management available on campus. Two examples are the Sloan School of Management attached to MIT and the Wharton School of Management which forms a part of the Technical University of Pennsylvania. Interestingly, both of these started as Departments of Management Studies and evolved over time into schools of International eminence.
7.3 The Group further concludes that the course should be structured either:
- as a one year extension of the current B.Tech module;
- a two-year post-experience degree course with admission to those who have worked in industry for 2 to 3 years. This would not only meet an oft expressed need of industry but would also be in-line with the practice adopted by first rate business schools in other countries.
- the third option would be a modular programme which would cater to sponsored students who intend remaining in full time employment.
The Cranfield School of Management which it considered to be one of the leading Business Schools in Europe offers an Executive MBA course which enables part time students to partake of the benefits of residential study through 16 residential week-ends (all day Friday and Saturday) and 4 one week residentials each year. There is obviously less study group work and more individual work than for full-time MBAs but the total workload is the same. An interesting fall out of this is likely to be substantially enhanced synergy with industry. Employers would be involved to a much greater extent in their employees pursuit of specialised skills and would actively work towards case studies directly relevant to their company to be integrated into the course.
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7.4 IITs have the physical wherewithal to set up on campus Business Schools. Not only is ample land available at choice metropolitan locations but common utilities and teaching infrastructure would make the setting up of such schools possible with marginal inputs. The Group recommends that the burden for this should appropriately be borne jointly by industry and alumni as they stand to benefit directly and significantly. The Group is also of the view that these Business Schools should be at par with the best in the world. For this purpose, a tie up with some of the leading overseas Business Schools may well be necessary. To ensure viability, the Business Schools should incorporate a Convention Centre and a first rate residential facility so that it can serve both Indian and overseas companies who might wish to avail of its world class facilities for Conferences and Advance Management Programmes. The Group strongly recommends that the IIT managements should pursue this with industry individually and actively seek assistance of alumni as has been done by IIT Kharagpur.
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