The primary challenge involved in setting up a new private b-school in today’s date is one of establishing credibility in view of an ever expanding list of nearly 2,000 business schools in the country, with quite a few of dubious distinction. The challenge becomes easier to tackle if the school is backed by a reputed business house or is part of an university established by statutory acts of Central or State legislatures in accordance with the prescribed regulatory framework for such institutions. For a newly established school that needs time to build a good track record (after all, babies are born and men are made, as the saying goes), credibility is facilitated to some extent by the reputation, academic and professional standing of the members of its advisory boards who discern the potential promise and value of the school and therefore choose to associate with it in their individual capacities. Another important factor is the teaching and research profiles of its faculty, particularly those who possess qualifications from internationally renowned universities and have published quality, peer-reviewed research papers in top-tier international journals. However, in reality, attracting and retaining top-quality faculty becomes a serious challenge in terms of the caps on faculty compensation imposed by government regulatory authorities.
In such a situation, realizing an institution’s stated vision of delivering a globally-enabled learning and outreach experience becomes even more difficult. A global quality institution set up as a not-for-profit entity faces other challenges since it depends highly on the tuition fee charged, while at the same time it cannot price itself out of the market and this threatens its very survival and growth.
Typically, the startup business school is faced with the challenge of being just another business school and focusing on just filling its seats with students who can just afford to pay its fees and then focus on mere placements. Somewhere along the line, precisely for these reasons, it is forced to compromise on its vision statement which becomes subservient to the demands of the market place typically getting diluted to mere survival issues.
Initially, it is able to attract like-minded individuals of stature who are interested in similar goals, but if it succumbs to pressure tactics, both overt and covert from interested quarters, it then makes compromises that result in these high-profile resources gradually parting company with the institution.
From a ‘getting the basics right’ A point of view, the pressure in the formative years revolves around teaching, course completion and placements, that impact the ’employability’ and therefore ‘placeability’ of its students becomes important. The students, egged on by their demanding parents, make the perceived ‘return on investment’ a major issue of concern and require the school to address and manage this aspect effectively and efficiently. The school finds it difficult to venture into the rich and rewarding domain of executive education in the initial stages; once this is done, it endeavours to move into the research and consulting spaces. Here, again, the quality and competence of its faculty are repeatedly challenged.
A startup b-school faces several other challenges. It has to deal with issues arising out of the changing and vulnerable mindsets of its students, the impact of the current recessionary trends on placements, changing demographics of the market, the increasing emphasis worldwide on community and country related issues like sustainability, pluralism, inclusiveness and so on.
In the ultimate analysis, the ‘defining moment’ for a business school that envisions delivering a truly global learning experience is when it successfully overcomes these challenges and transforms itself by transcending from the ‘business of education’ to the ‘education of business’.
Mr IV Ranga Rao is the Executive Director at Jindal Global Business School, Haryana. Previously, he was the Director of Admissions and Financial Aid at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.