Out-of-the-box thinking is need of the hour

Innovation is the key to success, said Dr Vijay Govindarajan, professor at Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth, US, and chief innovation consultant at GE, exhorting Indian educationists to encourage out-of-the-box thinking among management students. “Our innovation gap is huge. As management educators, what are we doing to help youngsters close the gap? What are we waiting for,” he asked. Govindarajan was speaking at the 20th Annual Management Education Convention of Association of Indian Management Schools (AIMS) in collaboration with Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research on Wednesday. “Nurturing Thought Leadership through Management Education” is the theme of the three-day convention (August 27-29) that will see luminaries like industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla and entrepreneur Kishore Biyani of Pantaloon Retail address the gathering.

Govindarajan said that India has the ability to become the world leader and this can be achieved through lateral thinking. “We need to encourage our MBA students to come up with out-of-the box solutions,” he said.

Stressing upon the need to innovate instead of merely aping successful policies, Vijay said it is high time the country re-invented its curriculum. He advised MBA students to become entrepreneurs. “We need to look at ways to reinvent our management education and bring in new, innovative concepts,” he said. Citing the example of Tata Motor's small car project Nano, Govindarajan said, “By launching the Nano, Tata Motors has is trying to convert non-consumers, comprising those who currently use two-wheelers, into consumers. This is out-of-the-box thinking. This is how we must think if we want to establish ourselves as a global leader,” he said.

To attain this, he said, one must set unrealistic and ambitious goals. “Transformation begins with high ambition. Tata Group set before itself the uphill task of getting the two-wheeler users to switch to a four-wheeler, he said. While managing the present and selectively forgetting the past, “we need to create the future,” he said.

Uday Salunkhe, Welingkar director and AIMS president further reinforced the need to have an “innovation overdrive”.

K V Kamath, managing director and CEO of ICICI Bank Limited and president of
Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), stressed the need to constantly look back and forward in order to design the future.

“For our country to progress, we need foundation building in terms of people development and management schools have a huge role to play in this. The industry is rooted in the past, but the future beckons us. So, are we preparing a course for the young demographic cut? Have we geared ourselves for the 10% growth paradigm?”

Kamath said that the country’s booming job market will soon require 10-15 million. “Is our our education system is responding to that stimuli,” he asked. “Ten years from now there will be a dramatic change in the real world. Will there be a corresponding change in our education system?”

Saying that the country requires thought leaders and a “renaissance” in vocational education, Kamath said that he will push the agenda with CII for having active academia-industry collaboration. “This is the way forward. We need to have co-creation of curriculum along with academia right from the kindergarten to undergraduate to vocational to professional education,” said Kamath.

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