Why India lacks a "Harvard Business Review" - a case study

Appeal for the World

Management institutions are built to serve three core purposes - (a) promote direct education of young and mature students, (b) create productive academia-industry engagements, and (c) act as a research and publications platform for high-quality, original thinking.

It is the third role that we will discuss in this case study.

Undoubtedly, when there's a lot of original research going on in a B-school (if you have a smile on your face, you know the malaise!), there will be an inclination to publish it. It's perhaps the best currency of power you have with corporates. It can generate future revenue streams for your school more reliable than student enrolment, perhaps.

  

So, research and publications at any management institution depend on some factors:

1. Quality faculty willing and capable to do original research
2. Enough industry interfaces available to ensure lots of credible raw material to research on
3. Design and publications team that can present the ideas and research paper in a lucid manner
4. Successful commercial interface (advertisements and marketing promotions)
5. Process owner - the key driver of the effort

The number of managements institutions that dot the landscape of India, the amount of public funds that the central government lavishes on the chosen ones (the Indian Institutes of Managements - IIMs) and the tremendous media heft that these B-schools carry with local and national media, suggest to a layman's mind that there would be several world class management journals being published from these hallowed portals of management education in India.

Power Tips for your first job

A huge change arrives the moment a student leaves college, and joins an organisation for a job. All templates that worked so wonderfully well till date, no longer exist. The comfort zone evaporates. Routines change.

I am not talking about internships, but full time jobs.

It takes conscious effort to settle in your new life. The corporate or business life. It won't happen automatically. And unless you are mentally prepared for it, the pain may be big.

To land yourself correctly in your first few weeks, months and years, here are my POWER TIPS.

1. GET MENTALLY PREPARED - The time spent at college is usually memorable. We all tend to remember, recall and fondly share moments spent together at our college, all through our lives. As we move from college into the corporate world (or the world of business) it entails a huge shift in our lives. It's like taking birth all over again. Safely ensconced in our mother's womb, we could play brave, knowing well someone is there to protect us always. But once we are born, and the warmth of the cocoon no longer exists, we must first learn to cry. A similar experience awaits all who graduate from an institution/college and move into the corporate world. It's like moving out of the protected, warm and life-giving cocoon into the open world of uncertainties and turbulence. Surprisingly, a large percentage of graduating students (graduating from a UG college or a PG college or from any other institution) do not at all think about the life that's coming up. They assume it will be a linear extension of their present condition. It will not. It will be a step change. Everything that defined your comfort zone today, will evaporate overnight. So, start thinking about it. Prepare your mind to accept the new reality. Start imagining victories in the new life. Think of the happiness that will come to you as you move from "being a student" to "being a professional". And remember, if you behave like a joker, the world will treat you like a joker! So, start preapring mentally for a serious and successful stint ahead.