B-schools have sprawling campuses but churn out MBA graduates below their capacity
Earlier this year, with Professor Phanish Puranam, I presented the results of publications by India-based faculty and institutions in leading international management journals during 1991-2010 . The poor research productivity demonstrated by the data led several Indian faculty members to provide us feedback on the reasons for the failure or, alternatively, why research in these journals was not an appropriate pursuit for Indian faculty.
In a follow-up article, we argued that the IITs and IIMs, while great teaching institutions, were demonstrating a pre-liberalisation mentality , and not aspiring to global thought leadership. However, research productivity could be enhanced at leading Indian academic institutions through enlightened leadership, changing incentives and capability enhancements at the institutions. We are pleased to observe that since the appearance of these articles, some leading policymakers and business leaders in India have picked up on our arguments and critiqued the IIMs, noting that these institutions are great because of the talented students they graduate as a result of ‘selection’ effects.
It is undoubtedly true that the numerous luminary alumnus of these institutions makes them world-famous and the continued successful placements show that these institutions are producing students valued by leading firms. I would like to provocatively argue that even when it comes to producing students, the IIMs have failed India . Following best-practice classroom technique, my hope is to generate deep reflective discussion, rather than offer definitive conclusions. Last year, I attended a presentation at the London Business School by three faculty members based at different leading Indian academic institutions .
The consensus among them, which we agreed with, was that India had a unique competence for frugal engineering and innovation for the budget-constrained masses . Yet, I got this creeping feeling of irony. Yes, India does have a reputation for frugal engineering; but do the IIMs, or for that matter, the IITs or JNU, display this? Here we were on the London Business School campus that is about five acres, with another shared classroom in Dubai, yet we graduated over 1,000 degree students this year and, combined with executive education , generated about $118 million – £47 million and £27 million from degree and executive education programmes respectively – in revenues last year.
Another school that I was on the faculty of, IMD in Switzerland , while having fewer degree students because of its executive education focus, generated $114 million – 11 million and 86 million Swiss Francs from degree and executive education programmes respectively – of revenues from a six-acre campus. And neither school has an endowment or receives government support that is interesting enough to mention. And, they produce the revenues and students without sacrificing quality since both these schools are frequently ranked among the top 10 business schools of the world! Compare this with the oldest IIMs at Ahmedabad (100 acres), Calcutta (135 acres) and IIM Bangalore (100 acres ), or the more-recently-established IIM Lucknow (185 acres), IIM Kozhikode (97 acres), IIM Indore (193 acres) and Shillong (120 acres), which, if Wikipedia numbers are to be believed, graduate a combined total of 2,750 MBAs.
I would have liked to present the revenue numbers, but they were not easily available. In any case, I can make my provocation without them. As new IIMs are being planned with the same business model – small numbers of MBA graduates, large sprawling 200-acre campuses, no research of international quality – it is important to ask: whether in a budget-constrained emerging economy like India, is this the best use of limited resources, especially land? And are these IIMs up to the task of graduating the hundreds of thousands of managers needed annually to feed the country’s growth?
Processing your request, Please wait....
