Tuesday, January 29, 2008
The Great Indian Rope Trick
Hurrah and all Graduation hats in the air please ! The joke of the year and we are barely thirty days into it. The Ingenious Silo of Blah has wormed its way into the Top 20 global B-schools riding on its “centre of excellence” in running a “research-driven and independent management education grooming leaders for the world”.
This pompous drivel has always been the hallmark of an institute that has aimed to show that what cannot be taught in twenty-four months can be successfully not taught in twelve months. Yes, it was a coup of sorts to get some big-ticket funding and international marquee names as faculty which accounted literally for state-of-the-art facilities and quality research orientation.
In India, its essential utility in providing aspiring has-beens and never-will-be’s another chance to take a crack at finally changing their sphere of work where they have persevered, mostly unsuccessfully , to get their functional monkeys off their sweaty backs. The selection procedure ensures none but the pedigreed or the moneyed have a hope in hell and the high course fees puts paid to many.
The endeavour to forcibly bring in folks from all walks of life--Merchant Navy seals, tribal schoolteachers, musicians, Armed Forces personnel and public sector gents—results in a motley crew of dealers looking for a world to change.
And the corporate world being what it is, they are gaily adopted into higher-than-entry roles where they a la Don Quixote spout strategy when tactics are needed, and flail irrevocably in the wake of anything resembling work. A bunch of dissembling misfits is what my experience has been, and very strong support systems are needed to keep them from falling off !!
This pompous drivel has always been the hallmark of an institute that has aimed to show that what cannot be taught in twenty-four months can be successfully not taught in twelve months. Yes, it was a coup of sorts to get some big-ticket funding and international marquee names as faculty which accounted literally for state-of-the-art facilities and quality research orientation.
In India, its essential utility in providing aspiring has-beens and never-will-be’s another chance to take a crack at finally changing their sphere of work where they have persevered, mostly unsuccessfully , to get their functional monkeys off their sweaty backs. The selection procedure ensures none but the pedigreed or the moneyed have a hope in hell and the high course fees puts paid to many.
The endeavour to forcibly bring in folks from all walks of life--Merchant Navy seals, tribal schoolteachers, musicians, Armed Forces personnel and public sector gents—results in a motley crew of dealers looking for a world to change.
And the corporate world being what it is, they are gaily adopted into higher-than-entry roles where they a la Don Quixote spout strategy when tactics are needed, and flail irrevocably in the wake of anything resembling work. A bunch of dissembling misfits is what my experience has been, and very strong support systems are needed to keep them from falling off !!
