- On way to office, I noticed how the diversion of heavy traffic (by the dutifully posted Traffic policeman) to the new 4 lane concrete highway passing right in front of my residence is slowly altering the landscape. What used to be the backwaters of this colony area, has suddenly become the main street! When I came here in year 2001, we never imagined such a transformation. Reminds me of what Toffler says in his seminal works.
- Initiative is a good thing to have. Some of the students who managed the Teachers' Day 2008 celebrations volunteered to handle and inspire more students to conduct this year's celebrations also (coming Saturday), despite their being busy with the examinations. Good to see the right values and spirit being instilled. Cheers!
- Spent a lot of time doing tens of chhota-chhota followups alongwith a senior colleague pertaining to PT education network - pending requests, penalties collected, student complaints addressed, rewards distributed, audit reports discussed ..
- I am often reminded of the list of Leader's Daily Tasks -
- Ensure that tomorrow's work gets done
- Ensure that today's work gets done
- Spent a lot of time with CEO Prof.Varun regarding fresh B-school intakes of January 2009 and the changes we need to make now in our approach.
- We both kept discussing, and kept wondering that the amount and power of change we are witnessing at this very moment is larger than any other moment in our lives.
- Everything is changing. The regulatory environment governing education, the testing methods, the mock-testing methods, the global giants entering India, the recession redrawing the contours of expectations and business models.. the list is endless.
- A lesson - What works in the West need not work in India.
- Do not underestimate the power of the statement above. I have learnt it the hard way. How? Well, the recent recession made all of us at PROTON and SBM very happy that the enrolment figures will shoot up (for our MBA* and PGP programmes) without any extra effort. The conventional logic in the West (US) is that during recessions, more students enrol for a management programme as that is the safest harbour to bide one's time till the storm (of recession) blows itself out.
- We happily and conveniently believed this Western logic. I even confirmed it with many of the most qualified and educated people in my industry.
- Exactly the opposite has happened in India, this year. Enrolment figures across all Business Schools in India are under tremendous pressure. Most of the big chains have seen enrolments drop by upto 40%. Many smaller ones have almost vanished!
- I keep a close watch on all my competitors. My market intelligence has given me shocking figures for private players all 3 cities - Indore, Ahmedabad and Nasik. Those who have managed some numbers have inappropriate raw material coming in.
- Fortunately, our 5 business schools are doing extremely well (relatively). I am most happy about the quality and attitude of students coming to us. That's a huge victory. Because as everyone will realise, it's only the quality of your final output that will make or break your brand in the medium to long term.
- My colleagues often tell me they are surprised at the rate of rejection (of applicants striving to join) in our business schools. I tell them - tell me this 10 years from now.
- Being a hard-core educationist really helps in these matters. I am crystal clear about the type of students that are suited best for my institutions, and the type of value-addition that is best delivered by us.
- Honestly, it is nothing short of "tapasya". Day-in, Day-out. Education is a tapasya. The kind of micro-level involvement that it demands, is quite different from several other professions.
- I am often surprised and dismayed when I see the profiles of people running typical "colleges" in several parts of India. They have nothing to do with education, even remotely. Still, they are running packes shows! Maybe, I need to learn a lot from them :-)
A fortuitous meeting with the co-Founder of one of the largest online assessment companies in India MeritTrac truly made my day. My colleague Chand informed my from Hyderabad that Mr Madan Padaki was at IIM Indore today. I called to wish him, and invited him over to our campus.- Madan was kind enough to come over. We had a great session with the students (telecast by VC live to Ahmedabad campus) and then a great sitting together.
- I learnt so much from him firsthand! The possible inner workings of the proposed online IIM-CAT, the recently concluded online-GCET (they were the ones who conducted it!!), the way corporate assessment happens, and so on. Wonderful!
- His session with students focussed on what employability means today - good communication skills, capability to analyse situations well, confidence, and techincal knowledge.
* we conduct a dlp mode MBA programme
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