Proper Planning And Implementation Of Business And Management Education Is The Need Of The Hour, Says Dr. Anantha Nageswaran

The worldover, universities offering business and management education are asking hard questions regarding the purpose of their MBA programmes.

- Nikhil Raghavan

MBA graduates are expected to be competent in functional areas, decisive and effective managers and leaders, with a strong moral compass and a firm sense of purpose.

“Perhaps, the MBA degree becomes more relevant than before, in the highly competitive world. The reason is that many functional specialisations may be taken over by robots or artificial intelligence. But, there is a need for an orchestrator or conductor who understands the individual artists (functional specialists) and brings out their collective best for best organisational outcomes. It needs empathy, negotiations, bargaining and striking alliances among other things. These tasks cannot be robotised. Therefore, a wellrounded MBA education makes the individual better prepared to compete not just with human intelligence but also with artificial intelligence,” says Dr. Anantha Nageswaran, Dean of IFMR Graduate School of Business at Krea University. Based out of Sri City near Chennai, Krea University ushers in a fundamentally different approach to higher education – Interwoven Learning – which brings together thought with action, arts with sciences, and the learnings of the past with preparedness for the future.

Dr. Nageswaran has a doctoral degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, U.S.A., and has taught extensively in India and Singapore since 2006. He was the Chief Investment Officer of Bank Julius Baer from 2009 to 2011 and has coauthored three books - Economics of Derivatives, Derivatives, and Can India Grow. He is a well-known columnist having written for The Economic Times, Business Line, Financial Express, and Mint.

Interview with Dr. Anantha Nageswaran:

Q. In a world where every professional degree or vocation is going in for micro specialisation, what avenues in education are open to students now?