The Social Vision of IIPM
Though Capitalism has contributed to tremendous growth of productivity, has enriched material life of man, has expanded scope of freedom, yet it has not meant abolition of war, poverty and perversion. Unbridled colonial exploitation and internal class conflict has sullied the ideas of equality, liberty and fraternity. Therefore, Capitalism is not made of colours one can dream of. Communism, as practised in so called Communist countries has lead to totalitarianism and loss of democratic rights, though the rate of growth of national economy in these countries have been much higher than Capitalism ever achieved. Rapid rise of Soviet Union in the past and recent unparallel growth rate of GDP in China amply demonstrates the inherent strength of planned national economic growth. Distributive justice in these countries also forced Capitalism to introduce welfare states. Historical experience therefore compels us to think of possibilities of combining higher growth rate with distributive justice while not sacrificing democratic rights of the people. Indeed, sustained high growth rate in GDP is not possible in the long run if distributive justice is not there. IIPM's Social Vision follows from the above mentioned historical evidence. IIPM wants to contribute to the creation of a movement, backed by proper education and research which will create a society where exploitation of man by man does not exist, where each individual has the scope to achieve his / her potential to the fullest extent. Distributive justice in this society will ultimately mean "to each according to his need" a transition from "to each according to his contribution". In other words, universal humanism is the social vision of IIPM.
IIMs and the MBA education scenario in India Unlike other fields of higher education like Economics, Psychology, Physics or Chemistry, Master level program in Business Management is not built on successful completion of Bachelor level program in Business Management. Graduates of all streams can join MBA programs. It was envisaged by the Ministry of Education that for a multidimensional program which includes subjects like Operation Research, Organisational Behaviour, Accounting, Finance, Economics and Marketing, etc. would need 1024 contact hours (16 hours a week, 32 weeks a year) for 2 years MBA Program. In contrast, to achieve master level proficiency in areas like Economics or Physics, one has to have around 3000 contact hours. Obviously, the contact hours available in the MBA programs were not found adequate. IIMs therefore, increased contact hours to around 24 hours a week, enabling them to teach the whole program in about 1500 contact hours.
Academically justified MBA programs with students of diverse background should be of three years duration with at least 24 hours a week of contact hours. A recent proposal to introduce 1-year MBA program to people having 5-years’ work experience (obviously non-managerial supervisory level experience for most of them) is deemed to dilute academic content of the program to cater to emerging markets as demonstrated by Indian School of Business (with 250 acres of campus, which is double the size of an average IIM campus), Hyderabad. Having failed to prove the superiority of their 2-years MBA programs, the IIMs are lured by the high fees that ISB is able to charge and also to secure very high level of entry salary superceding the elitist salary of IIM pass-outs. Lacking confidence in their academic standards and contributions to business success, IIMs are trying to overcome their second-class citizen status by entering into devalued 1-year MBA programs. The IIMs are thus, victims of their own criteria of judging an institute’s academic status by the level of salaries its graduates can command from the market by restricting artificially the supply of such graduates available to the industry.
A few years’ work experience at supervisory level neither makes it easy to understand complexities of business nor develops faster learning capacities. On the other hand, a break from academic studies, growing age, fast social and personal life, makes it relatively difficult to concentrate on studies again. In the West, parents rarely finance expenses of University level studies. High fees charged create snobbish value around MBA courses while restricting entry of students (which in turn jacks up the entry level salary), compelling people to work a few years to save for the fees. Investment for studying MBA also includes sacrifice of their salary during the duration of study. Therefore, potential participants of the MBA program are also reluctant to study for a longer period, Market conditions, therefore, are the compelling reasons for shortening the durations of the program. These truths are being covered by all sorts of spurious theories exaggerating the usefulness of work experience.
Why IIPM courses are superior to MBA? IIPM has so far claimed the superiority of its Entrepreneur-ship program neither by the size of its campus, nor by the entry level salary of its pass-outs, but by its qualitatively superior and intellectually stimulating academic program. The IIPM course is a 22 month, 1944 hour course which includes in depth studies of national economic processes and ways to regulate its parameters to achieve higher growth rate of GDP ensuring higher growth of market segments within the national economy as well as higher growth of income of all sections of the people, including those who are below the poverty line. The importance of including studies in national economic planning processes can be explained with an example of natural science. At one level of knowledge it appeared that the Sun revolves around the Earth. At a higher level of knowledge it was discovered that the Earth rotates around its axis and also revolves around the Sun. Similarly, present MBA course structure concentrating only on market segments by individual profit making units. This fails to explain the potentiality of market expansion through distributive justice. Potentiality of business is always in harmony with growth rate of national economy. That is why business expands much more rapidly in China compared with expansion of business seen in India in the past. Knowledge of national economic planning potentiality will encourage the owners of capital to demand collectively the raising of living standards of the people at the bottom.
IIPM's Entrepreneurship program is superior to standard MBA programs as it also develops certain entrepreneurial qualities in program participants. These helps to remove aversion to calculated risk taking, imbued with ambition beyond normal career growth. Personal ambition in tune with social vision makes an entrepreneur reach out beyond boundaries again and again. Work remains no work, but hobby. Failures are looked upon as inevitable intermediate stages to success.
IIPM also offers a unique Global Opportunity and Threat Analysis (GOTA) program, through which students are taken abroad for a period of 14-15 days, wherein the students get to attend lecture sessions at leading academic institutions and organisations like World Trade Organisation, United Nations, World Bank, Credit Suisse, Nestle, etc. This allows them to widen their horizon in understanding various forces of globalisation through experiential learning.
Further, under the Global Outreach Program, IIPM invites distinguished faculties from leading global institutions like Harvard, Wharton, Columbia, Chicago, Yale, London School of Economics, Oxford, Cambridge, IMD Lausanne, INSEAD, etc., to come down to India to interact with IIPM students. All this put together make the IIPM course better than any other course of a similar nature in India.