Posterous theme by Cory Watilo

The executive classroom

Aeschylus said, "It is always in season for old men to learn." Today, executives are living up to that very opinion as executive education is weaving its way into corporate India.

Although organisations' ‘senior personnel' or ‘veteran' workforce may boast of heaps and years of practical experience in the business market, a strong educational quotient not only compliments, but also supplements one's potential and ability. An acute sense of business expertise chiselled around a razor-sharp mind is a bonus like none other. Organisations today are breaking new ground by the means of executive education - a holistic business formula intended to polish employee knowledge and business acumen. With the amalgamation of many corporate establishments and educational institutes, India Inc is definitely on the right side of this growing trend. This not only acts as an effective incentive performance for augmentation, but also equips the executives with staunch and resolute marketable portfolios and credentials that give them an edge over the rest.

"There is no doubt that it is very important for organisations today to collaborate with institutes. One of the reasons for this increasing importance over the years is that most of the institutes are no more just academic. They draw experiences from corporates and plough those experiences back in the industry in a structured way for growth and development of the people in the organisation," says D Selvan, senior VP talent transformation, Wipro Technologies speaking on the importance of such collaborations. "Institutes normally conduct conversations on a regular basis with the industry to keep up with the latest trends. This helps them mould their students into thorough industry professionals according to the trends and happenings in the industry, which in turn, helps the organisations during final recruitments," adds Anouk Tenten, partnership manager - online MBA for Glion Institute of Higher Education.

Putting forward his expertise based on personal experience, D Selvan explains, "Wipro has partnered with Harvard University to create a collaborative learning programme called the ‘Growth Harbinger Program'. It is run on an online collaborative platform, which is known as ‘Leadership Direct'. This programme gives managers access to world-class content, literature and tools and gives them the opportunity to establish links with peers and senior management." Speaking on behalf of Harvard, Vinay Hebbar, managing director-Harvard Business Publishing, India further accounts, "This initiative is a part of Wipro's talent pipeline development efforts for its high-potential audience, so as to add value to the company's global growth and enhanced executives' capabilities to add value to key clients."

Another such initiative that rises to the corporate education challenge is the collaborative efforts of Glion Institute of Higher Education, a hospitality management school with the Taj Hotels, Resorts, and Palaces group. Speaking of this online education partnership, Tenten says, "Such initiatives help institutes in designing the courses and training the students according to the trends and latest happenings in the industry. This reduces the extra training that the individual organisations would have to carry on with new recruits as they would be equipped to do so because of the type of education received through the online MBA." Rustom Vesavevala, VP, development and learning with Taj says, "Given the scenario of the emergent trends in the market, successful HR development is a key strategy, thus making such an initiative imperative and another step towards successful human resource management."

Speaking on the benefits of executive education, Tenten expresses "Students get global exposure by sharing the virtual classroom with professionals from all over the world.  It also has benefits the employer as there is no cost of replacement of staff that leaves the job to pursue MBAs."

So what can organisations expect from such programmes? Providing his realistic, equitable verdict on executive learning programmes, G. Ravindran, CEO & MD, SHRM India believes "Although it is critical for organisations to collaborate with academic and other institutions; the real reason for that is not to enhance their organisational productiveness and employee efficiency but because organisations have realised that there is no other way to fill the employability gap they are faced with."

So, it all boils down to strategically executing such alliances that not only hone executive skills, but also cause a positive domino effect by causing an influx in productivity.

- Lynn Lobo