Anil Lamba, founder-director, Lamcon School of Management, Pune, has launched a course, Business Finance: Financial Intelligence for Profitable Growth, on online education portal, WizIQ. A mentor to many CEOs in the country and also the author of the book Romancing the Balance Sheet, Lamba talks about his institute, the course and the perks of online learning.
What is Lamcon’s USP?
Lamcon has been in the field of financial consulting and education for over two decades. Even though we have been offering broad-based management programmes, our forte has been corporate training. We have over 1,000 medium and large corporations on our client-list spread over India, Europe and USA.
Besides live face-to-face classroom sessions, Lamcon’s training is also delivered online through webinars. To enable large numbers of in-house corporate audiences we have created e-learning programmes that can be accessed through intranet sites. We have also introduced a number of training videos and books (Details at www.wiziq.com/course/12812-finance-edge-financial-intelligence-for-profitable-growth).
Currently, we are in the process of creating apps for delivering education through mobile devices and are venturing into e-publishing too.
What does this course offer?
The content of our training programme is very practical. And our USP is the ability to explain complex concepts in an easy-to-understand, jargon-free language. Students will get a different and refreshing perspective on finance management. Those who suffer from the misconception that finance is boring or difficult to understand will be pleasantly surprised to discover that not only is it not difficult, but is actually a fascinating subject. Those who are in business or employment will also begin to wonder why they stayed away for so long from this subject and will wish they had undergone something similar earlier.
What are the advantages of online courses?
The biggest advantage of online courses is the tremendous reach. For me, training was a hobby, which turned to passion and then to full-time activity, so much so that I gave up a flourishing CA practice to concentrate on education. Over the years I realised how badly financial education is needed all over the globe and what a heavy price people and organisations pay for not understanding the principles of good finance management. Every time I address a class of 20, 30 or even 50 persons, I feel the futility of it all, thinking I wish I could be addressing hundreds of thousands of similar individuals at the same time. This is exactly what online education allows. Using the same amount of energy needed to address a classroom full of students, one can reach out to really large audiences. Besides, since we also have video based training, it facilitates anytime-learning and it becomes possible to address people in different time-zones.
What are your thoughts on vocational education?
Vocational education is very necessary. Its approach is practical and can be put to use immediately after acquiring the knowledge and helps in job creation.
What do you think is wrong with the Indian higher education system?
It lacks practicality. Many of those who run the educational system in India are pure academicians and/or politicians. The entire outlook and approach to education in India needs to be modified. The curricula needs to be overhauled and bureaucracy needs to be reduced.
What are your hobbies?
Since I have converted my hobby into work, my work is my hobby. I am a financial literacy activist. We have launched a nationwide project called Financial Literacy for All, which is an movement towards creating a financially intelligent India. I also write, read and sketch.
Which economists do you follow?
I am more Keynesian than classical in outlook, even though I do see merit in the ‘invisible hand’ concept of Adam Smith. I like Milton Friedman’s views on deregulation and Arthur Laffer’s curve depicting the relationship between tax rates and tax collection. I also like reading Ravi Batra.
— shilpa.vasudevan@newindianexpress.com