Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education” — Mark Twain
French philosopher Jean Francois Lyotard once remarked, “Knowledge in the form of an informational commodity indispensable to productive power is already, and will continue to be, a major — perhaps the major — stake in the worldwide competition for power.” In this light, we look at what our corporate big wigs are doing to stay on top of the game where updating one’s knowledge and skill base is a key factor.
Retraining has always been a part of a corporate executive’s life, but over the past few years, one factor has successfully brought together industry experts and academia — management development programmes (MDPs) — to fill in the gaps in technical and ethical knowledge for managers at various levels. It becomes a great opportunity for participants to learn from both the diverse experience of faculty members at premier B-schools, and the experience their fellow learners bring to the class.
Following this trend, Victor Lipman emphasised in Forbes magazine in 2012 about why it is important for employers to continually train their employees and invest more in management training. He explained that an engaged employer is a happy and productive one and that consistency in the quality of managers is most desirable. And if your company is investing more into hiring newbies rather than retrain dedicated employees, it should make you want to question them. Looks like Indian corporates — both public and private sector have taken it to heart.
What are MDPs?
MDPs are designed to provide working executives with insights into managerial practices and concepts relevant for formulation and implementation of strategies in various functional areas. The programmes lay great emphasis on practical application while providing sound conceptual foundation in the areas concerned. The programmes range from three to six days’ duration or goes into weeks, depending on the need of the client.
Besides conducting open MDP’s wherein any organisation can sponsor its executives to attend the programme at a B-school’s campus, the institutes also entertains requests for customised MDPs from business, industry and other organisations/government departments to train their officers and executives, designing and conducting programmes as per their specific requirements. These programmes, whether customised or open, are generally conducted on campus, which allow the participants to benefit from interaction with a larger number of core and visiting/adjunct faculty of the institute, and advanced facilities on campus.
An academic perspective
Rama Seth, faculty of finance and control at IIM-C, who also directs programs that incorporate finance and soft skills and developing leadership in the global arena says, “The concept of training beyond the college level has been around for long, and MDP’s are a very common concept abroad. Surveys have found evidence that periodic retraining of executives leads to increased productivity. There are a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, more corporations are finding MDPs useful. Secondly, the duration of MDPs is short compared to regular PGP - from 3-4 days to the longest generally being 17 days. Longer duration programmes are not feasible for senior executives and MDPs work for this practical reason."
Beyond just imparting knowledge, Seth believes these programmes will open the eyes of executives to a different perspective. A few points discussed will hit home. “The campus atmosphere tends to have a retreat-like feel, which is perfect to disconnect and rethink strategies you are applying. We encourage participants to leave their phones behind and do not provide televisions in rooms. It gives them room to reset their thinking. A bonding also happens among participants of longer duration courses. Having a domestic and overseas component helps,” she says.
Sameet Mudbidri, associate director, Corporate Learning and Development at Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai, comments on the trend he has noticed. “Organisations are looking for programmes that help them achieve business objectives and there is a large emphasis on leadership development, as strong leaders are required for business growth. Cycles are getting shorter in the industry. Hence, professionals need to keep their knowledge updated by constantly educating themselves. MDPs are an effective way of accomplishing this goal.” Organisations are looking to retain their top talent. Investing in them by developing their skills is a win-win for both the organisation as well as the employee. These programmes are a way for organisations to break out of their silo mindset — where typically there is no exchange of ideas between departments — and explore the best practices across their industry and even outside their industry,” says Mudbidri.
MDPs cover a gamut of subjects ranging from corporate governance, HR and business strategy, women leadership, transformational leadership, business analytics, finance, strategy execution, macro economics, general and human resource management, strategic supply chain, business leadership and law, contract and knowledge management, innovation, corporate strategy and competitive performance, business dispute resolution, managing by persuasion, effective communication strategies to cost management, IT management, visual business intelligence and negotiation skills.
Having hosted around 500 participants from companies like Caterpillar, Murugappa Group (CUMI, TI, Chola MS), Hyundai, Saint Gobain, Wabag, ADP, Cognizant, Tata Consultancy Services, HCL, among others, at GLIM, he feels that it helps participants understand and adopt global best practices, co-create relevant research to deliver a compelling competitive advantage and provide actionable knowledge to key managers to successfully deliver business objectives. MDPs create a framework for nurturing and developing high potential talent through applied learning methods. GLIM recently launched a Centre of Excellence to offer MDPs in retail management, business analytics and business intelligence and leadership development.
A corporate perspective
Susheyl Balabaskaran, South Asia Purchasing Director for Visteon Electronics attended a week-long MDP conducted at Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, among others around the world (at a business school in Shanghai and another at Singapore Management University), which was sponsored by Visteon and says, “It’s like going back to school. You are disconnected from the rest of the world; follow an intensive schedule of classroom sessions, exercises, networking dinners and assignments. In the case of multinationals, MDPs facilitate interaction within a culturally diverse crowd. Participants get to interact with experts and leaders, which also gives them visibility.”
He is of the opinion that MDPs are not meant to replace MBAs, but aim to prepare the employee to have a broader perspective — to move from being only functionally-oriented to business-oriented, thereby adding value to the goal of the company. “Companies and institutes do a lot of homework prior to the training in customising the pedagogy. That’s where the actual benefit lies. They identify knowledge gaps and research into case studies and address them at the training. The high cost is justified for the value you get. Being identified as a high potential employee is also flattering and seals your commitment to the firm,” says a candid Balabaskaran.
The moolah factor
Seth says, “Financially, I think the money B-schools make from these programmes has helped make us independent from taking tax payers’ or government’s money. The main goal is to keep the level of training high at all levels. Let’s face it, institutes are faculty starved. To get good faculty, the opportunity cost is quite high in the market. More money helps attract better faculty. And we don’t have to raise fees from MBA students to cover the costs. Whatever remains after covering costs and the Institute’s share gets distributed among faculty members. It’s a win-win in my opinion.”
It is estimated that ISB will make Rs.100 crore this year and IIM Kozhikode and others make close to Rs.15 crore every year only from MDPs. IIM-A MDP’s can cost anywhere between Rs.40,000 and Rs.6 lakh. You can view their programme calendar and fee structure on www.iimahd.ernet.in/executive-education/programme-calendar.html. ISB’s programme schedule can be accessed at www.isb.edu/cee/open-enrollment-programs/program-calendar-by-date.
As far as shifting importance from PGPs to MDPs goes, the importance of MBA students will never diminish for them, Seth says. “We are dedicated to imparting technical and ethical knowledge to young managers. MDPs serve a lot of good purposes and benefits all parties involved.”
Participant’s view
Geoji Thomas, Resident Manager at KSB Middle East, Qatar, and a participant of IIM-C’s Executive Programme in Business Management (International) took up the one-year programme in Doha, with contact classes held in Dubai. He says, “MDPs are for two different categories of people. There is one group that has more than 10 years of experience, and for them it adds value to their existing knowledge base. The second group of participants with 5-10 years of experience in the corporate sector looks to propel themselves in their careers with an MDP.”
While he wasn’t looking for a change in job or expecting a promotion given his 15 years of experience, the programme gave him an international perspective. He adds, “It is also cheaper compared to foreign universities at around $13,000 (`8,06,910 approx). Expats also enrol in these programmes because they aspire to come back to India at some point and this gives them leverage in the Indian market.” He jokes, “For the lesser mortals who couldn’t crack the enigma that CAT is, MDPs are the answer.”
A question of efficacy
Aakash Goel, partner at LearnBizSolutions that offers business simulations that are used in MDPs for experiential learning, has a different image to project. “My main cause of confusion with regards to utility value between MDP and PGP arise from simple differences — a simple five-day (six-seven hours per day) general management MDP tries to cover financial accounting, time, value of money and leadership (most MDPs are of similar nature). These topics alone, as part of PGP, require about 70 hrs of classroom teaching/cases/discussion, about 180 hrs of assignments and continuous evaluation. MDP’s do not come with evaluation or rigorous training. So, either the elaborate coverage of PGP is not useful or MDP is a diluted setup.”
Why MDPs find favour
Thomas and Goel concur on the fact that MDPs are a great way to meet industry experts, apart from networking. MDPs being sponsored mainly by companies are more encouraging for participants — managers at all levels — to attend. B-schools also make training sessions company-specific.
IIM-Calcutta is also introducing the Direct to Desktop mode to deliver MDPs, which would mean an increase in the number of contact classes. Goel adds, “As opposed to PGPs, MDPs work for a basic reason. Jobs are scarce and with the current economic environment, taking time off to finish an MBA can be quite risky. So when periodic trainings are held at the cost of the company, managers at all levels lap up the training without having to lose their jobs or dig into their pockets for a hefty sum.”
IIM-Kozhikode, has since its inception in 1996 conducted MDPs and in the year 2013-14, the number of MDPs conducted exceeded 100. Function specific programmes (domain based programmes like project management, enterprise risk management, marketing strategies for growing brands) are quite popular among executives. GMR Group, Dept of Atomic Energy, JK Organisation, Business Standard, Bharat Electronics Limited, Nuclear Power Corporation India, National Project Implementation Unit (NPIU), NHPC, TVS Sundram Fasteners, Indian Railway Academy and British Council of India have used IIM-K’s programmes.
Trends
MDP Chairman at IIM-K, Anandakuttan B Unnithan has noticed these trends in training, “Many companies show a preference towards dedicated (sponsored) programmes which are custom designed for the executives of the firm than open programmes. There is a trend towards long-term commitment, which involves multiples segments with considerable long-term consulting involvement by the faculty. Enabling managers at the functional level to develop leadership and management skills and a mind-set geared towards innovation is emerging to be a major priority over technical programmes. The attention to detail and the commitment is increasing day by day and companies now look at demonstrable RoI.
Managerial training is not narrow skill training; rather, it is more about broadening the horizons and looking at opportunities to think differently and innovate.
IIM-K is also coming up with a high-impact Leadership Clinic in 20 cities in India and is also developing sector-based programmes in retailing, academic leadership and banking this year. Sreekumar vehemently denies running PGPs as a money-making scheme. “We do not run PGPs for making money. In fact, MDPs help to share the costs and keep PGPs affordable to students. MDPs also come with high overheads.”
Also trying to help this process along is the concept of eMDPs. These programmes, offered in association with technology partners like Hughes, provide classroom facilities in over 50 different cities. Faculty conduct classes from the studio at their respective campuses over weekends or on weekdays before/after office hours while participants commit a few hours every week without compromising on their work.
Several private B-schools like ISB also provide MDPs. Their Centre for Executive Education offers programmes for senior and top-level executives (10-12 year of experience). Ramanathan Hariharan who heads this division, says, “These short-duration, non-degree courses are practical as the amount of time corporates can invest in learning new competencies and skills is low. So the popularity comes from the time factor. The faculty we rope in are domain experts, have done a lot of relevant researches and have tremendous consulting expertise. This and facilitating an MDP accounts for the high cost. MDPs vary in duration from three days to 18 months and our fee is comparable to that of Ivy league institutions that charge anywhere between `25,000-`80,000 per participant per day, which is based purely on the value proposition.”
But how effective are these programmes, you ask? He is excited to inform us that ISB enables action learning where real projects are identified within a firm and new skills are employed. “We also do impact assessment after the programme and we can actually monetise the RoI.” When firms are realising the importance of investing in people skills and not pulling the stops on cost, MDPs seem to provide a win-win situation for all.
— preethi@newindianexpress.com