<div>This year’s nobel peace prize announcement took Indians by surprise - Who was this Kailash Satyarthi? Soon enough, we all found out that he was the man from India who represented the Rights of children globally. To me, he is a transformational leader par none! Kailash is a true visionary and a strong leader, because he not only saw a problem but also worked hard at implementing solutions. </div><div> </div><div>Kailash is a product of our much-maligned Government municipal school system, which still follows the structured classroom instruction model that Meghna, Vivek and a majority of the middle class intelligentsia are condemning. I would argue that the same education system has produced many success stories here, and also abroad. India, as a country, has produced a significant number of world-class professionals with all the qualities needed to succeed — courage, conviction and confidence, backed by deep domain knowledge. Our IITs are ranked fourth (just ahead of Harvard) in a new ranking of the top 50 universities that have produced venture capital (VC)-backed founders. In such a scenario, it is hard to trash the prevalent education system. In fact the US, where the schooling system has focused more on the project/discussion model, is currently under siege as it is seen as failing kids, especially the poorer ones. One of the biggest criticism of the US system is that the kids are not pushed hard enough, and they are not taught enough material especially in the difficult to learn STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) subjects. They are questioning how a country like India, which spends very little per capita on education, has sent more engineers, researchers and managers their way. Vinod Khosla, Sathya Nadella, Sundar Pichai dominate the technology business while we have Indra Nooyi, Anshu Jain, Ajay Banga, Ivan Menezes heading consumer and financial services behemoths. Some credit for this must go to our existing educational infrastructure. </div><div> </div><div>The suitability of the approach to learning might depend on the child’s personality and is hard to generalise. Some children thrive in a structured academic environment, while others struggle in it. Perhaps, parents will have to do their bit in selecting one that works for their kid(s). Eventually, schools are only one part of the learning experience. Family, environment, role models, experiences go a long way in building personality of young adults. There is scope for tweaking, or even transforming what we have today to meet the changing needs of tomorrow. But it is a long drawn process which is not going to provide immediate results.</div><div> </div><div>Instead, it is more practical to work with the existing system, leveraging its strengths. Here we have Bright & Thakur wanting to hire entry level consultants who are hard working, analytical and strategic thinkers. Like Ami says, they need to figure out the right filters in this context. The uniqueness of its organisational DNA contributes significantly to its success in a competitive environment. Building this requires deliberate effort and conscious hiring. </div><div> </div><div>This is the model successful companies have followed worldwide. Tony Hsieh, the founder-CEO of Zappos, a company which built its reputation on high quality customer care, says his focus is on hiring “kind” people. They ascertain this by watching how the candidate behaves with different people, from the time they are picked up at the airport to when they leave post the interview. An engineering focused firm, like Google or Facebook, devises “problems” that test analytical skills. The hiring strategy also depends on where the company is in its lifecycle. Sometimes you might just not be known enough to attract the right pipeline of candidates, or rich enough to afford what they demand. In such cases, a well structured training program could do wonders. Sridhar Vembu, Founder & CEO of Zoho, a company that has successfully taken on Google and Microsoft in the highly competitive apps space, has perfected this technique. Zoho identifies poor kids in the 10th grade from interior of Tamil Nadu, India, trains them extensively in programming, and hires them as software engineers! Zoho has built world-class products with this workforce!</div><div> </div><div>In the ultimate analysis, there are no short cuts. Even the best school system is not going to deliver readymade students tailored to your unique needs. </div><div> </div><div><em>The writer, </em><em>Anuradha Parthasarathy,</em><em> is CEO of AnuPartha, a global executive search firm focussed on transformational leaders</em></div><div> </div><div>(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 15-12-2014)</div>
