Down The Tech’s Rabbit Hole
The fourth ind-ustrial revolution is disrupting almost every industry in every country. And the breadth and depth of these changes herald the transformation of entire systems of production, management, and governance,” said Klaus Schwab, founder of World Economic Forum in his essay ‘The Fourth Industrial Revolution: what it means, how to respond’ in 2016.
While the third industrial revolution used electronics and IT to automate production keeping the management style still the same largely, the fourth is challenging the existence of many of its components. Rather, it is a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres, according to Schwab.
Certainly, this disruption has forced not only the players but the trainers as well. The B-schools of the world are now redefining management education and they are changing the pedagogies to help leaders face the challenge head on.
Disruptive Change
The fourth industry revolution has brought in disruptive changes not only in the industry but in the academia as well, confirms Rajendra Srivastava, Dean and Novartis Professor of Marketing Strategy and Innovation at ISB. “These changes are driven by the learning that we get from our direct exposure to various industry sectors enabled by collaborations with various private and public organisations.” According to Srivastava, ISB emphasises on industry collaborations, especially with IT companies such as SAP and Microsoft, as well as leading players in finance, healthcare, manufacturing as they have undergone key changes with the Industry Revolution 4.0.”
ISB, which has already started innovative programmes for healthcare management, digital transformation, business analytics, incubation and business acceleration, among others, has also given importance to entrepreneurship as well as inter-disciplinary skills to prepare future leaders to face new challenges.
According to key stakeholders, the change in education is also a disruptive model.
“When one has to prepare leaders for the 21st century, one cannot use 20th century methodologies; hence the term disruptive,” said Abhaya Kumar, one of the founders of India’s new generation management school Auronya in Puducherry, while launching this new concept in B-school education.
Proving Kumar right on his view on the future of management education, most of the industry sectors have already shown the need of a changing paradigm in the management style.
For instance, manufacturing companies are being driven by several trends such as the need for building production processes with greater agility and adaptability to respond to highly variable market demand, globalisation of the extended supply chain and building intelligence into machines through sophisticated sensors and alert devices.
Distinctive IR 4.0
As the third industry revolution saw the changes that brought the advancement of IT, the digitisation and the Internet of Things in the industry revolution 4.0 was often mistaken as a prolongation of the same. But, the experts insist that it is not.
“There are three reasons why today’s transformations represent not merely a prolongation of the Third Industrial Revolution but rather the arrival of a distinct one,” says Schwab. These are: the speed of current breakthroughs has no historical precedent. When compared with previous industrial revolutions, the Fourth is evolving at an exponential rather than a linear pace. Moreover, it is disrupting almost every industry, he adds.
Such an exponential rate of change in terms of technology and its uses in business and our personal lives presents massive opportunities, says Kumar. “It is redefining our social lives, health and behaviour. But , with great opportunities, come challenges, the first of which is to do with how we use transformative technologies such as robotics, 3D printing, virtual-augmented technologies, and so on, at a reasonable price while ensuring mass social inclusion. This leads us to IR 4.0’s second challenge — loss of jobs,” says Kumar.
It is predicted that at least 50 per cent of jobs will be lost to technologies. “As the barriers between man, machine and technology dissolve, we need to define education for the next generation by keeping intact elements, values, beliefs and insights that makes us ‘human’,” Kumar said in a media interview earlier this year.
In June, Mumbai’s SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR) had introduced a couple of new programmes as part of their changing curriculum in compliance with Industry Revolution 4.0. With these courses, including ‘Reinventing Business with Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning’ and ‘IoT in Supply Chain’ launched for students of its flagship MBA programme, the institute aims to expose students to the full ecosystem of IoT, according to Anil Vaidya, area head of information management at SPJIMR.
Similarly, IIM Bengaluru and IIM Kozhikode have also launched courses on artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics, which can be connected to business strategy for enhancing performance as well as customer experience.
IIM-K, which had revised its Fellow Programme in Management curriculum of Information Technology and Systems branch, had also included AI and Machine Learning as optional programmes. “AI and machine learning have both managerial applicability and a futuristic touch that enthuses students,” says Mohammed Shahid Abdulla, associate professor, IT and Systems at IIM-K. Following this trend, IIM Calcutta has also recently introduced AI in its broader courses on Business and Data Analytics.
Values Versus Trends
While the stakeholders agree that the Industrial Revolution often makes some of the existing process redundant, it doesn’t always mean that the earlier values are forgotten and the world starts hating them.
For instance, the world didn’t really hate sending letters through post with the advent of technology and the Internet.
“We merely invented a better way, in terms of communicating through e-mails. Whether it is geosciences, quantum computing, robotics, or AI, education here will focus on future trends while keeping intact today’s values and beliefs,” says Indira Parekh, former dean of IIM Ahmedabad.
Parekh, currently founder chairman of Auronya, adds that the changing management education model is geared to meet future trends. “With these changes, the new generation programmes will prepare students to understand transformations in the global context.
“For the education of tomorrow, teaching pedagogies and the content of education need to be redesigned. What worked yesterday may be relevant at least today but may be inadequate or irrelevant in the future,” she said at the launch of Auronya, a pioneer in Education 4.0 in India.
Auronya, which has registered a trademark by the name of ‘Education 4.0’ is, in fact, trying to introduce the concept of diverse interconnected learning and a new paradigm of teaching as well as learning.
Under such programmes, the graduates can work in strategic roles with senior management, in startup leadership roles, advisory and research capacities, business transformative roles, as consultants, valuation and merger specialists and corporate advisors.
Thus, the students will have a host of opportunities where they can cater to industries in manufacturing, venture capital, FMCG, retail, astronautics, e-commerce, information technology, consumer services, data analytics, research and development, global think tanks and so on.
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