Setting The Bar High

“When you combine discipline with an ethic of entrepreneurship, you get the magical alchemy of great performance.”  — Jim Collins
 
Is there a prescription for producing leaders? Can leadership be taught? Can schools be created around leadership?

Well, if any proof were required, here it is — our thriving B-schools, notably the IIMs, are producing leaders in hordes. Indeed, they are our assembly lines churning out leaders, well beyond boardrooms. The IIMs are India’s pride. They symbolise the new India, the aspirational India, the India on move —firmly on course to its rightful place.

The IIMs, along with other B-schools, in the top bracket have rendered yeoman’s service to the nation. As India changes at a rapid pace, the B-schools remain the most respected and prized institutions.

Among BW Businessworld’s annual offering, the B-school special is one of the most keenly-awaited one. It is the most definitive, most trusted, most talked about ranking, and with each year, the product has only got better.

This year, the BW Education research team has powered the rankings, and BW Editors were closely involved in studying, evaluating and ranking the schools in the most trustworthy manner.

While the older IIMs dot the top places of the pecking order, there are a few movements that merit a mention — IIFT has gained a place. Among other schools, K J Somaiya, ICFAI, Symbiosis also gain a few notches.

While we provide the tables of the ranked B-schools, and also give you sectoral leaders, we, as our standard practice, profile the top ten schools. The Team of BW reporters then does a deep-dive study into the B-school ecosystem, looking at the dominant trends of the last one year.

We speak to Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar who says that he’s keen to pass the IIM Bill in the Rajya Sabha in the winter session of Parliament so that the IIMs get the autonomy they deserve. The top B-schools then would be able to appoint their own directors, and decide on expansions etc. His Deputy in the Ministry, Satya Pal Singh, interestingly, talks of reasonable restrictions, as he reminds the schools of the age-old wisdom and life skills that they must include in the curriculum.

Among the trends in the B-school ecosystem, captured by the BW Reporters, is the increasing diversity in the classroom. Increasingly, women students are taking to B-school education that bodes well for the economy. After a lull, salaries are picking up; schools are looking at international collaborations; the average age of applicants to B-schools is coming down; executives are returning to B-schools to reskill themselves to make them more relevant for the job market; and B-school is increasingly getting available in flexi modules — pointing to its democratisation.

All in all, a power-packed B-school issue, that is truly a collector’s item.

In this issue, we also look at some of the pressing issues. Delhi, as all of you would have noticed, was converted into a gas chamber due to smog and pollution. Out second cover looks at the economic cost of neglecting environment. We ask the question whether it would wake up the authorities.

The issue also carries an important interview with the man who believes in India -- Robin Raina, CEO, Ebix. Our Correspondent Naina Sood has done the interview.

Your views are precious. Keep writing in!

Dr. Annurag Batra

BW Reporters The author is the Chairman & Editor-in-Chief of the BW Businessworld Group and the Founder & Editor-in-Chief of the exchange4media Group