30th AIMS Annual Management Education Convention 2018 focuses on the theme ‘Management Education: Connecting the Dots’
The proliferation of technology is influencing talent acquisition across industries. With an objective to understand the needs of the 21st Century learner, The Association of Indian Management Schools (AIMS), a networking body of B-Schools in India organised its 30th annual management education convention to identify the dots, explore new value propositions, generate new ideas and identify new resources to explore new possibilities for management education in the future. Over 600 delegates from academia and corporate leadership along with students attended the three-day convention.
The event commenced with an address from Dr. Anil Rao Paila, AIMS President and Senior Dean & Director at Prin L N Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research Bangalore. The convention marked it’s inauguration in the presence of Mr. Deepak Padaki- Executive Vice President – Group Head – Corporate Strategy and Chief Risk Officer, Infosys Ltd, Advocate S. K. Jain, Chairman, Managing Council, S. P. Mandali and Local Managing Committee, WeSchool and Prof. Dr. Uday Salunkhe, Group Director – WeSchool & Convention Chief Patron .
Prof Dr. Anil D Sahasrabudhe, Chairman, AICTE, spoke about the future of management education in his address. He said, “With emerging technology, this is the century of innovation. The stakeholders in education need to explore all angles to create innovation. There have been several activities undertaken by the government to nurture talent. The world is moving rapidly like never before. Hence, the curriculum needs to become further relevant.”
The plenary session ‘Leading Change in Management Education – Leading Self, Leading Others, Leading Change’ discussed the need to redefine management education in terms of not just functional areas, but also strategy and leadership. The session emphasised on the need for faculty development and bringing diversity inside the classroom.
In his keynote address, Mr. Sreekanth A, Senior Vice President, Integrated Workforce Management and India Co-Managing Director – DXC spoke extensively about leadership and technological innovation in the space of human resources.
The plenary session ‘Co-creating the Future of Management Education’ took into account how globalisation, digitisation, and democratisation are changing the landscape in management education. The discussion brought to light the increasing importance of short-term programs and online certificate courses. The topic ‘How to leverage MOOCs through blended learning’ took over as an engaging discussion. The conclusion was to focus on future skills such as sense-making, social intelligence, and new media literacy among the others for students. Co-creating programs through collaborative efforts between two institutes were one of the ideas proposed during the session.
The plenary session ‘Innovation in Management Education’ had speakers sharing their perspective and knowledge on the future of work in view of the economy and market dynamics. The session invited thoughts from audience and speakers on adopting mobile technology innovatively inside a classroom. They also discussed the revival of non-classroom learning, an ancient mode of teaching in Gurukulas. The role of influencing best practices and application-driven research counted as important.
The plenary session on ‘Research Initiatives and Quality Benchmarks in Management Education’ had speakers sharing the challenges in accreditation and rankings across the Globe. How accreditation process must take into account the impact of learning was the point of discussion. Speakers shared their thoughts on accreditation bodies like AACSB, EFMD, ACBSP, SAQS & NBA, and how they can create quality benchmarks for various interventions in management education. The speakers also discussed that with changing business models and practices in the industry, management education needs to emphasise on industry-based research and set a new norm to connect these dots.
The concluding session on ‘How we are going to survive Tsunami of Tech Disruption’ had management students asking questions to the HR leadership of IBM, Accenture and Indigo on how non-tech students who do not know coding and IT languages play a role in IT companies. The speakers shared the key attributes they seek in their young candidates which is emotional intelligence to manage people expectations, critical problem-solving skills, courage and fearlessness to lead, effective communication, customer centricity and negotiation skills. They shared their successful initiatives of hiring non-tech professionals like a gymnast and chef in their IT companies.
The valedictory function had Chief Guest, Mr. Shiv Kumar – Head Strategy and Business development- Aditya Birla Group, Mumbai. He urged the attending audience to become true learners who seek new knowledge and practice diligently.
The three-day convention concluded with the award ceremony for outstanding faculty contribution.
