Knights Of The Times Of Gloom

Do B-schools need to tweak their syllabi to create more imaginative leaders now that the world is in the throes of a slowdown?

- Mrudul Sharma

MANAGEMENT SCHOOLS groom talent to run enterprises, which in turn create wealth for an economy. So, in a round-about way business schools do play a role in determining the strength or weakness of an economy. After all, the minds that take crucial decisions in the manufacturing and services sectors invariably have names of the major B-schools emblazoned on their business cards.

So in a year in which the index of industrial production (IIP) is at the lowest in recent memory, should we laud or berate the plethora of management institutes that have sprouted up across the country? To be fair to the professional managers and the trade and industry they run, the slowdown is global. In its October report, the World Bank Group announced that the global GDP had fallen to a three-year low of 2.4 per cent in the second quarter of 2019. “Global goods trade has continued to contract, reaching a new post-crisis low, while services export orders have started to show signs of easing,” the report said. It also spoke of “subdued inflation and slowing activity” in the emerging markets, which includes India.

Meanwhile, in its Quick Estimates of the Index of Industrial Production for the April to September period, the Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation shows a “cumulative growth” of an abysmal 1.3 per cent. As many as 17 of the 23 industry groups monitored by the ministry have recorded negative growth in the first half of the 2019-20 financial year.