Technology has made significant changes to the way we do business and the changes are more rapid for Gen-Y. The challenge is not only to prepare Gen-Y for management roles or entrepreneurship, but also to prepare them for the new ways of doing business. This paper proposes a new paradigm for management education, especially for Generation Y to ensure an inclusive development and growth of individuals, teams, organizations and thus environment. The Authors propose a new paradigm in Management Education with additional emphasis on Human Nature and Organizational or External Environment.

1. Paper for the
National Conference on
OPPORTUNITIES & CHALLENGES IN MANAGING THE MILLENIAL GENERATION –
INDIVIDUAL, ORGANIZATIONAL & SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES
At
VISHWAKARMA INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT
Paper Title:
“A New Paradigm for Management Education”
Authors:
 Wg Cdr (Retd) Ramesh Jog (Corporate consultant, Mentor and Research student at UoP)
 Mr. Anand Joshi (Managing Director, NobleTek PLM Solutions Pvt. Ltd)
 Mr. Rajendra Sidhaye (CEO, Effectiveness Plus Plus)
 Mr. Sameer Prabhu (VP & Head R&D, G & D)
Abstract
Current Management Education covers and imparts skills regarding specific domains such as
Finance, Marketing, HR etc. however woefully lacks the aspects which will make the students,
including the Gen-Y, not only ready for facing the real situation in business world in which lot of
human dynamics is involved, but also for ensuring an inclusive development with a holistic
view. With collective rich experience of several decades, authors have experienced this
personally as well as got it confirmed through a structured dialog with several business leaders.
This paper proposes a new paradigm for management education to ensure an inclusive
development and growth of individuals, teams, organizations and thus environment. This new
education will achieve:
1. Holistic learning of individuals to address 21st century needs of human and
business skills
2. Gen-Y ready with values, perception, and skills for sustained employability
using their aptitude to effectively use technological advances meaningfully
3. Readying Gen-X to be able to lead and mentor Gen-Y for realizing their full
potential.
While keeping significant bandwidth for the domain specific specialization skills related to
business cycle that of course need to be imparted, the new education paradigm focuses on two
additional aspects:
1. Human nature: Emotions, Six human and behavior skills necessary to connect
with self, team and stake-holders effectively
2. Organizational and external Environment: Awareness on right values for
inclusive development and practices in conducting business operations for
sustainable future
Technology has made significant changes to the way we do business and the changes will be
more rapid for Gen-Y. The new paradigm therefore has larger scope. The challenge is not only to
prepare Gen-Y for management roles or entrepreneurship, but also to prepare them for the new
ways of doing business. Hence, naturally, the paper covers several tracks that have been planned
for the conference.

2. Paper Title:
“A new paradigm for management education”
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --------
1.0 Introduction
Overall business dynamics have been changing quite rapidly over the last two decades due to
several factors. This includes rapid changes in market dynamics, globalization etc. Entry of Gen-
Y into the organizations is one such important factor. All these changes are putting significant
new challenges for today‟s business managers.
Management education is supposed to prepare the candidate for managing or leading a
significant activity in the organizations. However, through their several years of experience in
the industry, the Authors perceived that the management education is falling short of this
objective. Management education also needs to take in the fact that the Gen-X managers of today
will need to harness the Gen-Y entering the organizations and also needs to prepare new Gen-Y
management graduates for handling all aspects of business, other than having the business
domain knowledge.
The authors critically examined this gap and identified the lacunae in the current management
education system. This was also validated by taking feedback from several experienced senior
management people in the industry.
Based on these, Authors want to propose a paradigm shift in the current MBA education. The
objective is to get millenials and a well as Gen-X ready and be able to contribute to business
performance and sustainability in a very dynamic and global business environment.
2.0 New challenges due to changing dynamics in the enterprises
Business dynamics have been changing rapidly for the enterprise organizations in the last two
decades. This is fuelled by the globalization, rapid growth in internet and its multi-faceted effect
on business as well as factors internal to the organizations. These rapidly changing dynamics
have been posing new challenges for the organizations. We briefly discuss those factors
contributing to rapid changes and those we consider important while suggesting the new
paradigm for management education.
2.1 Due to Gen-Y entering the organizations
Generation Y or Gen-Y is generally comprised of people born in the last 20-25 years of
the 20th century. Since they have seen the turn of the century in their young age, it is also
known as the “Millennial” generation. Gen-Y is born with technology gadgets in their
hands and uses them very naturally. You will usually see them with their i-Pods,
Blackberries or high-end mobile phones and laptops.

3. This Generation Y is now coming of age and entering the job market for the first time.
Growing up with technology makes these new workers both more valuable and more
difficult to manage and hire.
Following characteristics of the Gen-Y pose significant additional challenges as well as
benefits for Gen-X managers having Gen-Y team members as well as while planning for
Gen-Y eventually taking management positions:
2.1.1 Work-Life Balance: Gen-Y is more family and socially oriented. They
just do not believe in slogging and putting in long working hours. They
expect more pay for less work and certainly believe that there is life
beyond work.
2.1.2 Socially connected: Entering the workplace with computer skills or being
Tech-savvy is beneficial to any industry, however those same abilities can
lead to challenges keeping employees on task and motivated, especially
with a blackberry (or some such gadget) lying around. Their “need” to be
ultra-connected with the rest of the world proves counter-productive at
times.
2.1.3 Confidence: Gen-Y is confident, ambitious and achievement oriented. We
have seen that people belonging to Gen-Y have clear ideas about their
self-worth. They are confident about their abilities as well as open for
doing various kinds of jobs, roles and tasks.
2.1.4 Commitment: Gen-Yers do not pay too much importance to values such as
loyalty or commitment to the employer. While they expect easier
atmosphere at the work place, with a lot of facilities, plush offices etc,
they also expect a much open culture and policies such as flexible working
hours. They want to be treated more like customers than employees. With
a slight positive turn in the economy, if these expectations are not fully
met, leads to high attrition – the phenomenon, we have seen to be rampant
especially in the developing countries like India.
2.1.5 Openness: Gen-Yers do not hesitate to provide an open feedback when
asked for. Gen-Y does not believe in annual appraisals, but craves for a
more frequent (timely) and open feedback from peers and superiors.
2.1.6 Creative: Gen-Y is more informal and creative. Because of their openness
to new ideas and their ability to think differently, they constantly
challenge the age-old practices and traditional ways of doing business.
Gen-Y brings in a totally fresh perspective to the business. Many perceive
Gen-Y to be rude, perhaps because they question and don‟t always comply
as easily as previous generations have.
2.1.7 Education-minded: Today, we have an umpteen number of sources of
getting information. Also, influenced by their Gen-X parents, most Gen-
Yers recognize that the key to their success lies in advanced learning. This
generation views life-long education as part of life. However, passive

4. learning is „out‟ and interactive learning is „in‟ for this Generation. Gen-
Yers have a huge appetite for information.
While leading teams or working with Generation Y, it‟s wise to adapt and cultivate a
team-oriented environment. Immediate feedback and recognition will help motivate and
reassure this young generation. Frequent communication and reassurance will help keep
members of Gen-Y eager and involved. Avoiding micromanagement is a better style of
management for Gen-Y.
2.2 Challenge for Gen-X to manage Gen-Y
Due to the peculiar characteristics of Gen-Y, as described in earlier section, managing
and keeping them motivated is a challenging task due to the sheer generation gap
involved, The Gen-Y is extremely impatient and want to see results and faster returns.
This can be good and can be harnessed for the benefit to the organization, if managed
well. On the other hand, it can quickly lead to a problematic situation for critical projects
if the team is not managed well.
Apart from results and returns, the task needs be challenging and interesting for keeping
Gen-Y motivated. Hence, e.g. if it is a long haul project, which also involves usage of
old, traditional technology, a Gen-X manager will need to find and keep inventing
additional ways of keeping Gen-Y team members motivated.
The way of communication with Gen-Y is also important, Gen-X manager needs to be
little informal and friendly to be able to really 'connect' with the Gen-Y team member/s.
2.3 Gen-Y themselves taking managerial roles
Next level challenge for organizations is to mentor the Gen-Y employee becoming an
effective manager. The person can be very intelligent and may have required knowledge
regarding the business function / domain. But critical question for the organization is
whether s/he is able to effectively manage a team of people to achieve desired goals in
intended timeframe and, equally importantly, while following organization's set of
processes and code of values and ethics.
Gen-Y is however the fastest growing segment of the workforce today and hence it is
time we re-evaluate the challenges posed by above parameters. We need to begin with the
management education for such a work force.
2.4 Due to changing business environment
Business environment has been changing radically. This is due to various factors such as
rapidly changing technology and tools, changing market scenario due to the entry of new
players and new alternatives all the time, the need for adherence to new standards for
quality, safety etc.
2.5 Due to globalization
Globalization is a process by which the economies, societies, and cultures have become
integrated through a global network and through communication, transportation, and

5. trade. It has become possible due to speedier transport, rapid growth in communication
technology and phenomenon called the Internet. Globalization is usually recognized as
being driven by a combination of economic, technological, socio-cultural, political, and
biological factors.
The term is most closely associated with the term economic globalization: the integration
of national economies into the international economy through trade, foreign direct
investment, capital flows etc. This creates direct impact on businesses. e.g. it creates new
market opportunities as well as new competitors due to world-wide players. It forces one
to cut costs by options such as outsourcing work to an entity in other country as well as
creates opportunity for providing various types of services to global players.
However, this forces the requirement of communicating, collaborating and closely
working together with people from other languages, time-zones and cultures. Managers
today need to interact and work with managers/principals in western countries who have
different sociological backgrounds and expectations.
All these aspects create new challenges for the organizations and its managers in terms of
visualizing and planning for all these new aspects, additional travel, communication and
implementation using global teams. One example of this is to provide 24 x 7 support to
customers using support multiple help desk teams spread around the globe, using latest
communication technology so that the physical location is transparent to the customer.
2.6 Emerging trends
Business management models are getting reinvented. Concept of „management of
business operations‟ is changing to „leading business operations‟ and further the
technology and tools available are getting evolved adding to this change.
 Social networking is also flattening organizations by distributing access to
information. Everyone is equal on the social network. No hierarchies need get
involved
 The biggest threat presented by social networks is to middle managers, who may
become obsolete when layers of managers are no longer needed to convey
messages up and down the organization.
 Innovation and entrepreneurship are invoked by leaders as the one sure way out of
economic distress
For human beings taking positions as leader in business operations or as an entrepreneur
the competencies required have drastically changed in relations what was adequate a
decade ago. Attitudes, skills and knowledge appropriate to face the challenges of this
new business world of next two or three decades is the development need for millenials.
It worth noting what the thinkers, world over, are propagating regarding changes in
education. Sir Ken Robinson is one individual who is explaining need to change
education more vividly.

6. 3.0 About current MBA education
3.1 General
Current MBA education is mainly focused on the business knowledge only. Study of the
syllabi of some of the MBA courses reveals the following:
Full MBA course is typically spread over four semesters. Out of these, the first two
semesters primarily cover the wide variety of topics covering entire spectrum of business
functions e.g. Management Accounting, Managerial Economics, Statistical &
Quantitative Methods, Legal Aspects of Business, Basics of Marketing and Marketing
Management, Information Technology, Financial Management, Human Resource
Management, Manufacturing & Operations Management, Materials & Logistics
Management, Management Information Systems etc. Thus the idea here seems to be to
first make the student aware of all the business functions! In the 3rd and 4th semesters the
course allows students to take electives of their choice and specialize in specific areas
such as Finance or Marketing or Human Resources etc.
A project is also required to be done which the student would do in the area of
specialization and make a detailed report. The objective appears to be to assess the level
of understanding of the subject
The course also typically has some topics of importance such as Entrepreneurship
Development & Project Management, International Business Management, Current
Trends in Management, Business Policy & Strategic Management, Management Control
Systems which are spread over the entire duration of the course.
For covering the environment aspects there is a course such as Economic Environment of
Business. For covering the behavioral aspects there is an introductory course such as
Organizational Behavior & Principles & Practices of Management.
3.2 Inadequacy of the current MBA education
Thus it is quite clear that the current MBA education touches upon some subjects related
to the important aspects, other than business functional knowledge, which are crucial for
making a person ready as a competent manager. However, the coverage is quite cursory
in nature and moreover the experience indicates that these subjects are not given enough
importance also.
The method of delivery for the human dynamics part is using the conventional and
standard classroom teaching approach and not like a workshop approach using role play
and other approaches which will make it interesting as well as like a practical learning.
Aggregate result of all this is that the MBA graduate has the broad knowledge about the
business functional areas in general and more depth about the specialization opted for,
however does not have the right skills for dealing with the human dynamics, attitude to
provide leadership for the team skills and the wherewithal for taking into account the
environmental aspects internal and external to the organization. Thus the MBA graduate
is far from a person having desired managerial skills on day 1. Natural objective of MBA

7. education is supposed to be to produce an effective manager. However, it remains
inadequate in fulfilling this objective.
3.3 Corporate feedback
To validate the observations and analysis that has been presented so far indicating
inadequacy of the MBA education, authors obtained feedback from senior leaders of
several organizations, who have firsthand experience during the last decade of dealing
with MBA graduates inducted in their organizations.
The observations, by senior leaders of organizations, obtained have been summarized as
below:
 MBA graduates are not ready to start contributing meaningfully to an
organization when they finish their education. The students from good
management institutions have a good grasp of functional knowledge but tend to
be overly enamored of intellectual tools and not sensitive enough to the human
aspects of management or to larger issues like values, principles and ethics.
 The appreciation of the purpose of business in the larger context of Society and of
values, principles and ethics of business is absent in most of these fresh MBA
graduates.
 The fresh MBAs are far from being adequately equipped because of lack of
awareness on basic human skills or attitude or personality traits as well as
awareness on environmental aspects and organization‟s role in society.
 Fresher MBAs are unable to link human aspects and environmental constraints to
business process or component like sales or operations or measuring performance.
 MBAs lack awareness on managing feelings or emotions of self and team
members.
 Organizational culture and environment is very critical and important. It has been
observed that organization performance and success is driven by its culture and
environment. Awareness of fresh MBAs is lacking on this area.
 If the MBA education integrates the following, the young entrants in business will
be able to contribute effectively early in their career :
o Exposure to overall business aspects, Processes and Industry Practices
o Mandatory Industry Internship/Incubation
o Understanding Social and Environmental aspects to create sustainable
business proposition and hence the eco-system

8. We went a step further and interviewed some fresh MBA millenials and some Gen-X
undergoing executive MBA program.
The common observation was that the topics covered in first two semesters are mostly
academic in nature and methods like case study and presentation fail to make students
understand the implication of the application of these assignments to live situations.
4.0 Proposed paradigm shift in MBA education
4.1 Overview
The existing paradigm, on which the MBA education is based at present, is: „Managing
the business primarily needs business domain knowledge‟. Hence the overwhelming
focus of current MBA education on the same. The new paradigm that we propose is: „
„business consists of the people, managed by people for the people in an environment.
Therefore the people and environment factors need to be integrated with business
knowledge part in a holistic way while designing and delivering contents.
More important is the fact that in next decades a concept of a single leader like MD or
CEO leading the business is invalid. The businesses of future will require leaders at all
levels and it is case of collaborative leadership or community leadership.
With the objective of removing the inadequacy, which has been brought out in the earlier
section, we propose a paradigm shift in MBA education which will also enhance the
employability of the millenials significantly. The paradigm shift involves revamping the
education right from redefining the objective of the MBA. The goal of MBA must not be
to just arm the students with the business knowledge, but to ensure that the student will
be competent to take a lead in operations of an organization from day ONE with ability to
apply business domain knowledge integrating human and environmental aspects. It
should also take into account the fact that it could be the case of Gen-Y student of MBA
taking on the manager role or it could be the case of Gen-X manager who will need to
handle a Gen-Y team.
We visualize outcome of proposed education as depicted in a schematic for
Transformation as depicted in Fig 1:
Contents
Awareness
Attributes of students Transform Attributes of Employability for
students to be adequate sustaining
opting for management for employability (Entrepreneur or Skills
education placement)
Knowledge
Delivery of contents
Fig 1: A schematic for Transformation

9. Notes:
Awareness: It is enabling students to process information on relevant concepts and aspects for
putting these into action for their benefit.
Skills: Set of abilities or competence resulting from practices or repeated actions resulting from
Awareness.
Knowledge: Enabling students to appreciate the use awareness for acquiring information for
application.
We address the two areas namely contents and delivery in following sections.
4.2 Proposed Contents of new MBA education
The proposed new MBA education program is a concept of integrating the three areas of
knowledge to prepare millenials for employability with leadership aptitude .The
suggested program will involve a right mix of attitudes, skills and knowledge on
business processes,
Hence the three focus areas are:
a) Human nature
b) Environment
c) Business cycle
4.2.1 Human nature
The (new proposed) paradigm is based on the fact that business consists of the
people, managed by people and for the people in an environment. Hence, the
skills pertaining to understanding humans and leading them, are critical. An
awareness on human nature is essential for students to appreciate the way human
beings interact. The interaction in business is amongst the three areas that namely
“of the people”, “by the people” and “for the people”. Hence the contents for the
related to human and environment aspects must be significant of the total MBA
education time.
Following skills are recommended to be covered as a foundation:
a. Six skills : Six basic human skill identified are
1. Seeing or sensing: The way one needs to develop this ability to see
whole or macro level as well as at micro level to get insight into a
scenario or an issue. The way one is able to visualize the images for
future. Sensing with all natural resources available with human body.
This skill helps in deciding vision, strategies, immediate and near
objectives and planning and taking risk.

10. 2. Thinking: Thinking using both left and right brain. Thinking for
creating thoughts that guide appropriate behaviors and have value for
bringing change. Thinking intensive people as work force is the need
in coming decades.
3. Feeling: Developing sensitivity, passion, sense of commitment, pride
and esteem. Commitment and passion to a commitment enhances
alignment with vision and purpose in life.
4. Learning: Learning for performance and building the future. Using the
earlier three skills to engage, ask and review the sensed entities and
nurture or cultivate competences required. Lifelong learning leverages
levels of potential for performance.
5. Acting: Ability to act responsibly, proactively and being alert using the
earlier four skills. Actions result into behaviors and demonstrate all the
earlier four skills. Behaviors create a culture.
6. Building relationships: creating and establishing relationship with self,
individuals in teams, across organization or communities and to
environment around. This ability links the tree domains of people
namely “of” , “for” and “by” to make the individual connected .
b. Emotion management: Emotions are at the core of success as leader at any
level and time or space. Awareness on managing own emotions and those of
people in interactions is essential to build relationships, networking,
motivating and being assertive and adaptive as required. Developing an ability
to be able to thrive on emotional intelligence is a slow process and requires all
the six skills mentioned above.
c. Personality: Six skills and emotion management enhances levels of
personality. Awareness on four components of personality and how to develop
and use these prepares an individual to cope with variety of business
situations. The components that need be addressed are :
 Physical: Endurance and image, contributing to body language.
 Emotional: An extension of emotional management.
 Professional: Learning from experience and learning for future career
so as to be able to collaborate in organizational performance.
 Spiritual: This is not related to religion or divine aspects. Here it
means the ability to understand and develop specific skills which help
human beings to maintain high level of energy for actions in
performing and to manage stress in difficult situations.

11. 4.2.2 Environment
Business operates and can thrive when the people in organization are aware and
conversant with the boundaries of environment -internal and external. Business
operations are enabled by internal organizational environment and constrained by
environment external to organization. Learning both components is a continual or
incremental process. An exposure, in right depth, to these aspects during
educational phase can arm students to learn quickly when placed or as
entrepreneurs. Content (as suggested below) needs to be significant and spread
over the course to be effective for the transformation of attitude and developing
skills and knowledge (Refer schematic at Fig 1):
a. Organizational environment
 Values and Culture: Values drive the behaviors, behaviors are
contagious and such behaviors develop culture in organization.
Understanding values is a learning process and adapting to values is a
skill. A consistency in behavior at all levels reinforces culture and
impacts organizational performance.
 Economics: Organization economics seeks to understand and improve
the ways in which organizations overcome agency costs, information
costs, and other obstacles to efficiency. A knowledge of these basics
prepares students to sense opportunities and risks in this area so vital
for profitability and image of organization.
 Change: Change is inevitable. Adapting to new or emerging
technologies and concepts is ability grasped by an attitude founded
during learning process and management education should address this
squarely. Leading or contributing to change efforts in an organization
enhances possibility of keeping ahead of competition or even creating
a desired future.
b. External
 Political: Politics is opportunism and has marginal values or culture.
Impact of such external happenings is immediate as well as affects
near future of an organization. Being aware of nature of politics at
national and international level provides insight into political behavior
in a business environment. Exposure to variety of political influences
should be part of content so students learn what and how of politics
and are ready to face such impact.
 Global: We have already covered the challenges faced by organization
due to globalization. Hence the students need to be prepared for these.

12.  Ecological: Impact of ecology and environment on every aspect of
human and business existence is well known now. Businesses can
contribute –vely to the ecology if this is not understood and translated
into business strategy. On the other hand businesses can minimize the
–ve contribution to ecology and in fact can contribute +vely if business
strategy considers this as a factor. Needless to say, the students need to
understand this external factor adequately.
4.2.3 Business cycle
Currently large part of the management education attends to topics in
business functions and loads the students with theories that were more
relevant during the last century. Feedback ,own experience and literature
by practitioners and academicians suggests that the contents based on
management models and fads of the last century must be replaced by the
five components of business cycle we are briefly discussing. Authors view
that a practical approach to delivering knowledge on business functions
can prepare students better to contribute more effectively. The business
cycle will still have most significant bandwidth of the course content but
will need to be connected or integrated with the first two areas, during
delivery. The fact that major part of business functions is driven by
technology also needs to be considered while defining the course content.
Limits on recommended coverage are further supported in following
paragraphs.
a. Purpose: Clarity on purpose enables people of the “business by the
people” category to align to stakeholders. Purpose helps in aligning
attitude, skills and knowledge.
b. Systems: Technology has helped business functions to be operated in a
consistent manner once the purpose is clear. Need for human intervention
is built into systems again by technology.
c. Business Processes: These are sequence of actions which are needed to
fulfill a particular business purpose. These can be facilitated using
technology partly or fully.
d. Performance Measurement. Any business performance must be measured
and awareness on ways of measuring and using measurements to identify
improvement opportunities prepares students to develop attitude and skills
to apply this knowledge.
e. Improvement to sustain into future: Improvement in all above is at core of
sustaining business into future. Students perceiving need for improvement
and change should not consider it only for self help, but must keep
organizational development as the primary objective. It is an attitude and
skill to be deployed at work place using knowledge.

13. 4.3 Delivery
Contents recommended above are a resource for transforming the students. Refer
Fig 1 above. However, the delivery is what will decide the outcome of
transformation. Delivery is as important in effecting the desired result as the
content.
Therefore innovative ways of delivery need to be identified and validated. The
methods cannot be standardized but adapted based on student attributes. As the
behavior patterns and values of millenials evolve, methods also need to be
adapted. This is a change and educational institutions must be armed to adapt
newer and innovative methods.
Delivery thus is a learning and continual improvement activity. It will be time and
space specific driven by student attributes. Institutions must be proactively
engaged in getting ready for these changes.
5.0 Recommendations
In view of the above discussions we recommend following:
1. The management education must go thru a rapid change to adapt to new paradigm.
2. A committee or board of members having right skills and depth should design both
contents and delivery process for the contents.
3. The members of the committee should have significant number of Line managers
drawn from commercial & nonprofit, product & service organizations who have
professional experience and Academicians both having foresight for future.
4. The contents and delivery must be validated by a committee which also has
CEOs/MDs having depth of experience and then adapted to be replicated at
institutions.
6.0 Conclusions
Current management education is inadequate considering the massive challenges faced by the
organizations, particularly the Gen-Y with distinctive traits increasingly expecting to take
leadership or entrepreneurial roles.
The new paradigm that we have proposed will revamp management education and will
pragmatically prepare millenials for leading the organizations of tomorrow.
It is a bold step but certainly a measure that will enable millenials in more effective way to use
their potential and contribute in leveraging performance of organizations.