The Need for Indian Case Studies

After a hiatus of almost three weeks due to the academic projects, exams and the launch of The Money Manager-the pan-IIM finance magazine, Saketvaani is back with you to ignite the discussion. This time the focus would be “the case for Indian case studies”. Though all of us may not be familiar with case studies but you can use words like journals, research papers etc. interchangeably for cases. First let me tell you the reason behind choosing this topic.

I have finished almost 70% of my MBA education in an Indian B-school and most if not all the cases that I have come across are prepared by foreign B-school (read Harvard Business School: HBS). Should it really be a cause of concern as haven’t we been brought up mainly on books by foreign author? So why complain now, that too in a B-school clamouring for global recognition?

In order to address the above queries, I need to explain the purpose behind incorporating case-based methodology in MBA curriculum. Apart from enhancing interactions or discussions, the business case is a powerful method of narrating the real world happenings and relating them with the theoretical concepts. With the main focus of MBA being preparing the students for the business world rather than research projects, cases have a major role to play, sometimes even bigger than that of books who focus on theoretical issues and ideal scenarios. 

But I am neither going to discuss why we are behind HBS in producing cases nor am I going to preach how we can improve the status quo. My emphasis would be rather on enumerating some of the ways in which over reliance (on foreign study materials or colleges) can negatively affect our country in general and the education system in particular. 

• It raises questions over our capability as knowledge based economy. Isn’t “knowledge is power” a common adage in today’s world? After all cases could be an excellent way of popularising the Indian perspective or way of thinking and help us in trying it out in different business environments. This would help us in identifying its merits as well as demerits and take appropriate measures.
• As a close friend of mine, who assisted a leading professor at IIM A in case preparation, mentions that the perspective of an author is very important while preparing cases. So does a foreign perspective really help solve real Indian business problems? Does that really prepare us to deal with issues that may be specific to Indian firms?
• Such over reliance may result in the Indian B-schools being pale imitations or mere extensions of their foreign counterparts. How can you carve a niche for yourself in the global educational set up in such a manner?
• Indian institutions have been very successful in preparing and nurturing talents for the developed economies with the Silicon Valley based firms and investment banks being notable examples. But on the flip side, they have been dismal in producing Indian entrepreneurs. Does that reinforce the second point? I think it does.
• Some argue that it helps in developing a global perspective but should that necessarily come at the cost of local perspective? Remember that “Glocal” (Global+Local) is the new success mantra.
• As a recent Economist report on British Universities puts it bluntly that the reason why UK wants to attract the Asian students is that “they work bloody hard and drive up the standards. Other students see that, and they have to compete”. This shows that the talent is there but what may be lacking is “the right and relevant tricks of the trade”.
• Some of the students who have been responsible for carving a niche for the Indians amongst the international students overseas are now in the role of professors at some of the Indian B-schools. So their capability is beyond doubt but may be the need is either not being communicated properly or the right environment is absent.
• Cases can be an effective way of disseminating successful Indian business stories like Reliance, Amul, Tata etc, if presented with the right perspective. So why not do it rather than wait for an HBS case on e-choupal? There have been some attempts but they are still too few and far between.
• If some say that it’s better to serve the best offerings even if international rather than half-baked “Indian stuff” then they might be right but remember that our two top B-schools would be now 50 yrs old in a few months. So isn’t it taking far too long? By the way the foreign universities are already knocking on the doors.

To end on a quick note, all I would say that, “you can never claim the winner’s crown if you take pride in being the first amongst the followers of the leader.” Hope this realty check won’t take too long. Looking forward to your comments.