Actual Reality Cannot Be Replaced By Virtual Reality: Vijaya Gupta, Professor, NITIE Mumbai

Business schools transform students into smart decision-makers and individuals who can readily steer uncertainty, risk and change. Nevertheless, the spread of the COVID-19 Pandemic has left the B-Schools around the world counting costs and wondering what recovery would look like. 

To have a discussion on these lines, BW Education presented another episode of Wednesday Wisdom - “Future of Management Education”. The panel combined high profile and power-packed speakers: Prof Neelu Rohmetra, Director, IIM Sirmaur, Prof Madhu Veeraraghavan, Director, TAPMI, Manipal, Dr Ramakrishnan Raman, Director, SIBM Pune, Dr Atish Chattopadhyay, Director, IFIM and Prof Vijaya Gupta, Professor, NITIE Mumbai. The panel was chaired by Dr Annurag Batra, Chairman & Editor-in-Chief, BW Businessworld and exchange4media. 

Prof Neelu Rohmetra, Director, IIM Sirmaur, expressed her thoughts on the B-School of the future by saying, “When we look at the challenging times today, I look at these as an opportunity. There is no more any locational challenge because of the virtue of technology.” She explained how the institutions have to re-invent and re-discover to deliver as per today’s requirement.  

Vijaya Gupta, Professor, NITIE Mumbai, gave her opening comments by saying that the world is changing for better. She stated, “Many jobs that exist today will be replaced with AI in future. Somewhere or other, the pandemic is contributing to foresee the future. We have to embrace constant change and the dynamic of the environment.” She further added, “Definitely this pandemic is bringing in a lot of opportunities and in future, we will embrace these possibilities even more.” 

Dr Atish Chattopadhyay, Director, IFIM, focussed on different changes that the pandemic brought in such as learn-from-home, work without being monitored, shifting to our values and the rise of SQ. “Organisations infused with values is an institution and along with IQ and EQ, we will also have SQ which is the spiritual quotient,” he stated. 

Prof Madhu Veeraraghavan, Director, TAPMI, Manipal said, “Business schools at some point stopped innovating. Another thing that I am worried about is the crisis in leadership. The final issue is that many B-schools are not doing anything for society. Students should not look at B-Schools only for jobs but focus on ‘how to be a job-creator’.”  

On being asked on where he would invest if he got 20 crores, Dr Ramakrishnan Raman, Director, SIBM Pune, said “My majority chunks will go in investing in start-ups. If I find a startup which has value in it, I will go ahead and invest in them. I will also go and get good researchers who will teach and deliver in the class because they don’t run the rat-race. I will also create virtual labs and give access to all.”