Executive Education – A Perspective

‘Obsolescence’ is the greatest threat technology faces today. This is the same threat that managers across industries and functions come face-to-face with. Performance and functionality are the aspects around which the word is built-be it a Chief Executive Officer or a Sales Executive. It is the performance that counts and delivery that matters.

Is it only about pedigree and talent or brains? No. The rate of realization of this fact is directly proportional to the rate of technological advancement that part of society is witness to. India and her mangers are no exception to this rule. We are unique in the aspect of mix of people we work with, i.e, people from diverse backgrounds, even though we may hang on to our micro cultures. Until recent past our executives were pitted against each other, but within the safety net of inter-cultural exchange. Now, though, this inter-cultural space has ceded to international space in terms of achievement. Jobs change hands from country to country in search of low-cost labour; capital seems to chart its own unique route, often unexplained by the neat models of management. The issue gets aggravated when one also has to cope with anti-capitalism backlash from countries whichgave birth and shape to capitalism in the first place. Organizations merge, get acquired, invest, divest, expand, focus, and at times disappear, following little of the theories we learnt in our classrooms just a few years ago. The top management institutes across the globe had reached a conjecture in the years gone by that the management curriculum needed a thorough relook every 10 years with a sprinkling of change every year. Every individual who aspires to reach the top ,need to contend with the changing Indian demographics and aspirations of people at all levels. The new age chant for business seems to be innovate or die, especially in markets such as India where limited resource pose a great set of constraints on the scale and scope of a business. Hence , an executive needs to find a place in an organization where both dependencies and competition are high. It must be said that this contributes in part to the work/life conundrum that few master but as far as organizations are concerned, it certainly presents as challenges on how to keep employees motivated. Little wonderthen that organizations put this as up as one of their organizational goals. So it can safely be said that if you are an executive looking to improve your prospects of performing better and climbing that ladder, this is what you should probably be looking for: updating of your management education, which gives you a global perspective on business, exposes you to the best practices from around the world, facilitates interaction with best minds they can get, and provides you with the opportunity to share your views with peers from across industries.