JOIN USThere are many management institutes that have burgeoned in India over the last few years. All these educational institutes have taken special initiatives to make students market-ready managers.
There are many facilities that an educational institute must provide to make its students market-ready. They have to help them in building basic marketing concepts and ensure that the course imparts and helps students apply those concepts in a management capacity.
Students look at pricing, distribution, promotion and customer behaviour and learn to develop strategies for effectively marketing goods and services.
Here are some other areas that management institutes need to focus on to produce better quality managers:
Market research: It helps the students learn and define marketing problems, collect data and carry out research in the class. Students also discover how to
interpret the results of their research and discuss their subsequent implications on marketing.
Planning & implementation: Educational institutes have to teach students effective techniques for planning, managing, controlling and executing projects. They should emphasise case studies which will help the students in knowing the pros and cons, and will also help them in developing new ideas — especially in the case of crisis management, where one has to take effective steps to overcome specific kinds of crises.
Management communication: Effective internal and external communication strategies for managers must be provided by the educational institutes. They must also train the students on conflict management and communication. Educational institutions should provide the students a platform to place their view by assigning them assignments, thereby enhancing their communication skills.
Product management: This class should ideally help students to explore strategies for overseeing the conceptualisation, development, product design and labelling, test marketing and the launch of new or revamped products.
Managerial accounting: Educational institutes must provide classes and prepare their students for leadership roles such as managing company accounts with an emphasis on decision making. Through this, students get an in-depth look at cost behaviour, cost analysis, profit planning, control measures and capital budgeting decision.
On-the-job training: An institute has to provide the required exposure to students through internships, which help them in knowing the challenges while working on board. It also makes them aware about the functioning of an organisation and the mindset required to be a part of a team.
Creativity: Creativity and problem-solving can be taught together. When students aim at solving problems, they get more creative. Students are taken to industrial visits. However, they must be aware that it’s not possible for an industry to be profitable all the time. An interaction, where students can contribute their ideas to deal with crisis management, will help them become more creative and develop new ideas.
Business strategy & leadership: Educational institutes may offer courses on economics, finance, marketing, technology and operations in a global context, thereby cultivating the characteristics of global mindset and how it relates to leadership in classes. Students study how they can overcome barriers to do business in diverse cultures and political environments.
Soft skills: Educational institutes should inculcate in students soft skills such as interpersonal skills, communication skills, thought process and emotional intelligence, because even these skills matter as they reflect one’s personality. Skills can be acquired, but personalities cannot. Multifarious skills provided by the educational institutes are to be taken into consideration when it comes to excellence in marketing.
One critical aspect in marketing is customer service for everyone, because it is all about making sure that the customer has an exceptional experience every time. All these aspects should be at the top of the list when educational institutions plan their management programme.
(The author is executive director, IMS, Noida)