It’s already being hailed as a formidable Sino-Indian front in management education. Realising that management education in Asia has made rapid strides in the last few decades and does not rely entirely on Western theories and solutions, the two leading IIMs of Ahmedabad and Bangalore and the Guanghua School of Management under Peking University are coming together to provide a leadership to management education in both South Asia and Asia-Pacific region. Professor Wang Janguo, renowned management academic from Guanghua who has trained a number of business managers doing so well in industrial ventures dotting Guangdong province, believes that as far as management education goes, this is a Sino-Indian century. In fact, the Chinese have virtually acknowledged Indian leadership in management education and the first conference of the newly-created of Association of Asian Management Schools (AAMS) would be held in Ahmedabad-Bangalore in January-February next year. A Chinese delegation is arriving in the country later this month or latest by early October to finalise the symposium. Apart from India and China, Singapore’s Nanyang Business School affiliated to the National Singapore University is also playing a key role in the formation of this separate management education front. What is interesting is that the management gurus thought this was essential because the Western management schools were not ‘‘really contextualising the theories they sold as universal’’. Agreed IIM Ahmedabad Dean, Professor Indira Parikh, who along with IIM Bangalore director, Professor P G Apte had visited Peking University in Beijing recently. She said that the Western academics were often not offering solutions for specific management problems that were typical of either the Indian or the South China scenarios. She pointed out that if India and China even collected their respective case studies, it would be a formidable and volumnious reading material. IIM Ahmedabad is internationally renowned for pursuing the case studies approach to management education for several decades now. Professor Bakul Dholakia says ‘‘this is a step in the right direction.’’ After being briefed by Professor Parikh, he has already informed the IIM Ahmedabad chairman N R Narayanmurthy of the developments. Both Professors Parikh and Apte had gone to Beijing to attend the MBA round-table conference. It was there that the proposal was mooted and the two IIMs were requested to take a lead role. A five point charter has also been created for AAMS. It includes providing support for creating management research and education institutions in Asia-Pacific region, fostering a common understanding of quality in management education and developing a proper AAMS accreditation system which will duly recognise business schools of the region. The AAMS will also facilitate better interaction between business schools and industry in the region and will deal with other major management education bodies throughout the world like AACSP and AMBA. For IIM Ahmedabad, this move comes at a time when it is on the threshold of entering into other global partnerships and introducing innovations. Recently, Egyptians management education administrators have been landing in Ahmedabad in chartered jets. The Future Generation Foundation of Cairo is in the process of finalising a deal which will allow IIM Ahmedabad to enter into a joint collaboration with the management institute in Egypt. As far as innovations go, the Ahmedbad institute has also started a management course for principals of 36 leading CBSE schools. The principals are now in Ahmedabad undergoing the retraining programme.
