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Disruptive Models in Education

Disruptive Models in Education... .ABHIJIT BHATTACHARYA

Only reforming the way we teach will ensure that we don't end up with demographic disaster

With half of the country's population younger than 25, we need to fundamentally change our education system to produce human capital suitable for the emerging knowledge-driven global economy. If that is not done, it is only a matter of time that the demographic advantage will metamorphose into a fullblown demographic disaster. Mere allocation of more resources to make up for the yesteryears' deficit in the education sector is not enough to address the problem. India also needs to reform teaching in schools and colleges.

Individuals learn differently due to their different learning styles. As per Howard Gardener's seven-intelligences model, if some people rely more on auditory input for learning, then many others rely on visual, kinaesthetic, musical, logical, interpersonal or intrapersonal styles. An education system is most effective when teaching methodologies match the learning styles of individual students. For ensuring better results from the teaching-learning process, every lesson plan must have variations to suit individual learning styles. Harvard University's Clayton Christensen in his book, Disrupting Class, has suggested different schools for students with similar learning styles.

Currently, in our schools, teachers decide how the learning has to take place and everybody learns and gets evaluated the same way. The schools generally follow the logical or mathematical teaching approach that is most suited for those who have the ability to recognise patterns to work with geometric shapes and who are good at reasoning, logic and problem solving. The system is less effective for those whose brains are not 'configured' for this learning style. As a result, many students barely manage to scrape through the process or drop out of the system. To unlock all the talents of all of the people - essential for deriving maximum benefits from our demographic advantage - India cannot follow a wasteful education system that is suitable for only one dominant style of learning.

The boys and girls who are alienated from the school because of the mismatch between individual learning styles and schools' teaching methods are vulnerable to options that are competing with the schools to lure these students away from the classrooms. Extrinsic motivations like providing midday meal or cash incentive - the latest 'innovative' initiative of the government of Tamil Nadu - are considered by some policymakers as effective countermeasures to compete with those alternatives. Even if such incentives are able to bring everyone to the schools, can it guarantee learning?

Rapid progress in educational technology and its plummeting costs have opened up real possibilities to make education customised to suit each student's learning style. Probably for the first time in the history of mankind, now there is a possibility for the schools to create exciting learning environments that can successfully compete with all other attractive alternatives that are trying to keep students out of school. In such an environment, any extrinsic motivation can only work as a double whammy for the students.

Christensen' s data shows that such alternatives are already making inroads in the US. As per his projection, by 2020, the majority of US schools will be radically transformed and will introduce online teaching into their core teaching programmes. It is not mere superimposition of online or distance learning courses on a traditional model. Unlike traditional distance learning programmes where students generally learn on their own at a distance, here students are able to learn the courses offered by the most effective teachers in a tutorsupervised environment of the school. In this new environment, the schools are actually redefining their value propositions, or to use C K Prahalad's expression, 'co-creating value' with other stakeholders: students, parents, policymakers and technology providers. Most importantly, the emerging student-centric education system is based on a fundamental belief that every student enjoys success, loves fun and is wired differently to learn the same thing most effectively in different ways.

Similar to the most innovative firms of today whose major initiatives are centred around external network resources instead of internal ones, the schools now also have a unique opportunity to innovatively utilise the best teaching resources available elsewhere to substantially improve the teachinglearning processes. Today, a student even in a village school should be able to enrol for a subject that is not taught in the school and offered elsewhere in the country. There is also no reason why the classes of our national awardwinning teachers shouldn't be conducted in schools across the country. This needs to be done with extensive use of computer-based learning that supports individualised learning path for every student. The teacher becomes more of a tutor in such a class.

In our daily life, we frequently observe how disruptive innovations are increasingly wiping out businesses by fundamentally replacing expensive and complicated technologies with affordable and convenient alternatives. Now, such innovations in education are set to decimate the present teachingcentric system. In this year's World Innovation Forum in New York, some leading technology providers demonstrated the amazing possibilities that are transforming the way world learns.

 

To exploit India's demographic advantage, till it lasts, we need to urgently undertake bold reforms and introduce newer types of schools with a much broader variety of teaching-learning and evaluation processes. Otherwise, our perceived demographic advantage will slowly slip away to make way for a demographic nightmare.

(The author is director of Centre for Entrepreneurship & Innovation at the Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business, University of West Indies)

Five Fundamentals for Productive Ideation Sessions

Nothing  is as much fun as a great ideation session. 

People are happy to be away from their desks, and they look forward to having some fun as they solve the problems of the work. Generally the firm spends half an hour explaining the process and then a researcher shows the fundamentals of the category and brand. By now it's 10:00 and the people are bored. Ideation is a right-brain process and should rely on creative instincts rather than logic. So, say hello, state the target problem in one sentence, and then start with a crazy creative exercise. You'll be amazed how quickly the participants will get to the heart of the matter when right from the start they rely on the right side of the brain and their gut feelings from the start.

People should reveal the aspects of their personalities you never knew existed, enhancing the creative mood. Bring creative types who have nothing to do with marketing—actors, musicians, writers, artists, and others. They might not know "the business," but they do understand, intuitively, how to communicate and connect with people. They'll give you ideas you'd otherwise not think of.

Momentum is key in the innovation process - stay on a roll by not letting a lot of time elapse between the ideation session and the first day of qualitative research – and don’t only focus on the score – you must gain a deep understanding of why they'd work (or not) with target consumers. During the research stage, insights are far more valuable than a test score.

I like to leave just enough time to write concepts. Maybe a couple of days, at most. I also conduct research the same evening as the ideation, which provides the advantage of having all or most of the ideation participants react and rewrite on the spot.

Though this subject deserves far more attention, the basic idea is to keep concepts short and simple. Concepts should be emotionally driven, but they should in no way resemble ads. A headline and a sentence or two of copy works best. Give respondents a wide range of such building blocks. Rather than having your moderator go through them one by one for "strengths and weaknesses," hand them over and let respondents discuss them on their own.

I usually ask them to select two concepts that would motivate them most to buy the product, and then I give them a series of short creative assignments to bring those ideas to life. Assignments might include identifying a spokesperson (personification), writing an ad, designing a logo, designing a package, or creating a promotional event based on the selected concept.

Doing so not only removes the "respondent as marketing critic" factor from the research but also demonstrates before your very eyes how respondents think and feel about your brand and category. And in that process, the best ideas always rise to the top.

Outlines of executive education center programs - Darden

Leading Teams for Growth and Change

·         Coaching for Exemplary Performance

·         Creating a Culture for Paramount Team Functioning

·         Bridging Differences in Teams

·         Diagnosing and Remedying Team Dynamics

·         Learning the Right Lessons From Your Team Experiences

·         The Roles Collaboration and Teamwork Play in Change and Business Growth

·         The Leadership Secrets for Inspiring Teams

·         How Individual Strengths Blend Into Team High Performance

Leading Innovation & Thinking Creatively

·         Challenges to Innovation

·         Developing a Solution-Centered Mindset

·         Collaborating for Innovation

·         Creating Super Value

·         Full-Spectrum Engagement

·         Innovation and World-Class Performance

·         Innovative Action Planning 

HR capabilities in strategy, leadership, change

·         Choosing Strategic Priorities

·         Creating Competitive Advantage

·         Designing Effective Selection Systems

·         Enterprise Perspectives

·         Framing HR Capabilities

·         Influencing Strategic Decisions

·         Strategic Alignment, Thinking, and Mapping

·         Talent Management and Human Capital Architecture

·         The Role of HR in Change/Change Consulting

·         The SELF Model: Balancing Strategic, Ethical, Legal, and Financial Perspectives 

·         Value Creation and Core Capabilities

Managing Individual and organizational change

·         Change as Growth: The Ultimate Personal Perspective

·         Managing in Organizations: Organizational Change in Strategic Perspective

·         Models and Concepts for Change: An Individual Perspective

·         Organizational and Individual Change Issues

·         Processes and Stages of Change: Individual to Organizational Perspective

True Leadership – Leading with Meaning

·         Strategy: Where Does it Come From? Theories Around Emergent Strategy and Leadership Aspirations and Opportunities

·         Examining Actions and Leveraging Purpose

·         Identifying Personal and Organizational Opportunities and Integrating Personal and Organizational Visions

·         Ways Leaders Lead Leaders

Driving Vision, Action and Results

·         Competitive Analysis

·         Corporate Strategy and Industry Analysis

·         Financial Management and Performance

·         Leadership and Change Management

·         Managing Critical Resources

·         Marketing Strategy

·         Operational Excellence

·         Professional Executive Coaching

·         Strategy and Execution

·         Talent Management

·         Wellness and Management Success

·         360-Degree Assessment Tool to Understand Self as Manager/Leader

Growing General Manager – Core Learnings

Finance

Recognizing that sound financial analysis is critical to the success of any enterprise, participants develop their capacities to use financial data to assess and understand business performance impact. Managers will develop:

·         A clear understanding of financial statements.

·         Best practices in using financial data to assess business performance.

·         Increased knowledge about cash flow drivers and their significance.

·         The ability to use financial reports in business decision making.  

Leadership

·         Dynamics of change and how to lead through constructive and effective change processes.

·         Develop presence as a leader and capacity to deliver powerful, influential messages.

·         Dive into the challenges and opportunities of leading and working in teams.

·         To ensure the successful integration of a workforce, explore the dynamics of leading and managing teams across diverse cultures.  

Marketing Strategy

Explore various frameworks and concepts in marketing, and manage brand and customer value. Participants will:

·         Enhance the ability to analyze markets and competitive forces.

·         Explore the basics of marketing metrics.

·         Gain an understanding of the role of the customer and the importance of customer loyalty.

·         Improve understanding of customer behavior.

·         Importance, scope, and nature of marketing in a complex, changing, and competitive world.

·         Understand the elements of the marketing planning process.  

Operations

·         Develop methods to evaluate current performance of operations

·         Understand key improvement levers.

·         Implement Lean thinking into operations and across the enterprise.

·         Translate corporate strategy into effective operations.

·         Understand how improving operations helps to achieve competitive advantage.

Strategy

·         How various dimensions of an organization must align for the organization to be effective.

·         Explore dynamics of strategy / leadership / capacity to analyze market and competition

·         Identify how strategy helps to drive value to customers, shareholders, and employees.

·         Learn and practice strategy mapping.

·         Analyze business models and apply concepts to tactical and strategic problems. 

·         Review and “thought-storm” on the organization’s strategic vision.

·         Understand the role that talent plays in corporate capability.

Strategic Marketing Management

·         Applying Customer Lifetime Value to Strategy Formulation

·         Being Market Focused

·         Brand Evolution—Building, Monitoring, and Using Brand Equity

·         Cost and Share Leverage Principles

·         Customer and Competitor Analysis

·         Designing and Managing Channels

·         Positioning and Value Creation

·         Product Life Cycle and Market Evolution

·         Product Portfolio Analysis

·         Segmentation and Targeting

·         The Marketing Value Proposition

·         Taking it Home: Your Action Plan 

Strategic Sales Management

·         Aligning Sales and Marketing

·         Are You Market-Focused?

·         Bringing Solutions to Enterprise Customers

·         Compensation

·         Current Developments in B2B Marketing

·         Global Account Management

·         Leading Strategic Change

·         Managing Individual and Organizational Energy

·         Pipeline Management

·         Retention and Promotion

·         Sales Management and Designing a Sales Strategy

·         Sales Performance and Metrics

·         The Sales Playbook

·         Understanding the Organizational Buying Process

Growth Catalysts : Process / Culture / Leaders

·         Assessing Growth Leadership: Participants will assess how well they are leading growth in their businesses prior to coming to Darden. They will leave with a plan through which they can continue to build their abilities to lead sustained growth and value creation, and to develop this talent in others.

·         Leading in an Uncertain World: Explore techniques for managing growth initiatives under conditions of extreme uncertainty and for leveraging internal and external resources.

·         Linking Technology and Growth: Understand how to use technology in ways that enable growth, creating transparent measurement systems that drive the bottom line.

·         Managing Growth Portfolios: Develop a framework for simultaneously managing top-line, bottom-line, and new-concept growth initiatives.

·         Seeing Opportunity: Examine how growth leaders sense new opportunities and reframe their value propositions.

·         Thinking Like a Successful Entrepreneur: Understand the profiles of entrepreneurial leaders within established enterprises who have achieved sustained, internally generated growth.

Advanced Management Program

Processes, Systems, and Networks

This area is primarily concerned with the formulation of comprehensive operating strategies, processes, systems, and networks that build competitive advantage. The overall focus is on understanding how the firm’s operating resources, product quality, technology, IT capability, service quality, cost efficiencies, and innovative capabilities determine enterprise performance. Topics include:

·         Global Operations and Marketing Strategies

·         Impact and Opportunities of New Information Technologies and Systems

·         Meeting the Challenges of Disruptive Technologies

·         Operational and Market Effectiveness in the Firm's Innovation Processes

·         Process Design Across the Extended Enterprise

·         Strategic Operational Alignment in the Supply Chain Network

·         Sustaining Substantial Cost-Performance Improvement

·         Systems Thinking in Business Resource Management 

Economic Value Creation

The creation and endurance of value is the essence of the successful enterprise. To create value, particular attention is paid to the financial management challenges that executives face as they operate in a global context and as they attempt to communicate the essence of their companies to investors, creditors, and other interested external parties. Topics include:

·         Administration of Assets to Create Value

·         Managing in an Uncertain Environment: Hedging and Investing

·         Managing Risk to Add Value: Real-Options Thinking

·         Managing the Relationship Between Growth and Value

·         Mergers and Acquisitions

·         Shareholder Value: Communicating Corporate Value

An Entrepreneurial Mindset

One of the keys to lasting competitive advantage is to generate and nurture an entrepreneurial culture throughout the enterprise. Topics include:

·         Converting Innovative Ideas and New Technologies Into Successful Products, Services, and New Businesses

·         Creating and Sustaining Self-Renewal

·         Fostering Entrepreneurship in the Corporation

·         Pursuing Opportunities in the New Economy Through a Real-Options Framework

Global Economic Environment

Economic and political environments are explored in the context of understanding managerial decisions and performance on a global scale. Topics include:

·         Challenges in Emerging Markets: Developing Countries and Economies in Transition

·         Competitiveness and Leadership

·         Global Changes and Challenges

·         Opportunities and Threats to Global Strategies: Trade and Investment Climates

Learning, Leading, and Change

An in-depth analysis and discussion of the critical issues in the executive leadership role will be examined. Topics include:

·         4-P Perspective: Purpose, Process, People, and Performance

·         Ethical and Moral Issues in Leadership

·         Leading as Personal Engagement

·         Learning, Leading, and Change

·         Stages and Elements of Change

·         Transformational Leadership

·         Values-Based Leadership

Market Orientation Perspectives

Developing a market orientation begins by anticipating and exploring opportunities in the marketplace for products and services that enjoy a significant and defensible position. This task entails both analysis of the firm’s internal strengths and a search for relevant market segments—then finding the best fit between the two. Topics include:

·         A Customer-Focused Approach to Breakthrough Products

·         Creating and Nurturing Customer Relationships

·         Endowing Products With Meaning

·         Leveraging Your Marketing Assets

·         Marketing Strategy in the Twenty-First Century

·         The Evolution of Brand Equity

Strategy and Innovation

The fundamental objective of this area of study is to understand the sources of sustainable competitive advantage in a rapidly changing global environment. Topics include:

·         Building Organizational Capability

·         Competitive Positioning

·         Developing a Strategic-Thinking Mindset

·         Industry and Competitor Analysis

·         Managing Business Innovation

·         Strategic Intent and Fit

·         Understanding and Leveraging Value Chains and Networks

Capabilities Development

·         Analytical Thinking

·         Business Orientation

·         Communication and Interpersonal Skills

·         Conflict Management

·         Customer Focus

·         Entrepreneurial Thinking

·         Execution

·         Influence and Negotiation

·         Innovation

·         Leadership Growth

·         Strategic Thinking

·         Teambuilding Skills  

Strategic Thinking and Action

·         Building Organizational Capabilities for Competitive Advantage

·         Business Growth and Sustainability

·         Creating and Capturing Value Across the Value Chain

·         Developing Strategies for Corporate Transformation and Growth

·         Industry and Competition Analysis in a Global Context

·         Strategy as an Option; Strategy as Commitment

·         Understanding Successful Firms and Strategies

Strategic Decision Making

1)      Making Good Decisions

a)      Framing of decisions

b)      Asking the right questions

c)      Cognitive biases and mistakes

d)     Group decision making

2)      Harnessing Uncertainty

a)      Structuring decisions

b)      Incorporating uncertainty

c)      Evaluating alternatives

d)     Valuing additional information and greater control

e)      Understanding and managing risk

f)       Creating better alternatives

3)      Thinking Strategically

a)      Analyzing an industry

b)      Constructing a constellation of insights

c)      Fitting the pieces together

d)     Creating uniqueness

4)      Handling Wrenching Decisions

a)      Decisions reflect values; values drive decisions

b)      Identifying values

c)      Understanding tradeoffs

d)     Shaping alternatives

5)      Creating Value Through Better Decision Making

a)      Using appropriate analyses

b)      Staging decisions

c)      Incorporating options

d)     Integrating multiple perspectives

Managing Conflict and Creating Consensus

·         Crafting and Implementing Sustainable Agreements

·         Constructing Institutional Conflict Management Systems That Save Time and Money

·         Developing Communication Skills That Diffuse Disputes and Promote Collaboration

·         Leveraging Conflict to Transform Personal Relationships & Execute Org Change

·         Managing the Dynamics of Cooperation and Competition

·         Mediating Disputes, Building Trust, and Establishing Consensus

·         Understanding and Adapting One’s Own Attitude and Approach to Conflict Management

·         Understanding and Managing Cross-Cultural Impediments to Conflict Resolution

Negotiating Success 

·         Conceptual Structures of Competitive and Cooperative Negotiations

·         Mechanisms for Identifying and Creating Value

·         Strategies for Ensuring a Good Deal

·         The Role and Components of Effective Preparation and Analysis

·         The Use of Value-Creating Alternatives to Achieve One’s Own Self-Interest

·         The Value of Information, Goals, Opening Discussions, and Predetermined Walkaways