Sunday Posts

From experience, I know the effects of space on learning is under-appreciated. Particularly so in most parts of the independent higher education sector in Britain, mostly owned and run by owner-operators for students coming from overseas. Somehow, there is an implicit assumption that students really don't care about the learning environment as long as they are in London, and given a good tutor and a course that meets their requirement. There is also a heavy focus on productive space, as in classrooms, as opposed to support spaces, like Library and Student Social Areas, and a tight control over overhead spending and space usage lies at the heart of the economics of independent higher education. As most of these colleges operate at the cost-conscious demand-absorption end of the sector, such 'savings' is often projected as critical to competitiveness and ongoing survival of the institutions. Coming at it from this perspective of functional space, it is interesting for me t...

Start up or acquisition? This is one discussion that features prominently in my daily routine.  It isn't just a theoretical question, but one that I regularly face. As I am trying to work towards setting up a new generation Business School, and navigate my way through various options of raising money, I am told this again and again, that investors love something which is already set up rather than risking their money to a start-up. Indeed, this had made me think and change our strategy considerably, and I have tried to put an acquisition at the core of our strategy and lost some time pursuing one or other businesses to create a platform. After a few false starts, I am at a point of rethink now: I am increasingly concerned the baggage an acquisition will put on our idea that should ideally be constructed as a nimble start-up business, and I am wondering how to get around the challenges of raising money that I am facing now. I indeed understand where the investors are coming fro...

I am not the kind of person who keeps track of all the special days, except the birthdays I must remember and do something about (or else face serious consequences). The only other kind of days I care about are bank holidays. So, the various UN mandated special days is indeed beyond my cognitive capacity. Add to that various media and special interest defined 'days', and I am sure there are more than 365 of these, and I bet this would go to anyone's mental capacity except those very special people who keep their special diaries which note every such days and who can tell you exactly which day they first had ice-cream. So, I conveniently depend on them, now that there is facebook and a reminder is always handy, to flag up special days, and then generally ignore them. Friendship Day could have been one such day, but the intensity and enthusiasm on Facebook caught up with me. Yes, this was to be expected - Facebook is one giant 'friending' system and if nothing, i...

Let's call it the Employability headwind, which is causing trouble in education. There are people who say it should be obvious: A person goes to college to get a job! But, really, is that it? Do you think someone really toils through all those deadlines, disappointments, vexing moments so that they can get a job? To toil through again, under someone else's wishes, carrying out rather unimportant tasks through a lifetime perhaps? Even if we are talking about graduate jobs here (if we accept there is such a thing, they must be fast disappearing), it is likely to be short term. There is no more lifelong employment, it has already been told, only lifelong learning. So, what is this big noise that college must be solely for employment? Okay, I accept there is a difference between 'for employment' and 'for employability', and we should go for the latter. However, the former is the only indicator of the latter - we can't prove employability if the student does...

I can never get used to the concept of wasted time. I know the common way of thinking that one has a sort of fixed lifetime, and if a period, however brief, was spent not pursuing something meaningful, it is a waste. However, if one looks beyond the obvious, there are couple of questions to ask: How do you know how much time you have to live? And, how do you know you have not pursued a meaningful goal unless you tried? If these questions sounded silly, let me try harder. I spent a few minutes this afternoon sitting in Tavistock Square. I did nothing: It was a beautiful afternoon, warm and sunny, the very best British summer could be. Olympics have scared away the tourists, in fact pretty much everyone, from London, so it was quieter and emptier than usual. I did not read, or think of anything. There was the statue of Gandhi, sitting as if in meditation, to look at, but I did not particularly notice him today. I was waiting, indeed, for a phone call, which was to tell me what to do...

This reflection relates to my own experiences, and various conversations I have had with Indian executives, particularly from the training industry, regarding the Joint Ventures or licensing arrangements, which seem to be popular and growing, between Indian and Western training outfits in the training space. The questions - the value of partnership, who should one partner with, what to expect - come up again and again, and indeed, my advice was sought, as recently as last week, for a similar project.  There is a consensus among the Indian executives that such partnerships/ licensing add value. Of particular interest to Indian companies are packaged concepts and ideas, models and certifications that such partnerships bring. Consider the recent outpouring of emotions on Facebook and other similar platforms on the demise of Steven Covey, though the mainstream media largely ignored it, which came primarily from the training business community in India. I am sure similar friendly f...