An educational evening

THE CIBES SEMINAR on What They Don't Teach You At Business Schools

Hats off to the young people who organized the event very professionally! All the top names in the industry and academia were there. A Mixed Blessing, actually, but it at least underscores the credibility that this series of seminars has achieved over the years. The format, too, is wonderful. I was glad to have been invited to speak, but would have enjoyed it equally well as a member of the audience.

The opening presentation by Mr Said Ghani was scholarly and academic, with his usual strong focus on morality, ethics and other human issues. His opinion has always been to ensure that matters are placed wihin our cultural context and draw upon our own resources and heritage, religious and otherwise, though not to the exclusion of all else. There were oppositions to this view, later, by those who felt that Globalization was 'inevitable', somehow implying that we should - as always - be content to be the Road and never aspire to be Road Rollers.

I found all but one of the other presenters and speakers to be wonderful - in the ways I had expected them to be: Staid, Conventional, Risk-Averse. The exception had absolutely nothing to say that was worth hearing. He seemed to be in love with himself - a state that guarantees very few rivals.

The opposition of a couple of co-speakers to some things I said, particularly regarding the role of Competition, I was prepared for and welcomed: Try knocking any accepted idea and you'll get an even bigger and stronger opposition. In any case, my purpose, as stated in the presentation, was to stir up debate on this issue. Mr Danishmand's response, in terms of the attitude he displayed later, was strictly in keeping with his personality (which I was to discover as the evening unfolded). So, at least his qaul and fayl are the same! Sadly, neither is worthy of my respect.

Later, on my way home, I had messaged one of the kids from COMMECS, saying that I wish I had not been huddled off with the 'elite' for tea after the seminar, but had been allowed to interact with the students (who were all shushed off to another room). After all, it was because of them that I had agreed to participate. This is his response via sms:

that would have been enlightening for the students. hehe. Mr Danishmand was too defensive abt things. you were highly relevant and awesome in communicating the harsh reality in a witty mode.

The italicized part is what I am gladdest and most concerned about: Talk about ANY aspect of education, from high school to university to professional institutes, and you hear students complaining of the irrelevance of many aspects of the curricula, the syllabi, the teaching methodology, the half-baked internship programs, the lab and field work.

Surely, it is fair to expect business schools to best understand what needs to be done - at least in their domain - in a situation where there are so many dissatisfied customers. I wonder how many have a CRM Department...

One young person put forth 2 extremely relevant questions at Q&A time. He was unnecessarily, and rudely, 'put down' by an amazing waste of hydrocarbons who actually grabbed and held on to the mike and went on to answer all of the questions asked. The quality of his replies prompted this:

Thaa bü∂haapay kee sama'at ka qüsoor,

Ham jo süntay thay voh daanishmand hae;

Kal sünaa jab paas say to yeh khülaa:

Üss ki to bilkül hee daanish band hae!

I strongly believe that every educational institution of higher learning must have at least one dissenting voice on campus, within its faculty, or the institution will never grow into a great one. Nor will its students learn, by observation, that a diversity of opinions will always exist, that what needs to be learnt is to co-exist.