Some jobs will simply cease to be, elements of some jobs will cease to be, and some jobs will see addition of new elements. These are the three major outcomes of Industry 4.0, or the fourth industrial revolution, which is bringing to us robotics, autonomous transport, artificial intelligence, machine learning, observed Edwin Moses, Group Vice-President of Oracle.
He was addressing a panel discussion, ‘Industry 4.0: Future of work and desired competencies from MBAs’, at the 9th Indian Management Conclave 2018, held in IIM-Bangalore. Over 250 speakers and delegates participated in the event.
Pointing out that ‘learning’ is one common factor to all these three outcomes, Moses said: “The guy who has lost his job has got to learn a new one. The guy who has lost elements of his job has to learn new elements. And the guy who has new elements added to his job will have to learn the new elements. Therefore, the key question to ask ourselves in this current environment of MBA education is, are we equipped to enable learning.”
Industry 4.0, which is the convergence of physical and cyber systems, is just the latest challenge that businesses are facing, observed Raghavan Srinivasan, Editor,
In a scenario where the human element is becoming less essential to the continuous process of business, as everything is getting robotised, do MBA educators know what industry wants and how do they design a learning system to deliver what industry wants and make their students relevant to business needs of the day, are some of the key challenges that face B-Schools today, Srinivasan said.
‘The real world’
Samar Singh Sheikhawat, Chief Marketing Officer, United Breweries, said that instead of being trained to compete against others, one must be trained to compete against oneself and better one’s performance, just like sportsmen do. “How about instituting awards for the most improved performance? Why should our point of reference be external, and not ourselves?”
Stating that students should be encouraged to learn by doing, and not by rote, he said, “I interviewed 72 students at an IIM recently and hired only one, because we had committed to hiring at least one from there. All the students I interviewed were qualified, but not educated. They are not prepared for the real world.”
Three trends will dominate businesses today — purpose, wellness and sustainability. The millennial workforce is more concerned with companies and brands with a purpose beyond just commercial gain or making money. And the nature of human skills that is required to deal with these three trends will have to change, he concluded.
Longer internships
Piyush Singh, Director HR, KPMG, pointed out that the MBA curriculum must be better-prepared for industry, and students must be trained to manage ambiguity and conflict, respect the decorum of the workplace but still be able to question the status quo .
Achal Jaiswal, Vice-President and Southern Region Head, National Stock Exchange, said in order to live up to both employer and employee expectations, B-schools must encourage longer internships for six months, instead of just 30/60 days, and let students intern in companies of their choice.
Phillip Samuel Babu, Head of Channel & Student Academy, SAP India, said that it is important for B-schools to instil a sense of commitment in the students to learn and contribute to a workplace, teach students to respect the organisation, its seniors and also teach them how to say ‘no’ when required.