Dr. Khanna has an academic experience of 23 years in the area of Marketing, Strategic Brand Management, Marketing Research, Services Marketing in Institutions such as K J Somaiya, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade at New Delhi, IIT Bombay Shailesh J Mehta School of Management, NITIE & Don Bosco Institute of Management Studies. She has an industry experience of 4 years in Engineering & Industrial Automation with Siemens Limited at Mumbai.
India is among the oldest civilizations in the world and has been a cradle of knowledge. In current times, the culture of research in India is evolving or is in nascent stage. As per a study, Indian institutes are traditionally positioned as teaching institutes rather than research institutes. This is primarily why Indian Universities and Institutes perform poorly in International rankings. We need to strengthen the culture of research and bring back our past glory.
At present, we do not have a dominant research culture; the number of research papers being published is lower and the number of PhD guides/candidates coming out of universities is fewer. However, there are some faculty/universities that are doing good research and are putting efforts to become world class. India is the fastest growing economy and a lot of companies are looking at India to do business, so it is an opportune moment for institutes to collaborate with industry and come out good quality research. It requires a complete mindset shift and focus. Serious commitment to research is needed to come out with path breaking and quality output.
Education in the Digital Economy
Customer engagement is going to be the biggest challenge in this evolving world. Students (consumers), who are millennials or centennials, are much ahead of technology usage when compared to teachers (service provider). Simply chalk-and-talk won’t work with the youngsters, unless a teacher brings in latest pedagogical tools into the classroom.
Industry 4.0 is a lot about digitization and consumer insights in this hyper competitive environment. Consumer insight is the king but along with insight you require foresight as well, you need to predict the industry trends. The education system must be the change agent to provide quality inputs to the students to prepare them for the new world of Industry 4.0.
Some of the major challenges are knowledge obsolescence, faculty reskilling with retraining to keep pace with pedagogical tools especially with technology-based tools, exposure to more of experiential learning and on-the-job training. Theoretical learning will set the framework for right thinking, but as practical and application-based learning happens, it will be more beneficial for the industry.
Skills to Survive
The biggest skill is to possess self-confidence, also patience and perseverance is a must. Along with these traits, an open mindset to learn new things also comes in handy. In this ever-changing world, one must learn, unlearn and relearn on a continuous basis. Education is just the starting point of one’s career.
Self-transformation leads to world transformation, service to self is service to nation. In this fast-moving world, it is very easy to get distracted with irrelevant things. Hence, it is important to stay focused. Only then will positive progress and change happen. (As told to the Editor)
More About the Author
Dr. Monica Khanna is passionate about teaching, developing and publishing cases based on Indian businesses and research in the area of Brand Management & Consumer Behavior with focus on University Branding, Heritage Brands, Impulse Buying Behavior, Online Buying Behavior, Consumer Behavior among Low Income Groups in India, Relationship Marketing and Healthy Food Choices among Urban Indians. She is registered as Ph.D. Guide with University of Mumbai and External PhD Guide with Birla Institute of Technology (BIT), Mesra.
Dr. Monica has travelled abroad for exploring possibilities for international collaborations with universities in USA, China, Hong Kong, Europe, Japan, and research paper presentations in conferences conducted in Europe, Turkey, Japan and Kenya. She has been invited to address Ph.D. students of Hamburg School of Business Administration in Germany and for international faculty exchange programme to teach International Management at DHBW Stuttgart in June 2016, June 2017 and June 2018.
Dr. Monica has won awards for case study competitions held by the Aditya V Birla India Centre at the London Business School, awards for excellence in teaching by the Bombay Management Association, Higher Education Forum, Somaiya Vidyavihar, and recently Y K Bhushan Award for 100 Most Dedicated Teachers of India. Dr. Monica has also been elected as member of the Managing Council of All India Management Association (AIMA), New Delhi for AY 2015-17 and AY 2017-19.