What's the Future of Management Education with Prof Mukesh Sud, IIM Ahmedabad

Soil Institute of Management

What does the future of management education look like in an age of AI, rapid change, and evolving business models? In this insightful conversation, Prof. Mukesh Sud, faculty at IIM Ahmedabad and a thought leader in entrepreneurial thinking, explores the emerging trends shaping the next generation of business education.

Transcript

00:00Hello everyone, I am Prapti Sahani and today we have here amongst us Professor Mukesh Sood

00:11who is a visiting faculty at IIM Ahmedabad and today he is here at Soil School of Business

00:15Design for his book launch of leapfrog six practices to thrive. So hello sir how are

00:21you? Good thanks Prapti, thank you for having me and a pleasure talking to you. We are very

00:26honoured to have you here. So we will be asking him a few questions. Sir you have an entrepreneurial

00:30bent of mind. So what can students do to improve or become entrepreneurs? I think Prapti the

00:36first thing is to start recognising opportunities. When you look at something, most people will

00:42look at it as a problem. But if you look at it as an opportunity to solve a problem, that's

00:48the first step of being an entrepreneur. That's very insightful. And how has the entrepreneurial

00:54landscape in India evolved since you started your career at IIT Delhi? Oh since completely

01:00because that was the early 1980s, 30-40 years ago and at that time for example the funding

01:07environment was very different. All you could do is get a bank loan probably. Today you have VC

01:13investments, you have angel investors. Entrepreneurship is taught today. At our time it wasn't taught at

01:20all. And VCs come into classes, they come and talk to students, they encourage them to put up

01:27businesses. And you can start a business today with virtually a very good idea and no capital.

01:34So it's changed a lot. Tremendously, tremendously. And how was your experience at Soil and how were the

01:40students? Oh I loved it. I enjoy talking to young people because I think you can mould them,

01:46you can give them new ideas. And even if one idea sticks, I think as an academic, as a writer,

01:53you feel very grateful and very honoured to be amongst them. And it gives you a lot of pleasure.

02:00And just tell us about your book Leapfrog. Could you elaborate on the six practices

02:04mentioned in your book and which one you find most crucial for entrepreneurs today?

02:09I think for entrepreneurs the last practice, things like an entrepreneur would probably be most

02:13relevant. But the book is much broader in its scope. We're not only looking at entrepreneurs.

02:19So we have a chapter on developing grit, where you have to deliberately practice something to improve

02:25and do well. We have a chapter on intellectual humility, where you need to recognise the limits

02:30to what you know. We have a chapter on curation, where you curate the chaos. Because there's so much of

02:37sound all around us and noise. We need to be able to identify the signal from the noise.

02:43So we have six chapters like this. I would urge readers to read the book. So I can't give everything

02:50away today. But broadly these are practices that will enable you to thrive both at work and in your

02:57personal life. Wonderful. And how important do you think design thinking is for MBA students?

03:03So I'm a big, very big fan of design thinking and I've been using it extensively in all my teaching.

03:09In fact, I teach entrepreneurship using a design thinking lens. All design thinking is doing is

03:15making you look in a very structured way at a problem that we call is a wicked problem. A wicked

03:22problem is one that is difficult to define, that has layered and parts to it that you can't really solve.

03:29And you need to look in a more holistic way. I use a framework. There are many frameworks in design

03:36thinking. I use what is called the EDIPT framework, which is you empathise, you define, you ideate,

03:43you prototype and you test. So for short form is EDIPT. And I think design thinking is a way to solve

03:50complex problems. So for an MBA student, design thinking is one more tool that they can use,

03:55one more framework that will help them settle down well in their careers.

04:00Thank you so much, sir. It was an honour to have you here today.

04:03Prapti, thank you for the occasion, for the opportunity and Anil for getting me over. And

04:10it's a long drive, but it's a beautiful campus. And I just enjoyed being here for the few hours with

04:16the students. That's wonderful. Thank you so much. Bye Prapti. Thank you.

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