A Novel Start to Management Journey!!!

My official journey at NITIE began yesterday only, but my second day at NITIE made me feel that, this is the real beginning of my management education. Having worked for 2 years in a corporate environment, I had forgotten the struggle with which I used to attend the morning classes during my B.Tech. But then, I managed to reach the class at 9 AM.As per schedule,I was expecting a class on Communication Skills, but as the professor was absent, unexpectedly Prof. T. Prasad walked in to teach the course on Principles of Organization and Management. Prof. Prasad is fondly known as Prof. Mandi and is much famed for his innovative methods of teaching the management principles.

I was excited to attend his very first class and that too unexpectedly!! And the experience and surprises of Prof. Mandi's teaching began....With Prof Mandi walking in, removing all the formal setups of chair, table and asking all of us to sit (or even lay down comfortably ) on the floor. And this was his first learning... to be proud of what you are and to be grounded to your roots and Desi ideals, even today.

Later on, Prof. Mandi taught us in a truly experiential manner the real meaning of education and management. He demonstrated a few educational toys and told us about the 'Mandi' initiative at NITIE. Mandi is an annual event at NITIE, where students go to the streets of Mumbai and sell educational toys. Mandi is the brainchild of Prof. Mandi which again reinforces his philosophy of personal internalization of management principles and experiential learning.

Some of the interesting toys that he demonstrated:

He demonstrated a basic scientific toy known as Newton's Cradle, which was built by two engineers turned entrepreneurs. Surprisingly, none of us had ever used the toy for learning purposes. This made us ponder over the current state of education in India, where students and teachers believe in rot learning that lacks creativity. 

Then, he asked us to assess the potential market for selling this toy and the pricing.

In addition, he showed us a butterfly and a stress buster ball with a globe imprinted on it. He demonstrated that how fun it can be to learn geography for a child while playing with the globe in the form of a rubber ball.

Again, we assessed the price and market for this product. He made us realize that we are stuck by a beggar mentality where today most of us employment seekers and not employment generators. We also discussed ways to make the event ‘Mandi’ even bigger.

On Prof. Mandi's blog, he highlights the philosophy of the course as :

Soacho.. Becho !  Becho.. Seekho ! !   Seekho .. Soacho ! ! !

Behatar Padhai ke Liye... Kamai !

Earning by Learning & Earning for Learning  !

Aaj Ki roti...Aaj hee,  kamyaenghae  !

True to his words, Prof. made us realize the cost which we are incurring for our management education and inspired us to earn by learning, while learning. He made us realize that the spirit of 'Dhanda' or business is best learnt by implementation. He envisioned an education system where students have entrepreneurial minds, where learning is fun and where students actually learn by doing ...I wish that this philosophy gets integrated in our Indian education system. The sooner it is, the better it is for the nation.