I Want to be Accredited

We at IMT are going through the process of accreditation by AACSB, a premier agency which does that for B schools. This one is for the Ghaziabad campus. And what it does is it forces you to look at all your goals, processes, and outcomes, and also what you do about them.

But my quest is for an accreditation for myself. I think that is a quest for self-discovery. Boring, universal questions like Who am I and What am I Doing on the planet are passe. But What am I, or what should I do for the rest of my time here, and how, can be rather interesting questions to answer. So can I get some volunteers to accredit me? Maybe for a small fee, like a night out with a drink and a movie? Or a barter, that I will do unto them what they will do unto me.

I need answers to just a few Qs.

What am I doing well? Not well?

How do I bring in continuous improvement and Total Quality Management to my life? (the Japs did it in Toyota, I know, but I am talking more important stiuff than a mere automobile here).

How do I measure my Happiness Quotient.

This is a small but important list. Yours might be different.

I think we could (at least I could) benefit from an accreditation agency- or a person.

AACSB and Faculty Development

I am in Mumbai on work, more on which later. But I got a chance to talk to some faculty members at K. J. Somaiya School of Management through a friend/co-author who works there. It was about the state of research in management schools and how we can do more.

Another interesting discussion was about how foreign B schools in Asian countries (non-Indian) have positioned themselves better through accreditations and research output and so on. IMT Ghaziabad, and  KJ Somaiya have both applied for AACSB accreditation, considered the best in the world. We at IMT are working hard to get it, too, and hopefully should in a year or more. We had a useful sharing of info on what it entails. One of the important things again is research output improvements. Second, accountability in the form of Assurance of Learning for our students. Documented and delivered, audited. Good stuff! I think schools (not just B schools) at all levels should do this.