It takes a certain type of courage to bite the hand that feeds you. Dr Shahid Qureshi is a fierce critic of the way business schools churn out graduates in Pakistan and elsewhere in the world. It’s ironic then that he’s part of a movement to re-imagine business school education while sitting inside one of Pakistan’s premier business schools, the Institute of Business Administration (IBA). He also happens — not by chance — to be an MBA from the other premier business school in the country; the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS).
“I took my LUMS MBA very seriously,” shares Dr Shahid, currently the Programme Director at the IBA based Centre for Entrepreneurial Development (CED). “I was already 35, married and had two kids so I couldn’t afford to take my MBA lightly. I went to every class, studied every case and worked really hard. But I realised that most of the other students weren’t studying like me. Instead, they used to skim the cases, read between the lines and pay attention in class only until they would manage to get their class participation recorded. The sad part is that they were actually encouraged to behave this way because the system rewarded ‘smart’ studying. However, when you’re only reading the first and last page of a case and passing classes, are you actually taking out the time to reflect on things or just in it for the grades?”
“My wife noticed it first,” shares Dr Shahid, talking about how his personality changed over the course of his MBA. “Business schools have a way of making you arrogant and fascinated with jargon. You come out wanting to become a CEO in 15 years. This happens because of the way our programmes are structured. For example, we teach entrepreneurship using a causation model. The idea is to have a vision, develop a business plan, gather resources and then start a business. But this isn’t necessarily the best way to teach or engage in entrepreneurship. A much better way to teach entrepreneurship is to use the effectuation model. Here you don’t spend time theorising or developing a grand vision. Instead you take the resources you already have and ask what you can do with them. Usually, you sell a first product to your family or friends. Your confidence and network begin to grow. This is how many industrialists in Pakistan started their business.”
Dr Shahid Qureshi isn’t your typical all talk, no action academic. For example, Fawad Mahdi, who also works at the CED, describes Dr Shahid’s drive and energy levels as unstoppable. Recently, with the support of the Sindh government, Dr Shahid helped give business training to over 100 underprivileged youngsters from rural Sindh as well as areas such as Lyari in Karachi. The first question these students had about starting a business is where would the money come from? This is where the paradigm shift about starting from existing resources, rather than seeking out new resources, worked its magic. “Suddenly students began to see an old fridge in the house that could be sold as a start-up capital,” says Dr Shahid.
Many of Dr Shahid’s critiques of business schools are rooted in a global movement to reimagine business school education led by the likes of Henry Mintzberg, professor of management studies at the Desautels Faculty of Management of McGill University. While this emerging school of thought is challenging the status quo at universities around the world, this is an especially provocative battle to pick in Pakistan, especially as the hegemony of the ‘MBA’ as a passport to professional success is under attack from several fronts. Perhaps, no one is better suited to re-imagine business school education in Pakistan than a man who is a poster child product of the system itself. Pakistan’s next generation of business school graduates will feel the ripples of this academic rebel for years to come.
The purpose of this article is to find and share inspirational stories about everyday Pakistani heroes (if you know someone who should be profiled, send me a tweet @Mbilallakhani). If we don’t share these stories about Pakistan, no one else will.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 4th, 2014.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
COMMENTS (1)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
I am impressed with your efforts. Infact our country desperately needs this.