Dean's Message

Dear Friends,

The other day I was going through a video that I received on Whatsapp from a friend. It claimed to be a video of a warehouse owned by Alibaba (the Chinese e-commerce giant) where you could see robots moving from aisle to aisle locating the specific article for which an order had been placed and bringing the article to a counter for packing and shipping. I was also given to understand that there were lesser number of people working in the warehouse than robots! While I was mightily impressed, it led me to ponder over the future of the workforce all over the world.

At an evolutionary level, the humans are at the top of the pyramid as we are the only living beings with the capacity to think. Over generations, as is natural, our thinking processes have matured substantially allowing us to do today that which was unthinkable in the past. With AI and the IoT we have succeeded in getting non-living things to function like living things – in some desired format. I am simply astounded to see some of the products that are available in the market today and I truly wonder what awaits us at the end of this evolutionary spiral!

Brace yourselves, because this exciting way of life is here to stay. Revolutions will continue to occur at increasing frequency and we will have to cope. Trade and commerce, practices, associations and alliances will take on a different meaning and business and management will evolve to embrace the changes in the way we live our lives in the days to come. Education, therefore will no longer be a constant but something that will need periodic updating and overhauling. If you are looking to take up a management course after spending a few years in the industry, chances are that you have already felt the need to update.

Dr. Bala V Balachandran
J L Kellogg Distinguished Professor (Emeritus in service) of Accounting & Information Management, Northwestern University, USA
Founder, Dean & Chairman, Great Lakes Institute of Management, India
Founder & Chancellor, Great Lakes International University, Sri City, Andhra Pradesh, India