Narottam Aryal is the executive director and principal of King’s College. He spoke with the New Business Age about his recent recognition as the Manager of the Year (presented by Management Association of Nepal) and his experiences and future agenda in the education sector. Excerpts:

 

Recently Management Association of Nepal has declared to award you as the Manager of the Year 2013. What is the significance of this decision by MAN? 

Management Association of Nepal (MAN) has been bestowing the “Manager of the Year” award to one business leader adjudged the best manager of the country every year since 1987. I think it is the most prestigious award of the country in the field of management practice. The award nominees are evaluated in four areas: organizational performance, management development, leadership performance & qualities, and personal traits or profile. This is for the first time since 1987, that the award is given to someone from the social sector of Education. For King’s, it is very significant as it has given not only the recognition and reward to our continuous efforts but also the encouragement to further extend our efforts toward turning King’s vision into reality. 

 

What were the major considerations of MAN behind this decision? What factors in King’s College performance and your leadership might have influenced this decision?

It is tough for me to say what the considerations were in front of the MAN jury. However, going by the look of it and from what we put before them with evidences, our remarkable growth in the last two years accounting for 10% of the nation’s MBA students each year and a total size of management learners nearly 700, our ethical leadership focusing on quality education and complete transparency in operations, our proven track record of encouraging entrepreneurship and innovation in business education in Nepal, and our efforts to institutionalize for sustainability might have been the major factors of consideration.

 

King’s College recently has been awarded by Everest Bank-NBA National B-School Ranking and Awards as the Emerging Business School of Nepal. Kindly note three unique practices and achievements of King’s College that have impacted upon such an award.

Yes, we are glad to have got this coveted recognition in the very first edition of these awards in Nepal. The three unique practices and achievements of King’s college that have impacted upon such an award might be: 

 

• Major focus on entrepreneurship by bringing in an 18-months long Entrepreneurship MBA ending with  commencing an actual business and a course recognized by an American International University of Los Angeles, USA, and incubated through Enterprise Development Centre of King’s College which even provides seed capital and infra-structure to short-listed entrepreneurial ventures of the best learners

 

• Overall quality education in business that focuses on learning by doing, blends face-to-face with digital and convergent online education, engages the learners in every aspect of the college, and ensures an international approach and environment through faculty, visitors, syllabi, etc.

 

• Education-first, rather than business-first mindset and practices, which calls for quality and ensuring every promise of the College notwithstanding costs involved.

 

What are the unique features of the American University degree in management at King’s College and how far are they relevant and suitable to the local conditions and considerations of Nepali economy?

The unique features of International American University (IAU) degree in management at our College include: internationally acclaimed, timely, rigorous and challenging curriculum, technology-integrated pedagogy: online and digital education included, and direct interaction with American and other foreign professors through digital and face-to-face modes.

 

We at King’s integrate such unique features of the American University degree with local cases, projects, guest speakers from different corporate or business houses, training on field and industrial visit, internships and other live activities during their studies. 

 

How many students are there at Bachelors and Masters in Management in King’s College, and how do they compare with the nation’s best? 

We have 690 students at Bachelors and Masters in Management in King’s College. They get internationally recognized, activity based degree and they are prepared as all-round graduates with the employability/entrepreneurial skills.  

 

They compare with the nation’s best in terms of mindset, exposure, and required skills and knowledge. Most importantly our students are ready to take up the professional challenges in their life independently after the course.

 

The Everest Bank-NBA B-School Ranking and Awards have called us the fifth best Business School of Nepal in 2013.

 

What is your basic approach to their business management training and application, and how do you position them into the growing economy of Nepal?

The management education that we impart to our learners focus on learning by doing, is experiential, practical-focused, and activity-based. All of these are done through: engagement in community through participation in CSR activities and INGO initiatives; cutting edge employability skills by developing their soft and hard skills in business; pre and post programme trainings of various types, within and beyond the classroom; internships in diverse business and non-government organizations; live projects with business clients related to surveys, market analysis, branding; working with teachers in their business projects; speaker programs and Mentorship with experts; and case writing and analysis of business successes or failures in our economy.

 

These experiences of the learners lead them to network with a good number of organizations, and based on their performance in the projects, they get placement offers at the end of the course. We also send batches of learners to organizations for placement interviews based on the continuous requests from business and non-government organizations, especially from banks, retail organizations, INGOs, et al.

 

Give three planned activities or practices of yours in near future at King’s College.

The three planned activities of King’s in near future are: launching comprehensive quality manual and quality policy in the new Nepali year and implementing it rigorously from the next academic year; publication of a research journal primarily based on the cases written by our own students and faculty, along with invited content from experts, perhaps that will be first time in Nepal; and having permanent faculty from outside Nepal as well, along with our own available best talent.

 

How can entrepreneurship as a culture and education be encouraged in Nepal and what specific measures are you taking in that regards?

It is an urgent necessity to build supportive ecosystem for promoting entrepreneurship in Nepal with collaboration with other similar institutions, research bodies, banks, financial organizations, and professional bodies. We have started the process by instituting a full time Entrepreneurship MBA, doing several rounds of consultations with the stake-holders and experts, supporting and participating in Start-ups Weekends and young entrepreneurs’ meets.  We should start entrepreneurship education from school level. Needless to say, people here need to be sensitized about the significance and reward of entrepreneurship. We through our Enterprise Development Centre will continuously promote entrepreneurship amongst the youths and will provide support  to set up their business by providing necessary initial small funds, ideas and mentorship, apart from start-up infra-structure. 

 

How do you look at the last 15 years growth in business education in Nepal and your suggestions on them?

Business education in Nepal has gone through a tremendous change. It has been far better than the last century and has encouraging future. However, there are a lot of challenges in front of us. The challenges I see are: devising a mechanism to have a meaningful industry-education interface; integrating our education to international standards and for the global market; designing Nepal–specific courses in focused areas of entrepreneurship, tourism, agri-business, energy sector, infra-structure management, etc; developing local resources and researches, case-studies etc, and having some well-defined common minimum standards of business education.