Flipkart’s Zain Inhonvi on Hiring During the Pandemic and Bridging the DeepTech Gap

The way we shop (eg. Amazon), the way patients are treated (robotic surgery), the way we bank (UPI), or the way we travel (Uber, Ola) have all changed phenomenally over the last couple of decades. Each of these areas has been disrupted, thanks to technology. Technology companies have transformed into retail stores and banks rather than just traditional companies.

While this is the case with most areas, let us take a look at the education system. It may not be unfair to say that the system has not changed much over 1000s of years. Education continues to be traditional in most sense of the terms. There are 30-60 students in the classroom.  Different faculty members come and deliver classes/lectures. The class is assumed to be learning at the same speed and they move in cohorts. However, the fact is, each student learns differently and at different speeds. It takes a phenomenal teacher (always in short supply) and small cohort size (major challenge to scale) to give any personal attention to the needs of every student.

However, we see some real impact of technology in the youth today.  I was talking to a friend’s son recently. He is a very bright student and was a school topper in a very popular school in Chennai.  He won various All India Science Competition awards. And only a few months back, he had surprised everyone, including his family and school management by joining a business degree (shunning both engineering and science) program. And recently, he decided to drop out of college, barely 6 months into the 3-year program.

While talking to him, at the request of his father to see what is happening, it was clear that his aspirations (and abilities) were far higher than what the education system could feed him with. He decided to learn online with the top universities while pursuing his startup aspiration. I felt he had a clear vision of the career he wanted to pursue. And the ideas he had, with regard to learning different streams (his list: design thinking, artificial intelligence, supply chain management, business finance, virtual reality) to come with a startup idea really stumped me. The best part was, he also knew what program he would do on which platform and why he is choosing the same.

At the same time, I end up meeting many other students (and their parents), who are lagging behind. Unable to cope with the curriculum in school and taking personal tuitions and struggling to make the grades.

Both happening at the same time in spite of having access to a similar type of schools, curriculum, teachers, study load etc. Technology has helped one to pursue the dreams and has not been of help for the other.

This made me wonder about how technology has changed the education system over the years. We are currently in the fourth wave.  The flip class wave, eLearning wave, the MOOCs wave and the Intelligent System wave. I believe that the impact of each of them in the evolution is significant, though these have so far had only a negligible change in the complete education ecosystem. Let us look at each of them.

The flip class wave

Focused on transforming traditional lectures to self-study and home-work (applying the learning) to the classroom. However, it was found that motivating students to learn on their own, in their own time with available resources was not an easy task.

The eLearning wave

Tried to make self-learning more interesting.  A lot of audio-visual came into play and so were interactive videos.  This format enabled motivated students to learn more effectively and the gamification and edutainment quotient made it fun to learn. Again, the beneficiaries were the motivated and talented students.

Then came the MOOCs wave

The eLearning moved to video, at a really huge scale. Technically, one can learn today from the top most institutions across the globe at a fraction or no cost. This was touted to be the game-changer.  However, here again, the beneficiaries were self-motivated talented students. Though millions of students joined the platform, the program completion rate continued to be generally in the low double-digit numbers.

Building on all the 3 waves, the intelligent platforms are now evolving to be the next big thing in education.  The key focus of these platforms are:

a. Goal-based learning path

Enables one to start with the end in mind.  This is very effectively used by today’s youth specifically for their dream education and jobs.  Be it preparation of GMAT, GRE, CAT or Bank, Government Exams, one is able to fix a goal and work towards it.  Much like a sports person working on achieving a goal (say 100m in less than 10 seconds) one is able to create a goal for self and work towards achieving it with the help of the platform.

b. Extreme personalization

One of the biggest issues of the education system is mass customization and painting all the students in a cohort with the same brush.  Today’s Intelligent platforms have enabled extreme personalization. Each student gets a study plan which suits him/her, completely based on one’s readiness vis-a-vis the goals. With the power of AI improving every day, this is becoming a reality and the results are there to see.

c. Dynamic Planning

Keeping in mind the dynamic environment, intelligent platforms are able to adapt to these changes and help with dynamic planning to cater to the changing needs.  Hence, half the process of a typical PDCA cycle (Plan-Do-Check-Act) is taken over by the platform with Planning and Checking being automated. A student has to only Do what he has set out to do and Act on the updates based on current preparedness.

d. AI-powered Insights

With the power of AI and huge amounts of data, the trends in the market both in terms of what is hot and what is not and in terms of career opportunities and learning skills are getting better by the day.  AI has the potential to map and predict demand and supply across various career opportunities and skills. Intelligent platforms are not too far off in exploiting these strengths of AI and bringing exciting careers to pursue for the youth.

A word of caution though.  These 4 waves showed that while technology was able to help motivated good students, getting it widely accepted by those who need a well-defined structure and continuous support to stay engaged were left out, which is the majority of the students and youth. A combination of technology effectively used in a structured environment (like school or college) is waiting to be exploited.

For a long time, online learning did not find enough resources and attention. Both instructors and learners shrugged its benefits under the assumption that it is only a stop-gap arrangement for those who cannot be physically present. But look around. No matter how challenging, the current crisis has been an eye-opener for many naysayers and online courses’ skeptics. Today, from schools to colleges, universities, and corporate training departments, everyone is leveraging the power of online learning.  

It has been established that online can be an excellent medium for learning anywhere, anytime, and from anyone. But what has also been revealed is the substantial interactive and engagement value that only online courses are creating for many niche segments and learners.

Faster and better learning

Just rewind your memory to an offline course or a traditional classroom. Yes, it was a relief to have both the mentor/coach and students present in the same room. But here a few questions to ponder.

• Did such a course tap into the much-needed element of letting the two sides interact? 
• Did it allow students to take part? 
• Did it give them enough scope to question and to clarify their doubts? 
• Could they find time and room to apply their lessons? 
• Could they ever do any follow-up networking, application, or revisions without arranging an entire class all over again?

The chances are that, more often than not, these courses were one-directional monologues. However, what online learning does is inject a never-before element of two-dimensional interaction in the same course. It makes the class an actual dialogue. And no matter how many people are in there–the quality stays the same.

As walls get redundant, the cognitive walls also get crumbled when a course is offered online. Here’s what happens in well-designed, carefully constructed, and diligently empowered online courses.

1. The learners get the flexibility to organize their lessons, the order, the pace, the time, the depth, and the format–this gives the course a very personalized touch, enabling the students to take the optimum gains out of the time spent here.
2. Over-the-shoulder proximity and affinity between the instructor and learner create a deep association that allows them to interact on a one-on-one level, seldom possible in a physical classroom. The instructor can now spot the exact time and reason for any errors or doubts arising at the student’s end. Directly, the students can engage in a deep conversation and get answers unique to their needs.
3. In a well-executed course, the students find a lot of elasticity and scalability, which add to their learning curve trajectories. Cloud and automation, coupled with new-age technology accessories, help to make the course accessible, affordable, and simple in many aspects.
4. The instructor can use a variety of resources to make the learning material more exciting and fun. This allows them to cultivate high-retention rates and employable skills after a course is conducted. Gamification, participation, and networking are quickly injected in a smart course delivered this way.
5. The learner is not a dormant entity in these courses. S/he can also add to, change, test, and challenge any part of the lesson because the course gives the right tools here. The students can, themselves, personalize, design, and re-organize a course without causing interruptions or friction for other students.
6. Practice, application-oriented lessons, and incremental learning get a new power and place in these tech-driven courses.

So let us stop assuming that online learning is a temporary phenomenon like remote-working or online-meetings. The potential of online learning has now moved to so many new propositions. No wonder the online education market size in India is expected to grow by USD 14.33 billion during 2020-2024, as per TechNavio’s estimates. The drivers are high internet penetration, the crisis-led needs, the rise of smartphone usage, and the government’s initiatives towards digitization. But what is also essential to observe is, they are now more than standby options. They can add speed and shrink distance for sure. But they can also compellingly expand the learning outcomes. They break not just walls but many boundaries too.

The COVID19 pandemic has led to many economic upheavals. At the moment, the Indian economy is contracting. This is impacting how finance professionals are planning their careers and future.

The current economic condition doesn’t look encouraging. Dr. Tirthankar Patnaik, Chief Economist at the National Stock Exchange of India, averred that the current economic plunge is probably the worst since the World Wars happened. “Even in World War 2, when the economy fell, only some countries were involved. But today, in this crisis, 93 percent of all global countries are involved. It is a very pervasive negative phenomenon. That explains the unprecedented solutions that the Central Bank has proposed now.” Economists are wavering between -10 to -16 percent of the negative economic outlook. Yet, it is probably the worse that we have seen in India’s independent history, and perhaps the worst we will see in a very long time, he added. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dU0vaOw-Kw

Many interpretations and prognosis-points were unraveled in this very candid discussion where minds of all stripes–from stock-market experts to professors and skill-developers had corralled. That led to many first-hand insights and some strong objective analysis. For instance, while the economy is struggling, technology-reach and digital-economy have sped up. Dr. Patnaik told why he is excited about technology’s impact. He cited how Internet-based trading is elbowing out institutional trading.

“I also see digital currencies as an interesting phenomenon. The extent of transactions that happen in a cashless way has significantly picked up. People are embracing digitization in a big way, even as some are thinking of going insular and in concentrated supply chains. The extent of interactions among people globally has seen a quantum jump. The world is getting globalized even more.” – Dr. Tirthankar Patnaik, Chief Economist, National Stock Exchange of India

Academics meet business soldiers

Helping to understand the GST impact and political ramifications of this upheaval, Dr. Partha Ray, Professor, IIM Calcutta, also chimed in with his acute observations. Dr. Ray then noted how the global economy and digital money (GEDM) programme is apt for finance professionals to stay abreast of such developments? 

“The global economy can get a rebound. One major trigger for this can come from a broader digital question. That’s when we thought of offering a specific programme integrating two critical areas–global economy and digital money. It’s the mixture of the sublime and the mundane. A lot of people can join in. The programme has an interesting arc from fundamentals to modules like Game Theory, Market Failures, Externalities, Macroeconomics in the Post-pandemic world along with facets like trade, foreign investment, Sovereign Debt, etc.” – Dr. Partha Ray, Professor, IIM Calcutta

To spend or not to spend–is the big question the world over, Dr. Ray stressed. He further added, “At the end of the day, money is an act of faith. It is a construct of civilization. So we need to understand the nature of money and trends of globalization in the post-pandemic world. We also cover new areas like cryptography, Blockchain, platform economy, and various topologies, money as a utility, and the poly-centric order. This spans the entire gamut from centralization to decentralization.”

The IIM-C and Talentsprint’s GEDM programme has six modules designed for current trends, and a Capstone project follows them.

Fight or flee
Dr. Santanu Paul, CEO, and MD, TalentSprint, who steered this discussion, also shared his perspectives.

“Digital commerce is replacing traditional retail in many ways. The Covid effect on automation, social distancing, etc. will help this trend even more. In many ways, there is a new form of state challenging the state–like the most powerful person in the US, as some believe, is not Trump but Zuckerberg.” – Dr. Santanu Paul, CEO and MD, TalentSprint

Paul explained how the program on GEDM is relevant in the current landscape for those looking to stay relevant and confident. Dr. Ray warned that senior finance professionals need to talk to the people they are engaged with–else they will be reduced to dinosaurs. “They will be hostage to the newer guys. That’s why we want to equip them with the right knowledge,” he added.

The world was already changing, but with the COVID19 crisis, these changes have sped up. If you are not reinventing your career to get on the bus of these changes, you will miss the big road. This GEDM course will get on that bus fast, concluded Dr. Patnaik. Dr. Ray also cautioned about avoiding the pessimistic bias. “A crisis is a terrible thing to waste–it means chaos, but to the right pair of eyes and brains, it is an opportunity,” as Paul wrapped it up perfectly. 

Dr. Patnaik admired the outline of the programme. “It is amazing. I am sure it would be a significant jump in the knowledge repository for anyone who takes this course.” We have not seen the bottom yet, as Dr. Patnaik reminded us. But the sun’s rays are up for us to grab and hold on to.