Someone needs to say it out loud. Wharton's current class blew it. And they blew it big time.
Wharton India Economic Forum (WIEF) has been an annual fixture since 1996 at Wharton business school. Some the most influential Indians, from various walks of life, are invited to two days of stimulating discussion about the promise of India, and how she can go about achieving it. One will be held this year too. Oh ... but the hash that WIEF's organizing team has made of it all this year.
WIEF organizers invited one of the most prominent, and admittedly, polarizing politicians of India - Narendra Modi - to deliver a keynote at this year's gathering. A few UPenn faculty members started a petition against this. The petition gathered some momentum - to the tune of a couple of hundred signers no less. WIEF buckled under the pressure and rescinded the invitation.
We are Quakers. We quake. Even to tremblors that are no more than 2.0. And then we crumble.
The organizing team, in its rush to appease the frail sensibilities of a few, failed to consider the very basic tenet of any decision making. A cost to benefit analysis. It may just be that the current class is still to get to that bit in their coursework. Oh, but this is Wharton. An Ivy-League b-school. These students must have strong fundamentals. That is precisely the point. It doesn't seem so. Go read the half-assed statement that WIEF organizing committee released, announcing its decision to un-invite Narendra Modi. Aah. Oh ... the mind numbing intellectual hypocrisy. Between that statement and the boasts about WIEF's goals (read the 'About' on WIEF's website - http://www.whartonindia.com/about.php), you will not miss the point. For that matter, the petition that the few in the faculty had initiated, didn't set fire to any stationary either.
Of course the onus of this fiasco rests with WIEF organizing committee. WIEF organizing committee and it's members failed, miserably, not just to articulate and defend their position, but even to understand why they wanted someone like Narendra Modi to be speak at the forum in first place.
So what's the big deal you ask. Its just a bunch of students who may have mishandled a situation. The platinum sponsor of WIEF-2013 parted ways with WIEF - in protest. A gold sponsor followed suit soon after. At least two other prominent speakers of Indian origin decided, in protest, not to attend. WIEF had a hard time filling the suddenly vacant slots in it's agenda for this year's forum.
Who wants some future business leaders?
A lot has been said and written about why WIEF should or should not have, in the first place invited Narendra Modi, and subsequently un-invited him. What has entirely been missed are the lessons that can and should be learned from the fiasco that is WIEF-2013.
The question is: will the students of WIEF, and Wharton's current class at large, learn anything from it? They should, but they probably won't. Had this been an actual real world situation - as if it could get any more real than this while in school - one shudders to think what such gross mismanagement of a situation, especially one that is as hyperbolical and as insignificant as this one, would do to the bottom line and the reputation of the employers. The companies and organization that are bound to line up to hire these dolts must grill them. Or risk having to hire a bunch of incompetent twerps.
If nothing else comes of it, somewhere here there must be a case study about communication skills, conflict resolution, public relations management, situational awareness and strategic thinking. Gee. Only if this was part of Wharton's curriculum. But it was, and is. So what went wrong you ask.
Plain and simple answer? The ivy in ivy-league is not green anymore. It is confused. Confused between being socially responsible and generating profits. And it is withering. Withering under the vine of incompetence and political correctness that is sucking the very life force out of the mighty redwood that this nation, the US of A, once was. And slowly but surely this vine is taking over. All the way from the canopy (the government) to the deepest root (the citizenry). Its little wonder then, that Wharton's no different.
Go Fuck (Wharton)Quakers.
Wharton India Economic Forum (WIEF) has been an annual fixture since 1996 at Wharton business school. Some the most influential Indians, from various walks of life, are invited to two days of stimulating discussion about the promise of India, and how she can go about achieving it. One will be held this year too. Oh ... but the hash that WIEF's organizing team has made of it all this year.
WIEF organizers invited one of the most prominent, and admittedly, polarizing politicians of India - Narendra Modi - to deliver a keynote at this year's gathering. A few UPenn faculty members started a petition against this. The petition gathered some momentum - to the tune of a couple of hundred signers no less. WIEF buckled under the pressure and rescinded the invitation.
We are Quakers. We quake. Even to tremblors that are no more than 2.0. And then we crumble.
The organizing team, in its rush to appease the frail sensibilities of a few, failed to consider the very basic tenet of any decision making. A cost to benefit analysis. It may just be that the current class is still to get to that bit in their coursework. Oh, but this is Wharton. An Ivy-League b-school. These students must have strong fundamentals. That is precisely the point. It doesn't seem so. Go read the half-assed statement that WIEF organizing committee released, announcing its decision to un-invite Narendra Modi. Aah. Oh ... the mind numbing intellectual hypocrisy. Between that statement and the boasts about WIEF's goals (read the 'About' on WIEF's website - http://www.whartonindia.com/about.php), you will not miss the point. For that matter, the petition that the few in the faculty had initiated, didn't set fire to any stationary either.
Of course the onus of this fiasco rests with WIEF organizing committee. WIEF organizing committee and it's members failed, miserably, not just to articulate and defend their position, but even to understand why they wanted someone like Narendra Modi to be speak at the forum in first place.
So what's the big deal you ask. Its just a bunch of students who may have mishandled a situation. The platinum sponsor of WIEF-2013 parted ways with WIEF - in protest. A gold sponsor followed suit soon after. At least two other prominent speakers of Indian origin decided, in protest, not to attend. WIEF had a hard time filling the suddenly vacant slots in it's agenda for this year's forum.
Who wants some future business leaders?
A lot has been said and written about why WIEF should or should not have, in the first place invited Narendra Modi, and subsequently un-invited him. What has entirely been missed are the lessons that can and should be learned from the fiasco that is WIEF-2013.
The question is: will the students of WIEF, and Wharton's current class at large, learn anything from it? They should, but they probably won't. Had this been an actual real world situation - as if it could get any more real than this while in school - one shudders to think what such gross mismanagement of a situation, especially one that is as hyperbolical and as insignificant as this one, would do to the bottom line and the reputation of the employers. The companies and organization that are bound to line up to hire these dolts must grill them. Or risk having to hire a bunch of incompetent twerps.
If nothing else comes of it, somewhere here there must be a case study about communication skills, conflict resolution, public relations management, situational awareness and strategic thinking. Gee. Only if this was part of Wharton's curriculum. But it was, and is. So what went wrong you ask.
Plain and simple answer? The ivy in ivy-league is not green anymore. It is confused. Confused between being socially responsible and generating profits. And it is withering. Withering under the vine of incompetence and political correctness that is sucking the very life force out of the mighty redwood that this nation, the US of A, once was. And slowly but surely this vine is taking over. All the way from the canopy (the government) to the deepest root (the citizenry). Its little wonder then, that Wharton's no different.
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