THE YEAR 2020: History is a witness to disruption and major upheavals. In the past such disruptions have always led to innovation and new ways of engagement in our day to day life. The scale of disruption {covid-19} has been such that the word “Certainty” needs to be redefined.

Offline classrooms have overnight transitioned to online. The word ZOOM is now as common as Good Morning! Globally, every segment of business and society has been impacted. Today, even employees in non tech roles need to know tech. The teaching community is now far more concerned about infrastructure-accessibility to telecom networks, speeds, affordability of devices – laptops/mobile phones. Teachers are becoming efficient facilitators rather than sole providers of knowledge.

The fast-emerging scenario is one of unprecedented challenges: how does the teaching community, overnight, work towards making online classes interesting and interactive. How do teams collaborate in the virtual world, how does one help the student community fight Zoom fatigue; To my mind, these challenges point to – the need for even greater Thought Leadership in institutions. Leaders who are willing to unlearn and learn at a fast pace. For example: in the long term the National Education Policy 2020, among its other initiatives aims to provide greater autonomy to Institutions. While these initiatives demand a total rethink, it paves the way to design and develop innovative syllabi and curricula to meet future needs of business and society.

The pandemic has underscored the need for business managers to be hypersensitive to the fact that social and environmental responsibility are as important as profitable growth. Thought leaders believe that to achieve higher levels of compliance and cooperation; societies, nations and leaders need to build TRUST in public authority, the media and in the scientific community. While this may seem a humongous task, the way forward is for us to realise that the potential within us is always far greater than the obstacles around us.

The FMS Forum was formed in the spirit of Guru Dakshina. The FMS Forum is a ‘not-for-profit society’. The FMS Forum aims to create intellectual capital for brand FMS. The Forum looks forward to working closely with the Dean, the faculty, the students, and the alumni in navigating the future.

A P PARIGI