Top of the class
The founder of Capital Management Advisors, Rakesh Wahi, discusses the future of the education sector and how technology is changing the student experience
The founder of Capital Management Advisors, Rakesh Wahi, discusses the future of the education sector and how technology is changing the student experience
With a presence in 22 countries, operating in three verticals, and employing more than 1,500 people, Captial Management Advisors has enjoyed a tremendous growth story since launching in 2002.
The group’s founding partner and chairman, Rakesh Wahi, has been instrumental in building CMA’s portfolio, which covers media, education and IT, and spreads across the Middle East, Indian subcontinent, Africa, Asia and the United States.
Through a series of international investments and partnerships, the Indian entrepreneur has developed a reputation for impressive launches, including Murdoch University Dubai, CNBC Africa,
Forbes Africa, Tech One Global, and more. Speaking exclusively to Gulf Business, Wahi reveals some of the challenges and opportunities in front of investors, and how education is changing in the region.
You have been an entrepreneur in a variety of fields – what are the common challenges among the opportunities you have pursued?
“The challenges in emerging markets are largely connected with regulation. When you go into emerging markets you know there’s going to be a lot of uncertainty because political systems are often volatile. If you look at countries in Africa they are at different stages of democracy – there’s a lot of transition taking place in terms of their democratic systems.
“As an investor what we look for, and the challenge we face again and again, is the continuity and consistency of policy. Between one government and another you don’t want changes to take place because all of our investments are long-term, whether it’s in media or education or IT. If you look at education and media these are 25 to 30-year horizon investments and you don’t want anything to happen that can change the longevity of the project just because there was a change in the government.
“So what you look for is a very strong second tier, which is the bureaucracy. You need strong institutions in these countries and that’s what we look for – institutions or governance that allow long-term investments into these markets. If not, it becomes a problem – you have to get in and out, and that’s not our business. Our business is looking at things in the long-term, getting integrated into the society.”
What was the genesis of the idea for the Murdoch University Dubai campus?
“It goes back to skills development in emerging markets. If you look at the general problem across most emerging markets, it’s that you don’t have skilled people. For instance, when we were setting up our media businesses in Africa, there weren’t any financial journalists over there.
One of the beliefs I have is that when you invest into countries, you must develop capacity locally. You must make sure that you’re building skills from within. Given that, we started looking at the requirements for creating this capacity, and being in the media sector, we thought of initially setting up a school of journalism. That was the genesis of this idea of education.
“We looked at the potential for a school of journalism to be set up in Dubai, and I started looking for universities to find out who could be the best partner. What we found with Murdoch is they were a very strong media school, and the management at that time was looking to go overseas.
“What’s happened with the education business in general is that the revenue streams for universities in their own markets have been under pressure. Governments have stopped funding universities or have been constrained on providing more and more funding for tertiary education because of the other priorities of governments. So universities are now looking at additional revenue streams.
“We took the concept of a core campus to Murdoch University because they were operating in Malaysia and Singapore at that time, but they had a partner that was representing several universities. We suggested a model where we represent just one university and build one brand, and they were very open to that idea.
“It started off with a narrow silo of journalism but as we started doing the business plan we realised narrow silos would not be profitable. So we expanded it into a complete suite of programmes and we’ve been in business for nine years now here in Dubai.”
How do you see the regional education sector evolving? What developments are Murdoch focussing on?
“As an institution and an organisation we are focussed on four pillars of development in the education sector. The first is quality of teachers. We believe that an organisation is only known by the quality of its academics.
“The second is classroom infrastructure. What is happening today is very different to the way I grew up. The evolution of the classroom environment has changed
to the extent where the students require bandwidth. Their consumption of bandwidth is huge, and their reliance on bandwidth – including library resources – has all gone towards IT. That integration is very important.
“How you plan seating in classrooms is also important. In some of our new campuses, we are seating students in clusters because the engagement in class becomes a social engagement. Students talk to each other – they share resources when they’re studying.”
“Our third pillar is the curriculum, which we rely on our partners for, and the last is the question of innovation – how is the future going to change? Is education going to remain only online? Is it going to become a hybrid, which is already is in many ways? Or is it going to be in any other way?
"You can do some segments of learning online if it’s confined to a course you’re doing, for example, but when you’re talking about a university degree, I think that social interface is very important.
“Another issue is what is going to happen to centralised teaching? Universities are spending in the millions of dollars coming up with centralised teaching and learning centres. Are we going to have the holograms for our teachers? Imagine a teacher here in Dubai who uploads his image into 20 other centres, learning the same programme at the same time with the hologram there. This is one picture I can paint for you that is going to happen. It’s not a question of whether it’s going to happen, it’s only a question of when. Technology is growing, bandwidth is growing – it’s becoming a commodity – so education is going to be revolutionised completely.
“Our own unique selling point is that we are trying to focus on things that cannot be done entirely on the net, which means a strong focus on STEM subjects, because those skills cannot be learnt online.
“The core subjects will require physical interaction, and we’re therefore going to invest in the best technology and the best systems. Is the rise of e-learning a positive or negative force in education? “E-learning is an integral part of how universities are conducting programmes today. You’ve got to bring affordable education into places where it’s not available, so access to any academic programmes online is I think a very good idea.
“My only departure point is that it’s not a wholesome experience, and therefore it has to be mapped with some face-time. If you learn everything online, you may or may not be entirely honest in the way you’re getting your examinations done and the way you’re being assessed.
“There has to be face-to-face engage- ment by which teachers get to talk to you, and before you’re awarded any sort of discipline you should be properly tested on the subject so that you’re not just getting a degree for the sake of it. A lot of what has happened with some universities is that they’re just giving these out by the dozen, and you need to guard against it getting into some kind of commoditised racket.
“The purpose of education is to make sure the knowledge has been imparted and that it can be used in the workplace. The degree by itself means nothing. You need to ensure that the learning process is properly managed, so I have some reservations in the way it’s being done right now. But I’m a great believer that evolution will take care of this entire roadmap. We’re on the right path – it’s only a question now of how the implementation is properly structured so that the imparting of knowledge, the assessment of the subjects and degrees is properly done.” Tell us about your marketing strategy for this region “Education marketing has almost entirely moved into social media. There’s not a single child I know in high school today that doesn’t have one or two devices through which they are accessing things. To be able to engage with them you have to make sure you’re very active on the mediums that they are consuming.
“It’s moving so fast that people like me are becoming dinosaurs. In our management structures we’ve engaged young people into our boardroom, because if you don’t engage the youth into your decision-making, you will find yourself getting obsolete much faster than what your normal lifecycle might be.