Is Diversity really that important???

Hi
B-schools love to proclaim their diversity. I recently attended a class at Harvard Business School (HBS). The classroom was decorated with flags of all the nationalities of the current students @ HBS. It is a microcosm of the world because students from across the world come to HBS. Other b-schools have followed HBS's diversity play (maybe a case of blindly following the leader). So, what I have to say challenges the fundamental play of HBS - Diversity!!!

Diversity certainly has its benefits. You get to meet people from across the world. So, anywhere you travel in the world you have to place/friend to go to. But is it really as important and sacrosanct as b-schools proclaim it to be?

The concept for this post derives from a conversation I had with a French guy when I was @ Melbourne Biz school (MBS). He was on exchange from Columbia Business school. He told me that he hated the Americans. And it was not just him. He said that even at Columbia the Americans were together as a group and the Europeans were a separate group. The latin americans usually joined the european group because they spoke the same language. It only confirmed my own experiences @ NUS. Outside my learning environment, I have spent all my time with Indians except for a few isolated parties. And this is true of most students. The chances of really getting to know students from other nationalities are small. Polarisation is a very tough obstacle to overcome. Some do manage to overcome this challenge and socialize with students from different nationalities. Even for them I doubt whether diversity is really that important.

The primary benefit of diversity is said to be that you can understand different countries and cultures. But in my own experience, you can never really understand a place or its people unless you are physically present there. B-school students represent a small minority of the diverse population of any city/country. Usually they represent the social elite who are fortunate enough to get a masters education. To believe that through them you can understand an entire society/country is arrogance. And this has been true of my experiences in Mumbai. No amount of time that I spent with Mumbaikars, of which there are many in my batch, could have prepared me for Mumbai. Even after a month in the city, I am still getting to know the culture of this place.

That brings me to the in-class experience. It is said that different nationalities bring different perspectives to the classroom. I think that this is BULLSHIT!!! Real perspectives are brought from people from diverse backgrounds. A project manager from an IT company can bring a different perspective when compared to a supply chain manager from a logistics company. They can bring in different ways of looking at the same problem. It does not matter that the project manager is a Chinese and the supply chain manager is an American. DIVERSITY in BACKGROUNDS is vital for a b-school. DIVERSITY in NATIONALITY is nice but I don't believe that it is as important.

And IIMs prove this as a case in point. The ultimate test of a b-school is the respect it commands in the marketplace. IIMs have produced students who have excelled at all kinds of companies from across the world. This is an institution made up of only Indians (0% diversity). Yet, companies flock to them. Their graduates rule the corporate world - Indira Nooyi for Pepsico, Srinath for Tata Communications...

That does not mean that diversity is totally useless. It does have its secondary benefits which I detailed in the beginning. But I seriously doubt whether it is the holy grail which b-schools tout it to be. Everything that I have experienced @ NUS and @ MBS points to the same. However, I could be missing something. Maybe there is something in the future that I cannot see. I sincerely hope that this is the case. Because I have proclaimed NUS's diversity to anyone and everyone. It is splashed all over my resume. All the while I wonder whether diversity is all that important???

Cheers,
Suraj