I just made an accidental discovery that our college ranked 5th amongst 115 UPTU colleges based on B. Tech. Theory exam results for the session 2007-08. This is based on a report that UPTU publishes to assess performance for all its constituent colleges. Ranking 5th is no mean feat and I, like any other Malaviyan, feel proud of this performance and sincerely congratulate the students and staff alike for what they are doing right.
However, the topic of my post is not to celebrate this great performance but to lament on the lack of promotion that this feat received. There is no mention of it on our college website, in our admissions brochure, etc. Do we expect all the prospective students, their parents and the prospective recruiters to be dreaming of this? Or should they be going to the AKG College of Engineering website which has published this report prominently on its home page becuase they are also in top 5 and learn from there as to what MMMEC's accomplishment has been (that is how I got this information).
Not having the right credentials to build a strong case in your favor is one thing and probably excusable but not leveraging the strong credentials that you already have to your advantage is utterly unexcusable. I am sure that if I asked this question to a cross section of folks in the college there will be all sorts of finger pointing towards one another. However, the problem is not so much with individuals but in a systemic lack of thinking on these lines and lack of will to make certain intellectual as well as financial investments to affect this.
We have been talking for a lot of time about building awareness about the Malaviya brand but unfortunately have not taken even these simple marketing steps which some fledgling institutes have mastered and are using to their advantage to attract the best talent (students as well as faculty) and the best recruiting companies. It is about time that we wake up to the competitive reality, realize our true potential and grab our rightful place in the pecking order.
We need to be applying some of the marketing principles that we teach our MBA students internally as well.
