An unsmiling man sits stiffly at his desk, brows furrowed at the clutter before him, muttering calculations on his sales numbers. Even amidst the mess, his straight-cut, monochrome shirt hasn’t creased but the muted tie hangs limp on the desk. Polished shoes, an unremarkable jacket and a weathered suitcase are his constant companions.
Sound familiar? That’s a stereotypical painting of the businessman who has dominated our understanding of the industry itself, that is, until now.
These days, that frame is getting a new painting — the businessman has become a business person and they aren’t just great with Excel sheets but are also tech-savvy and creative. They take the best of different worlds and use it to their advantage.
“Many companies, including those in the business and IT sectors, have begun to realise that just being efficient at a job or having domain knowledge is not enough. There has always been one quality missing in businesses — empathy, and they are trying to make up for that lack now,” says Nandita Abraham, CEO, Pearl Academy. She terms this ability to understand people beyond their role as a consumer “human-centric designing”, which is the base of Pearl Academy’s curriculum.
In an interview with BusinessLine on Campus , she talks about the holistic development that the college provides and how it will help future professionals navigate a market that is changing quicker than one would like.
Holistic development
Pearl Academy stands out because of the unique courses it offers. It provides students a multidisciplinary education across fields like business, entrepreneurship, design-thinking, fashion designing, graphic designing, media communication, IT and more. Started in 1993, the design college has four campuses — two in Delhi, Jaipur and Mumbai — and 4,800 students.
Over the years the creative industry, which includes apparel designing, textile designing, product designing, animation, interaction designing and communication designing, among others, has seen a steady growth. “In the past, only fashion designers and exporters would come for recruitment but now companies like IBM and Accenture also absorb students for their ‘design thinking’ capabilities,” says Nandita.
And just as traditionally business-oriented companies are in search of design students, the creative industries need people who’ll work with them on the business aspect of things. Courses like Fashion & Lifestyle Business Management and Global Luxury Brand Management are ways for the college to teach its students the different aspects of each industry.
And since an increasing number of youngsters are starting their own business, every course has a module in entrepreneurship. “More and more designers want to become entrepreneurs so last year, we set-up an incubation centre for final-year students and alumni to give them a space to work in and access the labs and equipment they otherwise can’t afford. We also help with legal and financial advice. By the year end we plan to have more facilities like increased mentoring and VC interest,” she explains.
Usually, design students work and learn only design but that’s not enough anymore, she says. “In no other college will you find people studying design, communication, business, photography and more, and working together to create magic, in the same campus.”
Business-heavy programmes
While most of Pearl Academy’s courses are more design centric, Fashion & Lifestyle Business Management and Global Luxury Brand Management lean towards the business side of things. “Through these courses, students learn the business side of the creative industry. They understand the international market, the consumer, the pricing, digital marketing and e-commerce… Whatever is required to run a business,” explains Nandita.
The luxury brand management course, in particular, is one-of-a-kind in India. “The luxury industry is very different from the fashion industry. It’s not only clothes; the sector includes hotels, the experiential industry and more. And it is looking for people who can understand the industry.”
The business courses are targeted at creative professionals. Take, for example, freelancer photographers, says Nandita. “They don’t know how to price their services or answer a brief that isn’t purely creative but is commercial in nature. Unless you figure out who your customer is, what they need, how much they are willing to pay for a product/service, and do market research, design without that commercial angle will not work.”
Breaking gender biases
The perception of the creative industry itself is changing, which means a rather obvious gender bias that existed is also crumbling. “Many men are joining courses like product designing, interaction designing and graphic designing instead of studying engineering because they get to combine their interest for technology with creativity,” says Nandita. The institution has also made basic coding a compulsory course for most people since the potential of ‘creative technology’ is growing.
As consumers become more demanding, it is essential that producers understand their audience. This is where design-thinking and institutions like Pearl Academy come in.