My name is “Khan” and I am not an “Analyst”…..

We all know Salman Khan ; the bollywood Dabangg actor, but how many of us know the Salman Khan of America?

Confused? 

Yes, he is the Dabangg of education system in America.

‘Khan Academy’ is a unique e-learning concept that teaches high school subjects in an interesting way.

What is special about Khan Academy?

Well, it is completely free of cost!

What started as a simple tutoring past-time has now become a medium of education for 3.7 million students all over the world. Even Bill Gates is a fan of Khan.

Following are the key Organization Management concepts that we can absorb from the Khan Academy:

Vision:-

To revolutionize the education system. To add social value to business.

Mission:- 

To realize a global one-world classroom

Technical Skills:-

• Sound Knowledge of Basic High School Subjects
• Core website Design experience
• Data Analysis experience

Human Skills:-

To understand the learning ability of different grade students and develop a course to satisfy global needs

Conceptual Skills:- 

 Sound knowledge of high school subjects and basic concepts

Innovative new generation organizations:- 

Khan Academy is a unique non-profit organization working to make education easily accessible and interesting. It’s completely online and freely available to anyone who registers on the website.
Following is an indicative screenshot of the course:

New business / revenue models:-

The business model of khan academy revolves around the content developer and the other teams like web design team, analytics team, language expert team and software team work in synchronization with Mr. Khan. The business model is based on time based mapping of a student’s learning (problem solving) ability.

The revenue model is based on PayPal donations done voluntarily. Bill gates foundation gave donation; Google gave 2 million dollars and helped to build the core software.

Theory x and Theory y assumptions application:-

The academy has a Theory Y approach. Mr. Khan believes that if the best brains are given the following things then they can be the most productive people on the planet:

• At least an Upper middle class salary
• Intellectually satisfying work
• A mission to pursue

Creative problem solving:- 

The Lecture videos are innovative in a sense that they encourage peer interaction, students can learn at their own pace, they can pause and repeat concepts at their own will and at home. Students were found studying even during vacations and at 3 a.m.

Decision making:-

Decision making is done on the table with the core team on all the aspects of business. Some improvements are also done considering the feedbacks of teachers and parents over the internet. The decisions regarding the amount of time that needs to be invested for a particular student is left with the teachers to decide.

Strategy of khan foundation:- 

The main strategy is to target the students till grade 12 and expand further into different languages across the world. Associate some of the best brains in the business with the organization. 

Khan Academy aims at adding a social value to business and education.

Authority and power:-  

Mr. Salman Khan holds the power and authority to finalize crucial business decisions.

Globalization:-  

Internet is the best medium to expand globally. Khan Academy is making full utilization of free internet. Guest lectures at top universities also help them promote their ideas and tap budding talent.

Quality:- 

Content quality and monitoring is the crucial to the reputation of Khan Academy. Content review teams are always on their toes for ensuring quality and innovation.

Teamwork:-  

Khan Academy has some of the best business brains working as a team. The core team comprises of brilliant and experienced people from various top companies and top educational institutions.

Bounded rationality:-  

Mr. Khan was not sure whether he wanted to take up the idea of online tutoring on a large scale. He continued tutoring his cousins along with his job as a hedge fund analyst. Later on, as feedback and donations came in he finally decided to take a rational decision of leaving his job and revolutionized global education.

So, a manager should be rational up to a certain limit. He has to take optimal decisions based upon limited information available.

Entrepreneurship:-  

Mr. Khan is a true entrepreneur. He promotes his ideology through guest lectures at various universities and schools. Thus, he is expanding his business like an   entrepreneur.

Organizational Control:-  

The website has over 3000 videos on different subjects, 3.7 million students a month watching online videos, 88 million lessons, over 100 million exercises and 200,000 videos are being watched in a day.

The database management and web management teams constantly control the data traffic to ensure continuous supply of knowledge.

Summary:-

The old conception of student/teacher ratio has been transformed into

Student/valuable human time with teacher ratio.

The unique way of learning the bicycle way is doing wonders to children: Learn Math by falling and improving every time.

Quitting a well paying job and starting a non-profit organization needs belief and vision. Mr. Khan has both. Hats off to him!

Khan Academy has been a huge success in America but it still needs to go a long way in terms of global fame.


References:-

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTFEUsudhfs
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-vj6BhQa5w
3. http://www.khanacademy.org/