The theory boffins know their books backward. The practitioners know their business inside out. Like with all good 'multiple choice' questions, assume you had to make just one choice to gain an education fit to join the world of business. What would you choose?

It's a tough one; all the more so because the divergence between full-time professors and visiting faculty (drawn from the industry) is all too clear.

There is so little interaction between academics and managers to begin with, groans Dileep Mavalankar, associate professor, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

If that's bad news to professors, it's awful news to students. Gurpreet Sethi, a student at Mumbai's Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, makes no bones about it. "Books will give you theories. Visiting faculty bring with them a practical perspective, give real life examples and keep us updated on what's happening in industry... any day
preferable to bookish knowledge."

Likewise, Rajesh Mani of Hyderabad's Indian School of Business speaks for many when he voices his preference for managers. "Most of the students at ISB are from industry themselves," he says. "An industry background is definitely better."

According to M Rammohan Rao, dean, ISB, "It is good to have visiting faculty, but then most of the good people from the industry do not have sufficient time to commit themselves for an entire course, and those who have time may not be good at teaching."

At best, visitors from industry can be relied upon for the odd guest lecture. To Gurmeet Kaur, a student at ISB, that's good enough: "They know how to apply their industry experience to academic courses."

Tobias Kretschmer, a lecturer of strategy and economics with the Interdisciplinary Institute of Management at the London [Images] School of Economics, is somewhat mystified by the fervent favour that students bestow on industry folk.

"As a full-time faculty member," he says, currently on a visit to India, "I strongly believe there is nothing that can not be taught by the regular faculty members." He concedes that visiting managers have "more depth" in their "respective sectors" of day-to-day operation, but that's not the stuff of a generalised education in business.

Of course, he adds, students tend to draw a connection between frequent manager visits and their own placement prospects, and one cannot grudge them that.

Samta Lalan, for instance, a student of JBIMS, is acutely conscious of the B-school's "close proximity to a majority of corporates," located as it is in South Mumbai -- often touted as an edge over remotely located rival B-schools. And the corporates are grateful, if anything, for it. They get to learn from students too.

For the record, JBIMS boasts of a 112-member strong visiting faculty, with full-time professors adding up to a grand total of two (yes, two). It's almost as if students got to compose the representation ratio of their faculty all on their own.

Sydney Prabhu, who constitutes half of the almost ghostly minority presence of academics at JBIMS, is clear that there's a difference between an educator and a manager. "It is important to note that just because someone possesses knowledge and/ or experience, it does not automatically follow that he can teach," he says.

"Teaching is an art, a skill, a story telling ability, an ability to hold an audience's attention for an extended period of time, ensure understanding of the concepts driven, encourage intellectual participation of the student, field questions satisfactorily and raise the quality of the students in terms of their capability to assimilate knowledge and disseminate knowledge in presentations, projects, debates and assignments."

If teachers and managers were to switch roles back and forth, both business and academia would gain. So believes M L Srikant, dean, SP Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai.

"Unfortunately," he says, "in our country we have a division, where good managers are unwilling to pursue academic pursuits, and those into academics may never get into corporates." The salary difference is a big factor -- with professors still expected to sacrifice pay for academic idealism.

Dedication to the cause of education counts for a lot, according to Mangesh Korgaonker, head, Shailesh.J Mehta School of Management, IIT-Mumbai. India's "institutions of excellence," be it the IITs or the IIMs, "could have never been built without the lifelong commitment of its faculties," he says, sounding rather taken aback by the debate.

"Adjunct faculties who are hired on contract may not be willing to dedicate their knowledge resources for the development and growth of the institute," he continues, even as he admits the value of external exposure too. "Any institute should look at a judicious blend of visiting, adjunct and full time faculties to carry its mission of excellence forward," concludes Korgaonkar.

Students, meanwhile, are not exactly sold on the sharp either-or division either. So while Rajesh Mani may want a predominantly visiting faculty, his co-student at ISB, Kapil Sharma, favours a 60:40 ratio with a slight preference for visitors.

Another student, Annie Mathew, however, is quite content with the real world exposure of the full-time staff. Many of them, as she points out, are engaged in active consultation work in the real world. "So it is not that they do not have relevant work experience."

At the end, though, it is not a question of the ratio of representation. It is a question of empowering people intellectually to meet organisational and individual objectives. The actual goal scorers are always exciting to learn from. They are celebrities as managers.

But, ultimately, that's no big deal. Faced with new challenges, it's a clearly reasoned understanding of universal principles that grants leadership. And success.

A report from visiting journalists Mitul Thakkar, Barkha Shah, Tarun Narayan and Malavika Mariswami.