Enhancing Value of the Indian MBA Degree

India has over thousand B-schools producing lakhs of MBA(Master's Degree in Business Administration) holders. This should sound like milk and honey to thousands of Corporate houses fantically searching for hundreds of to-be managers.

Unfortunately,this is not the case and there is no milk and honey flowing anywhere. Except for the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), XLRI, Symbiosis, and around thrity other quality B-schools -- most of them in New Delhi and Mumbai -- MBAs from most other B-schools are just not employable.

The reasons are many. Of course, the most important of them is one simple thing --what is being taught is painfully divorced from the realities that obtain in Indian business organizations. Caugth as they are, in the cross-fire between traditional management practices and the dictates of globalization of a tall order, most Indian organizations do look for a great deal of professionalism from the MBAs on offer.

Here, "professionalism" means excellent analytical skills, decision-making skills,communication skills and presentation skills which translate into general management competencies, no later than two years into the job -- wherever it may be, or whatever it may be,and in whatever field of specialization -- Marketing or HR or Finance or Systems or Supply-chain Management -- the MBA may be required to be asked to assume responsibilities in.

This is exaclty where the MBAs from the IIMs and the top-ranking schools score so well. For, they have always been taught through a rigoruous research-based methodology that pervades the entire scheme of teaching -- no student is never ever allowed to escape with just an inadequate knowledge of any management phenomenon. There is a great deal of flexibility in the syllabus, and the sutdents are taught to exploe new horizons of knowledge in whatever they do. Presentation skills are there for the asking and the student is required to present something on some topic, either on his or her own or in groups.

This author was once employed as a member of the reserch staff team in that Mecca of modern management in Asia -- the prestigious Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He was witness to whatever has been described above.

Not just that. The teachers and the students in IIMA have a great deal of interaction on the latest in management, and any number of working papers on the latest management topics or the latest avenue of growth opening up. For example, there would be at least ten working papers or research-oriented material floating around in that institution on the retail revolution in India, and this would include history, the market dynamics, the changing demographies, the major players in the game, the impact (both positive and negative) on kirana stores, the futuristic projections of business, the impact on the economy, the number of new jobs likely to be created,government policy and so on. Any average MBA would thus be exposed to reality as it obtains in the organized retail sector. The same thing would be true of any other latest management phenomenon.

It is extremely sad that this is not true of any Institute of Management or Department of Management Studies attached to most engineering colleges not only in Tamil Nadu, or in South India, but most of India as well. Taking the retail example,at best the teacher would make a passing reference to it in his lecture on general management or the hapless HR professior would make a reference to the new jobs opening up in this sector. This mainly happens because, they are simply told to "finish" the syllabus, without ever bothering to know whether the students had acquired any knowledge outside the syllabus, but very vital from the analytical point of view. In other words, the syllabus is outdated, and has not undergone any revision. Even it has been, it would not have been done with the assitance or profesional expertise of practising managers -- at least a few high-quality alimini of the instituttion itself.

Of course, the B-schools that offer the PGDBA (Post Graduate Diploma in Business Adminstration) course, with direct approval from the AICTE, are slightly better off -- they can mdify their curriculam to suit the needs of industry better, and can bring about changes that much faster. Unfortunately, most of these B-schools also have teachers from the University-affiliated B-schools and the mindset changes just do not happen.

So, where do we start and how do we give the unfortunate souls of hundreds of B-schools some better employability? Though harsh, the AICTE should insist on a "practical" stint of two years from each teacher of Management. This can be in terms of a sabbatical for two years, where the teacher is paid 75% salary, but an additional ordinary stipend from the collaborating industrial organization. There could be any number of MOUs in this regard, and the AICTE can facilitate this process. Legislation cannot help -- as the industrial organizations may then make the training of the teacher a mere ritual.

Secondly, as an immediate baby-step, the MBAs should be compulsorily made to attend guest lectures from the practising managers on at least three days in the week, outside the class hours, and these lectures should be a supplement to theory taught in the morning hours. Wherever this is not possible(some B-schools are situated in rural or semi-urban areas), there should be full-day sessions on Sundays -- since this is the only day that most practising managers can offord to take off from their busy schedules.

Thirdly, the students should be made to compulsorily prepare working papers, in groups. If this is made a compulosorily practise, they will necessarily read business maganizes and journals to enrich their knowledge and presentation skills.

Fourthly, the engineering colleges with huge resources in their command can jolly well afford to increase the employability of their MBAs though MOUs with institutions that can offer add-on job-orineted courses. For example, there is a severe dearth of professionals with a sound training in SAP-HR. If this skill is imparted in the college itself, the student will be in a far better position to even convert his compulsory in-plant training stint into a value-adding proposition, and the organization might as well be prepared to offer him or her a job in the HR department.

The list of innovations called for are endless. It is high time that teachers of management and the practising managers got around to understand what exactly ails the MBA degree in most institutions and take immediate corrective action. If this is done, they would have discharged at some part of their Corporate Social Responsibility. For, it is now or never.

The MBA degree should never become a mere BA, which it will inevitably become, in the absence of solid, and durable action!

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