MBA Degree

Dear Readers,

I was reading an article by Mr. Shashi Tharoor, once nominated for UN Secretary post from India related to the significance of MBA in India.......where he rightly said that "MBA is an overtly hyped degree in India.Not even one-fourth of MBAs are employable". I feel that he's correct in that.

The reasons as I look at it are " Selection criteria : which is more inclined towards the knowledge base of a candidate rather than experience base". In any critical scenario or any decision making process, experience, knowledge, courage and attitude is what all matters. If you take the example of Management Guru "Arindam Chowdhury", he has rightly said "Any difficult scenario : its ASK theory which works that is Attitude, skill and Knowledge".

In India, we focus mainly on knowledge, lesser on skills and least on attitude of an individual.

Attitude comes with :

a) Family environment

b) School/College environment

c) Social-circle environment

d) Professional environment.

If you have grown independently or grown in a not so sociable environment, attitudes are different to a level of heaven and hell. B-Schools should take this factor into consideration, while selecting any individual. A positive attitude is a must for a successful entrepreneur.

Also the selection process which is more of an elimination process in India. I feel a candidate who has done brilliantly in his/her job should be selected based on (a) His/her profile (b) His/her marks scored in CAT or say any other MBA exams. How can B-Schools in India expect that people who have done exceptionally well in their respective organisations, will score as high as 99 percentile and then only will givea call for an interview ? I think, this is not justified. If IIMs want peoples who have the ability to take the right decisions at the right time and who have it in them to become a global leader, then the selection criteria should not weigh heavily on CAT result but also on his/her profile. Infact it should be 50% weithage to each, if not 30-70 ratio.

Also the hype created by the media for an educational institute should be minimised, so that people are in free mind while appearing for a test like CAT which tests not only speed but also the accuracy level, as it creates unnecessary pressure on an individual. Even parents at times become a victim of this hoopla!

I feel "any compensation or remuneration comes with a responsibilty". A person is or will be paid well based on the kind of resposibilty he/she bears. It is not necessary that people who has done MBA from top B Schools will be paid well, except the fact that their launching salary will be good. A career is never ever judged from a launching salary. It is always judged over a span of three decades. It is not necessary that a rocket will go very high and will succeed in its mission, if it has a very high launching velocity. It's only the escape velocity which matters most. I hope you have got the point. Every individuals career moves in either ways as shown in the figure below :

Now, You can clearly observe two ellipses. These are two career paths. You can clearly distinguish one from the other. In one path , you can observe that the rise initally is steep, but gains a constantcy in later part. In the other rise is slow and steady but at the later part its steep rise. Now thats my point. Remeber law of averages is valid for every career and not only for sportsmen! You have to chose between the two. A MBA degree will equip you to get a steep rise...post that its your hardwork, sincerity, courage and result-oriented decision which matters most. The point I am making over here is " career is like your own baby.You need to decide the process to groom your own baby."An experienced individual will rise steadily in career and with an MBA degree at later part of his/her career will take him above the rest. Because he/she could easily relate their own experiences with the case studies and will judge based on their experience in those circumstances and not what ideally should have been done, as mentioned in most of the books. An experience person will have more things to share than a fresher. Hence MBA becomes a value added kit for an experience person. Remember MBA is a course or you can say a tool kit, the more you could relate yourself with it, the better it is.

In order to be marketable in the present market scenario, you need to be well equipped with all the necessary tools, which a MBA degree will teach but only at a later part of your career, so that you can relate yourself with the case studies and become a right decision maker someday. Thereby you become more saleable.

Perhaps, if we develop these things and change the pattern currently used by Indian B-Schools, then I feel Mr. Tharoor will perhaps change his comment.

All the best!!!

Do give your comments...

Regards

APJ