How to Improve Management Education (MBA) in India?

"The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows."-- Sydney Harris


It is the time where students take admissions in Business schools to acquire coveted MBA qualification. There are certain things the students should take care before entering B-schools. Let us first find out the significance of management education.


Importance of Management Education:

Management education adds value to the existing qualifications. It helps students irrespective of their domains in graduation as it widens their knowledge base and encourages them to think differently. Management education enhances managerial and leadership skills by sharing of ideas, insights through healthy, meaningful and case study discussions. Having students with cross cultural backgrounds adds value to management education as there is probability of generating multiples ideas.

Apart from providing requisite skills and abilities to get going smoothly at the corporate world, it provides an opportunity to network with others and promotes cross-cultural diversities. It helps in equipping the executives with competencies and capabilities to take on the corporate challenges with confidence. Now a days, we find there is growing demand for the programs in the domain of strategy and leadership development in MBA education.


Role of B-Schools:

Mushrooming business schools is a cause for concern both for students and parents. It indicates that there is huge potential in management education and also there is a possibility for unauthorized and illegal institutions. The students should take all precautionary measure before joining business schools as selection of the right business school is the first step towards achieving right management education. They should look for accredited business schools.

Few business schools promise moon to students such as free international tours with laptops. What is needed is to provide relevant course content, case study discussion, industry interaction and proper placements. There is strong need to make them as competent mangers and successful leaders rather than believing in freebies.

The business schools should focus on nitty-gritty of general management and also about a functional specialization so that the students can become jack of all trades and master of management. The Indian Business schools should reinvent themselves with changing times and redesign their academic curriculum for facing the current challenges in the business environment.

The course curriculum should be designed to suit new perspectives for building managerial and leadership skills. The responsibility lies with business schools to do the needful in this regard. It is not the students or the faculties to be blamed for poor performance at business schools but the management involved in running business school for the drawbacks in the present management education. It is not the gun that should be blamed but the person who pulls the trigger.

B-schools hit the newspaper headlines by stating that their students getting highest pay in campus placements. Is it the yardstick to rush to conclusion that the specific B-school is bigger and better than other schools?

As parents provide right character and base to their children, similarly business schools should filter out and select the students not only with right aptitude but also with right attitude with a special emphasis on ethical and moral values. In the long run, it helps in shaping, training and grooming them as successful managers and leaders. Of course, it is easier said than done.


Role of Faculties:

The faculties should be from excellent academic background with an industry exposure. They should be a special breed of people driven by passion rather money. They need to inspire and motivate the students through right communication skills. They should preferably have industry experience in a reputed organization. It is desirable to have research experience in management along with consultancy and teaching experience. The combination of the four areas of expertise such as consultancy, teaching, research and industry would make faculties outstanding. Above all, the faculties should be strong scholars with an exposure to multiple audiences.


Role of Top Industrialists in India:

The top Indian industrialists should set up business schools the way they set up their business enterprises not with the sole intention of making money rather adding value to management education. It would revolutionize the Indian management education the day top brass is involved in this. The successful students should be encouraged to work in the companies of their choice without any strings attached. The motto must be to produce the world class managers and leaders. It should be treated as an investment rather than expense. They can charge the students with nominal fee. They should see management education as a kind of a corporate social responsibility so that the fruits of management education would reach the students of lower middle class as well.


Conclusion:

The present business education is broken and need to be reinvented with changing times. The four pillars for effective management education are industry experience, consultancy experience, research experience and teaching experience. When faculty possesses these four basic ingredients besides being passionate towards teaching profession, the day is not far away where we can produce world class management graduates.

It is unfortunate that India with a billion plus population could not produce global leaders like Jack Welch, Peter F Drucker, Bill Gates, Michel Dell; It is time India took a relook at the methodology of management education. It is also the time Indian B-schools took stock of the situation and set their houses in order. The silver lining in the dark cloud of management education in India is the Indian School of Business (ISB) which is ranked as the 15th best Business School in the world surpassing other premier management institutions like IIMs.

There is a strong need to focus management education glocally (i.e. think globally but act locally). When the course content is customized based on the market needs then students will not face unemployability problem. Let us make Indian MBA on par with global standards. We need to get out of the mindset of being copycats. We need to reinvent ourselves as leaders from being followers. To sum up, it is vital to have holistic and integrated approach towards improving management education in India.


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