Is MBA really a prerequisite to get a job of higher responsibility, great glamour, or a good package?? Is it a good substitute to the kind of practical knowledge that one would have been exposed to in those two years spent in gaining the theoretical knowledge?? Or is it that MBA's make better managers or business leaders, and most importantly always succeed in making a great career and a great future?? The debate as to whether MBA is really helpful or is just a trend followed by students is a debate that continues furiously in India.
MBA, at its best, is a degree which ensures that an individual is well versed with the basics of Management concepts. It has gained a lot of importance, now-a-days, due to its expensiveness and the academic and entrance test barriers which allows only nearly 5-10% of the elite students ( and I am talking about intellectual elitism) to make it to a good B-school.
The usefulness of the management education program is hard to measure and evaluate because we have witnessed extreme examples. When we take a look at the educational qualification of Dhirubhai Ambani, who was merely a matriculate; or Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, who dropped out of their colleges, we definitely cannot advocate MBA to be the only means of a successful career. Let’s talk about the legendary Peter Drucker. He does not come from a management educational background. Most of his management thoughts come from practical observation of the business in action as a consultant and researcher. The management principles and theories propounded by him are taught in the management schools. His managerial thinking is at least 30 years ahead as some of his thoughts were written in the 50's but are still recognized as indispensable for running a business.
At the same time, there are many IIM students you can find in your coaching classes. Are all of them teaching at such leading coaching classes because they have a passion for teaching? Is it? I don’t think one requires an MBA degree from such a reputed B-school to conduct lectures on percentages or number system. It is merely because they didn’t make a desirable career in the corporate world. I can find no reason why one would slog to get 99+ percentile for taking up a normal teaching job which is even taught by students who give 2-3 CAT attempts, scoring somewhere above 95 percentile, and are still trying hard to make it to one of the IIMs.
As they say, every coin has two sides. MBA, too, has pros and cons.
Firstly, to be eligible for getting an entry into the mid level management of some well known MNCs, one has to have an MBA degree specializing in the required field. So, an MBA degree would help you in your initial stages of career. However, after a couple of years, no degree certificate is helpful. It is your productivity and performance at your workplace that counts, in just the way as no one really cares for your SSC marks now.
Secondly, MBA will help you get a theoretical base and hence you can relate to the things that you come across in the corporate world. Like for instance, tomorrow when you formulate a marketing strategy for your product, you know that you are supposed to incorporate the 4Ps of marketing as propounded by Neil H. Borden. However, you will soon realize that de-educating yourself is necessary to succeed. You’ll spend nearly a year de-educating yourself. This is because what you learn is too idealistic and does not necessarily hold true in the practical world. Corruption, in the form of bribery, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, embezzlement, etc. is a major problem faced by our economy. But strangely our syllabus doesn’t cover the way in which one should deal with corruption!! Isn’t that really important? Corruption is prevalent at almost all levels and almost everywhere. This is just one! There are many… and you’ll realize this once you enter into the corporate world.
Thirdly, MBA will undoubtedly work like a fast forward button. You will get the knowledge about the various terminologies and concepts used in the business world within a span of 2 years, which otherwise would take a couple of more years. Also, as a fresher you will get a better post than the ones who do not have the degree. But, what will pinch you hard is the fee structure. And then, even when you invest a few lakhs of Rupees for your MBA program, you cannot be certain of getting a good job profile with a good package in a good company. The lowest package is as low as Rs. 3 lakhs ( I am talking about a fairly decent B-school like Welingkar. )
Last but not the least, there are too many students from various streams like the Commerce Graduates, Engineers, Arts and Science Graduates, etc. who opt for MBA. Due to this, not only cracking the entrance test is difficult but also securing a job, after the course, is equally difficult. There are more than 3800 business schools in India (as per AICTE) offering two-year MBA or equivalent programs. On an average there are over 200 students in each B-School, which means a minimum of 76,000 students competing with you from all over the country each year. When the supply exceeds its demand, the price paid is always less. This again brings me back to my previous point of getting a low package.
Today, MBA is not just confined to Marketing, HR, Finance and Systems, but you can also specialize in Entrepreneurship, Family business, Defense, Advertising, Pharmacy and various other fields. In-fact, MBA is looked up as one of the essential factors giving a boost to entrepreneurship in the country. Studies indicate that the failure rate for small businesses started by an MBA student is 50% less than the standard failure rate.
Looking at the scenario in Mumbai alone, we have over 1, 00,000 fresh graduates each year and not more than 20, 000 job openings. And let’s not forget that Mumbai is a place where people come from various places across the country in search for a job and a better standard of living. MBA will certainly help one have an edge over such freshers applying for the job. We can look at MBA as an entry pass for getting into big MNCs as a fresher at posts of relatively higher responsibility, which otherwise usually takes a couple of more years, esp. when done from the top b-schools in the country and across the world. However, it is also important to note that probably a PGDM from IIM A will give you an edge over the ones graduating from some fairly decent B-school like Welingkar or MET in the initial stages, but after a couple of years if your performance is not up to the mark, the latter would be preferred for a promotion.
So if a major thrust is given to boost your performance, MBA is surely helpful!!
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