My first ask is of the IIMs which, unlike Indian School of Business that offers only a one-year full time MBA, offer two full time programmes. This seems to have come in the way of a clear positioning of the two courses.
The one-year programme has become IIMs’ international calling card. IIMs look to the one-year programme to get ranked on the Financial Times Ranking of MBA’s – important to attract foreign students and to maintain a global image.
But like a mother who fights shy of differentiating between her two children, the institutes seem vary of calling a spade a spade. IIM Lucknow’s website states that all its courses are AMBA accredited. It conveniently avoids sharing that AMBA has awarded a full time MBA status to only its one-year full time MBA – IPMX.
The strain to maintain the status quo comes through in the 2012 convocation speech by IIM A Director Mr. Samir K Barua. He says, “The ranking of the (two year) PGP by FT, for the year 2011, improved to 7 among comparable programmes, globally”. That the comparable programmes are not MBA programmes but are pre-experience Master in Business Management is not talked about.
The two-year programme has been marketed as an ‘MBA equivalent programme’ by the IIMs on the basis of accreditation granted by an Indian body, Association of Universities (AIU).
Pervasive confusion affects both prospective students and recruiters. One course has international accreditation, the other has Indian accreditation. Which accreditation is real?
I suggest, the IIMs clearly articulate AMBA’s accreditation of the one-year full time MBA and its accreditation of the two-year PGP programme as a pre-experience Masters in Business Management. The two courses should accordingly be rebranded.
The institutes should also look at increasing the intake of the one-year course to present a wider choice to recruiters. While the two-year PGP course at IIM Indore, for instance, has grown to a 450 strong batch, the one-year full time MBA (EPGP) course offers just 60 seats.
As Mr. Subhankar Roy Chowdhury, Executive Director - HR, Lenovo India, says “I would love to hire experienced one-year full time MBA students in sales and marketing. Unfortunately, I find that a bulk of the one-year candidates have non sales background”.
Coming back to the issue of the clear branding of the two courses, having strict entry cutoffs based on work experience could help position the courses sharply. Great Lakes, Chennai, which runs both these courses, has done this. Candidates with more than two year’s work experience are not eligible for the two-year programme. They are guided to the flagship one-year programme.
At IIMs, a small percentage of two-year PGP students (roughly five per cent across IIMs) have close to five years experience and, like the one year graduates, are eligible for ‘lateral placements’.
Another corrective step I’d suggest is that AIU should reevaluate its criteria for awarding MBA status to a course. To the best of my knowledge, India is the only country where an MBA equivalent qualification is granted to candidates with no work experience.
From corporates, I ask that they take deeper interest in the first course in India offering MBA graduates in the true sense of the word. Says Prof. Ashish Sadh, Associate professor, Marketing at IIM Indore, “The one-year course offers candidates who have found their way to an MBA after rising through the ranks. They are therefore experts in their domain, ready for leadership roles, equipped to contribute to an organization from day one, and humble, wearing the IIM tag lightly.”
As compared to candidates from the job market, they are imbued with the latest management techniques and because of a years gap from work, they bring no baggage from their last job into the workplace. Similar to two-year PGP students, they can be co-opted into the culture of the company they join.
Recruiters in India should also open up to the idea of experimentation with career paths, something often seen in India as a sign of a confused candidate. As India evolves, people are no longer interested in one career for life.
Says, Mr. Sunil Sikka, President, Havells India, “Instead of looking for an exact fitment of the candidate’s past work experience with the job on offer recruiters could benefit from finding candidates with skills relevant to the job. An ability to enable a transition to new roles is a hallmark of an MBA education abroad.”
To students I say, that here finally is a programme at the IIMs that sees you as a complete person and not as a score. You no longer need to settle for another B-school after college simply because you scored 99.8 percentile on the CAT instead of 99.9 percentile. Anything that differentiates between students on the basis of such an insignificant number should not be celebrated but questioned.
Also, don’t be in a rush to become an MBA – find your life’s purpose first. As a child, did you ever dream of becoming a ‘manager’? Most likely, you spoke of conquering space, or becoming a cop. Here is some inspiration for you – a DIG at CBI recently graduated the one-year full time MBA at IIM A.
Click here to read all articles in this series
– The writer is a globally awarded brand management & advertising professional and Vice-President, Marketing at CommonFloor.com, a leading real estate portal funded by US based venture capital funds Tiger Global and Accel Partners. He can be reached at e09shikharm@alumni.iimidr.ac.in