'An MBA is not a passport to success'

WHAT THEY DON'T TEACH YOU AT B-SCHOOLS: Atul Sobti

Atul Sobti

Today, businessmen are being asked to professionalise and professionals are expected to be entrepreneurial. That defines the problem "" and the solution. It is not a case of the grass being greener on the other side, but of the need to have the right mix of grass.

We need to recognise that what we have may not be enough, especially in today's highly dynamic world where what was yesterday the most revered may today be the most ridiculed. And often, with reason. If the media is to be believed, you are today only as good as your last quarter!

There is debate on the merits of most professional courses. Professionals are generally accused of dealing in and delivering the latest buzzwords and fashionable theories; and of being far removed from real life. I will stick here to the B-school and its product "" the MBA. When you speak of what they don't teach you at B-school, left unsaid is perhaps that B-schools ought to have taught you everything.

But that's an unrealistic point of view. It is well documented that management graduates and non-MBAs have succeeded in the corporate world. So, an MBA is not a passport to success.

Nonetheless, that is precisely how most people treat a management degree. Unlike in almost any other profession, fresh management graduates "" especially those from the premier management institutes "" are unique in that both they and the organisation they join tend to believe that a future CEO has joined the ranks.

That creates crises of credibility for the new recruit in his interaction with co-workers. And, for himself, it often leads to situations of self-doubt in terms of the manager's own expectations with respect to position in the hierarchy and decision-making structure. If only both sides were more "prepared", I daresay the credibility and results would be vastly different.

So, what B-schools need to do better is to effectively take care of the expectations of the students. Within the framework of the curricula, explain to them what their role in an organisation is likely to be and how they will be expected to make a difference. It is also necessary that students are provided a clear perspective of how, where and when their professional knowledge would be of value and best utilised or exhibited. Here, it will also be immensely useful if the institute ropes in the companies that come for campus placements, to better explain the organisations' point of view.

Another area that needs immediate attention is the need to simplify and integrate a whole host of concepts that otherwise end up becoming individual and isolated strategies. Many management graduates, like many consultants, are associated fairly "non-positively" with "concept dropping". B-schools should incorporate in their curricula a course on contemporary management concepts and their relevance and integration.

Some other changes in the course content at B-schools would also probably be of help to managers in their later careers. One, there is a need for a cross-functional integrated business basics course, which should be a compulsory subject in the first semester. This will help students adequately prepare for the rigours of the corporate world.

In their final term, students should be given the opportunity to analyse "live" domestic case studies. Ideally, this should include an analysis and presentation of a case study based on the organisation where they undertook their summer training.

Even more importantly, prospective managers need to understand the "real" India. Fortunately, there is no dearth of excellent data/information today "" students should bone up on the country and its characteristics as a market.

And, given the current market trends, much greater emphasis needs to be placed on:

genuine customer orientation for the students (it's a buyers' market today)

a bias for action and acceptance of risk (in this "quarterly" world)

What B-schools can't teach you is experience "" that most valuable "journey", which when blended with knowledge, can bring forth the insights needed to resolve key problems; to ride on opportunities; to innovate; and even deliver some pearls of wisdom. However, B-schools can deliver, as experience, at three levels:

Insist on students having prior work experience before enrolling for a management degree. Having been a fresher myself, I am convinced that a few years' experience would have greatly added to my understanding and contribution at B-school.

Ensure that the "summer job" is truly an experience, and not a routine transaction. Done well, an internship can prove of immense value to both, the student as well as the participating organisation.

Hire faculty (visiting/permanent) that has the requisite corporate experience, through regular work experience, and/or corporate consultancy. And, in the emerging glocal world, preferably have some international experience as well.

It is expected that the product of a B-school will ideally be a good corporate manager, a businessman, and a leader "" with an expected life cycle from a management trainee to CEO. To achieve that, the two-year MBA course taken when you are 20-something, is just par for the course. A good career path after that will help you deal effectively with the bunkers. But to really fly and and land just where you want (the corner hole, no doubt), you need to refresh yourself "" in mind and body "" with fresh knowledge and skills.

That's where a refresher management course, a decade or so after the initial course, will come in handy. B-schools could grant their alumni automatic admission to these refresher courses. Also, just as the original MBA curriculum is structured across the top B-schools, with a set-down admission process, perhaps the refresher course could also be standardised across institutes, with common admission procedures. The "executive" programmes currently on offer, unfortunately, do not fit the bill "" not only are they different across institutes, they are not tailored to the needs of those who already possess management degrees.

Finally, what B-schools do not or can not teach is the use of "gut feel/instinct". Or perhaps, they do not want to teach "" after all, something must be left for the post-MBA life. However, this is a subject that promises great "class participation" in the refresher course.

A last word: perhaps B-schools also need to teach themselves. These great institutes of learning should exhibit truly world class organisation behaviour "" of going global and of scaling up big, for instance "" without losing out on quality and value. Needless to add, all within the real world constraints (where everything else does not remain equal or constant).

Atul Sobti is executive director, business operations, Hero Honda Motors Limited. He graduated from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, in 1976