To be, or not to be..... An MBA that is the question

Hundreds of years ago, in his famous play Hamlet, Shakespeare wrote these words. I think he foresaw the plight of every youth of today – The MBA. Whether the MBA ,which literally is an acronym for Masters in Business Administration really teaches one to ‘master the administration of business’ or simply makes one ‘manager by accident’ or more appropriately ‘ mediocre but arrogant’ still remains unclear.

Everyone however is chasing the big MBA dream (yes it is not the big American dream anymore, that one broke with Lehman& Goldman). In India, this seems to hold truer and as enterprising as we are, credit goes to the Gujarati community, we have learnt to make money of this one too.

First the innumerable mom & pop coaching classes that have sprung up all over the country and flourished on the dreams of the starry eyed youth. IMS, Time, Career Launcher are the top amongst them. Only because one has to be tested on their logic and common sense in life threatening exams like CAT, CET or GMAT to matriculate into an MBA college. Ironically these classes are not run or managed by MBA’s. So now a non MBA is going to teach you for an entrance exam that helps you getting into an MBA college. Ironical eh? Not quite, since the MBA’s are too busy counting their money to bother about the aspiring ones. A one year course with these classes costs one roughly Rs. 20,000

Then there are the overhead costs - the cost of appearance on these test Rs 1000 minimum for CAT & CET goes up to Rs. 20,000 on GMAT, that if one still aspires to chase the big MBA dream in big America or Europe. Roughly around 2,70,000 students appeared for CAT in 2008¹ (that amounts to a lot of money, CAT truly acts as the IIMs golden goose). Add to this the costs of the forms of various institutes minimum of Rs.1500 per form per institute.

Then comes the actual fees of an MBA education. Let’s not even get there, seeing so many zeros gives me palpitations.

What really worries me and I think I mirror the emotions of many youth over here, Is this really worth it? Does an MBA really make you a capable person or does it produce like minded zombies that pocket most of the nation’s money. After politicians that is. Does the MBA really equip a person to tackle real life situations? The Rubiks Cube seems easier to solve than these questions!

A survey done by Business India Magazine on the Best B-schools in India² points out that Indian Institutes and even the crème de la crème IIMs are theory oriented rather than research oriented. The faculty only teach what is in the book and what they know rather than developing a seeking and ‘finding out answers to problems’ attitude amongst it students. Hence the gap between what the industry expects and what the students really are is huge. As I said earlier, enterprising as we are we have found a not-so enterprising solution to this as well – A dual MBA – for e.g an executive who is already an IIM Ahmedabad went on to do his second MBA from Wharton University USA because he felt he was not equipped to handle the global scenario. Even as the IIMS boast of the finest education and most importantly he finest (read: with lots of zeros) salaries, alumini still feel the need to look abroad for another degree. So we won’t do anything to change the system, we will work around it and then move on to another!

Then there are people who don’t care about the system. The very inspiring ‘drop outs’ – Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerburg, closer to home and not mention school dropout Dhirubhai Ambani, who made it big inspite of never completing their education and never getting a degree. These people actually make me think, of what these men had in them that is not being taught at a b-school, in India or abroad.

On the next point, institutions abroad definitely are a plus - the demographics of students. It plays a vital role in the learning process at any institution. The more different the student base the better enriched the student are after they graduate. In India however, we seem to be moving to what the Business World survey terms at ‘Flat MBA’². Where the best students (read: engineers) get into IITs and from these the uber best get into IIMs. Thus the IIMs act like a sieve but at the same you find the same profile of students – IIT Geek to IIM stud to investment banker! How much can an IIT student learn from another IIT student? Abroad however, in MBA institutions you rub shoulders with a baker, a footballer, a pet groomer at the same time. Diversity in background definitely enhances one character and refines are abilities to analyse. MBA in India is also is only about research papers, projects, grade points. Not much weightage given to extra curricula more like not much time for extra curricula. Again, a big blow to the overall development.

Clearly the MBA in India is just another rat race of sorts. Is it worth it? Am not so sure.

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Source

1 – The Hindu.Com

2 – Business India Magazine October 4- 17, 2010 issue, Best B-Schools Survey 2010