The rise and rise of the MBA phenomenon and the apparent decline in fortunes in recent years is a classic case of the golden egg syndrome. MBA education conferred a certain level of business acumen to graduates that reduced the training time on the job which together with boom conditions fuelled unprecedented demand for MBA graduates leading to manifold spurt in salaries offered by recruiters that in turn led to B-schools raising the fees substantially. Return on Investment (ROI) is an inescapable measure that governs personal and business life. The high price of MBA graduates has enhanced expectations from corporate recruiters and they are being expected to perform from day one with practically no time for learning/training on the job, in other words, B-schools are expected to churn out an industry ready product.

As a result, the value addition by the average MBA graduate on induction is questionable leading to all-round disenchantment. All three stakeholders- B-schools, corporate recruiters and students are directly or indirectly responsible for this situation and need to change.

Curriculum and Teaching at B-schools

The criticism against B-schools is that education imparted is too general with little depth. Management is an integrative discipline and the first year curriculum that commences with the building blocks of Communication, Economics, Quantitative Techniques and the various functional areas together with Strategy is the base on which business acumen develops and a student should be proficient in all these areas. For instance, some of the minimum non-negotiable fundamentals that need to be mastered would include a) thorough dissection of P&L, cash flow and balance sheet statements together with evaluating the health of a company through ratio analysis b) segmentation, targeting and positioning of products c) systems approach to operations and the quality, cost and flexibility perspectives to operations strategy d) individual and team dynamics that influence organization behavior together with the elements of organization structuring e) the essence of business strategy relating to competitive advantage through differentiation in one or more aspects of the value chain.

However, students get consumed by ‘specialization’ and tend to neglect the fundamentals in areas not in their domain which diminishes their business/managerial acumen and appeal to recruiters.

B-schools would therefore, be well-advised to conduct integrative courses that enable students to analyze industry and firms within, straddling across strategy and the functional areas and in the process obtain in-depth knowledge. In addition, blending online modules that contain stage-wise evaluation of fundamental concepts with the curriculum of each course would add to the rigor. Further, in today’s SMAC ( Social Media, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud Computing) powered world, while students are generally savvy with the S and M components, B-schools need to empower them with adequate knowledge and skills on Analytics as well as certain IT tools and project management to enable them get a cutting edge and be industry-ready when they join corporates.

B-schools must conduct integrative courses that enable students to analyze industry and firms within, straddling across strategy and the functional areas and in the process obtain in-depth knowledge

Internships in Industry

Learning at the adult level has necessarily to be experiential for effective assimilation. If one benchmarks with the field of medicine, a medical graduate can practice only after one year of internship involving long hours of work as an understudy during which period he/she reinforces the knowledge garnered during the study program by working on the job and acquiring relevant skills at patient management. The eight weeks internship for MBA students is ineffective due to a) lack of a tangible business problem to work with b) lack of guidance/mentorship in the company c) lack of opportunities at man-management. This can only be overcome if industry is more forthcoming and offers adequate opportunities to students without citing reasons of confidentiality and lack of time for supervising managers. If companies want the talent they recruit to be effective from day one, they need to invest time and provide opportunities before-hand. The current practice of passive internship has therefore, to change with regard to time, frequency and opportunities for people management for students to be more active and result-oriented.

Values and Attitude of Students

MBA graduates have a mercenary streak and besides are focused on roles rather than careers. They refrain from taking a long term view and get quickly disillusioned with roles offered. Besides, it is generally accepted that they have a chip on their shoulder and feet not firmly on the ground. B-schools need to employ psychometric tools to measure the values and attitude quotient at different stages of the program to not only assesses the base attributes at the time of joining but also the improvements during their tenure at the school. They should be able to provide these measurements to recruiters over and above the CGPA which is only a measure of knowledge and skills. Granted that attitude and values are shaped during the formative years between the ages of three and 14 leaving little scope for a B-school, however, if MBA students know that they are being assessed for attitude and value behavior and the data is being provided to recruiters they would hopefully realize the importance and make serious attempts to change them selves for the better.

Just as teamwork in the organizational context receives considerable importance, from a business-societal context it is vital that the corporate community and management institutions collaborate to ensure that talent with appropriate knowledge, skills and attitude are generated to serve industry and society.