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At a time when management education faces many serious challenges and the craze for a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) degree is considered ‘out of fashion’, Goa Institute of Management’s (GIM) director Dr. C. Joe Arun gives an insight as to why a management degree is still coveted and shares tips on how to choose the best B-School which could help one jettison their management career into stratosphere.
An MBA degree from a worthy institution, Arun says, gives added value to anyone desirous of a successful career, thanks to additional exposure, skill, and competency development honed during the course.
“If anyone who has completed B.E.has work experience and wants to do MBA, he/she must look for B-Schools, which would add unique values that would make them successful in their lives,” he says.
Arun has evolved a list of points, which would help MBA aspirants to make the correct choice as far as choosing their alma mater for business studies.
To begin with, before specialization, every student should look at MBA education, as integral formation of personality, well-being of the person and an opportunity in which the students is exposed to an ecosystem which helps form character, as well as develop leadership qualities, says Arun.
With the ‘self’ accounted for, the B-School itself “should help students connect with the people and social reality”, he says. The environment should be such, says Arun, that students should be exposed to lives of people by which their courses in MBA curriculum become relevant.
“If MBA studies are not related to the issues people face in the country and resolving them, then the degree would become useless and irrelevant,” he says, in a way imploring aspirants to run through the teaching modules and methods offered by any B-School with a fine comb.
Many students want to become entrepreneurs instead of becoming employees of a company, but often their great ideas are not complemented sufficiently with ways and means to commercialize them or adapting them socially for the development of the nation.
This is where a B-School must step in and create an interface between students and investors and venture capitalists, says Arun.
“Each B-School should have an incubator for developing entrepreneurs. B-schools should produce more entrepreneurs who would start business enterprises after their studies than get them employment in companies,” he advises.
In the same vein, B-Schools should serve as a strong and organic connect between industry and its alumni, because theories which are learnt in institutes are a world away from what actually happens in the industry.
This is where a faculty, which are aware of and have real hands-on experience of what really goes on in the industry, is essential.
“Even after two years of studies, many companies spend enormous money and resources to train new inductees to become company-smart. For example, an HR head of a company should be asked to teach a course on human resources management at the institute itself. A minimum of forty per cent of courses must be taught by people who work in industry,” Arun says.
Arun further says that in the world we live in, where sustainable growth is emerging as the accepted mantra, B-Schools should adapt and train leaders who develop sustainable global thinking.
“Sustainability should become the key factor in every discourse of management education that would help MBA graduates to start sustainable businesses, suitable to environment and people,” he points out.
“Management education should also focus on helping students develop practical wisdom. This practical wisdom helps make decisions based on deep notions of what is good, not only for oneself and his/her growth but also for the global community, of which the business remains an
integral part of,” Arun informs.
Lastly the Director also believes that availability of scholarships and collateral-free student loans are a blessing in disguise for deserving MBA aspirants, although the facility is offered by very few B-Schools.
About Author
Dr. C, Joe Arun
SJ, Director, Goa Institute of Management
