I got the feeling that Salil Kapoor is generalizing the MBA education he got. From what he has written I feel that he is assuming that everyone else at b-school would be taught the way he has been. I"m sorry to say, but the article should be titled FMS teaches no common sense. I know of a lot of other b-schools where such deficiencies as those mentioned in his article do not exist.
Salil, i agree with you in that a typical IIM/top B-school curriculum only partially prepapres you for much of the work B-School passouts do in Indian corporates today.
The other part of the piece is, the quality of management practice and science prevalent in Indian corporates doesn't require Analytical ability, Visioning, deep technical competence - which i believe true Managers should know.....much of business is run in an ad-hoc, seat of the pants fashion as the market, the customer, the service provider in India are not matured yet, in terms of processes. As an MBA myself, I can see the gap and I am made to do quite a few things in ways and means which are not the best, but because of other inadequacies in the service provider-market-customer ecosystem. Quite a few MBAs crib about 'Quality of work'. This is what they mean....
This I guess shud be the new full form of IIM...Specially after reading ur article...This article will console guys who don't get selected in IIM's provide they have a NICE COMMON SENSE...! Infact then every such intelligent,non-IIMite can call himself as IIM-ite(Intellectuals Interested in Management...!)...So guys if you have nice work experience and NICE COMMON SENSE - no need to prepare for MBA - YOU ALREADY R IN BUSINESS ...!
i totally agree with what u said. its not only with the B_Schools but also the schooling , +2 n graduation. we hardly have any practical application of what we have learned except byhearting the topics.
The article is absolutely correct in analying the current situation faced by B-schools. After getting 4 yrs hands on experience i firmly believe that the concepts of MBA would have been more meaningful to me if they were taught to me today. Whenever i find time to go back to my MBA notes i find than much more understandable today than ever before. So, there must be a requisite no of years of practical work experience before gaining an entry into a B-school.
Its my dream that Indian educational institution should tech the students with relevent to what is required to enter the industry and there on grow over their. Also more of practical knowledge should be infused into the students.
What is said abt B-Schools is correct, no wonder when sudents approach the various companies for an internship, most of the Companies turn them down.There is no use harping that students have no industry exposure - Firstly let the Indian companies take students during their academic time as interns.I know how tough it is for students to get an internship in a Company,bcoz Indian companies count amongst the worst to work for bcoz of their bad feedback policies, if someone applies for an opening they never ACK, at the same time some days back there was a Job Fair for a leading MNC Company from the Media and Finance domain in BLR and the way the Indian Managaers dealt with the candidates and the way the Indian Managers dealt was extremely different, I mean some of the Indians in top positions are not fit for becoming Managers bcoz their way of interaction with their lower ilk is horrible.Why I am saying this is firstly Indian Companies and Industry have to change a lot then only will we churn out good "Common-sense" Managers bcoz they dont have a policy w.r.t Interns then why r these Indian Companies talking about becoming global and Indian Managers have to be more sensitive.
definitely, b-schools have more theoretical work to do rather than pracitcal but there are b-schools who take thier students on a few day visit to other countries(or domestic companies) to show the students how the team works in the company(like ISB). indian b-schools should definately encourage students for dirty marketing. the corporate fratenity can also come together and can develop this process. little difficult but is possible. after all its a matter of common sense. today's students are tommorow's managers who will be sitting and working with you people. so palnt the seed today to nurture the tree tommorow as competition will keep on increasing as the companies go global
It is difficult to segregate classroom learning from experiential learning, and thus expand the scope of classroom to everything that one would learn while studying at a B-school. Why the would-be managers are seeking management education? If indeed management could be learnt best at the workplace, then there was simply no use of them going to a B-school because they were learning so much at work itself. This can be equated to teaching rocket scientists nuclear fission and cabinet ministers political science.
On the other hand, people with no work experience would have the maximum need to learn about management. Everybody had a viewpoint on management, both, people who are studying it in the B-school, and the others who couldn't make it. But, to be able to talk about 'value-addition', one would have to know what it is. The oft repeated example of the Ambanis and Gates were exceptions, not the rule. In fact Gates himself has said that though he dropped out of high school, he doesn't recruit anyone who has.
ur column is bang on target...hope all the present b-schoolers read this one...since i too offer papers at b-schools i know what exactly u mean by the approach that u r advocating...more power to you!!...mr.q
