I am not impressed by this article. It is more or less common-sense to know what Mr.Shah is emphasizing in his article. Specially in India where people can get into Business School with no experience life. I yawned through MBA program from top 10 Ivy league school of United States. I believe MBA is waste of time. I can give several examples of useless MBA graduates doing worse than what they were doing before MBA. Rediff should stop publishing useless articles written by readers. Thank You
I am an engineer with more than ten years of experience. It is true that one doesn't need a MBA to run a business or whatever but if you extend it further..one even doesn't need education to become successful. there are lot of examples where people without a Bachelor degree have become successful/rich/happy..just because of their individual capacity and at the same time they were at the right place at right time. Education/Degrees can provide some assurance of good quality of life at minimum, but again, to reach maximum, one doesn't need anything other than hard work, risk taking ability, right time and right place.
Just because Dhirubhai, Bill Gates, Mittal don't have MBA that doesn't undermine the importance of professional qualifications. It is always demand and supply, otherwise why there are so many management institutes around the world. Why businesses want to hire MBAs, if they don't have the potential? I have worked for Reliance for 8 years, where Mukesh Ambani believes that he can make an engineer a MBA but not otherwise but still he has an army of MBAs working for him. Also RIL has tied up with IIM-B to train (Exec MBA)few engineers every year, who will be groomed for top level positions. Believe me, professional qualifications can't survive, if there is no demand for those candidates and looking at the current environment, there is a huge demand for MBAs.
One more thing, why MBAs(deserving candidates), get higher salary (Generally) than people in the ot
RE:MBA or Not
by stdrgy on Nov 13, 2007 08:23 PM Permalink
One more thing, why MBAs(deserving candidates), get higher salary (Generally) than people in the other profession? It all depends on risk and reward..while working for business, many times (not always) decisions taken by MBAs are irreversible and therefore one would like to have somebody who is capable enough for taking that decision. But then, how to figure out who is capable or not..first thing is professional qualification and after that it depends upon further screening and candidate's ability. By thinking that MBA qualification is not at all necessary to become successfull, we are depriving ourselves from further success. People have claimed in this forum, that they are successful even without MBA degree but then, people are successful without education. One can't generalize and tie success with anything particular.
We engineers also have competition from anyone who can do programming or project management. Any one who is interested in computer, can become a good programmer or project manager, but we all know, what difference it makes to a person once he goes through the college, I mean engineering. Same way, MBA is also package, which would be difficult to understand, unless we go through it. You like it or not, MBA is here to stay,as long as there is demand for candidates with that qualification. Also, good school can give u a head start, but in long run, person with better qualities and abilities would always win.
HATS OFF to Shah for his excellent article on Utility of MBA whether IIM non IIM or Global B-School experience and hands on job expertise counts more than a few sessions in class rooms a persons who undergoes MBA course should also read the following important subjects if it is an Indian MBA program like Legal skills like contracts and International Laws of various countries incl how companies operate besides trade marks and patenting a bit of Physchology,to know the inner thinking of human mind , logic and common sense and be a bit more practical then follow the mgmt jorgans to the hilt and mess up the organisations a bit of Accounting a bit on moral values and Business ethics a bit on Cultural aspects of various countries their history geography they way they operate their businesss etc will go a long way in improving the sharpness and agility of the Indian MBA instead No B-school can assure with gurantee that if you deploy x in puts you can get Y people behave in adifferent manner at different times if we do not adhere to these value systems definitely we will be like frog in the well thinking great about our MBA education sidvram
This is a good article at the time students are going to write CAT. MBA education is overhyped and many great managers never attended a B-School. Management skills can't be taught. The B-schools like IIM or others produce mediocre managers. Great Industrialits and managers like Murty, Dhirubhai, Ratan Tata and many more never attended an MBA school and it is time that industry look inward and promote the people working to managerial positions rather than going for expensive hiring at so called premier B-schools. The student should understand that just cracking CAT with flying colours will not catapult them to the heights and it is there innate abilities and keen interests and motivation for self learning that will take them far in there career.
I find your article very much relevant because the curriculum is objective oriented whereas life outside is very much subjective oriented. Excel spreadsheets are only 1 means but one requires human nature to cut through the corporate ice and this nature I don't think any b-school develops. As a leading management thinker from the USA put it - Listening is strategic, everything else is tactical. One must develop listening and awareness skills - my experience from b-school as well as a leading Indian corporate house has been otherwise.
Good that you have put forth a message - perhaps b-schools should only recruit after a person has gained some vitakl work ex to relaise how theory can meet practice.
very good and thought provoking article.as most of the b school grads are fresh,lacking in experience, they tend to take things for granted and expect what they have learned from the colleges to be fully applicable in the real life as well. when it does not happen that way they get tensed and frustrated,falling prey to stress related ailments at an younger age itself.the key to success is to remain open and learn from what is happening at the ground level.better managers who could work realising the larger picture,can be groomed if work experience is made mandatory to join a management programe.
RE:b -schools are just a beginning
by suresh gangam on Nov 13, 2007 08:49 PM Permalink
there are some things everybody knows. But, you always need an author and articles like these to remind you of what you already know so that you remain grounded. This is valid for any article written by an expert. Common sense is not too common even amongst the most sensible people.
