MBA a Misnomer Qualification

  

Masters of Business Administration (MBA) is the most sought after qualification prevalent in India today. A student after doing practically any basic education at graduation level goes for an MBA degree. Arts, commerce, science, engineering and I've actually come across MBBS doctors doing their MBA. It seems that if one has not done his MBA is an outcast in professional life. Did I say professional life? Well just came across an advertisement in TV..... A perfect match is an MBA! Even our social set up suddenly has caught up with this "Misnomer Educational Qualification" of our times. With economic liberalisation Dr. Manmohan Singh the then Finance Minister of India in the year 1992 brought this qualification of MBA.

 

From 1992 to 2013 the economic landscape of India has travelled quite a bit. From administrative requirement in an economy of brick and mortar in 1992 today the economy of click and service require "Business Managers". But, unfortunately we still produce some 1.50 Lakhs of MBAs from some 3300 colleges across the country. No wonder out of these only 1500 or 1% actually land up jobs which require a higher educational qualification. Rest join the front line of any industry alongside a graduate.

 

A little play of the words has actually affected the mind-set of the education providers of the country. MBA - Masters of Business Administrator is a passé and what we today require is a Masters in Business Managing. Believe me a change in name should bring about a change in the course curriculum and we shall start getting more business managers.

 

Let us try and differentiate between a manager and an administrator in the way each may approach the business:

 

1. Administrator is maintenance person and gets uncomfortable with change, while a manager is trained to see change as the only constant. Today it is said that every minute there is an innovation in the world, which means constant disturbance of status quo. A manger is equipped to deal with these changes and change course accordingly. A new business gets integrated to the company and the individual’s role changes. A business manager will look at this as an opportunity to acquire new skills since now he has a new business to learn and excel. Now, in MBA can we integrate change management in its true sense so that the individual is accustomed or so say acclimatized to regular changes in the environment?

 

2. Administrator constantly sees out wards for growth while a manager sees both inwards and outwards for best practises. Growth for a manager is a frame of mind and not a mere tag or designation. One of my managers in my company whom I did not appreciate that point of time when he said "what additional skills did you acquire this year for me to give you a promotion". How true, as an MBA myself I demanded growth for maintaining status quo - in my case achieving the budgeted sales targets for the year. Today after 5 years of that appraisal discussion and spending 11 years working I realised that how important it is to acquire newer skills - looking inwards and outwards for growth. No business environment today is stale, its ever changing. Can we train MBA students to learn or teach them to seek and skill themselves continuously?

 

3. Administrators are always followers of set rules and patterns while managers become the business leaders and write new rules for the industry and the economy as a whole. Randomness is important for growth for both companies and individuals similarly, specially the newer ones. Why does one look at so much stability and hence stops thinking. I’m not for a moment hinting at being a rebel at work, but does one think even to do the job in hand in a different manner! At least try and seek new ways – better or not is in retrospection but at least thinking is important. So, can we train the MBA students to learn thinking & to think of innovation?

 

 

Above points are pertinent to both industry and educationist equally. As Indians our biggest strength always had been knowledge industry now it is time for us to imbibe skills as well. Industry today is starved today of managers – change managers, skill seeking managers & innovative managers. It becomes important hence for the educationists to provide a continuous stream of these Managers instead of Administrators.