Let’s face it; the only true motivation behind doing an MBA is monetary. It would be the rare person who actually means all the stuff he spouts when trying to answer or reason out his desire for pursuing a business education. I have heard every jazzy word out there in the dictionary, “add value”, “holistic perspective”, “further my prospects”, and “pursue my strengths”. Blah……… blah…………
I was conversing with a guest and far flung acquaintance of mine in my recent trip to Delhi. She is from the blue blooded place, and having an attitude that could well be considered obnoxious. Nowadays however she has tempered down, and was currently working for a B-school teaching, recruiting and placing. She was recounting one session, where the much berated down question of “Why MBA?” was returned with a rather unique response (not verbatim):
“I want to earn money, lots of it and I want to do it the socially revered manner of studying. I have worked for 5 years and now I realize that there is this acceptance that a business graduate is a fast learner. I do not believe it, however to fight in this world if a degree is required then I am prepared to get it. And yes, I am curious to know what 2 years of learning can actually teach me after 5 years of working and learning.”Bingo, now isn’t that an honest reply. Before you wonder, yes, he got through.
For every wannabe manager out there studying marketing, finance or any other specialization offered one question lingers in mind when the study is in progress. Is this going to help me, is it really going to get me my dream job where I will be dazzling the world with my knowledge and insights?
I have been out for close to a year, and I can see some of the gaps in the expectations and the ground realities.
Knowledge and consequent work mismatch
Firstly, whatever is learnt in terms of specialization is at a very strategic level. The kind of work most end up doing is largely operational irrespective of the domain. And thus to a certain extent MBAs are seen as not being operationally efficient.
Maybe this is the same reason why most of recruitments happening for MBAs are in the field of business consulting, industry research and analytics. The traditional bread and butter sectors of manufacturing, banking etc. may thus not really augur well to a typical MBA.Education is not Expertise
Secondly, specializations are only indicative of personal interest, they do not instantly make anybody a domain expert.
However, the sentiment in most of the aspiring managers is just the reverse of it, and thus the presence of the big “E” a.k.a. huge ego. Two years of education and they are out to defend the bastions of business established by gray haired veterans having a decade and a half worth of experience. This naturally would not augur well with anyone. You cannot command work or improvements; you would have to persuade them slowly and assiduously.The above brings us to the obvious question: if whatever taught is neither of immediate relevance nor a substitute for expertise then is it really worthwhile pursing it?
The answer to this is a resounding yes, for the simple reason that nobody ever regrets spending two years in a business school. I have seen people patently unsuitable to be engineers, hating every minute of their education and in it only because of some compulsions. However I do not see that sentiment in a B-school. Here, you may hear cribs about the workload, lamentation about how expensive it is going to be but at the back of your mind you would be happy to make that investment in terms of time and money.
This is because it is the process of the above education that adds value to an individual. When you are continuously taught to evaluate any situation or decision objectively, considering a variety of factors, it structures the thought process.
So learning as applied to any new domain say finance, operations or marketing, no matter how new, becomes faster.
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