‘Management graduates must contribute right from day one’

Management as a function is key to any society because it focuses on optimising the utilisation of resources in order to achieve worthwhile goals. However, we see today, the need for leadership growing wherein the world is anxiously seeking people with a vision, which supports the creation of a sustainable planet. These leaders need to inspire and be able to ‘tangibalise’ this vision. Management education will need to transform itself into leadership learning. 

Because we are experiencing shorter business cycles at a greater frequency, living under the existing business paradigm may become untenable and may demand a rethink or a new business paradigm. 

In this context many business experiments are taking place in different areas spearheaded by young entrepreneurs who want to make a difference. Very soon a critical mass may be reached where graduates would want to opt for entrepreneurship rather than just a job in a company. 

Especially during recession, one will see companies cutting costs and therefore they will expect management graduates to contribute from the day they enter the organisation. There will be no time for induction. 

To this end, one will see more and more companies not interested in plain vanilla MBAs but in MBAs having specific competencies. These specific competencies would be obtained through Industry driven short term courses offered on campus, which guarantee the learning of these competencies. The industry-academia linkage will become stronger in a recessionary situation. 

As the economy becomes more digital and service oriented, newer opportunities will emerge. Therefore an MBA will necessarily have to be willing to learn and relearn because in the current whitewater of change, obsolescence of jobs will take place at a greater and faster frequency. By increasing one’s portfolio of skills, one will remain employable. 

— The writer is principal advisor, Don Bosco Institute of Technology - MMS