The Relevance Of Current MBA Curriculum: A Critical Analysis

Presented by: Presented By, Baijnath Pandey, Daval Mallik, AIMIT, MBA ‘I’

Defining The Problem

Proposals

The Road Ahead

The Evolution Of MBA…. 100 Years Old Concept 1st MBA By The Harvard Business School- 1908.

By 1950s, American MBAs lost relevance. Responded By Raising Admission And Teaching Standards To Create The Classic American MBA Program.

The Evolution Of MBA….

First Year Has Core Course, Followed By A Second Year For Specialization.Present Day MBA Come To A Point Of Stagnation

The Role Of MBA?

At one point in time was just to produce efficient managers who could do the “Things Right”.

MBA & Its Role Undergone An Ocean-Change.

Now , The Role Is to Produce People Who Can Do the “Right Things”.‘Leaders’ & Not Mere ‘Managers’.

Significance of The Current Curriculum In The 21st Century:core curriculum, still valuable, no longer good enough to solve 21st Century’s complex problems. core business disciplines vital to teaching business but no more relevant with the industry needs.

recruiters demanding for better communicators, team builders, and creative thinkers, equipped to solve tomorrow’s problems  

“We’re always being asked, ‘When was your last curriculum revision?’ We now must mirror the industries we serve, where product life cycles are very short and must be constantly adapted to meet new needs.”

Dan Poston, University of Washington

The Flaws:

B-School: Glorified Placement Consultancies

Missing Practical Aspects

Course Alignment

Pedagogy, Teaching Faculty

Individualism; No Concept Of Team

Flaw: 1B-School: Glorified Placement Consultancies

success of a B-School graduate directly measured in terms of the package offered

ethical values and practices clearly appear as the losers in this race.

MBA, in the above terms has failed to achieve the real purpose of education.

“It is not so very important for a person to learn facts. For that he does not really need a college. He can learn them from books. The value of an education is a liberal arts college is not learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think something that cannot be learned from textbooks.” John Dryden

Flaw: 2Missing Practical Aspects

emphasis purely on the academic skills. PowerPoint-Strategies not so powerful.

students are never taught that, like doctors and lawyers; they are a part of the profession. bridge between theory and practice very Week.

Flaw: 3Course Alignment

not in a systematic-order and the demerit: prevents students in developing and applying skills from one course to Another.

learning stops with the end of the course, as there is no immediate application of it.

Flaw: 4Pedagogy: The Same Old Wine In A New Bottle

courses focus on three things: knowing, doing and being.

lecturers and professors from research and academics background, hence learning to them means just knowing.

heavily tilted towards knowing things rather than understanding

Flaw:5Individualism; No Concept Of Team

encourages students working as individuals rather than teams.

changing trends in the business world require people to work as teams.

meeting the objectives, managing inter-personal and intra-personal conflicts not taught

And The List Goes On……

Lack of Global Perspective

Lack of Creatively And Innovatively

Understanding The Roles, Responsibilities And Purposes of Business

Analyses & Solutions

1.Ethical Practices: A Must:

In good and happy times, an MBA had to Just keep the Street (Wall Street) happy.

The lessons learnt from the Wall Street collapse.

We Need a code of ethical conduct, the Hippocratic Oath.

Not Just A mere inclusion of such oaths But B-Schools Must walk the talk.

2. Success=Fat Package? Break The Stereotype:

“The whole object of education is...to develop the mind. The mind should be a thing that works.”

education can not be the purpose of churning out money. The ultimate aim of education is to learn and develop skills

3.Old Is No More Gold

“A Concept As Old As 110 Years, Tried And Tested By Times, Can Not Fail” ??

auto-pilot-mode, with least willingness for change.

2005 Floods: The Failure of Mumbai’s Infrastructure

4.Admission Procedure; Reformat It:

Eligibility Criteria:written test, Shouldn’t make All the difference.

get more inclusive by Reducing the Cut-Off Percentile

Give more weightage to leadership-traits, ability to work in teams, practical approach towards work, communication skills, work-experience Etc.

Admission Procedure; Reformat It: Continued……

Stop Being Biased, Incorporate Diversity :MBA and not Masters of Engineering

We need people with different cultural ethos, nationalities and economic background etc.

more and more involvement of women-power

5.Getting Exclusive:

Get Exclusive And Attract Only The Desired Profile Of Candidate.

Clerk Is An MBA And So Is The CEO: NO

Quality Over Quantity: If 1000 IAS Officers Can Handle India Then 10,000 MBAs Every Year Will Be Good Enough For The Nation.

6. Early Specialization: Catch Them Young

Deciding not only on the stream i.e. Marketing, Finance or Human-Resources-Management but also the industry be done by the end of very first semester.

7.Lecturers, Professors And Their Compensation:

Success of B-School Directly Proportional To The Quality of The Professors. Backbone of any education system.

Highly Underpaid Compared To Their Fellow Peers Working In The Industry.

Low Incentives To Join B-Schools For Quality People.

Plussssssssss…...

Pedagogy: Learn Together, Practice And Then Practice Again

Industry Role In The Learning Process

Goodbye Text Books, Hi Case-Studies

Pave The way For Green Management, Sustainability Management, Ethical Practices and Globalization

Barriers And Constraints:

Finance

Autonomy Level

Solutions:

Investment

The “Stay Out of The Way” Concept

“What we need for the present and future is a business education “iPod,” and not another new CD player.”

“Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure.  But unfortunately, although it is true, it is difficult for us to accept it.  Because we cannot accept the truth of transience, we suffer.” Shunryu Suzuki, Zen scholar

Questions?

????DoUbTs????

Annexure:Leadership and the MBA: The Need for a New Paradigm? Professor David A. Kirby.

CEML (Council For Excellence In Management And Leadership) 2003, ’Managers And Leaders: Raising Our Game’, Report Of The Business Schools’ Advisory Group, London

Gill R. (2004) ‘Leadership Development in MBA Programmes’, Business Leadership Review

The Extreme MBA, Tricia Bssoux, BizEd, May-June 2009.

MBA: Go Away or Here to Stay? Jason Fertiz

Rethinking the MBA,Srikant Datar, David Garvin and Patrick Cullen (all affiliated with Harvard Business School)

Thank You