India – B-schools must focus on building relevant industry skills as part of curriculum

Q: The Indian MBA education is going through a crisis where many B-schools are facing challenges on admission and placement. What are your observations on the state of MBA environment in the country?

A by T K Srirang: The Indian economy is poised for a long period of high growth and offers diverse opportunities. This growth is not just restricted to few sectors, but has opened  up a plethora of opportunities across sectors such as retailing, hospitality, education, healthcare, banking & financial services, IT,ITES, et.al. It is estimated that these sectors will add at least 50 lakh additional jobs over the next 3-4 years. Contrasting against this is the pool of 35 Lakh graduates, 6 lakh engineers and 2 lakh MBAs who pass out every year in our country.

This staggering pool suggests a resource supply which is a multiple of the talent demand. Yet, the talent demand supply equation throws open more questions than solutions. This represents the paradox and raises a few important questions:

1.If there is adequate supply, why do employers struggle to find the right resources?

2.Is our current education system aligned to the needs of the industry?

3.While job creation is happening beyond the top 7 cities, is there supply constraints posed by way of strong geographical preference of the current MBA students.

4.Do MBA aspirants have an expectation mismatch, with respect to their role and compensation?

5.Should the MBA program be replaced by industry specific vocational program?

Clearly, there are enough jobs available in the market to employ the B-school graduates. Hence to conclude that we do not have sufficient talent in the country would be an incorrect conclusion…

via MBA Institutes: B-schools must focus on building relevant industry skills as part of curriculum: T K Srirang.

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